Monster on Campus (1958)

Jack Arnold's Monster on Campus doesn't quite work. It's disappointing because Arnold feels genuinely interested in the subject matter.  Jack Arnold, best known for Creature From The Black Lagoon was a standout amongst sci filmmakers of the 50's. Most of his work didn't embody the kind of anti intellectual hysteria we think about when we think about the atomic age. With Arnold's films there was a sense wonder even when dabbling in horror. The opening sequences of Creature From The Black Lagoon recounts how evolution works and the underwater segments of the film stand among the moments of true beauty in the universal monster canon. But Monster on Campus is the forgotten Universal monster and its too bad because the creature looks great but it just never finds its place amongst the theories the film puts forward.

As with most 1950's horror films, you can probably guess the plot with mad libs. Some nonsense with a scientist, radiation, and somebody turns into something scary. This film deals with a cocky college science professor experimenting on a prehistoric fish. Anything that comes in contact with the fish's fluids begins to revert back to its prehistoric ancestor. So far so good. Our scientist is constantly discussing the challenge that faces man is its own primal instincts and how potentially dangerous we all are. He even mentions this to his class and freaks his own students out in one of the film's stronger moments. The problem is, this thesis is talked about more than its actually explicated.

And all the groundwork is there, the professor is actually kind of an asshole, and his relationship with women is questionable to say the least. The implication that he is struggling with his own issues would be daring but its never brought to the forefront. The monster's first attack promises us lots of great stuff that the film doesn't quiet deliver. When the professor is exposed to the radiation that's in the fish's preservation fluid he reverts back to a brutal neanderthal state. When he first changes, his own home is destroyed  and a picture of his fiancé is torn in half and the women he maybe had a thing for is killed. It seems like in a sense when he turns that he's acting on oppressed instincts. Some reviews of the film talk about its anti institution mentality the film has and again it's hinted at but never really executed well.

There's certainly a coldness to the university scenes that feels intentional, our professor is some joyless ahole who sucks the wonder out of science. But we don't get to see the creature turned lose on that world in the way that would be really satisfying in fact the climax doesn't even take place on the campus. At the end of the day Monster on Campus is a nice offshoot of the universal monster canon with some great effects that doesn't quite take off but you should still see this because the monster throws and axe into a guy's face.