Dinosaur Destroyer (1959)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Extremely creative and entertaining amateur movie from Donald Glut. A spaceship crashes on Earth and an egg rolls out and soon out hatches an alien dinosaur, which soon goes on a rampage. Fans of the monster movies from the 1950s are really going to enjoy the mood and downright pleasure this short gives off. There's no question that the kid behind the camera has a passion for all things monsters and this jumps off the screen so vividly you can't help but wish many of the filmmakers at major studios and places like AIP during this era had as much love for their craft. Yes, the special effects are rough but I was still very impressed with how they ended up looking. Just take a look at the stop motion effects for when the dinosaur is walking or trying to bring a building down. Yes, the edits are very obvious but this is an amateur movie after all. There's a very good sequence inside a kid's bedroom where we get to see comics from this period, a Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and a RODAN poster. All nice touches and these images certainly contain some great value of horror history. If you're a fan of the monster movies from this era then this here is a must see.