10 Cult Films You Need To See Before You Die

By Ian Watson /

7. Robot Monster (1953)

Here€™s the pitch: a $40-a-day stuntman, wearing a gorilla suit and a diving helmet, wipes out mankind with the €œCalcinator Death Ray€ except for six people hiding in Bronson Canyon. Then he spends the rest of the movie trying to find them. Ro-Man (George Barrows) is a €œrobot man€ from the planet Ro-Man, which has declared war on Earth for€.oh, some reason or other, but director Phil Tucker couldn€™t afford to stage the invasion, so he relies on footage lifted from One Million BC (1940) instead. He also couldn€™t afford sets, so the picture takes place outdoors, with six of the stiffest actors you€™ve ever seen delivering lines like €œYou€™re so bossy you ought to be milked before you come home at night.€ The least competent alien ever to arrive on Earth, Ro-Man spends most of his time living in a cave with a bubble machine, and proves surprisingly easy to defeat. When a character calls him a €œpooped-out pinwheel€ before running away, Ro-Man stands there shaking his fist in the air, as he is wont to do to anyone more than three feet away.