10 Gloriously Schlocky 1950s B Movies You Have To See

With the movies by Bert I. Gordon like Beginning of the End and Earth vs. the Spider, he took real animals but at least attempted to make them look huge on screen. With The Giant Gila Monster, half of the shots of the monster appear to just be completely unaltered shots of a regular sized Gila monster, and you're supposed to just imagine that it's a giant one. Well, that's one way to make a monster movie.

In this one from 1959, some teens are parked near a ravine listening to music when suddenly an unseen monster crushes them. In most movies, we'd get to know these characters for a few minutes and then they'd be attacked so that it has some meaning. In The Giant Gila Monster, these kids are on screen for literally eight seconds before being killed. The film just has no patience.

From there, it's your pretty basic story where some friends look for the missing couple and realize they have a giant monster on their hands. The main character is this annoying hot rod racer who of course has to save the day at the end by rigging his car to run into the monster and explode. The plot itself is pretty boring, but it's hilarious to watch if only for how low effort the monster is. They just didn't give a crap.