*** Giant Scorpions Terrorize Mexico!

Not to be confused with the more recent sci-fi series; this one is the 50's giant bug movie. Coming off of there success of the movie "Them" a few years earlier, WB decided to make another "giant bugs on the loose" movie. This one here involves giant scorpions instead of giant ants, and stop-motion instead of giant mechanical puppets. Special effects courtesy of the legendary Willis O'Brian, but not many people know who to blame for the absolutely pathetic drooling thingy used for close-up shots (see bottom of page).

A newly formed volcano pops up somewhere in Mexico (actual event that gives actual footage), which opens up the earth and releases giant prehistoric scorpions (not an actual event). A couple of geologists come to the site to study it, but instead of finding information in volcanism, they find destroyed cars, dead bodies, the female lead, an annoying brat, and of course gigantic things with claws. With the help of the Mexican military, they also find a big hole in the ground, and they obviously go down it. Inside they find the scorpions, as well as a giant worm-thingy. The bratty kid follows them down, and of course gets chased around by some sort of spider/tick (a rehashed prop from a cut scene of "King Kong"). After getting out of the hole, their original "gas em" plan can't be used so they blow the place up and bury the scorpions. Well some survive and they come out to attack a train. The extra-big scorpion doesn't feel like sharing his human body, and so he kills the other four. This "black scorpion" continues on to attack Mexico City, get lured into a baseball stadium full of meat, blasted by tanks, and finally get zapped to death by an electrical probe shot into his throat.

For the first half-hour of the movie, there is nothing but boring dialogue of the human characters talking through a boring plot, and no scorpions at all. Unless of course you count the one trapped alive in obsidian for hundreds of years, which is impossible according to my biological and geological studies. Well the scorpions finally make repeated appearances, while the humans just keep yacking about everything they see. It gets fairly interesting when they start trying to figure out an attack plan, and it's a pretty good plan. Unless of course you count that dumb fellow who grabbed the electrical zapper thingy. Still, it works when shot into the scorpion's only weak spot. Anything else just bounces off of him. Bullets, tank shells, bazookas and the like do absolutely nothing. Quite disappointing when they could have had some "splatting".

As for the special effects, they are both very good and very bad. The annoying part is that it is good one second and extremely pathetic the next, and then good, and then bad, and then good again, and well it just gets confusing. The reason is the two special effects techniques they use. The stop motion stuff is good as usual, but whenever the scorpion needs a "close-up", the audience is treated with an extremely pathetic drooling something-or-other. First of all, scorpions don't drool like that. Second of all, scorpions don't have normal jaw structures. Finally, they don't have regular eyes either, they're compound! Whoever designed that thing had no idea what he was doing! The good part is that it's extremely funny. The bad part is that you are nailed with laughter and then shown some awe-inspiring stop-motion effects right afterwords. One second it's funny, the next it's cool, then it's funny, then it's cool, then well you get the idea. Still, the cool parts are cool. Not the best stop-motion ever, but still quite good. The scorpions move around nicely, kill stuff rather brutally, and generally are animated well. Two great scenes are the one with the train and the one at the end. Both show just how cool stop-motion can be, and both have a minimum of drooling close-ups. The final scene has some great tank-chucking and helicopter-pulling-down, but also when he starts to electrocute, it has the most hilarious of the drooling scenes to! The stuff with the cave is also pretty good, giving a sense of adventure as well as a neat-looking cave. Still, a lot of the effects appear to be a rush-job. One thing to note is that some short sequences are repeated over an over again, most notably the part where the big scorpion kills a little scorpion (happens five times, and the last four are not in the cave where the sequence was shot). Still, you generally are to caught up in the moment to notice to badly.

The first half-hour is boring, the second is fair, and the last is very entertaining. It's a confusing movie due to the interchanging effect types, but they are both good in their own ways. If the movie had been all one type, it would have been better. Still, it's not bad at all. Funny, good effects at times, classic sequences, and a boring but good plot. So, as a whole it's an average monster movie, and a classic giant bug movie. It may confuse your senses, but it's still fairly decent.

Descent plot

Great/Bad special effects

Good stop motion sequences

Bad and funny drooling things

"Get back, you six legged two clawed freaks!"

Boring first half-hour

Not scientifically accurate scorpions at all

The bratty little kid does dumb things, and the adults find it cute.

After being covered in molten lava and entombed for hundreds of years, the scorpion IS STILL ALIVE!!!

"OK, I will won't miss this time around. All I got to do is grab this electrode thing and... BZZZZZAP!!! Oops."

Credits