**** Can You Fathom That?

A short story by Ray Bradbury was written for the "Saturday Evening Post". Although it is now known has "The Fog Horn", it's original title was the same as the movie it inspired, "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms".

A nuclear test in the Arctic wakes up a giant dinosaur from a 100 million-year sleep. A nuclear scientist sees it first, then a couple of people on boats, and they all try to make people understand it is real. Because of an "accident" involving a lighthouse, a diving bell is sent down with a paleontologist who believes the dinosaur is real. It turns out to be a "rhedosaurus" (made up dinosaur, of course), and the diving bell is eaten. It comes ashore in Lower Manhattan, and wreaks havoc. The military tries to kill it, but there's a catch, the dino's diseased! So they decide to shoot it with a radioactive isotope bullet from the top of the Coney Island's classic "Cyclone" roller coaster.

This movie holds a lot of the clichés of classic 1950's giant monster movie. Then again, it’s the first 50's monster movie! This is the movie that sprang up all those classic "Atomic created killer-without-a-cause" monsters that defined the 1950's. Many movies ripped off ideas in this one, including "Them", "It Came From Beneath the Sea", "The Deadly Mantis", and even "Godzilla, King of the Monsters". Don't try to deny it "Godzilla Lovers", it has been proven that the guy who made the movie made an argument to Toho that the movie can be done, with the main evidence being this movie! It gave them the idea, so Godzilla's a rip-off! The new "Godzilla" of 1998 has been said to resemble this movie more than the original Godzilla, so it is really is remake of a classic movie set to the theme of it's main rip-off! People know of "Godzilla" more than the "Beast', so they called it "Godzilla" to get more money. The honored the work still, because not only did it have some scenes that were obviously inspired by this movie, but they slipped in the movie "It Came From Beneath the Sea", another one of Ray Harryhausen's early works.

The movie itself is very good. It sprang up rip-offs with good reason; it's a good format. The plot is better than the later ones, though. The special effects are obviously not as good as latter stop motion movies, but it's still very well done. They had a tight budget, so the monster scenes are cut a little short. It's still very well done for what little they had. Still, the movie leaves you wanting more, which may sound good until you realize that's because the movie didn't have very many monster scenes to fill in the demand. In place of special effects, a good-sized portion of the movie is filled with good, but very boring plot. Half the movie is spent on the witnesses trying to prove the thing is real. Not only that, but they finally convince the paleontologist guy by only showing that two people saw the same thing. Otherwise, the plot is good with good flow, memorable characters, and something that's easy to learn so you can fast forward after seeing it for the first time. Actually, the plot isn't really boring the first time you see it; it’s just boring later.

As a whole, the movie is quite good. The special effects are good, and some scenes are very cool looking and classic. The lighthouse scene, the scene where the rhedosaurus takes a stroll downtown, and the classic roller coaster climax are all very good and memorable. It also has a surprisingly good replay value. I watched this movie three times in a row before I did this review. Actually, that's only because I kept putting the review off and needed refreshing on the third time. It's a fun little movie that should be watched by everybody who even slightly likes silly old monster movies. Something that started a fad has to be good. This is no acceptation, being one of the best monster movies of the 50's. You can't deny it, Toho picked a good movie to rip-off.

Great plot

Great special effects.

Memorable scenes.

Memorable characters

It's Fun!!

There's that spiffy octopus vs. shark fight.

A good movie to rip-off.

Boooorrrriiiiing! (In da middle)

Come on and believe him already!

Wait, not because of that!

Tight budget shows at times.

It's the originator of so many clichés.

Encore, encore, please! Come on, we want more! Gimme!

A fathom equals six feet, so the beast is from a depth over 22 miles under the sea!

Credits