It's too bad the titular monster looks so funky, but besides that shortcoming, this is another solid b-movie from director Jack Arnold (Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Incredible Shrinking Man, It Came from Outer Space, etc.). Monster on the Campus gives off major Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde vibes, and has great 1950s campus atmosphere to boot.

Evolution in reverse!

A professor finds out that blood of a freshly from Madagascar imported coelacanth (a kind of fish) counterbalances evolution. This is the reason we can call coelacanths living fossils, a spieces stabilized for 2 million years (more or less). Add gamma rays! It is 50s monster-sci-fi, we got to have gamma rays. Add gamma rays and the blood of the coelacanth doesn't just counterbalances evolution, it reverses evolution. Not unlike the professor in Altered States, the professor in Monster On Campus from time to time deevolves to a species of much greater agility and strength. I need to get my head round what deevolution actually means. This professor is clearly overdramatizing. (Not really his fault. He can't help he is in a Jack Arnold movie.) He just needs to stop injecting himself with gamma nuked coelacanth blood. Problem solved.

Unexpected find in the crates for the first half of a Saturday matinee monster movie double feature with our little boy (along with The Mole People, which is a tough hang for us, but the boy would give both of them five stars).  Directed by the great Jack Arnold, written by David Duncan (The Time Machine), and shot by Russell Metty (overqualified for this gig).  Oh, and Joanna Moore — Tatum O’Neal’s mother — is the female lead, and she is pretty interesting and super-fine.  Part of a Universal DVD box set, The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection.  If you squint, you can see Altered States.

Apparently filmed in 12 days, Monster on the Campus feels like director Jack Arnold’s domestic version of Creature from the Black Lagoon. Following Dr. Donald Blake (Thor anyone?) as he gets cut by the fossil of a Coelacanth fish that mutates him into a murderous abomination. In fact anything that come in contact with this fossilized fish gets affected from a dragonfly to a German Shepherd. 

It plays out like any other 50s science fiction film with that made on the backlot feel that I love. There is also a wild hatchet throw kill in this that had me howling with laughter. Not a bad little film that was made on the cheap which helps its overall charm. Just look at that monster!

"the sounds which may be recorded hereafter are those made under the influence of coelacanth plasma...."

Another creature feature directed by Jack Arnold about an extinct fish which turns everything it comes into contact with into raving monsters, be it a dragonfly, a pet dog (with ludicrous teeth) or people.

There's a reasonable amount of tension, one or two scares and some pretty strong violence for it's time - one unlucky fella gets a hatchet in the face, a woman is dragged around by her hair - but as with many films of this ilk there's also too much time taken with people in lab coats sat around discussing things, not to mention random acts of dumbness by people who should know better, rather than getting to the nitty gritty of Neanderthal mutations running round killing folk.

“First time I was ever bitten by a fossil.”

The Beast of Dunsfield

More like coelacanth on the campus. Not as catchy, I guess. A Jekyll and Hyde sort of Universal transformation horror featuring a hanging woman scene that seems fairly explicit for Hollywood in ‘58. Also, kind of a proto (subhuman man) slasher, too, with a campus setting, necking kids, a killer on the loose, and a climax around a secluded mountain cabin in the woods. There’s even a hatchet to the face! Rubber mask ain’t great but the finale is an amusing bit of paleolithic man rampage. Per the 1950s sci-fi handbook, the culprit is, you guessed it, gamma rays.

A prickly professor orders a coelacanth carcass and soon learns that contact with its blood causes evolutionary regression. As I'm sure you figured, the campus is soon beset by a murderous caveman in flannel.

This is more or less an archetype for this sort of movie: goofy masks, smug academics, sketchy science and extensive filming in the arid hills outside Los Angeles. Needless to say, it's fun as hell. I'll even forgive its profound misrepresentation of how dragonflies work.

•1950s not seen (46/52)

🔀👤 ➡️ A university receives a well-preserved ancient fish, and Dr. Blake is given full responsibility for it.
Subsequently, illogical and fatal situations arise that must be resolved as quickly as possible by the science expert.
A shocking discovery.

It may not be the most endearing film from the director of Tarantula!, but it has enough to keep you on the edge of your seat with its scientific dilemmas, sightings, internal debacle, and simple-hearted makeup.

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🔀👤 ➡️ Una universidad recibe un pez antiguo bien preservado y toda la responsabilidad lo tiene el Dr. Blake.
Posteriormente, acontecerán situaciones sin lógica y fatalidad que tendrán que ser resueltas lo más antes posible por el experto en ciencias.
Un descubrimiento impactante.

No será la película más entrañable del director de ¡Tarántula! pero tiene la suficiente capacidad para mantenerte en tensión con sus dilemas científicos, avistamientos, debacle interno y maquillaje sencillo.

The fish looked tasty.

good creature flick but why would you inject yourself with coelacanth plasma bro ? That doesn't sound right... Nobody asked you to do that.... At least use a cage or som chains then.
6.5/10