Five minutes into this one, my ears began to bleed. Another five minutes of viewing, or rather listening, brought me to a class IV hemorrhage stage and a donor was needed to resuscitate. If there’s a Hell, the music playing over the underworld’s loudspeakers will most assuredly be the soundtrack to MESA OF LOST WOMEN. Composer (?) Hoyt S. Curtin’s repetitive use of a flamenco guitar and piano goes down in my book as the single worst soundtrack in the history of bad cinema. The same theme plays over the entire film’s running time! And I thought Creeper’s rendition of Minnie Riperton’s Lovin’ You was the ultimate ear sore.
Not that the rest of the film will win any awards for getting it right. Its Ed Woodian tale of a Moreau type scientist (a mole infested Jackie Coogan) turning spiders into alluring women in the Mexican desert is full of the expected plot holes, bad direction and grade-Z acting affiliated with these type of flicks. I did dig spider woman Tarantella’s (Tandra Quinn) dance number in a Mexican bar; an erotic scene so out of place with the rest of the film that it stopped my ears from bleeding for a few moments. A shaggy giant spider attack also generates some good laughs. The flick could easily slip into an Ed Wood marathon, as one of its directors, Ron Ormond, was quite adept at making the “so bad it’s good” exploitation films Wood was known for. Wood even borrowed this film’s soundtrack for his own JAIL BAIT (1954). Bad movie making kinship at its best.
ZEVK,
POE
- [THE BIG QUESTION] WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE FEMALE ENSEMBLE IN MOVIES? - July 22, 2016
- [IN THEATERS NOW] THE BOY (2016) - January 24, 2016
- Cult Movie Mania Releases Lucio Fulci Limited Edition VHS Sets - January 5, 2016
Tags: giant spider, Ron Ormond
No Comments