Plot
Dunsfield University biology professor Donald Blake receives delivery of a frozen coelacanth carcass from Madagascar, an invaluable scientific specimen given the fish’s status as a “living fossil” that seems immune to the forces of evolution, having remained essentially unchanged as a species for 400 million years.
On two different occasions, a bizarre chain of events (the second one involving a giant dragonfly and the scientist’s tobacco pipe) accidentally introduces minute amounts of the coelacanth’s blood into Blake’s system, with dramatic and terrifying results: he’s temporarily transformed into a bloodthirsty prehistoric hominid with large hands and feet, dark skin, thick body hair, and prominent brow ridges.
He later learns that the coelacanth had been preserved with gamma ray radiation, and this detail leads to a rather far-fetched explanation for the astounding phenomenon: “Not only does this [coelacanth] plasma resist evolution, but when administered to another organism, evolution is reversed“. Fearful of the danger he represents to society, Blake decides to sacrifice himself in the name of public safety.
All evidence points to the probability that I, Donald Blake, am the murderer.
Critique
4.5A college campus certainly doesn’t constitute the ideal setting for a director who’s done his best work in extreme settings and has made a name for himself dealing with overwhelming natural forces ranging from the inhospitable Arizona desert to the dense Amazonian jungle (even in “The Incredible Shrinking Man“, the mundane domestic setting ends up representing a wild and deadly landscape given the protagonist’s minuscule dimensions).
A minor Arthur Franz film, “Monster on the Campus” is really an unpretentious drive-in movie heavy with unbridled imagination and light on scientific explanations. Rather than the extraordinary coelacanth, the true anachronism in the story seems to be Donald Blake, a contemporary young professor steeped in seventeenth-century scientism that views science as the great panacea for all mankind’s ills (“[Man] can use his knowledge to increase his understanding to a point far beyond anything now imaginable“).
Moreover, the professor’s conduct indicates a worrisome superficiality, demonstrated by the scene when he’s carrying around the priceless zoological find like he’s some kind of fishmonger (“I’d better get it in the refrigerator before it starts to spoil“). Another example is the scene where he uses an awl to stab a giant (and long extinct!) dragonfly without batting an eyelash. Beyond that, the plot is brimming with naivete, starting with the far-fetched chain of events that leads to the protagonist being exposed to the mutagen.
Calling the rubbery effects “special” would be a bit of a stretch.
More Info
Quotes
- Unless we learn to control the instincts we've inherited from our ape-like ancestors, the race is doomed.
- The beast has killed twice. With this powerful drug, he's certain to kill again unless we unmask him.
- An institution is like a living organism. The moment it stops growing, it starts degenerating.
- All evidence points to the probability that I, Donald Blake, am the murderer.
Trivia
- Today’s coelacanths belong to the genus “Latimeria”. Long thought to have gone extinct during the Late Cretaceous Period around 66 million years ago, they were rediscovered in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of South Africa, in 1938. There are two known living coelacanth species: The West Indian Ocean coelacanth (“Latimeria chalumnae”) and the Indonesian coelacanth (“Latimeria menadoensis”).
- The film was released as part of a double feature with Henry Cass’s “Blood of the Vampire” (1958), a misleading title, given that it’s a vampire film in name only, featuring a scientist performing questionable blood experiments.
- The “recapitulation theory” (also known as the biogenic law) particularly popular in the 19th century revisits the idea that hidden “vestiges” of earlier stages of human evolution are still present in modern anatomy.
- The apeman carrying the girl in his arms echoes a famous scene from Jack Arnold’s earlier “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954) in what can be considered an honest-to-goodness self-reference.
- There are numerous commonalities between this film and the much more adult and visionary “Altered States” (1980) by Ken Russell.
- The final act is reminiscent of the ending of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1931) by Rouben Mamoulian.
Products
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| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
 | The Classic Sci-fi Ultimate Collection (Tarantula / The Mole People / The Incredible Shrinking Man / The Monolith Monsters / Monster on the Campus) | |
![Monster On The Campus [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qjEHuLyAL._SL75_.jpg) | Monster On The Campus [DVD] | |
 | The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel (Multilingual Edition) | |
 | The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. 45th Ed. (40th Edition) |
| Nome del prodotto | Prezzo | |
|---|---|---|
 | Piccola enciclopedia degli ultracorpi: I B-movies americani degli anni Cinquanta: Vol. 1 | |
 | Ricerche Diaboliche (Restaurato In Hd) | |
| The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. 45th Ed. | |
| The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel: The Complete Plates |
| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Monster On The Campus [DVD] | |
 | Monster on the Campus (1958) ( Monster in the Night ) ( Stranger on the Campus ) | |
| The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. 45th Ed. (45th Edition) |
| Nombre del producto | Precio | |
|---|---|---|
![Monster On The Campus (Monstruo En La Noche) [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eVBdgSa6L._SL75_.jpg) | Monster On The Campus (Monstruo En La Noche) [DVD] |
| Produktname | Preis |
|---|
| Nom du produit | Prix | |
|---|---|---|
 | Le Monstre des abîmes - DVD |
| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. 45th Ed. | |
| Monster On The Campus |