ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

A scientist is exposed to radiation which turns him into a scaly lizard-man whenever he is exposed to sunlight.

Robert Clarke ("Beyond the Time Barrier", "The Man from Planet X", etc.) is both star and director. The film's basic premise must have presented a certain challenge for Clarke as the director; he had to make the monster seem scary even though the Sun Demon was required to make all its appearances in broad daylight.

Fortunately, the monster make-up is fairly good (despite the film's obvious low budget). Although it isn't a full-body suit, it does extend to the actor's waist (as opposed to Lon Chaney, Jr.'s "The Wolf Man", who always looked over-dressed in shirt and pants).

The trailers for "The Hideous Sun Demon" feature the voice of Paul Frees at his most melodramatic. The poster incorrectly lists the title as "Hideous Sun Demon", but the movie's opening credits includes "The" in the title.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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This is a pretty good trailer for a pretty bad movie. I saw it late in life (relatively speaking) and I guess I'd just gotten too critical to enjoy it properly.

The make-up is actually quite good (bearing in mind that in the 1950s nobody expect the faces of the monster to be very mobile, the way they are today), but a half-body suit is definitely something noteworthy.

If you haven't seen this movie, enjoy the trailer and decide if it's something you'd enjoy.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I found these two nice publicity photos. They suggest a few captions.


"Hello?"




"It's for you, Dear."


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I can't find a download of the movie mentioned in this IMDB item.
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Robert Clarke later helped spoof this movie when it was re-dubbed and re-released as What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon (1983)
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[bulldogtrekker]

What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon (1983) has dropped out of sight. It has been said that Jay Leno's voice work is very funny.

[Brent Gair]

This movie is actually pretty good based my standard of entertainment. That's to say, it may objectively be a bad movie but it never fails to entertain me.

As was common in many movies of this era, a completely inappropriate song appears in the film for no particular reason. The girl in the above photos plays the piano and sings in the movie.

It's possibly one of the most laughably bad musical performances in B movie history.

[Bogmeister]

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Robert Clarke, who'd been in a few low budget sci-fiers in the fifties as an actor, decided to go it on his own as producer-director, besides also starring in this pic, because he realized there's money to be made on low budget efforts.

His was the typical shoestring effort — filmed on weekends, made for about $50,000 — but it gained a certain cult film appeal eventually.

Clarke has stated that he based his premise on the old Jekyll-and-Hyde story, but I found that it turned the old werewolf legend on its head. Instead of the moon causing a change in the main character, it's the sun.

In the plot, the character gets a bad dose of radioactivity, but he baffles the doctors in that he seems to suffer no ill effects (though he does seem feverish). While still at the hospital, he decides to sunbathe on the roof and that's when the change occurs — he becomes scaly.

One would expect the monster to run amok then-and-there, but the story holds off on such terror. He merely causes some fainting.



The film then attempts to build up tension by showing how the man must now live the life of a recluse, asking the audience to wait for the eventual havoc that we're sure must come.

The trouble is, it's a long wait and tension is low. For some reason, the Sun Demon takes out all his aggression on a poor rat during the first 50 minutes and we must content ourselves with glimpses of the $500 monster suit for that time.

There are a couple of fight scenes among normal humans and these are clumsy and amateurish. Later, the monster viciously kills a dog. So, this may not be for animal lovers.



What really betrays this film's low budget roots is the curious disinterest that everyone — doctors, his girlfriend, cops — has in regards to this guy's potentially dangerous condition until he does in fact kill a man and then a cop (he hits him with a car). Only then does this become a 'fugitive monster' plot in the last 20 minutes — that's when the picture does "move" as Clarke has stated in interviews.

Hideous Trivia: one of the few old sf films which were re-dubbed with a comedic audio track later for the amusement of fans; in this case the revised film was called Revenge of the Sun Demon or What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon?

BoG's Score: 4 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[WadeVC]

Remarkably bad yet also remarkably entertaining, The Hedious Sun Demon is one of those movies that delivers one thing well: Entertainment.

I actually enjoyed this movie, and have watched it more than a few times. For obvious reasons this was never an Oscar contender, but if you want a fun movie and enjoy a bit of "cheese", this movie will entertain you just fine.

...just don't expect too terribly much.
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"You look like a pooped out pinwheel."
-Robot Monster