The Beast That Killed Women/ The Monster of Camp Sunshine

Rating:
Summary: A campy look at the middle 1960's
Review: Actually, looking at this DVD can be a lot of fun. The acting is low budget, but all the extras on this DVD make for a fun afternoon or evening when the weather is bad. There is a lot of nudity, but this is the nudity of the mid 60's, so expect lots of breasts and tushes, but no frontal nudity. In fact, some of the men are wearing swimming trunks. The Beast is in color and is set in a Florida nudist club (or so they say), and most of the actors sport a full tan, contrasted to a lot of 'whitetails' in the Monster of Camp Sunshine, which is in B&W. When the final assault on the monster is shown for the Camp Sunshine film, it is a mismash of civil war, Korean War, WWI and WII stock footages, and perhaps even some western calvary charges. It was as if every stock fighting footage the producers could get were thrown in, and is quite hilarious. The extras on this DVD are quite interesting, including a 1920's nudist serial which is actually quite fascinating and perhaps the best of the extras. Obviously, getting the DVD is preferred to the video version, due to all the extras which can provide an interesting insight to how nudity was depicted under the new relaxation of censorship that took place in the early 1960's. Considering how old the source material is, the quality of the DVD is actually quite good. This DVD can provide a lot of fun and laughs.

Rating:
Summary: Udderly Wretched
Review: First off, I apologize for the pun in my title, but it is unfortunately descriptive. As a disclaimer, I generally like Something Weird DVDs, but this one is terrible. The biggest sin of both these films is that they are stunningly boring. I was looking forward to the dreadful, nonsensical plots, bad acting, and silly extras, but in this case the entire DVD was so boring as to be virtually unwatchable.

Some of the Drive-In advertisements were modestly entertaining (I am still grossed out by the ad for "Toddy" a delicious chocolate drink in a can that is great hot or cold, or so they say...) but the two features were uninteresting in the extreme. There are only two positive things I can say about these features: first, the gorilla in "The Beast That Killed Women" is the worst man in a gorilla suit that I have ever seen (possibly exclusive of "Queen Kong"); and second, the credit sequence for "The Monster Of Camp Sunshine" is a hilarious piece of animated lunacy.

Of the two I liked "The Monster Of Camp Sunshine" better, as it was the cleverer of the two, although the monster is extremely lame. I particularly enjoyed the scene in which Marta (the only not unattractive cast member) gets pushed out of a New York high rise window by some sadistic laboratory mice. I found the conclusion of the film which involved a paratrooper in pajamas and an ascot, as well as stock footage from the Normandy invasion, and (apparently) a re-enactment of the battle of Gettysburg, to be a mite confusing. The best idea was the last minute of the film which featured a one minute (or so) recap of the feature. You can feel free to watch that and not feel like you missed anything. (You didn't.)

The short titled "Beauty and the Beast" is a truly stunning piece of musical mayhem. It is the only portion of this DVD I can really recommend.



Rating:
Summary: No story - good looking girls
Review: Of the two movies, The Beast is better than The Monster. No full frontal nudity in the movies (there is in ONE one trailer), but loaded with T&A. DVD package well designed with tons of extras: trailers and vintage short nudie movies from the early century (the 20th that is...) Warning: no story and no acting !

Rating:
Summary: Monsters and Boobies, oh my!
Review: Something Weird's Drive-in Double Feature series just keeps growing and continues with this ridiculous double feature. Back in the days when the laws were creatively skirted to bring us "adult" entertainment the nudie was born. As nudity in an of itself was not considered obscene, from the late 50's until the birth and acceptance of hardcore, if one wanted to see an adult film one had to see a nudie. For the most part these were films set in a nudist camp where we could watch for a long boring hour or so people playing volleyball, swimming, dancing etc. in the nude. As this got boring very quickly some enterprising film makers tried to add some sort of a storyline to the scenes of volleyball. Thus among other sub-genres the monster nudie was born.

This disc features two films, 6 (!) shorts, 5 trailers for other nudies (plus one hidden trailer for "Girls Come Too" which is a real classic; just click around in the various menus, you'll find it.), the gallery of drive-in exploitation art, drive-in intermission bits and the option of watching any of these separately or all together as a part of the "let's go to the drive-in" feature. This disc is crammed with stuff.

The films themselves are wonderfully awful. The Beast that Killed Women is about a gorilla loose in a nudist camp that, you guessed it, kidnaps and kills a few women. The gorilla is the fakest looking suit I've yet seen.

The Monster at Camp Sunshine is a gem. It begins with an animation sequence that makes no sense and is reminiscent of the animation in Monty Python's Flying Circus. It has intentional humor that actually works and a story line that is bizarre to say the least. It is about a chemical that unleashes the killer instinct getting into the water at a nudist camp. The gardener, who is supposed to be retarded, drinks some water and turns into a monster that looks like Moe Howard from the Three Stooges. Although he's not very threatening it takes the army to kill him, peace is restored and nudism is affirmed as a healthy way of life. Classic.

Overall a good set. I'd recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Pass the volleyball corner!
Review: This double feature from SWV is one of my favorites. The specials on this are funny as hell and The Beast that Killed women is a great cheasy flick. There's tons of funny 60's nudity of women with thick brooklyn accents and it's only 60 minutes long which is a great length for a cheasy movie. The Monster of Camp Sunshine is funny but incomprihensible and takes away from the chease but is almost redeemed by the last 5 minutes of WW2 stock fotage (if you can get there without falling asleep). All and all a must see for SWV fans.

Rating:
Summary: 5 for being so strange!
Review: This movie is so unique, or should I say movies? They both take place in nudist camps, the Monster From Camp Sunshine is just some retarted fat man in an old creepy house, the ending is so funny you need to see it to belive it, they take war footage from military movies and insert it into the movie to makw itr look like they are actually all attacking the man, but it's just one fat man, and they need the entire US army to take him down? Yea I guess that was the plan! The Beast That Killed Women is more of a gorilla creature, both movies contain alot of nudity but no sexuality, there are tons of trailers for other "nudie cutie" films. So many trailers it's worth the buy, the movies are so strange they are really fun to watch.

Rating:
Summary: So bad it's good?? Well,in a way......
Review: Where to begin?? "The Beast that Killed Women"is about an ape that has escaped and terrorizes(?)a nudist camp..Well actually he only kills one girl that I remember,but anyway...It's a fun movie.Look for the bonfire go from high to low and back and forth..some continuity problems?? As far as "The Monster of Camp Sunshine" goes it has to be seen to be believed.Why?Well,there is more music,less dialogue,too much padding and the so-called "monster" doesn't really do anything,except run around with an ax and only hurt 1 victim..The ending is laughable....It's not bad for what it is though..A movie that doesn't take itself seriously....The rest of the DVD has some pretty neat extras...

Rating:
Summary: So bad it's good?? Well,in a way......
Review: Where to begin?? "The Beast that Killed Women"is about an ape that has escaped and terrorizes(?)a nudist camp..Well actually he only kills one girl that I remember,but anyway...It's a fun movie.Look for the bonfire go from high to low and back and forth..some continuity problems?? As far as "The Monster of Camp Sunshine" goes it has to be seen to be believed.Why?Well,there is more music,less dialogue,too much padding and the so-called "monster" doesn't really do anything,except run around with an ax and only hurt 1 victim..The ending is laughable....It's not bad for what it is though..A movie that doesn't take itself seriously....The rest of the DVD has some pretty neat extras...