Monster Watch: The Black Scorpion (1957)

Watched:  07/31/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Edward Ludwig

Yall...  You're gonna be something less than shocked when I tell you that maybe a 1957 movie about kaiju-sized scorpions rampaging through Mexico is maybe not Oscar material.  But I will say it is entertaining as hell.  

The story is basically lifting Them!, which had just been a big success.   But in this case, the volcanos that erupt throughout Mexico this time crack open the earth.*  A pair of geologists, one handsome Mexican guy (Carlos Rivas) and one lantern jawed American (Richard Denning) race to the location to scout it out.  En route they come across a police car that's been wrecked - like inexplicably shredded - food still cooking and an abandoned baby.  They also find the police officer who is dead, his eyes wide open, and leaning against a wall.

With no idea what's going on, they head to the town with the baby, and everyone is in a panic.  Cowboys are coming in from the local ranches reporting the cattle are turning up dead.  Shit is bad, yo.

Spoilers:  there are giant scorpions running around who escaped their underground layer and seem to want mammal flesh.  

I'll now mention - though I've lived in Texas my whole like, and I've dispatched a scorpion or two, I really don't know much about them.  I think they eat bugs, because part of why you need to be zealous about pest control is that if you let bugs run around, it attracts scorpions.  However, I am pretty sure they don't have binocular eyes and pointy teeth.

you will see this shot approximately 7000 times

But, hey, look, this movie has some great stuff.  Namely, it has stop-motion sequences that are straight up murder-chaos.  In a movie I kind of thought was for kids, a *lot* of people get killed.  But the stop motion is absolutely top tier for the era, as well as how they made some other effects work.  Yes, it's unfortunate how hard they go with the full-face close-up of their scorpion puppet, and less is more.  But Overall, there's both way more in the way of stop-motion than I expected, and it generally works better than I'd anticipated.  

The movie also has Mara Corday, who is kind of a special effect unto herself.  And whenever the movie gets a little slow, they cut to Ms. Corday to keep the momentum going.

Is the movie good?  No.  Does it feature a lot of people running like hell from a 3 story scorpion?  Fuck yes, it does.  As well as scorpions straight up manhandling a train like someone was mad Godzilla got to trains first.  

Anyway, yes, it has some of "why are they doing this?  Why are we watching scientists all stand around?" stuff that confounds many movies from this era.  But it also has scorpion fights and ends with our hero declaring he's about to go nail Mara Corday.

It's really something.

*one could argue there was a perfectly good volcano movie to be had here, but apparently not