lordmongrove
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- May 30, 2009
- Messages
- 4,946
I’m a massive fan of b-movies, from the creaky old 1950s classics like The Giant Claw (monster chicken from outer space builds a nest on top of the Empire State Building) to the ‘video nasties’ that caused such outrage among the tabloids and dim wits during the late 70s and early 80s.
Recently I stumbled across one on YouTube that I had almost forgotten. Monstroid (AKA Monster) is a 1979 flick written and directed by Kenneth Hartford and staring John Carradine and James Mitchum. I think the budget was blown on getting hold of John Carradine as the film looks ultra cheap. Herbert L Strock began shooting the film in 1971 but never finished it and the project was later handed over to Hartford.
If you can ignore the sub Rentaghost acting and abysmal special effects then it’s not a bad story. It’s sent in a small lakeside town in Colombia. The town’s main employer is a large US cement company whose works have been polluting the lake for years killing off all the fish much to the anger of local fishermen. An activist, incensed by the pollution is spreading anti US sentiment in the area and a reporter from America is covering the pollution story showing the company up in a bad light. One woman claims that her husband was devoured by a monster from the lack several years ago but no body was ever found and he is looked on local as a witch. Carradine, the town priest thin the monster is of diabolical nature. I fact it is implied that the pollution has awoken it out of hibernation.
The cement company send down one of their executives to investigate the gongs on. Shortly after he arrives there is a spate of killings in and around the lake were victims are attacked and eaten by some kind of animal. The children of an American secutary photograph the monster and the company executive, the reporter and the town mayor have to join forces to come up with a plan to stop the beast.
The creature itself looks like Kermit the Frog if he lived in Sellafield. Imagine a grey / green, scaly, long necked walrus, sans the tusks but with crocodile teeth, feet, and tail and a catfishes’ barbles and a cats eyes then you will have a good idea of what the creature looks like. It is realized by a shockingly un-realistic hand puppet and a full sized head and neck and whole head, neck and body models operated in the water from beneath.
What has this got to do with cryptozoology I here you say. Well, at the start of the film we are told that the movie is based on real events that took place in a lake in Colombia in June 1971! I have never heard of a killer lake monster in Colombia in June 1971 or at any other time for that matter.
The town in the film is referred to as Chimayo and the movie was apparently filmed on location there. However there is no Chimayo in Colombia. There is a Chimayo in New Mexico that has a small lake several miles to the west of it. Monsteroid was partially shot here. According to local folklore an important Christian pilgrimage site in New Mexico is the Sanctuario at Chimayo, which is visited today by thousands of pilgrims, especially during Holy Week. According to local tradition, the site was an ancient, pre-Christian shrine associated with the twin war gods, who killed a child-devouring monster on that spot. As a result of the death of the monster, a pool of healing mud was created. But this hardy seems like the 1971 events we are told of at the start of the film.
According to the credits it was also partially filmed in Ambalema, Colombia. This is a town in the Tolima department of central Colombia. There seems to be no large lake in the area but the Rio Magdalena runs right next to the town. I can find no record of a monster or attacks by one on the river. Could we be dealing with attacks by a known animal such as a black caiman, bull shark or anaconda?
The cover to the video release of the film confuses matters further by proclaiming that ‘This film is a re-enactment of four days of terror that rocked the small village of Chimayo, Colombia.”
I’ve drawn a blank here. I might have to try to look at some newspapers for that month, presuming that is, that the events ever made it to the international press. Also presuming the events happened at all?
Does anybody out there know anything about this case?
Recently I stumbled across one on YouTube that I had almost forgotten. Monstroid (AKA Monster) is a 1979 flick written and directed by Kenneth Hartford and staring John Carradine and James Mitchum. I think the budget was blown on getting hold of John Carradine as the film looks ultra cheap. Herbert L Strock began shooting the film in 1971 but never finished it and the project was later handed over to Hartford.
If you can ignore the sub Rentaghost acting and abysmal special effects then it’s not a bad story. It’s sent in a small lakeside town in Colombia. The town’s main employer is a large US cement company whose works have been polluting the lake for years killing off all the fish much to the anger of local fishermen. An activist, incensed by the pollution is spreading anti US sentiment in the area and a reporter from America is covering the pollution story showing the company up in a bad light. One woman claims that her husband was devoured by a monster from the lack several years ago but no body was ever found and he is looked on local as a witch. Carradine, the town priest thin the monster is of diabolical nature. I fact it is implied that the pollution has awoken it out of hibernation.
The cement company send down one of their executives to investigate the gongs on. Shortly after he arrives there is a spate of killings in and around the lake were victims are attacked and eaten by some kind of animal. The children of an American secutary photograph the monster and the company executive, the reporter and the town mayor have to join forces to come up with a plan to stop the beast.
The creature itself looks like Kermit the Frog if he lived in Sellafield. Imagine a grey / green, scaly, long necked walrus, sans the tusks but with crocodile teeth, feet, and tail and a catfishes’ barbles and a cats eyes then you will have a good idea of what the creature looks like. It is realized by a shockingly un-realistic hand puppet and a full sized head and neck and whole head, neck and body models operated in the water from beneath.
What has this got to do with cryptozoology I here you say. Well, at the start of the film we are told that the movie is based on real events that took place in a lake in Colombia in June 1971! I have never heard of a killer lake monster in Colombia in June 1971 or at any other time for that matter.
The town in the film is referred to as Chimayo and the movie was apparently filmed on location there. However there is no Chimayo in Colombia. There is a Chimayo in New Mexico that has a small lake several miles to the west of it. Monsteroid was partially shot here. According to local folklore an important Christian pilgrimage site in New Mexico is the Sanctuario at Chimayo, which is visited today by thousands of pilgrims, especially during Holy Week. According to local tradition, the site was an ancient, pre-Christian shrine associated with the twin war gods, who killed a child-devouring monster on that spot. As a result of the death of the monster, a pool of healing mud was created. But this hardy seems like the 1971 events we are told of at the start of the film.
According to the credits it was also partially filmed in Ambalema, Colombia. This is a town in the Tolima department of central Colombia. There seems to be no large lake in the area but the Rio Magdalena runs right next to the town. I can find no record of a monster or attacks by one on the river. Could we be dealing with attacks by a known animal such as a black caiman, bull shark or anaconda?
The cover to the video release of the film confuses matters further by proclaiming that ‘This film is a re-enactment of four days of terror that rocked the small village of Chimayo, Colombia.”
I’ve drawn a blank here. I might have to try to look at some newspapers for that month, presuming that is, that the events ever made it to the international press. Also presuming the events happened at all?
Does anybody out there know anything about this case?
