I certainly do not possess the vast cinematic knowledge of most of you, so, my list skews toward stuff that I would have seen when I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, much of it being movies that I would have come across on late-night television.
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Night Of The Lepus (1972) This one often popped up on the CBS Late Movie in the '70s and I dug it as a kid. Giant rabbits wreaking havoc was such a weird concept and it had a cast chock full of recognizable faces including Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, and DeForest Kelley. I know RiffTrax did this one, but I want to see this one with 'bots.
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The Giant Claw (1957, black/white) '50s giant monster zaniness with one of the most ridiculously goofy looking threats mankind has ever faced featuring Jeff Morrow (This Island Earth) and Mara Corday (The Black Scorpion) under the direction of Fred Sears (Teen-Age Crime Wave).
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From Hell It Came (1957, black/white) Tod Andrews, the ill-fated Skipper in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, battles the spirit of a wronged island prince who is exacting his vengeance as a tree monster. The tree monster was brought to life by Paul Blaisdell known in the MST3K world for his effects work in It Conquered The World, The She-Creature, Earth Vs. The Spider, and Teenagers From Outer Space.
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Terror On The Beach (1973) I saw this as a five-year old when it premiered on the CBS Tuesday Night Movie. McCloud himself, Dennis Weaver and family, including Lori Partridge (Susan Dey), are targeted by Fisher-Price hippies in this bit of made-for-TV movie goodness. For full disclosure, some of this - mostly some eerie mannequin use, creeped me out at the time. To reiterate, though, I was five.
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Equinox (1970) This was a staple on our weekly Saturday night Science Fiction Theater. Frank Bonner, best known as Herb Tarlek on WKRP In Cincinnati, and friends battle demonic forces and some cool stop-motion animation unleashed from a Satanic book. This low-budget, cult film began as a student film by SFX legend Dennis Muren (The Empire Strikes Back, E.T., Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Jurassic Park to name just a few) with assistance from Dave Allen (Laserblast, The Day Time Ended) and Jim Danforth (The Day Time Ended).
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Phase IV (1974) In the thread about MST3K experiments that feature movies you genuinely like, this was my choice. I grew up on early '70s sci-fi flicks and would love to see them revisit this one from the KTMA days. I find the story interesting (albeit a bit slow), and the desert setting, cinematography, and effects are really cool. The soundtrack adds to the trippy vibe.
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Ben (1973) I thought that Willard was a pretty good flick, but this sequel to that tale of a boy exacting revenge with his rats…not so much. You’ve got a goofy/annoying kid with a heart condition who bonds with the titular rat, a young Meredith Baxter as his sister, and veteran character actor Joseph Campanella as a detective tracking Ben’s army of rats in the LA sewers. As an eight-year old, the ambiguity of Ben’s fate as Michael Jackson sang the theme song over the end credits left me a sobbing mess.
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The Deathmaster (1973) Our long-running horror host in central Indiana, Sammy Terry, featured this movie often on his Nightmare Theater. Robert Quarry, of Count Yorga fame, is the Deathmaster, a Manson-like guru and vampire who casts his spell over a group of beachside bikers and hippies. There’s flute music and veteran actor John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet in Winnie The Pooh, as Pops, a kindly old hippie who assists our headband-wearing hero Pico.
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The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971) Oh boy. Bruce Dern as a scientist focused on grafting second heads onto animals, Kasey Kasem as his friend, and Pat Priest of The Munsters as his wife. Of course, what fun is creating two-headed snakes when you can graft the head of an escaped killer onto the body of your groundskeeper’s giant, slow-witted son? (played by John Bloom who was the monster in Dracula Vs. Frankenstein). And, save room for the goofy, melodramatic closing song.
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Idaho Transfer (1973) Peter Fonda directed this obscure little flick starring a cast of unknowns - aside from Keith Carradine - that he had found locally in Idaho where it was filmed. A group of young people are sent into the future to figure out how to circumvent some apocalyptic event that is never really defined. Ever wonder what it would be like if an entire movie was made out of “rock climbing?” This might give you an answer. There’s a lot of wandering around, but at least the landscape - Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve - is kind of cool.
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Frankenstein Meets The Space Monster (1966, black/white) This movie taunted me as a kid. On the rare occasion that it would appear in the TV Guide, it seemed to be airing at 2:00am. Frankenstein is actually a disfigured, cyborg astronaut named Frank. The Space Monster is under the control of a Martian princess played by Marilyn Hanold (The Brain That Wouldn’t Die). The showdown promised in the title lasts for roughly thirty seconds, but you do get James Karen, the unscrupulous land developer from Poltergeist, in a small role.
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The Legend Of Boggy Creek (1972) There are probably a lot of younger MST3K fans unaware that there is a film detailing the Boggy Creek monster before he was…you know…continuing. There’s no Crenshaw and director Chuck Pierce remains behind the camera, but there is a young Chuck Pierce, Jr. in a small role before he developed his allergy to shirts. You also get Travis Crabtree and most of his extended family. In truth, parts of it are genuinely creepy, aided by the remote setting. It provided quite a bit of nightmare fuel for us kids at the time, was a drive-in phenomenon and ended up as the 10th highest-grossing film of 1972.
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Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster (1972) The first movie that I recall seeing in the theater. I was four and Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster served as my introduction to the cinema, Godzilla, environmentalism, young Japanese kids named Kenny in short pants and Japanese girls go-go dancing in bodysuits…all before I had even started kindergarten. Yes, it is unlikely that Toho would ever grant the rights, but this is our dream season, right? And this is my dream.