Caltiki: The Immortal Monster [Blu-ray/DVD] [2 Discs]

Director: Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda Mario Bava

Overview

This Italian horror movie was especially made for American audiences and even in Italy was released as an American film. While set in Mexico, it was actually filmed in Spain and tells the chilling tale of a group of archaeologists working on a Mayan temple when they accidentally unearth Caltiki, a malicious radioactive mass of gelatinous goo that slithers off to destroy any earthling in its path. Those humans who survive contact with Caltiki become murderous psychopaths

Product Details

Release Date:	04/25/2017
UPC:	0760137985884
Original Release:	1959
Rating:	NR
Source:	Arrow Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:16:00
Sales rank:	5,793

Special Features

Alternative full frame presentation of the film, showcasing Mario Bava's special effects photography in all its unmatted glory; New audio commentary by Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava-All the Colors of the Dark; New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of The Haunted World of Mario Bava and So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films; From Quatermass to Caltiki, a new discussion with author and critic Kim Newman on the influence of classic monster movies on Caltiki; Riccardo Freda, Forgotten Master, an archival interview with critic Stefan Della Casa; The Genesis of Caltiki, an archival interview with filmmaker Luigi Cozzi; Archival introduction to the film by Stefan Della Casa; Orginal US theatrical trailer; Alternate opening titles for the US version; Vintage 54-page French Caltiti photocomic (BD-ROM/DVD-ROM content)

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

John Merivale	Dr. John Fielding
Didi Sullivan	Actor
Daniela Rocca	Linda
Gerard Herter	Max Gunther
Didi Perego	Ellen Fielding
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	Prof. Rodriguez's assistant
Gay Pearl	Actor
Daniele Pitani	Actor

Technical Credits

Mario Bava	Director
Riccardo Freda	Director
Samuel Schneider	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Although started by Riccardo Freda (working as Robert Hampton), Caltiki, The Immortal Monster is usually credited to Mario Bava, who started out photographing the movie but took over directing as well early in its production. Whatever the particulars of the credits, the film's origins and execution have made it one of the most enduringly popular European sci-fi horror movies of its era. Although it's sometimes cited as being indebted to Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.'s The Blob, Caltiki's real inspiration was almost certainly Val Guest's The Quatermass Experiment (aka The Creeping Unknown), which had been extremely popular in Italy. Caltiki incorporates a similar-looking monster, a manhunt for a stricken victim/carrier that parallels the center section of Guest's movie, and laboratory sequences depicting the monster's growth that are patterned directly after those in Guest's movie. There's even a nearly identical film-within-a-film segment that provides clues to the mystery early in the picture, exactly like Guest's movie. Caltiki's makers, however, have transposed the story away from space exploration -- a new-fangled and somewhat alien idea to most western and southern European countries (including Italy), which were far removed from rocket and missile programs -- and, instead, rather neatly folded together elements of ancient legend and archeology, subjects with which Italian audiences are familiar and comfortable. The result is a neat and compelling science fiction/horror amalgam, squeezing cosmology together with archeology and myth to create a genuinely fascinating and original thriller. Incorporating the ruins and mysteries left behind by the Mayans was an inspired idea, giving the European-made movie a wide reach into the prehistory of the Americas and imparting an appeal that was especially compelling in the United States as well as points south. Indeed, the plot even seems worthy of The X-Files or, better yet, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Yes, the pacing is a little too brisk, the dubbing (done in New York, by Titras Studios, which dubbed many of the Italian movies of the period) is unfortunate in terms of some choices (such as the high, raspy voice giving to Max Gunther), the dialogue doesn't translate quite as well as one would wish -- and there are isolated moments when Caltiki resembles a pulsating pile of dirty rags. But the movie has a compelling core and sufficiently good photography (courtesy of Bava) and effects to make it worth watching and worth keeping, when and if it ever gets reissued on home video or DVD.