It lives in a humid cave… just saying.
Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966): 5 out of 10: This cheap Larry Buchanan remake of the already low budget It Conquered the World has a couple of surprises.
First, the things that are no surprises. They made the movie for 50 bucks. The monsters include flying killer lobsters on strings. The comic relief is so painful one must prevent the urge to take a fork to one’s ears.
The surprise? The acting is actually reasonably good. John Agar makes a fine hero, and both Pat Delaney and Susan Bjurman are easy on the eyes. There is a lot of killing for a made for TV kids sci-fi (including a vicious uxoricide), and it is surprisingly effective. In fact, the narrative taken as a whole works well considering the monster is named Zontar and is from Venus.
I recently saw Zontar for the second time, and before viewing it, I noticed my score was a decent five out of ten. I felt I must have been in an overly generous mood when I first saw the film, but once again; it drew me in not because of the cheese factor, as so many cheap sci-fi films do, but despite it. Moreover, the monster at the end is actually pretty well done.
I admit Zontar: The Thing from Venus causes a spell on me that transports me my nine-year-old self. Despite the fact I never saw the movie as a youth. Like an old Scooby–Doo episode or a Japanese monster movie, Zontar seems to have just the right amount of that special something that makes me feel young again. My nine-year-old self is quite impressed with Zontar.
Video
And here is the film for your perusal.