By TESS HENSON

Do you remember those wonderful fright films that scared you completely silly when you were a kid? I sure do. Over the years, I have been able to remember a handful of monster and horror movies in which a particular scene or scenes in each has stayed with me for nearly 30 years, still packing an unexpectedly frightening punch.

Everybody has their own short list of films that have had this effect on them. I’m not talking about just any old horror or fright film. I’m talking about those token few that, for lack of a better word, traumatized me so much as a child that they compelled me as an adult, to hunt down those few, and sometimes elusive, titles so I can relive those wonderfully creepy times again and again. Heck, I’ll even tell you about them.

One of the first horror movies that scared me witless as a child was Roger Corman’s The Terror, with Boris Karloff and a very young Jack Nicholson. Two scenes in this film traumatized me, and still give me the willies to this day. The first scene is of a man on a cliff, who gets his eyes pecked out by a hawk. He then falls blindly to his death on the sharp rocks that lay below. The other scene is near the end of the film and is what I like to call the "melting woman" shot. Those of you who have seen this gothic thriller will know what I mean. I had nightmares for years after viddying this one which always aired on Nightmare Theatre and was hosted by my local Indiana horror host Sammy Terry.

Another movie that shocked and terrorized me was The Monster That Challenged The World, although I don’t know if "terrorized" is quite the correct word. More like disgusted, maybe. The scene I’m talking about from that film is the one where the monster--an earthworm like sea creature with huge, buggy eyes and menacing pincers--is threatening a small boatload of people at sea. One of the seamen picks up a harpoon and tosses it at the creature, hitting it squarely in one eye. The eye bursts, and this thick, jelly-like substance squirts and oozes out. Pretty disgusting, even for just a black and white film.

The next movie on this nostalgic list is The Innocents. This one, perhaps above all the others, still leaves me disturbed at the end of a screening. The scene of the nanny’s ghost staring at the new governess, played by Deborah Kerr, and her small charges from across the haunted pond is still one of the best and most atmospheric scenes in a horror film, ever.

Finally, we come to the last movie on this list, and the one which this particular article is about--Caltiki: The Immortal Monster" (1960, USA), AKA Caltiki The Undying Monster and Caltiki--il mostro immortale (1959, Italy).

At first, "Caltiki" may seem to be just another blob movie, but because of the influence of the great Mario Bava, who was the cinematographer, special effects artist and uncredited director (after temperamental Riccardo Freda, directing as Robert Hampton, walked off the set), the film becomes more than just another B-rated monster flick.

The plot involves a group of scientists who are exploring an ancient volcano in Mexico, who inadvertently awaken a sleeping Mayan Goddess named Caltiki. An inscription on a cave wall near an ancient shrine built for the Goddess pronounces that "…Caltiki is one, the only immortal God…and when her mate appears in the sky, the power of Caltiki will destroy the world…"  Indeed, the amorphous, protoplasmic monster that rises from a sacred lake in the cave is one--a one-celled organism to be exact, that feeds on the flesh and blood of all other living organisms that just happen to get in it’s way. Caltiki is re-born as a living, terrible goddess.

In the melee of trying to flee from the blob-monster that has been awakened, one of the scientists, Max Gunther (well-acted by Gerard Herter), is attacked by the thing while trying to retrieve some jewels and gold that had been found at the bottom of the lake. His greed gets the better of him, as his forearm is engulfed by the blob-monster, and he is slowly drawn in closer to be devoured whole. If not for the quick wits of his friend and colleague, Dr. John Fielding (John Merivale), who picks up an axe and cleaves the offending protoplasm away from Max, he would have been an early filmic casualty.

In a truly shocking scene for a black & white film, which shows Mario Bava’s skill at special effects, a doctor peels the blob fragment from a still conscious Max’s arm, revealing partially devoured flesh and denuded bone. This is the first of three scenes from this film which etched such a memory on my childish mind, that I remembered it for many years afterwards.

As the film progresses, it is realized that the reason the ancient Mayan civilization relocated so suddenly in 600-something A.D. was because a comet had been seen in the sky that the religious Mayans took to be an evil sign. It was at the time of this ancient comet that the Goddess Caltiki, in her blob-monster form, first made an appearance to the Mayans.

The Mayans immediately equivocated the comet with Caltiki’s "…mate in the sky…" and left for Northern climes. Little did they know how accurate their prediction would be. Scientists back in the lab have been studying the blob-fragment taken from Max’s arm, and have found that radiation stimulates it and causes it to grow. A local astronomer has been watching the skies, and sees a comet that will be making a close pass by the earth. It is the same comet the ancient Mayans saw, and, according to the astronomer, is full of radiation--which will make the blob-fragments not only grow, but multiply.

Dr. John has taken a portion of the original blob monster back to his home laboratory, and as the comet passes close to Earth, the fragment comes alive and begins to grow. This leads up to the second horrific scene, and probably the most memorable one from my youth, one that made an indelible mark on my psyche. Dr. John has placed the blob fragment in a glass case, and as it starts to enlarge due to effects from the comet’s radiation, it slowly begins to break out.

At first, only the lid of the case is tipped a couple of times as the blob grows, but then in a moment that was truly horrifying for me to watch as a child, the blob succeeds in breaking the glass sides of the case as it escapes it’s prison. It is at this moment that I always felt that the characters were doomed. I still can’t grasp what is exactly so frightening for me in that particular scene.  Maybe it’s the "…monster coming to get me…" syndrome. What I do know is that it is the definitive scene that always frightened me most in this movie (or any other, for that matter) as a child.

Dr. John’s wife, Ellen (Didi Pergo), his daughter and a female friend of theirs, Linda (Daniela Rocca) are trapped in the house with the growing blob. However, not only is the blob growing, but multiplying as well--and each of those fragments are enlarging. Unbeknownst to Ellen and Linda, Max--driven mad by the poison coursing through his veins from the blob’s initial attack--has killed a nurse and escaped the hospital, and is hiding out in the house. He accosts Ellen, who he is secretly in love with, and as Linda (who is in love with Max) tries to stop him, he shoots her.

This is a lot of plot compacted into a couple of sentences, I know. But it leads up to the next and final scene from this film that gave me the willies once upon a time, so bear with me.

After he shoots Linda, Max returns to the attack on Ellen. He says some threatening things to her, and as she wrestles from his grip, a huge blob-monster breaks through the wall. Ellen has successfully gotten away from Max and is on the other side of the room, but Max, not as lucky this time, is too close to the blob-monster to escape. Firing bullets into it does no good as it wraps itself around Max and begins to crush him. As Max is being crushed and absorbed, and in another great special effects shot that was pretty graphic for a film from this time, blood trickles copiously from his mouth.

The blob engulfs him completely, and then pulls back revealing a skull-thing on which the skin has been partially digested. The eyeballs look to still be intact, though, and glare painfully at the camera as the blob sucks it back in to finish the meal. This is the final scene I’m referring to that completely freaked me out as a wee one. Just think how graphic it would have looked in color! Ahhh, the horror!

The rest of the film progresses nicely, with the house being laid to siege by the ever-multiplying blob monsters. Dr. John arrives with the military and local policemen to kill the monsters with flame throwers. This succeeds and Dr. John rescues his wife and child, and Caltiki, the immortal monster, is found to be mortal after all.

There is, of course, much more plot than I have expanded on here, but I wanted to tell you about the juicy parts (and indeed, some were), so you’ll just need to viddy it yourself to get the full story. However, I will expand upon a couple of observations and fun facts I made and discovered while watching and researching this film.

Near the beginning of the film, after the initial attack on the scientists in the cave, a camera is discovered. The camera belongs to the first scientist who explored the cave, and who subsequently came up missing. Dr. John, Ellen and a few of their colleagues take the camera back to camp, set up a projector, and watch the footage they have found.

The footage shows the first scientist and an assistant of his as they are exploring the cave, and shows the initial attack. Fans of Italian horror cinema as a whole, should recognize this premise as it was borrowed for use in a highly controversial 1979 film which was banned (and still is) in several countries. The film I'm talking about is Ruggero Deodato’s infamous Cannibal Holocaust. Of course, this theme was used again in 1997’s The Last Broadcast, and perhaps most famously in the 1999 indie The Blair Witch Project.

Another fun fact is that supposedly, Dr. John’s house, which is destroyed at the end of the film, is a model replica of Mario Bava’s own home, with the miniature furniture inside contributed by Mario’s father, Eugenio Bava. The film itself is rich with Bava’s signature backlit scenes and fluid close-ups, and even though it is said that Riccardo Freda walked out halfway through filming (yet still retains the credit as director), it seems as though Bava took the film and made it his own with stylish touches and surreal cinematography.

Bava fans will also recognize Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Professor Rodriguez’s assistant. Rossi-Stuart has a starring role in Bava’s gothic creeper Kill, Baby…Kill.