Maybe you had to be there. But I was and I kinda dug it. (And needed the unreality of it all, after overdosing on the reality of the previous film.) On one level it seems nuts for the Criterion Collection to have revived this piece of Fifties schlock, but on another it works brilliantly as a time capsule. The filmmaking is rudimentary in every aspect, from the writing to the lighting, from the acting to the cheesy special effects, but still the melding of teen rebel and Atom-Age-anxiety monster movies is so blatant as to be revelatory. And of course you have the fight against the flesh-eating, ever-expanding glob of red jello led by the wild but ultimately responsible teen Steve, played by Steve McQueen, in the very genesis of "The Tao of Steve." (1958, dvd, r.) *7*
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