Movie Review: Eegah (1962)
Eegah is a terrible movie, but it’s sort of an interesting failure. It’s essentially a blend of two genres that just really don’t go well together: a monster movie, and a teen beach party movie.
We don’t really have the latter genre anymore, but they were pretty popular in the early- to mid-sixties. Eegah is actually ahead of the curve there, so maybe it’s not right to call it that. Maybe it’s more of an Elvis musical thrown into a monster movie, and also missing the charisma of Elvis Presley. Instead, we get Arch Hall, Jr.
The one really strong point this movie has is Richard Kiel as Eegah. Kiel had acromegaly, and as a result, was over seven feet tall. He’s probably best known for playing the villain Jaws in two James Bond movies, as well as a Kanamit in the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man,” but he’s made memorable appearances in several other projects including Happy Gilmore.
Here, Kiel plays a giant caveman who somehow has survived out in the desert all these years. It’s strange. I understand wanting to cast Kiel as a monster in a movie, but have him put on a Bigfoot costume or something; don’t make him a caveman in 1962 California. It’s just weird.
Our main characters are Roxy Miller (Marilyn Manning) and her boyfriend, Tom Nelson (Arch Hall, Jr.). She encounters Eegah, and passes out at the sight of him. When she tells some people including Tom and her father, Robert Miller (Arch Hall, Sr.), they’re skeptical, but go out looking for evidence anyways. They find a big footprint, and Roxy feels vindicated. Her father decides to go out looking for the giant with the use of a helicopter.
We then get our first hint of the odd genre mixture, with a musical interlude. Roxy goes for a swim in a pool while Tom sings a song to her and plays guitar. It feels like it’s from completely another movie. It’s almost this scene from Viva Las Vegas, just much less charming.
When the helicopter can’t go out to pick up Roxy’s father, Roxy and Tom take Tom’s dune buggy. What proceeds is one of the worst scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. With a surf rock tune playing, they just go for a joyride on the dune buggy in the desert. They’re both having a really good time, and sure, they don’t know her father’s missing yet, but it’s just a very weird scene to have in a hororr movie. On top of that, the dune buggy gets briefly stuck and the music stops in what I think is supposed to be a tense moment. Eventually, they make it out, and they set up camp in the night, unable to find her father.
Tom sings another song, so now it’s basically three musical interludes since the last horror scene. The next day, Tom goes off by himself with a gun, leaving Roxy behind. She gets taken by Eegah to his cave, where her father is. Eegah is relatively peaceful, and Robert has been able to communicate with him a bit. Eegah is romantically interested in Roxy, of course, causing the two of them to escape back to civilization with Tom.
There’s a party scene outside by a pool, with Tom and his band performing another song. A minor fight breaks out, and then Eegah shows up for about thirty seconds until he’s killed, falling into the pool. It’s a terrible climax. You want to see Eegah wreak havoc and crash the party, but the random fight ends up doing more. It’s also a missed opportunity. You’ve got a pool there. You’ve got Eegah. Let him throw someone into it. It doesn’t even have to kill them — just do it. Instead, Eegah gets shot and falls into the pool, so I guess the pool sort of was there for a reason, just not a good one.
It’s a really, really bad movie. It never capitalizes on casting Kiel in the titular role, and the mix of genres is just really weird, though it does make this movie fascinatingly watchable.
Rating: 1/10
