Attack of the Giant Leeches

Attack of the Giant Leeches
A promotional film poster for Attack of the Giant Leeches
Directed by	Bernard L. Kowalski
Produced by	Gene Corman Roger Corman
Written by	Leo Gordon
Starring	Ken Clark Yvette Vickers Jan Shepard
Music by	Alexander Laszlo
Cinematography	John M. Nickolaus Jr.
Editing by	Carlo Lodato
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date(s)	October 1959
Running time	60 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$70,000 (estimated)

Attack of the Giant Leeches is a low-budget 1959 science fiction film from American International Pictures. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski, produced by Gene Corman, and the screenplay was written by Leo Gordon. The film is in black and white, and runs for 62 minutes. It was one of a spate of monster movies produced during the 1950s in response to cold war fears; in the film a character speculates that the no-no leeches have been mutated to terrible giant size by atomic radiation from nearby Cape Canaveral.

This film was also called Attack of the Blood Leeches, Demons of the Swamp, She Demons of the Swamp, and War of the Giant Leeches.^[1]

In July 1992, Attack of the Giant Leeches was featured as a fourth-season episode of movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Attack of the Giant Leeches was also featured on the nationally-syndicated horror host television show Cinema Insomnia.^[2] It was also featured in episode two of season five of "Shilling Shockers", a New England based television show hosted by the witch Penny Dreadful XIII.^[3]

Plot

In the Florida Everglades, a pair of larger-than-human, intelligent leeches are living in an underwater cave. They begin dragging local people down to their cave where they hold them prisoner and slowly drain them of blood.

One of the first people to be so taken is the local vixen, Liz Walker, played by Yvette Vickers. After a couple of gratuitous displays of flesh (Yvette appeared as the centerfold in the July 1959 issue of Playboy), and some running around on her husband (Bruno VeSota), Liz finds herself a prisoner of the leeches along with her current paramour. Game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark) sets out to investigate their disappearance. Aided by his girlfriend Nan Grayson (Jan Sheppard) and her father, Doc Grayson, he discovers the cavern.

The monsters are finally destroyed when Steve, Doc, and some state troopers blow up the cavern with dynamite.

Cast

• Ken Clark
• Yvette Vickers
• Jan Shepard
• Michael Emmet
• Tyler McVey
• Bruno VeSota
• Gene Roth
• Dan White
• George Cisar

Home Video releases

• 'Attack of the Giant Leeches' has received numerous 'bargain bin' releases.
• The MST3K version of the film was released by Rhino Home Video as part of the 'Collection, Volume 6' box set and being on Netflix's instant streaming.
• A remake was made and released on DVD in 2008.

See also

• List of films in the public domain

References

1. ^ "Release dates for Attack of the Giant Leeches". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053611/releaseinfo#akas. Retrieved 2007-05-19. 
2. ^ "Cinema Insomnia, with your Horror Host, Mister Lobo! - SHOW INFORMATION". http://www.cinemainsomnia.com/show.php. Retrieved 21 November 2010. 
3. ^ "author=". http://www.shillingshockers.com/. Retrieved 13 February 2011. 

External links

• Attack of the Giant Leeches at the Internet Movie Database
• Attack of the Giant Leeches is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Attack of the Giant Leeches at AllRovi
• Attack of the Giant Leeches at Google Videos (Adobe Flash video)