The Naked Monster is a loving tribute to ‘50s monster movies made by fans for fans. In the ‘50s, monsters attacked the world. For years after, they have been silent. Now, a new threat, a three-eyed green monster rises out of the sea to attack California. A small-town sheriff and a government agent recruit the old timer Army captain (Kenneth Tobey) that fought the monsters back in the golden era to help bring down the beast.
The Naked Monster uses a lot of stock footage from many B-movie favorites like The Thing from Another World, Revenge of the Creature, and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Even better, the stars of those old films like Tobey, John Agar, and Lori Nelson return playing essentially the same characters (slightly tweaked of course, to avoid a lawsuit). Their efforts aren’t quite enough to make it worthwhile, but it’s nice to see them all again.
Production began way back in 1988, but it wasn’t finished until sixteen years later. Because of that, it feels more than a little patchy. Most of the time, it plays like someone’s home movie. Since it was made by Ted Newsom, he was able to coax Brinke Stevens, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, and Forrest J. Ackerman to be in it. Some of their footage was shot silently, and Newsom employs a great cost-cutting technique for one scene with Quigley where she and her boyfriend use sign language. That’s one way to avoid paying for dubbing.
Much of the intentional humor is unfunny and plays like a poor man’s version of a Zucker-Abrahms-Zucker parody. Sadly, a little of this goes a long way. It’s fun for a half-hour or so, but the charm wears off soon after. It might’ve been bearable if the running time was only an hour. However, at eighty-eight minutes, it’s sometimes a chore to sit through, mostly because it shoots its wad so early.
At least its heart is in the right place. Even though it never quite works, there are still fun moments like seeing Paul Marco from Plan 9 from Outer Space playing Kelton the cop again. Stevens and Quigley have nude scenes too, which helps, and the scene where the monster fights Godzilla is pretty funny.
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