Terror Tuesday! The Black Scorpion

A secret favorite of mine for Terror Tuesday is the Black Scorpion! This is one of those movies that was made in the wake of such films as Them & the Beast From Twenty Thousand Fathoms! I have to place Black Scorpion in my top thre Big Bug movies, along with Tarantula and Them! 

The plot involves a very active volcano in Mexico and geologists Hank Scott (Denning) along with a colleague are interested in seeing this activity first hand. Corday plays Teresa Alverez, a ranch owner whose cattle is being mysteriously slaughtered and is having difficulties keeping locals around to help her round up the cattle as they believe some devil bull or something is responsible.

Turns out the active volcano has ripped open some giant fissures in the Earth, exposing a vast underground cavern containing mostly giant, prehistoric scorpions. The scorpions, being a might bit peckish after years of living under the ground, start venturing out into the Mexican deserts, stinging and eating whatever gets in their path. They are soon discovered, the military comes in, blows them up real good, and that's the end of that...or is it? Okay, no it's not, as the humongous scorpions find another way out, and begin to do cool stuff like attack trains and find their way into populated areas.

What really worked so well in this movie is the special effects...well, at least the ones done by Willis O'Brien (King Kong) and Ray Harryhausen using stop-motion animation. Harryhausen isn't credited, but he ended up doing about 90 percent of the effects, under the supervision of O'Brien. The scenes with numerous scorpions attacking the passenger train are probably among the best in this feature.
 Yeah I know that Mystery Science Theater lampooned this one but man this is a fun picture. How could this work for a science fiction game or perhaps a Dungeons & Dragons game? That's pretty darn easy. Chance the location to your favorite world. Add giant scorpions & shake well. Personally this is a classic schlock science fiction film!