I admit to not being a fan of 50s monster movies with rare exceptions like the original Gojira, The Blob and Them! but I just find that their poster art is way more entertaining and have more imagination than what's within the actual movies. The poverty row low-budget aesthetics just don't do it for me - I much prefer my campy cheese from the decades I grew up in the 70s and 80s. One of the legendary Roger Corman's earlier producing efforts, Attack of the Giant Leeches, for its budget of seventy-thousand, is actually pretty competent and not a bad little watch. It's certainly goofy and you definitely have to see the title creatures to believe them (picture guys wrapped in garbage bags with a smattering of fake suckers attached to them and you get the idea) plus, with a brief 62 minute running time, it's over before you can get too tired of it.

We know what kind of setting we've stumbled into right away as this opens with a backwoods looking old guy shooting at some vague monster in the swamp and guzzling moonshine. Soon enough, said shooter is at the local bar run by Dave (Bruno VeSota) telling everyone all about it and they, of course, don't believe him. Dave's got more to worry about due to constantly being degraded by his younger wife Liz (Yvette Vickers) who, it turns out, has been sneaking off to do the hanky panky with Cal (Michael Emmet).

Soon Dave catches the two adulterers hanging out in the swamps and, after threatening them with his shotgun, they end up being chewed on and, in Liz's case kidnapped to their underwater cave, by some giant leech creatures. He flees and soon our concerned looking game warden Steve (Ken Clark) is made aware of the situation and teams up with girlfriend Nan (Jan Shepard) and her doctor father (Tyler McVey) to try and stop the mutated bloodsuckers before they have a chance to overrun the entire backwoods village. Can they do it? Will there be faux scientific explanations as to why these leeches exist? Will we get to chuckle at a few cheap attack scenes and underwater sequences where it looks like some foggy glass has been placed over the camera lens? Why, of course!

As our hero Clark tries to be suitably macho and gets to deliver a couple of dull monologues. Shepard and McVey make for okay, if bland, sidekicks. VeSota amused me when trundling through the swamps looking for his cheating wife and Vickers steals the show and is pretty awesome just because Liz is so goddamn bitchy - she played a similar role (as Honey, "the other women") the prior year in the more enjoyable Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Containing all the typical melodrama and compact plot a lot of the 50s creature features had, Attack of the Giant Leeches isn't quite as silly as its title promises and never really cashes in on its Florida Everglades setting due to its limited budget. It also does start to feel a bit draggy at times and feels rushed once the finale, and the mediocre explosion it contains, comes around. But, really, what was I expecting? It's a late 50s drive-in flick that swoops in, steals 62 minutes of your time, and becomes completely forgettable a few hours after you've watched it. I think that if it wasn't for those ridiculous looking monster suits and the fact that it was the subject of an episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" this would be another obscure "moldy oldie". Hell, it was even remade in 2008! It's also been kept alive by somehow falling into the public domain and constantly popping up on those multi-pack DVDs you can get at most retailers for the price of a Subway sandwich. (Chris Hartley, 5/26/14)

Directed By: Bernard L. Kowalski.
Written By: Leo Gordon.

Starring: Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, Jan Shepard, Michael Emmet.