Sting of Death (1966) — Triskaidekafiles

STING OF DEATH

WRITER: Original screenplay by Al Demsey

DIRECTOR: William Grefe

STARRING: Joe Morrison as Dr. John Hoyt
Valerie Hawkins as Karen Richardson
John Vella as Egon
Jack Nagle as Dr. Richardson

QUICK CUT: A young woman reconnects with her father, a marine biologist, and everyone learns an important lesson about being polite to people whom are different from you.

THE MORGUE

Karen - A young woman returning to her father’s home in the Everglades. She’s sweet, and smart, and loyal. She’s also very kind and understanding to people otherwise made fun of.

Dr. Richardson - Karen’s dad, a marine biologist. He loves his daughter, and his very focused on his work.

John - Ricardson’s colleague, and Karen’s love interest. He’s almost as kind as she is, but you get the sense he’s just following her lead.

Egon - The doctor’s handyman and assistant. He was disfigured in the past, leading him to be seen as an outcast, and treated poorly. He has a rough demeanor, but there was something gentle there too. However, he does not understand social cues well, nor does he play well with others, thanks to being a loner by force.

TRISK ASSESSMENT: Welcome back, Triskelions! This week, I swam down into the deepest depths, and returned from Davy Jones' Schlocker with this monstrous sea creature movie, Sting of Death! It's from the same director as last Thanksgiving's Death Curse of Tartu, and came on the same disc, so it felt like these dog days of summer were a good time to do this one.

This movie was sold to me with the idea that it has a killer jellyfish man, and all I am hoping for is that he will look ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

We start strong with the arm of Mister Jellbert Fishman grabbing a screwdriver as a woman sunbaths. Long story short, after stabbing the radio, he follows her into the water, and drowns her under the credits.

After that, Karen arrives at her father's island laboratory home, with the help of his colleague Dr. John Hoyt. She's brought along a bunch of her friends for the week, or whatever, so they can have a vacation they will never forget.

John gets the luggage while the girls settle in and get lunch, and Karen catches up with what her father has been up to. It is all your standard character intro scene type stuff.

Dr. Richardson is a marine biologist and...oh god. Oh no, no oh no. I'm gonna start sounding like Austin Powers obsessed with that one guy's mole if I don't get this out of my system.

Push the button on his forehead, and Dr. Richardson says one of five different sayings!

*ahem* It's actually an injury the actor got, IIRC, and they wrote it into the script so they could continue filming. But...mooooley moley mole. Okay okay sorry, I’m done now.

John wanders back and warns Karen that they are having a bunch of her father's biology students come by later so they can be killed off...er, have a welcome home party.

Also, the last significant member of our cast shows up, Egon, and if you imagine Igor with less hump and more scars, then you get the idea.

Egon freaks the girls out, they say some not exactly kind things about him, but it's more in the sense of careless words, than actual being mean. That comes later! Also, they establish that he is clearly sweet on Karen, having imprinted on her for being one of the few people who is genuinely nice to him. So, we're Hunchback of the Morgueing this one, huh?

The movie remembers it has an actual plot, and a boat pulls up with the sheriff. He's got a body with him, and wanted to ask the doc if he knew what could have made the strange marks. He does, sorta, because the marks look like jellyfish stings, but they're far too large for the species they're from.

Egon, however, tries to explain they CAN grow that big, he's done it, but everyone brushes aside the statements of the movie's defacto Igor. And you have no idea how hard I am trying to work in a Ghostbusters joke.

The doctor wanders out of the plot for a bit to work on his experiments and be a red herring, and the other partygoers finally arrive. Cue the long scene of 60s poolside dance party.

It's all fun and games until they notice Egon off to the side enjoying himself, and they start making fun of him, chasing him off. Sigh. Kids can be so cruel.

Egon hops on his airboat and heads off to lick his wounded pride, and everyone else goes back to the party, while Karen and John try to call them out for their bad behaviour. So there's that, at least.

We're a bunch of bullies! We're a bunch of bullies!

While they continue their conga line of cruelty, Mister Jelliard Fishman wanders back into the plot. We get to see him shuffle into the pool while they all party nearby.

And I have one question; HOW DO YOU MISS THE GIANT JELLYFISH MAN IN YOUR POOL?? It's a bright, blue, clear as day pool!

In fairness, they DO try and lampshade this with someone going, "I thought I saw someone in the pool!" but trust me, you either DO or you DON'T with this. There is no in-between. If you weren't sure, you'd continue looking, and you would HAVE to see him.

It’s not like he’s camouflaged or matches the colour of the pool!

SERIOUSLY.

ANYways, this is when the party goes from entertaining to *fantastic*. Because someone puts on some music, and they play this movie's claim to fame, the song, I shit you not, "Do the Jellyfish" by Neil Sedaka. It is exactly what you expect it to be; a campy, bubblegum 60s dance song. About dancing like a jellyfish, I guess.

Not only that, but the DVD comes with an insert that has the lyrics on it, so you can sing along. It is amazing. Utter nonsense writing. In fact...

While all this is going on, I can only imagine Jellbert Fishman is off to the side just waiting for it to wrap up, going like, ???? at all this.

And the Fishman is even reaching out of the pool, so you don't forget, oh right, there's a monster in this movie!

I thought I left a plate of nachos right here…

Okay okay SURE at that point, if he's in the water, hugging the wall, he might - MIGHT! - escape notice, but damn, kids sure are unobservant these days.

After all that dancing, Louise decides she needs a swim, and dives right into the pool, clothes be damned. Jelljah Fishman takes offense at this, and attacks her.

Someone notices the floating body of Louise BUT NOT THE FISHMAN! and screams. They get her out of the pool, and finally FINALLY the Fishman attacks them, so they know there is danger.

Hey, do you guys see something? Nah man, Dave just fell down!

As the monster swims off, the partygoers tend to their wounded. Louise is taken upstairs to rest, but the guy's injuries are too great. The students pack him up on their boat, and sail back down to town, to get him to the hospital.

This is a decision they will not live long enough to regret.

Jelliot Fishman sabotages the boat, the entire thing sinks, and it's right in the middle of a school of actual jellyfish, killing off the entire group in a single moment.

I thought I told you kids to stop horsing around in the pool!

We see the monster return to his cave lair, and stick his hands into a fishtank connected to random technokibble. When the camera pans up to show us his face...it's Egon. Which is the least surprising reveal I've seen in awhile.

Back at the Richardsons', our actual named cast (And if I'm being honest, even that is being generous outside of like four people) is sitting down to attempt to have dinner. But for some reason, no one has an appetite. John and Karen flirt, and this is NOT the time, guys.

The next day, we go out for an airboat ride, to try and get some help, since they have yet to hear from the sheriff, what with the other boat going down.

Remember the airboat scenes from Death Curse of Tartu? William Grefe remembers!

At least they're a bit more restrained with them this time around, or they're more plot driven. And much like in Tartu, the Florida Everglades aren't scenery we see very often, so I don't mind as much.

We end up at Egon's house, but Egon isn't around. They ask for where he is, and well... ‘E gone!

They look around for him, and one of the girls heads back to the boat to get her cigarettes. Well, she's not going to enjoy a last smoke, because she runs into Jellygon. After a chase, he adds her to his body count.

I love that she *screeches* and they cut to Egon's house where the others are just chilling, and go, "What was that?" I dunno, maybe it was the agrarious anthropophagus??

They FINALLY realise they're hearing a scream, and go running and boating and diving around to try and find the girl.

The other random girl with them gets picked off by Egon. They’ve spent so much time underwater - and it feels like it - that they have to head back to the boat. So they didn't find what they were looking for and ALSO lost another member of their party.

Back at the house, the other two girls are getting worried things are taking too long. So one of them decides to take a shower, and gets done in all Psycho style.

There are many benefits to being a marine biologist.

The menfolk arrive back to the house, to get everyone out of there, and let the police handle things from here. Well, the good news is, there's one less person you need to get on the boat!

Karen sees the body and runs out, right into the arms of Egon. The others say they need to leave, but OOPS, the boat is smashed. And all the airboats are almost out of gas. Gosh darnit!

While Doc Richardson tries to fix the radio, Egon absconds with Karen to his lair, and have her all to himself.

Doctor Dad and John hear Egon's airboat nyooming away, and give chase through more Evergaldes scenery. I mean, points for showing me the first airboat car chase, I guess.

Why don’t you like my skull collection??

Egon has misunderstood social cues, thinking that Karen's liking him is unconditional, doesn't understand that kidnapping is wrong, and come on, he's a nice guy! Nah, he's just an incellyfish

He then reveals how he got the man o'war jellyfish to grow so big, and the secret ingredient is...human blood! Not sure why, but sure. Fine. Whatever.

Doesn't explain how sticking his hands in the fishtank of SCIENCE! turns him into a jellyfishman, though. Still, he changes himself once more, and this time we get the final, full reveal of his monstrous form. I said I wanted him to look absolutely ridiculous and...

Jokes aside, and oh that is glorious, I do appreciate the slow reveal. From a hand. To his *snikcers* feet, then the torso, and finally the full bag of head.

Finally, John catches up to the plot and finds his way into Egon's lair, for our final fight. Which is very short, since the movie has like six minutes left.

The two men circle around each other for a bit and waves their arms around, until the flare John is carrying falls into the science tank, that somehow makes Egon fall to the ground and start to die. I GUESS!

Egon's machinery starts to smoke, John gets Karen out of there before it can explode ??? and they all airboat off into the sunset.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It looks pretty decent, for a mid 60s era indie movie.

Audio: Average for this type of movie

Sound Bite: “I'm on vacation! Let's live!" Not for long you won't...

Body Count: Not too bad, even with removing the boat massacre that wiped out like a dozen people at once.

1 - Two and a half minutes in, and Jellyfish Man drowns a woman
2 - The sheriff shows up with another body that died off screen
3 - Another guy dies from wounds received while trying to attack Jellyfishman
4 - And then the entire party gets killed by a school of jellyfish when their boat is sabotaged
5 - Another girl is killed by Jellygon
6 - And then another is picked off while swimming
7 - Next, a blonde is killed in the shower
8 - Jellygon goes boom

Best Corpse: After Egon' falls down, they rip open the giant bag, and his face is covered in goo and blood, and that’s kind of a great visual that feels like he’s been torn apart and separated from his new jellyflesh

Blood Type - C: The movie is fairly blood light, but the markings left behind by the attacks do look nicely severe. I wish I could give points for the costume, but it IS ridiculous. But props for the guy running around with the giant bag on his head in Florida heat.

Sex Appeal: So many butts

Drink Up! every time they make fun of Egon.

Video Nasties: Oh it has been a LONG time since I’ve done one of these, but how could I not leave you with the clip of Do the Jellyfish? Now to see if I remember how to embed video…

Movie Review: It’s a pretty basic plot, and the plot twist isn’t THAT much of a twist. At best it had one red herring, and I feel like that was as much by circumstance than design. But the straightforward plot is fine, and there’s something simple and charming about a “we’re being picked off by a monster, we need to survive!” plot. The biggest weakness is so many people are just there. We really only get to know the core four, so when someone dies, it’s a big ol’ shrug. Everything the movie does is very fine, but it’s not the most memorable film. A solid enough three out of five plastic bags.

Entertainment Value: There’s a lot to have fun with here, at least. The very silly costume which is little more than a wet suit covered with bits. I mean, c’mon, his “feet” are swim fins, and you can see his ankles! But it is a fun delightful bit of silliness that if you don’t take seriously, is fun to see. And the final reveal of the giant bag, while it makes you laugh, it is at least a unique and memorable design. And this movie is SO unashamedly 60s. Gotta get in that dance number with a hopeful song that will hit it big on the radio! And the song is such a delight of campy bubblegum silliness. This movie isn’t gonna scare anyone, or put you on the edge of your seat, but it is very entertaining. If anything, despite seeming very camp these days, the slow pace where people are just milling around, or riding on boats, do make it drag a bit. So while there is a lot of fun, it can sometimes take too long to get back to it. Three out of five jellyfish.