THE SOUND OF HORROR (1965)

In a remote part of Greece, treasure hunters set off an explosion in a cave that rouses a huge invisible dinosaur, which had lain dormant for eons. Now it's awake, pissed off, and thinks nothing of using its claws to slash to death any person who crosses its path. The only warning its victims have is an eerie screech the monster emits (hence the title). It sounds like the set-up for a really stupid film, but SOUND OF HORROR confounded my expectations by not being all that bad. It's no classic, but given its obviously small budget and its very limited sets and costuming, the film could have been a whole lot worse.

The set-up takes entirely too long (about a half-hour), to a point at which I repeatedly muttered, “Get on with it already.” However, once the dinosaur got loose and began its rampage, I became genuinely curious as to how these people would defend themselves against an unseen enemy. They came up with some pretty creative ways, one of which involved emptying huge sacks of flour outside their house. Once the dinosaur made a footprint, the men threw hatchets at it, resulting in a shot of the weapons hanging in mid-air once they had hit their target. (See the still shot below.)

While the characters were as one-dimensional as you might expect, the actors who played them worked admirably with what little the script had given them. The dubbing was also reasonably well done, and I liked the plot twist at the end.

When all is said and done, SOUND OF HORROR is the best invisible-dinosaur film I've ever seen.