The Slime People (1963): There’s so much fog in this movie that Lucio Fulci got jealous.

There was so much fog that the Elizabeth Dane wrecked.

So much fog…

You get it, right?

A bunch of lizard people emerge from under Los Angeles and use their fog machine to invade the city because, well, we nuked them out of their homes. Luckily, Tom Gregory (Robert Hutton, who also directed the movie) joins a group of survivors to battle the slimy reptiles, who can’t handle salt or their own spears.

Susan Hart — who would one day marry American-International Pictures president James H. Nicholson and appear in their beach movies — is one of the humans battling the mucky scaly heels.

This entire movie was filmed at KTLA studios, but ran out of money after nine days. The slime creatures cost most of the money, and neither the stuntmen nor Hutton got paid. There was also the wild thought of using small people as giant voles to lead the invasion, but when they watched the footage, it seemed too silly to use. Just think of that, as this movie is one of the goofiest films ever made. I wish I could watch that footage.

Hutton would go on to write Persecution, which was one of Lana Turner’s last films. It’s just as goofy — maybe more — than this one.

The Crawling Hand (1963): If an astronaut crash-lands and says things like, “My hand… makes me do things…. kill…. kill!” At this point, you may say that this is not a lack of oxygen in the astronaut’s helmet, but rather a medical issue.

There’s also a medical student named Paul (Rod Lauren was a singer who released the song “If I Had a Girl” before acting; he moved to the Philippines, where he married actress Nida Blanca. He became the lead suspect in her death when she was stabbed in a parking garage, then fought extradition back to the country for years before jumping off a hotel room balcony; sorry to bring everyone down with who Paul really was), who finds the astronaut’s hand and well, keeps it. Because that’s what doctors do: keep desiccated hands that they see from space crashes.

Paul begins to use the power of his hand to attack people he dislikes, becoming increasingly obsessed with it. The police — led by The Skipper Alan Hale Jr. — try to catch him, and the space agency starts to realize that the fingerprints of the dead astronaut are all over the place. So Paul takes the hand to the beach and tries to destroy it, and some cats try to eat it, because that’s the kind of movie The Crawling Hand is.

Somehow, writer Rick Moody used this film as inspiration for his novel Four Fingers of Death, the tale of writer Montese Crandall, who attempts to get over the death of his wife by throwing himself into his work and writing a remake of The Crawling Hand.

Director Herbert L. Strock also directed Gog and The Devil’s Messenger, and one of the co-writers was Joe Cranston, Bryan’s father. None of them noticed that, at times, the crawling hand is a left hand and at other times a right hand.

Extras include a The Slime People commentary track by Tom Weaver, OG Monster Kid! and film historian; commentary for The Crawling Hand by Rob Kelly, artist, reviewer, podcaster and film buff extraordinaire; a featurette exploring 1950’s and 60’s sci-fi movies; a two-sided sleeve with art by Robert Kelly and retro artwork on the flipside; a collectible booklet on the creative minds behind these two films; a limited edition slipcase and a classic drive-in sci-fi poster gallery. You can get it from MVD.