EDITOR’S NOTE: Terror In the Midnight Sun was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, March 2, 1968 at 11:20 p.m.; Saturday, July 26, 1969 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, May 30, 1970 at 11:30 p.m. as Invasion of the Animal People. 

Known internationally as Terror In the Midnight Sun and in its native Sweden as Space Invasion of Lapland, this movie was brought to the U.S. by Jerry Warren, who cut 25 minutes from its running time — including a nude shower scene with lead actress Barbara Wilson — as well as shooting a new beginning featuring narrator John Carradine. Of course, when he sold the film to syndication later, a whole bunch of new material had to be shot to pad out the film’s running time. That new footage features several doctors discussing the mental problems of the lead character. Warren also shot a new UFO abduction scene. Never let it be said that the maker of The Wild World of Batwoman didn’t keep up on trends.

However, in Fred Olen Ray’s book The New Poverty Row, he did reveal “I’d shoot one day on this stuff and throw it together…I was in the business to make money. I never, ever tried in any way to compete, or to make something worthwhile. I only did enough to get by, so they would buy it, so it would play, and so I’d get a few dollars. It’s not very fair to the public, I guess, but that was my attitude…You didn’t have to go all out and make a really good picture.”

Diane Wilson and scientist Erik Engstrom just want to fall in love, but all the mutilated reindeer keep getting in the way. That’s because three humanoid aliens have a gigantic and hairy fanged beast that they’re commanding to tear up houses and eat Santa’s steeds. Yes, this movie is years ahead of modern paranormal theories that place Bigfoot in the employ of grey extraterrestrials.

Virgil W. Vogel, the director of this movie, also was behind The Mole People. He was an editor on Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man and Touch of Evil, too. Most of his career was spent directing for television, which he did all the way up to his death in 1996.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Man and the Monster was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, June 22, 1968, at 1:00 a.m. It’s the Mexican horror movie El hombre y el monstruo.

If I’ve learned anything from watching Mexican films, it’s that you should never make a deal with el diablo.

If you’re like Samuel Magno (Enrique Rambal, The Exterminating Angel), you finally get your dream of being a concert pianist to come true. Then every time you play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, you turn into a monster.

Directed by Rafael Baledón, who acted from 1938 to 1994 as well as directing La Muñeca Perversa, Muñecas Peligrosas and Orlak, El Infierno de Frankenstein, this is 78-minutes of Mexican gothic horror, with the curse only stopped by the protagonist’s demanding mother.

It’s literally Faust, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Werewolf all in one movie, with special effects on par with El Baron del Terror. If you aren’t rushing to find this movie right now, what’s wrong with you?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mothra vs. Godzilla was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, February 17, 1968, at 11:20 p.m. and Saturday, July 26, 1969, at 11:30 p.m. as Godzilla vs. The Thing. 

With the box office success of King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra, Toho chose to send Godzilla against the butterfly in a movie that was meant for children instead of adults. It’s also the last movie — until the Heisei era — that Godzilla would be against humanity.

As a typhoon leaves behind significant damage, a bluish-gray object has been left behind, as well as a giant egg, which is taken by Kumayama, the owner-entrepreneur of Happy Enterprises. He decides that science will have nothing to do with the egg. It’s time to make money off it.

That’s when the twin Shobijin arrive and explain that the egg belongs to Mothra, and if it hatches, Mothra’s larva child will destroy Tokyo as it looks for food. The Japanese government begs them to send Mothra to stop Godzilla, who has come back for the strange object left behind, one that is emitting radiation. Despite all the outside world has done to their island, and even though Mothra is in great pain and dying of old age, they decide that they must help.

While Godzilla does destroy Mothra with his atomic breath, her twin children arise in their larva form and spray the King of the Monsters repeatedly with their sil, allowing Godzilla to be captured.

Henry G. Saperstein acquired the American theatrical and TV rights. He planned on the name Godzilla vs the Giant Moth. Still, American-International Pictures bought the movie and released it as Godzilla vs. The Thing, censoring Mothra from the poster to build audience excitement for who the big green lizard would fight. After so many of their films being released in America, Toho shot footage specifically for export, such as a scene where U.S. troops help the Japanese fight the monsters.

When everyone arrives on Infant Island, the skeleton of a turtle can be seen in the background. This character, known as the Mystery Bones of Infant Island, is a living kaiju that was inspired by Mondo Cane.