Monster on the Campus (a.k.a. Monster in the Night and Stranger on the Campus) is a 1958 American black-and-white science fiction/horror film from Universal-International, produced by Joseph Gershenson, directed by Jack Arnold, from a script by Davi…
Monster on the Campus (a.k.a. Monster in the Night and Stranger on the Campus) is a 1958 American black-and-white science fiction/horror film from Universal-International, produced by Joseph Gershenson, directed by Jack Arnold, from a script by David Duncan, that stars Arthur Franz, Joanna Cook Moore, Nancy Walters, Troy Donahue, and Whit Bissell. The film was theatrically released as a double feature with the British horror film Blood of the Vampire that you can find here among the list of movies that I have.
The film's storyline tells of a university science professor who accidentally comes into contact with the irradiated blood of a coelacanth, which causes him to "regress" to being a primitive caveman.
Dr. Donald Blake, a science professor at Dunsford University, receives a coelacanth. A student, Jimmy, asks Blake if the fish is really a million years old. Blake replies, "It's the species that's old. No change in millions of years. See, the coelacanth is a living fossil, immune to the forces of evolution". Blake teaches his students that man is the only creature that can decide whether to evolve or devolve and that "unless we learn to control the instincts we've inherited from our ape-like ancestors, the race is doomed."
Inside the lab, Blake scratches himself on the teeth of the partially-thawed coelacanth, accidentally sticking his bloody hand into the water-filled container which held the fish. Molly Riordan, the assistant to Dr. Cole Oliver, is with Blake and offers him a ride home. Blake says he does not feel well and passes out when they get to Molly's car.
A person or persons unknown attacks Molly at Blake's home. Madeline Howard, Blake's fiancée and daughter of Dr. Gilbert Howard, president of the university, arrives and finds the home in shambles and Blake moaning on the ground. Madeline calls the police after seeing the corpse of Molly hanging by her hair in a tree.
Detective Lt. Mike Stevens and Detective Sgt. Eddie Daniels find a "deformed" handprint on a window and Blake's tie clasp in Molly's dead hand. They take Blake downtown when he admits that he cannot remember anything after getting into Molly's car.
Concluding that someone holding a grudge is trying to implicate Blake in Molly's murder, Stevens releases him. He assigns Daniels as Blake's bodyguard and tells Blake that Molly's autopsy showed she died of fright.
In his lab, Blake shoos away a dragonfly that lands on the coelacanth. The dragonfly later returns, now two feet in length. Blake and Jimmy try to catch the giant insect with a net when it lands on the coelacanth again. Blake stabs the dragonfly. While examining its body, he does not notice its blood has dripped into his pipe. Lighting up and smoking, he immediately feels ill. As the dragonfly shrinks back to its standard size, a large, hairy hand reaches out and squashes the insect. Then Blake's lab is trashed, and Sgt. Daniels is killed. The police find huge footprints near his body and conclude they are from the same source.
Blake learns that the coelacanth has etc.
