The Milpitas Monster, Robert Burrill (1976)

[Mike From BBandBCs]

The Story: A giant monster rises from the city dump to ravage the city Godzilla style.

The Milpitas Monster starts with narration from Paul Frees (the golden voice heard during the Disney dark ride, The Haunted Mansion). The story tells of early Milpitas CA, a small town located just South of San Francisco by 40 miles, and its rapid growth during these years. It seems Milpitas has been growing so much so, that the towns garbage consumption is out of control and the smell of the local dump over-comes the city. This leads the town council to bring in officials to investigate the situation.

Once the officials arrive and take their water samples, we're introduced to the local drunk, George. George is the first to encounter the so-called garbage monster when he wakes from a drunken stupor. George, however, is so drunk that he's unsure of what he's seen. At this point, the water samples come back as heavily polluted (thus leading us to believe the monster is born from this filth). There's also numerous calls to the police station regarding homeowners missing garbage cans and evidence has been left behind by the monster in the form of giant footprints.

Shortly after all this silliness, we're introduced to a bunch of teens driving around in their hot-rods. They're all very excited about the upcoming school dance and upon arriving at said event, spike the punch and begin to do what you do at school dances, dance. This however doesn't last long as the giant 50-foot monster puts and end to the fun by taking one of the girls captive as his own. The hot-rodders grab their cars and along with the city police and other officials, hunt down the monster in an attempt to rescue the girl and kill the monster.

First off, let me say that I grew up just blocks from where The Milpitas Monster was filmed. As kids we often heard and read about this film during its production and saw bits and pieces of it on the local news. Though I never did get to see it when it played at the local Sierra Twin Theaters in Milpitas, it was a film I often thought about when returning to the area to visit. I recently took a visit back to Milpitas and during my stay looked the film up on Amazon. Surprisingly enough, it was available on DVD and instant view.

Monster movies owned the silver screen throughout the 50s, 60s and the 70s. There wasn't a month that went by without a new monster appearing at the local drive-in. The 70s however was a time of change in terms of what filmmakers were doing. We were seeing less and less monsters and more and more possessed teens, chainsaw wielding maniacs and large sharks named Bruce. Yes, folks, the days of the giant monster was nearing its end. But that didn't stop student filmmaker Robert Burrill from finishing his feature length film, The Milpitas Monster.

Robert and friends intended on making a short 10 minute film for a high school project. This however quickly grew into a feature length film shot over a two year period (1974 to 1976). Robert and crew used Milpitas as the pivot point for their shoot. Aside from some of the miniatures used in the movie, all scenes were shot on location using city locations and employees (this would never happen in the city of Milpitas current day). So with the cooperation of the city, media (both print and TV), and a whole lot of other people, The Milpitas Monster debuted at the local theater in 1976 to standing ovations.

The technologies used to create the film and monster are obviously outdated. The monster is a man in a suit appearing to be reptile or fly like in nature. When miniatures are not being used as backdrops, the filmmakers resort to stop-motion technology to get the creature to look 50 feet tall. As far as the film plot goes, it's solid in regards to how the monster came to be and how it ends. You know, the monster grabs the girl, climbs the tallest tower and eventually dies ala King Kong style.

Although the film is dated and as far as I'm concerned, it's relatively unknown (a true rare monster movie), it's an absolute blast to watch. This is due to the fact that I'm from the area in which it was filmed. Robert Burrill, though he may not have known it at the time, was a good filmmaker and I'm surprised he didn't continue working in the monster/horror movie genre. Maybe one day we will see a return of The Milpitas Monster. Then again, maybe not.