{ "id": "ep6ze2apr4", "slug": "the-monolith-monsters", "title": "The Monolith Monsters", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.science-fiction-horror-films", "label": "Science fiction horror films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.science-fiction-horror-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.science-fiction-horror-films", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Science fiction horror films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.science-fiction-horror-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.science-fiction-horror-films", "label": "Science fiction horror films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.science-fiction-horror-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Monolith Monsters (1957) is a Universal-International black-and-white sci-fi horror film directed by John Sherwood, from a story by Jack Arnold, in which meteor fragments grow with water, petrify people by draining silicon, and are stopped by salt water.", "snippet": "The Monolith Monsters (1957) is a Universal-International black-and-white sci-fi horror film directed by John Sherwood, from a story by Jack Arnold, in which meteor fragments grow with water, petrify people by draining silicon, and are stopped by salt water.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.science-fiction-horror-films", "markdown": "# The Monolith Monsters\n\n**The Monolith Monsters** is a 1957 American black-and-white science fiction horror film directed by John Sherwood for Universal-International Pictures, in which fragments of a fallen meteorite grow into towering monoliths when exposed to water and petrify living things by draining their silicon.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) It runs 77 minutes, was shot in a 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, and opened in Los Angeles on 18 December 1957.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | December 1957; Los Angeles opening 18 December 1957; working title *Monolith*[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) |\n| Director | John Sherwood; Jack Arnold was originally set to produce and direct but withdrew over scheduling conflicts with *The Tattered Dress*[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) |\n| Writers | Screenplay by Norman Jolley and Robert M. Fresco; story by Jack Arnold and Fresco[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) |\n| Cast | Grant Williams (Dave Miller), Lola Albright (Cathy Barrett), Les Tremayne (Martin Cochrane), Trevor Bardette (Prof. Arthur Flanders), Phil Harvey (Ben Gilbert)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) |\n| Format | 76–77 minutes, black and white, 1.85:1, Western Electric recording[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) |\n| Effects | Special photography by Clifford Stine, with the meteor crash reusing alternate takes from *It Came from Outer Space* (1953)[2](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-monolith-monsters-1957) |\n| Reception | Phil Hardy called it \"a superior B movie, no more but certainly no less\"; IMDb audience rating about 6.3/10[3](https://scifist.net/2024/03/08/the-monolith-monsters/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nA meteorite crashes in the desert near the California town of San Angelo, scattering black fragments. Geologist Ben Gilbert brings a sample to his office, where he and local reporter Martin Cochrane fail to identify it. Overnight, spilled water makes the rock bubble and grow; the next morning Dave Miller, head of the geological office, finds the laboratory wrecked by a huge growth of black rock and Gilbert dead, his body hardened as if petrified.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS)\n\nA schoolteacher, Cathy Barrett, has meanwhile taken her students into the desert, where a girl named Ginny Simpson pockets a fragment and washes it at her family's farm. The farm is found destroyed, Ginny's parents dead, and the girl catatonic and slowly turning to stone; a specialist gives her eight hours to live unless the rock is identified. Miller and his old professor, Arthur Flanders, trace the fragments to the meteor and deduce that the rock drains silicon from whatever it touches, including humans. A rainstorm then reveals the second danger: wetted fragments rise as huge monoliths that topple and shatter, each piece becoming a new monolith in a self-propagating wave advancing on the town.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS)\n\nThe cure comes from an accident of treatment. Dr. Steve Hendricks saves Ginny with a synthetic silicon solution, and Miller realizes that a simple saline solution retards the rock's growth. Lacking time to treat the whole desert, the team dynamites the local dam to flood the salt flats with salty water at the canyon edge, halting the monoliths just as they reach it, though the governor had refused permission for the risky plan.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film originated with Jack Arnold, the director of *It Came from Outer Space* (1953), *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (1954), and *The Incredible Shrinking Man* (1957), who supplied the story and was first set to produce and direct. According to an August 1956 *Daily Variety* report, he withdrew because of scheduling conflicts with *The Tattered Dress*; a Strange Horizons account instead says Universal offered him *The Incredible Shrinking Man*, and he handed the reins to John Sherwood, a veteran second-unit director who had worked with Arnold on *[The Creature Walks Among Us](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-creature-walks-among-us)* (1955).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) • [4](https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/articles/forgotten-classics-of-science-fiction-cinema-the-monolith-monsters/) *The Monolith Monsters* was Sherwood's last film before his death in early 1959.[4](https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/articles/forgotten-classics-of-science-fiction-cinema-the-monolith-monsters/)\n\nProduction ran from 21 January to early February 1957, with location work in Panamint Valley, California. Universal press materials note that the frigid winter made the actors' breath visible on camera, a problem solved by having them drink ice water before delivering their lines.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) The copyright was registered to Universal Pictures Co., Inc. on 6 October 1957 (LP9129).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS)\n\n**Effects and reuse.** Clifford Stine, whose career began with *King Kong* (1933), handled the special photography, with uncredited effects work by Frank Brendel.[2](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-monolith-monsters-1957) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS) The opening meteor crash reuses alternate takes of effects Stine had made for Universal's *It Came from Outer Space* (1953), a cost-saving measure on a tight budget.[2](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-monolith-monsters-1957) • [5](https://www.on-magazine.co.uk/arts/film-reviews/the-monolith-monsters/) The film was shot on Universal's standing town-square set, which later appeared in *Back to the Future* and *Gremlins*.[5](https://www.on-magazine.co.uk/arts/film-reviews/the-monolith-monsters/) The uncredited score was composed by Irving Gertz, Henry Mancini, and Herman Stein, and [Paul Frees](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-frees) supplied the opening narration.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050720/fullcredits/) • [7](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/The_Monolith_Monsters)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nContemporary trade reviews were fair but unenthusiastic. *Harrison's Reports* found the film \"should prove acceptable wherever such pictures are enjoyed\" while complaining of too much technical jargon, though it praised the special effects for building suspense. *Variety* also objected to the technical mumbo-jumbo but judged the film \"better-made and more plausibly constructed than most\" science fiction films, and James Powers in *The Hollywood Reporter* called it \"a good picture, superior for its type\".[3](https://scifist.net/2024/03/08/the-monolith-monsters/)\n\nLater critics have been more generous. Phil Hardy's *The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies* praised \"some extraordinarily good special effects by Stine\" and called the film \"a superior B movie, no more but certainly no less\"; Bill Warren's *Keep Watching the Skies!* (1997) ranked it among the better medium-budget science fiction films of the 1950s.[3](https://scifist.net/2024/03/08/the-monolith-monsters/) Reviewers single out the sequences in which the crystals rear up, crash, and multiply in their march on the town; Richard Sheib of Moria called the night-time introduction of the towering geodes \"magnificently eerie\".[3](https://scifist.net/2024/03/08/the-monolith-monsters/) The film holds an audience rating of about 6.3/10 on IMDb from roughly 4,000 votes.[3](https://scifist.net/2024/03/08/the-monolith-monsters/)\n\n**A monster without malice.** Commentators note that the threat is unusual for the genre: the monoliths are not sentient or malevolent, simply a non-sentient extraterrestrial phenomenon behaving instinctively, which some critics find more believable than invading aliens.[8](https://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/dvd-review-the-monolith-monsters/) As with many 1950s films, the monoliths have been read as Cold War allegory; Glen R. Chapman wrote in Strange Horizons that \"the monoliths are the Soviet empire: slow, ponderous, sucking the life from everything they touch\".[9](https://innsmouthfreepress.com/column-the-vault-of-secrets-the-monolith-monsters-1957/) • [4](https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/articles/forgotten-classics-of-science-fiction-cinema-the-monolith-monsters/) A 2021 academic reading describes the film as a story of desertification imaginatively sped up, accelerating geological processes to a human timescale.[10](https://phaidra.kunstuni-linz.at/api/object/o%3A2792/download)\n\nThe film's self-replicating mineral is credited as the basis for Tiberium in the *Command & Conquer* video game series.[2](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-monolith-monsters-1957) The Science Fiction Encyclopedia lists it among the notable genre films of 1957, alongside *The Incredible Shrinking Man* and *Quatermass II*.[11](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/cinema) Home video releases include Shout! Factory's 2019 Blu-ray and Eureka's *Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror* set.[12](https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Monolith-Monsters-Blu-ray/236417/) • [5](https://www.on-magazine.co.uk/arts/film-reviews/the-monolith-monsters/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Monolith Monsters (1957), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52287-THE-MONOLITH-MONSTERS)\n2. [The Monolith Monsters (1957), NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-monolith-monsters-1957)\n3. [The Monolith Monsters – Scifist](https://scifist.net/2024/03/08/the-monolith-monsters/)\n4. [Forgotten Classics of Science Fiction Cinema: The Monolith Monsters, Glen R. Chapman, Strange Horizons (2001)](https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/articles/forgotten-classics-of-science-fiction-cinema-the-monolith-monsters/)\n5. [The Monolith Monsters (1957) – Film Review, On: Yorkshire Magazine (2022)](https://www.on-magazine.co.uk/arts/film-reviews/the-monolith-monsters/)\n6. [The Monolith Monsters (1957) – Full cast & crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050720/fullcredits/)\n7. [The Monolith Monsters, The Grindhouse Cinema Database](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/The_Monolith_Monsters)\n8. [The Monolith Monsters, Paul Mount, Starburst Magazine](https://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/dvd-review-the-monolith-monsters/)\n9. [The Vault of Secrets: The Monolith Monsters (1957), Innsmouth Free Press](https://innsmouthfreepress.com/column-the-vault-of-secrets-the-monolith-monsters-1957/)\n10. [Fragmenting a Monolith, University of Art and Design Linz (2021)](https://phaidra.kunstuni-linz.at/api/object/o%3A2792/download)\n11. [Cinema, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/cinema)\n12. [The Monolith Monsters Blu-ray, Blu-ray.com](https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Monolith-Monsters-Blu-ray/236417/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Science fiction horror films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-monolith-monsters", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-monolith-monsters.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Monolith Monsters\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-monolith-monsters. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Monolith Monsters](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-monolith-monsters)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-monolith-monsters](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-monolith-monsters). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Monolith Monsters\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-monolith-monsters. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Monolith Monsters is a Universal-International black-and-white sci-fi horror film directed by John Sherwood, from a story by Jack Arnold, in which meteor fragments grow with water, petrify people by draining silicon, and are stopped by salt water." }