Teenage Caveman | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roger Corman |
Produced by | Roger Corman |
Written by | R. Wright Campbell |
Starring |
Robert Vaughn Darah Marshall |
Music by | Albert Glasser |
Cinematography | Floyd Crosby |
Edited by | Irene Morra |
Distributed by | AIP |
Release date
|
|
Running time
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65 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $70,000 |
Teenage Caveman (a.k.a. Out of the Darkness in the UK) is an independently made 1958 black-and-white science fiction adventure film, produced and directed by Roger Corman, that stars Robert Vaughn and Darah Marshall.Teenage Caveman was released theatrically on a double bill with How to Make a Monster.
The film was originally shot as Land of Prehistoric Women, but the title was changed by its distributor, American International Pictures.
Years later, Corman stated in an interview, "I never directed a film called Teenage Caveman". Lead actor Vaughn stated in an interview that he considered Teenage Caveman to be the worst film ever made. It was later featured on the mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.
A tribe of primitive humans lives in a barren, rocky wasteland and struggle for survival, despite a lush, plant-filled land on the other side of a nearby river. They refuse to cross the river because of a law that evolved from an ancient tale warning of a god lurking there who brings death with a single touch.
A young man of the tribe challenges the law and is eventually followed by other male members of his tribe, who fearfully cross the river in order to bring him back. They soon encounter the terrible god, a large, horribly burned but strangely human-like creature. Despite the young man's peace overture to the god, another tribal member, out of fear, lays a trap and stones the creature to death with a large rock; the young man then shoots and kills that tribesman with one of his arrows. The others gather around the now dead god and discover that the creature is actually a much older man with long white hair. He is wearing some kind of strange, unknown outer garment with a fearful hood. They find another strange thing in the old man's possession; they are puzzled by this flat, thick object that opens and contains mysterious markings and vivid black, white, and gray images that show an even stranger human world unknown to them.