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8/05/2013

Attack of the Giant Leeches/The Giant Leeches/Demons of the Swamp (1959) or, The Leech Turkey



One of the fairly gross, sexually charged posters for Bernard L. Kowalski's Attack of the Giant Leeches

Somewhere in the Florida Everglades, a couple of giant leech monsters start attacking humans from their base in an underwater cave.

Attack of the Giant Leeches is an awful little horror flick. Not even the good-looking actors (which includes Playboy centerfold, Yvette Vickers (Hud (1963))), a Theremin-laden score or the goofy plastic monsters can salvage this fiasco. One scene where a fat storekeeper takes moral revenge over his frivolous wife and lover is kind of interesting, but otherwise there are more yawns than chills to be had with this bona fide turkey.
It is directed by Bernard L. Kowalski (Columbo (1971-76)), who worked mainly on TV, and written by Leo Gordon (Tobruk (1967)), who was mainly an actor. Attack of the Giant Leeches rests safely among other atomic scare grade-Z turkeys.
Even on this painted poster for Bernard L Kowalski's Attack of the Giant Leeches, the leech-monsters look like guys in leech-outfits...


Watch a trailer for the film here - in brain-numbing 3D!

Cost: 70k $
Box office: Unknown 
= Unknown - but likely a hit
[Attack of the Giant Leeches was released in October and runs just 62 minutes. It was shot in just 8 days in Los Angeles, California, including at the LA Arboretum and Botanic Garden, and in the Chaplin Studio, during which Kowalski was at one point hospitalized for pneumonia. The film was released by AIP on double bills with much superior films A Bucket of Blood (1959) and House of Usher (1960). Its box office performance is unknown, but it likely made money. Its copyright was not renewed, and so it is in public domain and can now be seen and downloaded free and legally right here. A same-titled remake was made in 2008, which is reportedly even worse than the original. Kowalski returned with episodes of Death Valley Days (1959, TV-series) and The Rifleman (1959, TV-series) and theatrically with Blood and Steel (1959). Vickers returned with 9 TV credits before returning to cinema as an uncredited 'Drunken Woman' in Pressure Point (1962); Ken Clark (A Man Called Sledge (1970)) in Sugarfoot (1959, TV-series), Lock Up (1959, TV-series) and theatrically as an uncredited 'Soldier Warning the Travelers' in Heller in Pink Tights (1960).  3,186 IMDb users have given Attack of the Giant Leeches a 3.5/10 average rating.] 
What do you think of Attack of the Giant Leeches?

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