The H-Man

Be sure to watch for the really creepy flashback sequence wherein the title creature is first discovered by sailors exploring an abandoned ship. The film's photography and special effects deserve a nod also. Those with a soft spot for blob movies are urged to also check out the Steve McQueen film of that name (released the same year), as well as Hammer Films' "X the Unknown" (1956).

As a first grader at age 6, I felt underpriveledged. All my class mates would come to school on Mondays bragging about whatever Saturday movie experience they had. Most of the time it was a Hercules, or Sinbad or other epic tale and their comments were vivid. But when the conversation revolved around a horror movie their version turned out to be a tease. I could tell that the real deal with horror pictures was to experience it personally. Here was the conumdrum, I wasn't allowed to go the the show without an adult and I didn't want to be seen by my friends with a parent. Well finally an aunt stepped up and volunteered to take me. In that darkened theater, finally seeing a horror movie for the first time, my anticipation was peaking: that is until the H Bomb went off and the tale of this insidious monster began. Needless to say my horror fascination came full circle by the end of the first reel, and the experience left me anxious for many, many, months! Thinking back to that screenining I feel that the H man was a landmark movie and probably generated the same type emotional response as the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds had a generation earlier. A remake would be awesome with todays technology, looking forward to it, and even a peak back to the past with the original version would be nice.

Like many other posters, I saw this film as a young boy and it gave me nightmares for weeks (maybe even months)! Luckily, my older brother finally convinced me that the "liquid creature" would not survive a swim from Japan to the United States and I was able to sleep again.

I suspect that the modern age's Freddies, Jasons and Leatherfaces would not hold a candle to the effect that this film had on an impressionable youth back then. Perhaps the very fact that the monster had no tangible qualities and could theoretically be any puddle of water you came across was what gave it its fright value.

It would certainly be interesting to see how a remake of this would play today.

The early Toho Japanese imports took themselves seriously and so did American kids, who flocked to see THE H-MAN, RODAN, THE MYSTERIANS, and BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (despite the dubbed dialogue) during this period.

In my town, the first 50 customers at the box office received an "H-Man" premium -- to this day I don't know what that item was -- green Silly Putty?

An action figure?

The H-Man "himself" was a green (in some cases blue -- the Eastmancolor prints I've seen to date leave some doubt, but he looked green in the "previews" in 1958) blob that ran under its own power through sewer grates, up walls, and under doors to attack people by running up their bodies and melting them down inside their clothes, leaving nothing but a mystery. In fact, the plot is superficially a mystery/crime drama with some silly and cursory science behind the H-Man, but as these films go, THE H-MAN was a minor sensation -- the movie was not too long, dark and moody, with plenty of reasonably convincing effects to recommend it. This was "The Blob" without the teenagers, and the scenes of people dissolving were fairly sensational and pretty scary for its day -- folks being deflated like balloons and melted into puddles of suds.

The theater in my town announced the coming attraction in the lobby by featuring an "actual H-Man victim" on display -- which was a toupee lying on top of a crumpled man's suit, with a pair of shoes underneath. Crude, but effective...

THE H-MAN is a fine, and most rare, blend of film noir and 1950s Japanese science fiction. The film is filled with startling visuals from start to finish. It grabs your attention and rarely lets up. Favorite scenes involve the events inside the derelict ghost ship and all the scenes in the nightclub which abound with the right atmosphere. Stylistic and often startling visually, this is a lot of fun to watch and get into. It does require one to suspend their disbelief quite a bit though.