Caltiki the Immortal Monster is beautiful schlock fare. While the plot is nothing to write home about, involving an archaeology dig and a giant unicellular blob that eats away flesh and causes its victims to go insane, the black and white cinematography is gorgeous. Cinematographer and uncredited director Mario Bava definitely left his mark on Caltiki through the use of the distinctive black-and-white style that he perfected a year later with Black Sunday. Even with a murky print, the high contrast, bold shadow style was a visual feast. It's too bad Bava didn't make any more B&W films after Black Sunday. The special effects were a mix of good and bad: while Caltiki itself was kind of cheesy being essentially a tripe monster, some of the miniatures were decent, and the eaten-away-flesh gore were pretty convincing. The dubbing is pretty terrible which is to be expected from Italian film from this era, but thankfully it didn't really get in the way. Caltiki is no masterpiece, but it's entertaining enough that it deserves at least a basic clean-up job.
5/10
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