Film Masters Monster Mayhem Collection 4-Pack Blu-ray Review

Film Masters is back with a monstrous new blu-ray release, this time it’s a quartet of fright flicks from the fifties that deliver eery entertainment worthy of a midnight horror movie host. Yes, the Monster Mayhem Collection is a b-movie delight.

Each disc in the set contains a double feature of films that you’ve likely never heard of, but with titles like Monster From Green Hell, Frankenstein’s Daughter, The Brain From Planets Arous and Giant From The Unknown, how could you ever forget them? The low budgets allowed the filmmakers to take some wild swings and each movie in this collection has its own charm.

Monster From Green Hell doesn’t tell you much about the plot of the film, but if you were a fan of jungle-based treasure hunting movies from the 40s, it might have gotten you to buy a ticket in 1957. Nowadays, maybe you’re a Misfits fan like me and thought that perhaps Glenn Danzig saw this giant monster flick on TV in Lodi, NJ sometime in the late 60s and felt inspired to write a song about it. Whatever generation you’re from, you probably didn’t expect that it was about the menace of a GIANT WASP in the jungles of Africa!

Monster From Green Hell and The Brain From Planet Arous

Though Monster From Green Hell starts with two wise-cracking scientists launching a rocket into space to test the effects of cosmic radiation on various animals and insects, but when one of the rockets goes off-course and crash lands in the Virunga region of the Congo, it leads to a safari quest led by the men of science to stop their mutant creation before its too late.

As a fan of the 1994 movie Congo, It was easy for me to swallow this sci-fi jungle adventure concept, but what made it most enjoyable was the cast. Jim Davis and Robert Griffin are a great pair of leads for the film, who while not your typical egg-heads, were a very likable presence on screen. As for the monster, it’s a pretty impressive giant insect puppet, mixed with a bit of stop-motion to bring it to life. Padding out the film is some very obvious re-used footage of armies of African natives from a movie called Stanley & Livingstone shot nearly 20 years before this creature feature, but it’s still a fun watch.

The Brain From The Planet Arous (1957) delivers monster madness from out of this world, when a floating brain alien criminal hides himself in the body of you guessed it, a human scientist. The brain has the ability to not only to control the scientist, but also control atomic bombs with which it holds the world hostage. Can the scientist’s fiancé successfully thwart the evil brain’s plans with the help of a benevolent brain alien police officer, hot on the trail of this gray matter ghoul?

Pure 50s Cheese and The Brain from Planet Argus

This film is pure 50s sci-fi monster cheese in the best way. From the floating brain alien puppet, complete with eyes and dangling spinal cord to the mercurial malevolence of John Agar, you’ll definitely get a chuckle out of this one. There are some interesting shots in the film involving the possessed scientist sporting reflective silver contact lenses and you may even recognize the final battle with the creature from the opening credits of Malcolm In The Middle. I do want to give a shout out the father-daughter heroes of the film played by Joyce Meadows and Thomas Browne Henry, who make for very grounded protagonists when matched against the scenery chewing of the villainous bad brain of the title.

Frankenstein’s Daughter is the first of what ended up being 3 films total to use that name somewhere in their title between 1958 and 1972, but is it the most infamous? Most likely. This schlock-fest features a truly horrible and nonsensical monster creation arriving in the climax that nearly ruins the film or adds to the comedy, depending on what motivates you to push play.

When the mysterious assistant of an altruistic scientist secretly tests their formula on the scientist’s niece, she transforms into a buck-toothed, bug-eyed “monster in a bathing suit” that terrorizes the neighborhood. In the daytime the friends of the teenage girl think it’s all a hallucination, but when the lab assistant reveals himself to be a descendant of Victor Frankenstein who’s determined to carry on the family legacy, a new monster is assembled form the corpse of girl he murdered and mayhem ensues. This film certainly has the most gore and gruesome make-up effects of the set.

A Standout Cast, One Last Monster, and the Extras

Personally, I found the cast to be a fantastic saving grace of this goofy mad scientist romp. Donald Murphy who plays Donald Frankenstein is the perfect ego-maniacal pretty boy genius and Sandra Knight as Trudy is very believable as she shifts between unknowing victim of dastardly experiments and occasional monster. Who really pops on screen is her blonde schoolmate, Susie played by Sally Todd who is brimming with swagger and pizazz. Fated to become the titular Frankenstein’s Daughter, she unfortunately disappears after her on-screen murder because the make-up man wasn’t told the monster was female and so a male stuntman had to step in at the end to play her disfigured and reanimated body in a distractingly unconvincing outfit. 

The final film, Giant From The Unknown closes out the set with a whimper, rather than a bang. Though it boasts an actual 7′ 7″ actor as the menacing monster, it takes while to get going and relies more on the sprawling cast of locals being terrorized than the imposing stature of the lead. It seems that the Rifftrax treatment of the film might be a bit more entertaining in the long run. But 3 out of 4 ain’t bad.

Film Masters once again delivers insightful extras with this set, courtesy of several mini-documentaries by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. Covering the journeyman careers of the actors and directors involved in the films, there’s some exciting context to be gleaned from these special features. Most fascinating is a transfer of a VHS video that was sent in response to a fan that sent a long list of questions to director of two of the films in the set, Richard E. Cunha. The vintage video footage shot by Cunha himself is interspersed with cleaned-up footage form the director’s oeuvre and contains some playful commentary about his life in film.

The Booklet, the Verdict, and Where to Order

Also included with the set is a beautiful booklet featuring an essay about the films included in the set by Tom Weaver. There’s some great trivia found in the commentary, as is a wry sense of humor that adds to the fun of exploring these low-budget features that were likely never meant to be seen outside of the movie houses where they were shown to rowdy teenagers in the Atomic Age.

Film Masters is creating quite a catalog of films they are preserving for fans of movie history and the Monster Mayhem Collection 4-Pack is a worthy addition to your collection. I personally enjoyed my monster movie marathon quite a bit as I prepared this review, so whether you’re looking for a cheap scare or a good laugh, this set has you covered.

You can order yourself a copy of Film Masters Monster Mayhem Collection 4-Pack starting April 7, 2026 from their website