"Humphrass" was the behind the scenes pet name devised by actor Chris Robinson for his creature creation, a mysterious, web spinning, somewhat arachnid-like animal that stalks a small group of people in the South Dakota wilderness. Some of these people are criminals who came to stage a gold robbery, using an explosion in a cave as a diversion. Unfortunately, by doing so, they unleashed the beast, which occasionally catches up to its prey in order to do some pretty creepy things to them.A 27 year old Monte Hellman, future icon of independent cinema (and director of classics like "Cockfighter", "The Shooting", and "Two-Lane Blacktop") made his directorial debut with this obviously low, low budget effort, done for producer Gene Corman and his brother Roger. On the whole, the movie isn't a great one, but it's under rated as far as this kind of B picture goes. It's got some genuinely spooky atmosphere, and Hellman and Robinson (himself star of such features as "Stanley") do their best to keep the monster in the shadows until the time arrives to show it in all its glory. And what a monster it is. It doesn't really look like anything seen on screen, before or since. It's wispy, long limbed, and has a largely featureless head.The creature sequences are the main reason to watch, but not the only one. The extremely moody cinematography is by Andrew M. Costikyan; Alexander Laszlo does the effective music. The screenplay is by Roger Cormans' frequent collaborator, the talented Charles B. Griffith, and it does have some good dialogue. (Basically, the scenario is a reworking of the earlier Corman flick "Naked Paradise", but with a monster added.) There are some interesting characters in the bunch, especially gangsters' moll Gypsy (Sheila Noonan), who is already depressed and defeated at age 26. The acting is generally solid - Michael Forest is a likable hero, Frank Wolff appropriately despicable as the criminal mastermind, Corman favorite Wally Campo amiable as comedy relief guy Byron, and Richard Sinatra (Franks' cousin) has a solid presence as young punk Marty. Robinson does a good job at creating a nightmarish creature character that could easily spook younger children.Not bad, this one. It's definitely worth a look.Seven out of 10.

This is actually a pretty interesting little crime-horror film. It surprised me. Really they could have changed it to just a crime film-noir and the movie would have been just as good but I like the horror aspect of the film.The movie is just as the plot-summary states "A group of gold thieves pull of a heist and flee into the snowy wilderness, only to be pursued by a horrible, spider-like monster." but it's actually better than one might expect it to be.This is a fun popcorn B-flick. I had a ball watching it. It's not the greatest horror film on the market but it is entertaining.6/10

The one thing I remember from seeing Beast From Haunted Cave years ago is that I could not get a clear picture of exactly what this monster looked like. I can only guess that Roger Corman was not terribly impressed with how frightening the Beast was and therefore the camera work was deliberately vague. It didn't help much, the film still has a flatulent aroma about it.A gang of hijackers rob a gold shipment and the plan is to use a ski lodge in the Dakota hills as a rendezvous and to plan a getaway from there. For which they hire a clueless ski instructor played by Michael Forest who even hosts them in his cabin. Forest does smarten up and realizes these people are up to no good.The four are Frank Wolff, Wally Campo, Richard Sinatra and Wolff's moll Sheila Noonan. Noonan switches sides once she gets a good look at Forest. Star Trek fans will remember Forest from a classic episode where he played the Greek god Apollo. And of course he has a load of peplum picture credits.The crooks make their mistake in hiding their stolen gold bars in a cave reputed to be haunted. Yes it is most definitely haunted by some kind of creature that spins spider like webs and leaves its prey in those webs to snack on gradually.If you choose to watch Beast From Haunted Cave you'll be wondering just what this creature was. But it might not be worth the effort unless your one who loves to laugh at bad movies.

The film clearly was done on little money, but there are a number of matters that elevate it above other cheap monster films of the era.Charles Griffith does a much better job with dialog than he did in It Conquered the World or Little Shop of Horrors. There's some actual meaning in the banter. Furthermore, it is delivered in an interesting style that also might derive from the low budget, so that chunks of the dialog are oddly timed, and naturalistic for that. I was only half-watching early on, and suddenly the delivery of the lines made me really attend to the thing. I liked Sinatra in this--never heard of him before watching this movie. As others have said, it's slow in the middle, fairly exciting at the end.