Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski and produced by Gene Corman, Attack of the Giant Leeches is a classic creature feature from the golden age of B-movie horror. Released by American International Pictures, it’s a low-budget, black-and-white sci-fi horror film that taps into Cold War anxieties with radioactive monsters lurking in the Florida Everglades.
Plot Summary
After a series of mysterious disappearances near a swamp, game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark) suspects something more sinister than alligators. Locals begin vanishing—including a cheating couple—and their bodies are never found. As the investigation deepens, Steve and his girlfriend Nan Grayson (Jan Shepard) discover that giant, mutated leeches are living in an underwater cave, draining victims of blood and storing them alive for future feeding.
The climax involves a daring underwater dive and a dynamite-fueled showdown, but in true horror fashion, the final shot hints that one leech may have survived.
Cast Highlights
- Ken Clark as Steve Benton
- Yvette Vickers as Liz Walker (a sultry local with a tragic fate)
- Jan Shepard as Nan Grayson
- Bruno VeSota as Liz’s jealous husband
- Guy Buccola and Ross Sturlin as the leeches—wearing plastic sack suits with visible SCUBA tanks
Behind-the-Scenes Trivia
- Filmed in just eight days at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, standing in for the Everglades
- Producer Gene Corman (Roger Corman’s brother) ended up hospitalized after helping push the camera raft during swamp scenes
- Actress Yvette Vickers appeared as a Playboy centerfold in July 1959, just months before the film’s release
- The film was retitled Demons of the Swamp for its UK release and later paired with House of Usher in double features
- Featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000, Season 4, and included in their Volume 6 DVD set
