5/5 Schmaltz +
  by Brian Crick (KITCHENER, ONTARIO Canada)
Terrific old time sci fi - todays viewers would not understand the fun we had seeing these

4/5 Two Bs and Two More Bs
  by mrliteral
There's no getting around it: the 1950s were not a great era for horror and science fiction films. Yes, there are a few excellent movies, but for the most part, the genre was relegated to B-movie status, and even there, it was rarely treated with much respect. Despite a lack of true quality, however, many of these movies can be fun to watch, even in a so-bad-it's-good sort of way. The Sam Katzman - Icons of Horror Collection provides four such movies.

Katzman was a B-movie producer and few of his films are really well-known. In an era when the studios produced a lot more movies, many were quite forgettable, and Katzman's movies fit into that category. Only a truly dedicated film fan would be able to recall the movies in this set.

Creature with the Atom Brain is one of the horror films with a little bit of everything: zombies, gangsters, radioactivity and Nazi scientists. Written by Curt Siodmak (who created the modern werewolf with The Wolf Man), Creature deals with a gangster out for revenge against those who forced him into exile. With the aid of the scientist, he is able to create zombie slaves of incredible strength. Richard Denning (from The Creature From the Black Lagoon) is the earnest cop/scientist who, pipe always in hand, is out to stop the threat. Although this movie has a little too much talk and not enough action, it does feature one of the most brutal murders of the Production Code era (and at the beginning of the movie, too).

You can literally see the strings in The Giant Claw, a giant monster movie with a enormous alien bird terrorizing the world. The science in this movie is around as flimsy as the effects, with the monster's invulnerability due to an antimatter shield and the eventual solution involving mesons (I won't spoil the ending in explaining how; actually I can't, since it is as ludicrous as everything else in this film.

Zombies of Moro Tau is the one truly supernatural movie, with the undead protecting a stash of diamonds that are at the bottom of a river in a remote jungle. Treasure hunters go after the gems, but nothing will stop these cursed creatures. In the pre-Night of the Living Dead era, this slow-moving film is around par for the course for zombie films (although there have been good ones such as White Zombie and I Walked with a Zombie).

The rather unimaginatively titled The Werewolf deals with a werewolf. In this case, the hapless soul who's turned into a monster is a nice family man who was transformed by mad scientists. He wreaks havoc in a small mountain town while the scientists pursue him; there's little in this film that hasn't appeared in dozens of other werewolf movies.

Whether you enjoy these movies or not depends a lot on your mood. If you like watching B-horror-movies, then these will fit the bill quite nicely; on the other hand, if you're looking for something scary, you'd want to look elsewhere. While I more-or-less had fun watching this set, I'd hardly call it essential viewing, even for fans of this type of film.

5/5 A Real Suprise!!
  by Samuel Thursday
This collection is actually very good. I bought it for 'The Giant Claw'. 'The Werewolf' is one of the best werewolf films I've seen. As silly as the model of the bird is in the Giant Claw, the film is actually quite good. Well written, directed and acted. If you can just get past the bird and stop laughing long enough, I think you may enjoy this film.

5/5 Katzman was a genius at making fun movies!
  by Thin Timmy (New Orleans, La.)
This collection is a great package of old time
saturday matinee classic horror. I had never seen
any of these and they are great! The best worst
movie ever made is here! The Giant Claw! Wow! The
Beast is so unbelievable and funny that it's great.
Looks like a big fake toy bird with giant claws and
the close ups are just outrageous but it's so bad
it's good! Classic! The Werewolf is much better made
and acted and a great 50's horror story. The other two
movies are also good sci fi movies and this is a very
good collection if you like fun made horror.

5/5 Simple pleasures from a bygone era...and they look BRAND NEW!!!
  by Jack-O-Lantern (San Francisco, CA)
I absolutely love this set. Though I must admit the name Sam Katzman was largely unfamiliar to me, I had previously purchased Sony's "Icons of Horror--Boris Karloff" collection, and was thrilled with that. This set did not disappoint, as I had indeed seen all of these films many times on TV in my youth, and watching them again now has been like welcoming old friends into my home.

The most amazing thing about this set is the quality of the film transfers to DVD--pristine and magnificent, these movies have never looked so good! As an example, I was watching "The Werewolf" last night and just could not BELIEVE the picture quality--I was floored, it literally looks brand new! The prints of these movies shown on TV in the past have been downright murky--"Zombies of Mora Tau," in particular, always looked so foggy/hazy/grainy it was actually difficult to tell what was going on! No longer--these prints are clear as a bell--and it's like seeing them with a new set of eyes!

Sony, PLEASE keep up the good work, these "Icons of Horror" (and now "Icons of Adventure" -- equally awesome!) collections are really among the industry standards relating to transfer quality of older low-budget films which normally would have been overlooked--very impressive. I see that the next "Icons of Horror" will be released in October (2008), and will include Hammer films such as one of my all-time favorites, "The Gorgon." A wonderful way to celebrate Halloween this year!