In honor of Yvette Vickers, whose sad passing was in the news recently, I thought I would feature one of her movies today. No doubt about it, "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1959) is a low-budget horror flick, but it is actually not too bad for a B movie. Produced by Gene and Roger Corman, it is set in the Florida Everglades, where a local small-town resident sees a strange creature in the swamps. At first no one believes him, but when he is found dying from strange wounds the other locals finally realize that something menacing inhabits those murky waters. Cheating wife Liz Walker (Vickers) and her lover are the first to be taken when Liz's husband forces the pair into the swamp after discovering them together. Game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark), his girlfriend Nan Greyson (Jan Shepard), and her father Doc Greyson (Tyler McVey) attempt to find out what happened to the missing residents. The trio discover giant intelligent leeches holding these people prisoner in an underwater cave, where they slowly drain their victims of blood. After recovering the bodies of the victims, the cave is blown up with dynamite, and the giant leeches are destroyed -- or are they?
While there are a few scenes of people being attacked by the leeches, they are not very realistic, so I do not consider the film to be gory at all. This picture falls into my category of "giant bug" movies, since the theory is that radiation caused leeches to mutate into giant form. Although the monsters in the movie are rather laughable, this film is better than you might think! You can watch "Attack of the Giant Leeches" on YouTube for free here.
Interesting Fact: Yvette Vickers also starred in "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"(1958), playing the mistress of the title character's husband.
Gore Guide (0=none to 5=extreme): 0
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