For another in roughly 2843 movies from Roger Corman’s production mill, we go to 1958’s Night of the Blood Beast. Though not implied by the title, this one offers a mix of sci-fi and horror.

During an orbital voyage, an object strikes the spacecraft manned by astronaut Major John Corcoran (Michael Emmet). This causes his vehicle to crash and Major Corcoran dies.

Or maybe not, for although Major Corcoran’s body seems dead, it maintains the blood pressure of a living being. Eventually it turns out aliens use the corpse as an incubator and emerge as a threat.

Not noted in that synopsis: Night takes place almost entirely in one location. We get a small cast of characters stuck in that setting while they deal with the monster.

This means I can’t help but think Night wanted to emulate 1951’s The Thing from Another World. Both share far too many similarities for me to feel Night didn’t exist as a knock-off of the earlier film.

Of course, limited sets/locations also make sense for movies with limited budgets and tight shooting schedules. Those factors don’t doom Night to failure, of course.

And I wouldn’t actually call Night a “failure”, as it don’t think it becomes a terrible flick. God knows we can find plenty of crummier sci-fi/horror tales from this one’s period.

All that said, I also can’t refer to Night as a good movie. While it never degenerates into the camp idiocy we see with some of its era/genre peers, the final product just lacks much to make it compelling.

Whatever stabs at horror Night makes, these fail to connect. A chatty affair, the movie seems light on scares and heavy on tedium.

Again, the flick’s severely limited budget causes some of these choices, I suspect. The producers couldn’t afford to do much with effects so the titular critter fails to actually appear on screen much of the time.

Skilled filmmakers can turn these issues into gold. After all, Steven Spielberg needed to minimize our glimpses of the shark in Jaws due to effects with the mechanical beast but he turned those disadvantages into added terror.

Though he eventually enjoyed a long career, Night director Bernard L. Kowalski lacks talent close to Spielberg’s, so he fails to make the general absence of the Blood Beast into anything effective. It doesn’t help that when we do see Bloody, he looks like the dude in a bad costume he is.

The film’s acting seems passable and that’s about it. Granted, I take “passable” as a positive given the terrible performances typical of these sorts of movies, but no one here does much with their roles.

Ultimately, Night avoids embarrassment but it nonetheless can’t deliver anything especially interesting. It becomes a mediocre stab at 1950s sci-fi/horror.

Night of the Blood Beast appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Given the fact the movie provided a disclaimer about source issues at the start, the film came with a surprisingly strong image.

Overall sharpness worked fine. A few shots felt a bit soft – usually during transitions - but general delineation looked solid.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed light but appropriate.

Outside of a few lines here or there, print flaws largely remained absent. I also saw a few missing frames at times and portions of the climax came with prominent “muck”, but most of the flick looked clean.

Blacks felt deep and dense, while shadows looked well-rendered for the most part, though some night elements became a little murky. This turned into a pretty appealing presentation.

The movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural audio also seemed more than satisfactory given the film’s age and budget. Speech lacked real warmth and I heard some sibilance but the lines appeared easily intelligible and lacked edginess.

Though music and effects also failed to display much range, they also gave us reasonably concise material and didn’t suffer from distortion. The audio felt appropriate for its era.

As we head to extras, we open with an audio commentary from film historian Tom Weaver. The track also intersperses recorded remarks from producer Gene Corman, director Bernard L. Kowalski and film historian Larry Blamire.

Across this running, screen-specific piece, we learn about the 1950s “Space Race”, influences and genre domains, the script and changes made to it, cast and crew, some production notes and general thoughts about the film.

Weaver tends to provide good commentaries, and that becomes the case here. He covers a good array of topics and packs a lot of information into the film’s brief running time.

Along with the 1.85:1 presentation I discuss above, the disc also includes a TV version. Because both run an identical 1:02:01, I strongly suspect they offer identical cuts of the film.

However, a comparison revealed that “TV” brought an “open matte” presentation. This meant it offered more information on the top and bottom of the frame and cropped nothing from the sides.

Next comes the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Night. Aired in 1996, it runs one hour, 31 minutes, 44 seconds.

If you wonder how a 62-minute movie fills a 92-minute episode, this occurs because the show also includes some character sketches as well as the leads’ look at the 1956 short Once Upon a Honeymoon. The Night segment doesn’t launch until 21 minutes, 52 seconds into the program and it goes until 1:28:19, with breaks and sketch comedy to fill in the rest.

Obviously MST3K enjoyed its fans but I admit I don’t find much humor in their shtick. Anyway, those who enjoy their work will feel happy to get this episode.

We also find an 8mm version of Night that spans six minutes, 56 seconds. Obviously that makes it a brief recap of the longer film, so while it acts as a fun archival element, it lacks much inherent value.

A Film Restoration Comparison (2:38) offers a split-screen that shows the 4K raw scan on the left and the restored film on the right. The “raw scan” actually looks pretty good but the final product cleans up print damage.

In addition to a “restored” traiiler, the set concludes with a publicity and still slideshow that presents 28 elements related to both Night and Attack of the Giant Leeches. The gallery includes some useful images.

The package provides a booklet with a Weaver-conducted interview with Night screenwriter Martin Varno, a Weaver essay about Attack of the Giant Leeches, photos and publicity materials. It concludes matters well.

When it comes to bargain budget 1950s sci-fi/horror, you can do worse than Night of the Blood Beast, but you can do better as well. Though the film lacks the silly camp factor that mars many of its peers, it also fails to manifest much in terms of thrills or tension. The Blu-ray comes with pretty good picture and audio as well as a mix of bonus materials. Expect a serviceable but forgettable genre effort.

Note that this Blu-ray for Night of the Blood Beast comes packaged with another release: 1959’s Attack of the Giant Leeches. Though the set treats Attack as a “bonus”, I thought it deserved its own review.