Terror is a Man

Gerardo de Leon – 1959 – Philippines  

Terror is a Man was one of the primary films that opened up the Filipino industry to the rest of the world.  Written and produced by Eddie Romero, it tells the story – fairly shamelessly ripped off from The Island of Dr. Moreau – of a shipwrecked sailor landing on a remote island where a mad doctor is surgically transforming a panther into a human, presumably to create some kind of super race.  In some ways it’s a typical grade-B 50s monster movie, but it also has significantly more bite than its American contemporaries thanks to its atmospheric black-and-white photography, exotic locale, and freedom from Hollywood censors, the latter of which allowed for a more graphic and visceral presentation of the Frankenstein-like panther-man creature, whose bandages and cries of pain make him surprisingly sympathetic even though we do not see his face.