Hollywood Pictures Corporation

A giant lizard terrorizes a rural Texas community, and a hot-rod-building teenager becomes the town's unlikely hero when the adults fail to stop the creature. The Giant Gila Monster was shot in Texas on a tiny budget and released on a double bill with The Killer Shrews, produced by the same team. The monster is played by a real Gila monster filmed on a miniature set, which gives the film a different texture from the men-in-suits creature features of the era. Don Sullivan, as the singing, car-fixing hero, performs a couple of songs along the way. The film entered the public domain and became a television staple.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A boat captain delivering supplies to an isolated island is trapped there by a hurricane and finds a group of scientists holed up in a compound. Their experiments to shrink humans and solve world hunger have instead produced giant, venomous shrews that are eating through their supplies and closing in. The Killer Shrews is a compact creature feature from the late 1950s, shot on a small budget with the giant shrews played by dogs in shrew costumes. It was double-billed with The Giant Gila Monster and became a staple of television and later Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of its copyright.

Horror · Sci-Fi