While blatantly ripping off of bothand, particularly involving one human who becomes physically and psychologically affected by the creature, the physicality of Bava’s in-camera effects work is still groundbreaking even now. The gore itself, with grisly images of humans trying to escape the clutches of the monster as their skin and flesh have been instantly eaten away as well as a truly gruesome shot of a man’s flesh being peeled clean from his arm and hand, is unbelievably graphic for 1959. The sound of the shapeless creature itself, with an eerie mixture of insect chirping and what sounds like a soapy tub being drained, at first seems silly until the visual effects of the creature increasing in size and splitting into separate entities stop us dead in our tracks. Reportedly the creatures were created using tripe and considering this was a low budget knockoff, it’s kind of shocking just how much the remarkable work here betters the films that inspired it.