Watch The Incredible Petrified World For Free

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie ever!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This movie begins with a documentary detailing life in the deep depths of the ocean. It then switches to a ship owned by an oceanographer named Professor Millard Wyman (John Carradine) and four divers who plan on entering a diving bell which will take them "deeper than any man has ever attempted before." Unfortunately, as the diving bell descends the cable breaks which causes it to sink with all those aboard presumed dead. However, as it turns out the divers are not dead and upon regaining consciousness they manage to see a strange light shining from a distance through the porthole. Since the oxygen within the diving bell cannot sustain them for very long, the divers decide to don their gear and try to swim toward the strange light. As luck would have it they find an underwater cavern which has plenty of oxygen and fresh water. It also has its own kind of danger as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a typical low-budget, grade-B horror picture from an era in American filmography which specialized in that kind of thing. Although the plot had potential it wasn't developed well enough and suffered from a great lack of excitement. Sad to say, but it was all rather dull. That being the case I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.

When this film begins, it's obvious that this is a super-low budget film. You are treated to lots of stock cinematography of fish as a narrator talks about things that have nothing to do with what you are seeing! In other words, the film is just cheap padding. You hear about deep, deep water fish living through bio-luminescence, the Coelacanthe and several other things--as a bunch of shallow water fish swim about--and, as i said, they have nothing to do with the narration! Talk about cheap! A bit later, you see John Carradine and you are convinced it's a low-budget fiasco, as that's all Carradine did in the 1950s and 60s! Carradine plays a scientist who is intent on studying the extreme depths of the ocean. However, during the use of an underwater diving apparatus, there is an accident and the four assistants (including Robert Clarke and Phyllis Coates) are presumed lost in the ocean depths. Well, it just so happens that there is a pocket of lower water pressure AND a cave that just happens to be illuminated AND it can sustain life--as there is a crazy old bearded man who has been loving there for years. This crazy bearded guy looks an awful lot like Michael Palin from the bearded man introduction to "Monty Python's Flying Circus", actually. And you assume he must be a "Superman" fan, as he really, really has the hots for Coates (who played the original Lois on TV). Regardless of what happens next, none of the plot makes much sense and the one amazing coincidence on top of another makes this all pretty silly viewing. Overall, the film was bad but not bad enough to be good for kitsch value--especially since there are several stretches where the film just drags. Just dull and silly throughout and not worth seeing unless you are a public domain film junkie.

One of the few schlockmiester Jerry Warren films that doesn't seem to be a clip job made from other films with new inserts. (Give Warren a hand he was no were near as bad as Chinese filmmaker Godfrey Ho who never tried to even match the films he was cutting up). The film has a diving bell getting cut loose and ending up in a cave network where the survivors find oxygen and a previous survivor. It makes no real sense, then again few Jerry Warren films do, but in a twisted way it can be entertaining. the problem is that the film is painfully dull. As with most Warren films you have long static shots where people just talk. I guess Warren never wanted to pay for an editor. I challenge you to make it through the film with out either hitting the fast forward or falling asleep. I usually fall asleep which is why I keep the film handy for those nights I can't sleep. Recommended for insomniacs or bad movie lovers only (a combination of the two is probably best)

Needless to say, this is not a good movie. It's barely an adequate movie, although if the name Ed Wood were attached to it (and, based on what I've seen, it almost could be), it might get some better reviews.THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD begins in a manner similar to a nature film: it's shark versus octopus, round one! Quick spoiler: the shark wins. From there, we're introduced to Professor Millard Wyman (John Carradine), who has invented some sort of diving bell. Really, what we're seeing is a large balloon on the outside and a considerably larger set representing the inside. They talk on and on about this diving bell throughout the film, so expect that dead horse to get beaten even deader. From here, a four-person diving crew--two men, two women--are sent out to sea in the bell, with the intention of having them dive below the surface to a record depth. Instead, the cable on the bell snaps, and the foursome are dropped to the bottom without a lifeline, apparently doomed to suffocate.Instead, the four discover they haven't fallen quite as far as they thought, and they attempt to surface without regard to getting the bends. They find themselves in a cavernous area (maybe one or two sets worth) with a strongly vaginal opening, where they roam around in search of an exit. During their time, they encounter some stock footage of a gila monster, a skeleton, and eventually a caveman who, for whatever reason, knows he's been there for fourteen years. The caveman tells them that there's no escape, even though they really aren't that far from the surface (as is later revealed) and he evidently takes a liking for the one of the women, only to get killed by a volcano eruption after trying to molest her.Long story short (too late), the foursome end up getting rescued when the good Professor Wyman finds the diving bell which, oddly enough, is right where they left it.There are plenty of older movies out there that were good for their time, this is not one of them. There are also plenty of movies out there that are "so bad, they're good," in that in spite of the incompetence of those who made them are absolutely hilarious and fun to watch--again, this is not one of them. Very little of interest ever happens over the course of this movie, as I'm sure others will attest to. Keep in mind that this is a public domain movie, and it can be found online for free, so don't waste your money trying to track down a copy of it. It is also included on Mill Creek/Treeline's "SciFi Classics" 50 movie pack, which is a fairly cheap way of acquiring it along with several movies that are much more interesting.