Director: William Castle
Year: 1959
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Undergoing an autopsy, a doctor discovers a creature on the spine that occurs through sheer fright and experiments on a colleague's deaf-mute wife, only it accidentally gets loose in a movie theater, forcing them to race to stop it before the creature grows stronger.
Review:
While nowhere near a classic, this one still provides enough entertainment to be worthwhile of a watch. One of the best features is that there's a really new and creative idea presented in the film to inspire terror. The fact that the creature is born from the human body's attempt at processing fear, and through a sense of experimentation, it comes to reason that its whole being is entirely creative. The film's at its absolute best, though, during its dream sequences, which are quite creepy. The second one is the film's highlight, where the hallucinations range from a masked psycho with a machete to a skeleton coming to life to an insect's arm wielding an ax, and many more as well.
These are all quite creepy and more than a little different from the other types out there. The design of the creature isn't that bad either, coming off as a mutated slug with a pair of antennas and a forked tail, which gives it a really different look than many other creatures. The fact that it never really grows to a super-huge size and is kept at a rather smaller size is a nice move and makes it a lot more believable rather than being huge. These elements help the film become more watchable.
While these are all quite fun, there's not a whole lot wrong with this one. The film's biggest flaw is that it is just way too cheesy. This is the wrong kind of cheese, where it's simply annoying rather than becoming part of the fun. This is especially true of the really annoying theater sequences at the end, quite obviously put in there as gags for the theater experience long ago, but come across as just corny without that. The film stops dead for these few scenes, and rather than coming off as something to be feared, they're just laughable and quite aggravating. The opening and closing monologues are more examples of this by featuring him talking directly to the audience, but the movie theater scene is the big one.
Granted, they're inherently charming in their own way with the attempt to stop the creature providing some chills anyway, but there's just the more obvious fact that you're watching a gimmick rather than actually being around something like this in real life. The only other one that strikes the film down is that there are way too many subplots at the beginning, which just drag the opening out. The beginning really should've been about the discovery of the creature and the condition that creates it, not the marital issues that plague the characters. That really makes it feel like it's a part of a really different film, and doesn't really offer a lot of good moments. Otherwise, this one was pretty good.
Overview: ****/5
A cheesy good time despite having a few issues, there's a lot to really enjoy here, and it remains one of the more likable entries from the era, as these keep the film going despite the few minor factors on display. Give it a shot if you're a fan of this particular style or era of genre fare or if you're a hardcore fan of the creative crew, while most others out there will want to heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment