Director: Michael A. Hoey
Year: 1966
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Night Crawlers
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Heading to a remote island base, soldiers trying to battle the boredom of being assigned to safeguard a secret experiment are soon forced to deal with a crashed plane and the strange creature that was being transported inside when walking tree roots are found on the island.
Review:
For the most part, this was a generally underwhelming and troubling genre effort. Among the better features present here is a genuinely solid and worthwhile mystery that comes about as this tries to bring about an intriguing central premise. Getting the early layout of life on the military base, how their personal problems are preventing them from getting any kind of usable results for the tests they’re supposed to be getting, and just in general being so bored with everything so that the plane crash comes as a chance for there to be something worthwhile happening, is a solid enough touch. This carries into the investigation of the crashed plane, revealing plenty of intriguing aspects that are used to build up the idea of something deadly happening to the crew inside, but it has no other evidence to speak of for what’s going on, creating a strong base for the potential creature feature action to come.
While it manages to bring about some fun encounters later on when the plant creatures are finally revealed and the battle to stop them before spreading across the planet, the majority of the film is just too bland and dull to get much going. The endless conversations about how life on the base is draining for them, going through personal relationships, don’t make this all that enjoyable, since that covers large stretches of the running time. Even when the creatures are involved and multiplying, far too much of the film is spent on meetings looking into the possible signs of what they could get up to if they spread, minimally effective background information on their biology, or sitting around waiting for something to happen, so it’s just not that effective at maintaining interest in these scenes. When the creatures do get shown, their cheesy design and appearance are hard to overcome or take seriously, which is enough to lower this one overall.
Overview: */5
A sluggish and rather underwhelming creature feature, there’s not a whole lot to like here despite plenty of potential to be a solid, cheesy genre effort based on its positive factors. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare or who are curious about it will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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