Fiend Without a Face

Okay, so the first hour of this 74-minute non-epic is padded to

the gills with seemingly silly dialogue, off-kilter acting, and

budgetless set design. I would argue that there is more than

meets the eye in the film's script, though, to the degree that it is a

surprisingly intelligent, supernatural take the atomic age. A highly

enjoyable hour which provides more than mere camp appeal. But - wow - that last 15 minutes! You can see everything from

THE TINGLER, to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, to ERASERHEAD,

to EVIL DEAD being born in the film's glorious finale! After being

blown away by the film's (beautifully animated and frankly

disturbing) ending, I watched the film again, and admired how the

the seemingly thin first hour actually builds quite ingeniously to the

climax. I was also impressed with the tasteful application of gore

at the end (which could be generically attributed to the film's British

sensibility), giving it both a shocking and alluring quality. The more I think about this supposed schlocky B-film, the more

I appreciate it. Sometimes mainstream critics such as Mr. Maltin

miss the boat, and this is precisely one of those times.

I just picked up the Criterion Collection of this film - and as usual CC does a wonderful job.

This film - when taken in context and time period - is pretty groundbreaking. Sure, the acting is stilted at times and the dialogue is a bit laughable - and the FX are dated. But the claymation/stop motion technique championed by Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen is used to great effect and the film works remarkably well. The monster sounds are utilized well and reinforces an overall sense of creepiness - especially in the twilight forest scene. And the violent finale cannot be overlooked as an inspiration for "Night Of The Living Dead"

Fiend has everything that a 50's Sci-Fi movie should have; a really square hero that saves the day, a beautiful female lead that falls for him, atomic power misused, and an invisible monster that sucks the brains out of its victums.

It is the stop motion animation at the end when the monster(s) become visible that really makes this film work. Without the animation by Peter Neilson and Ruppell this would be just another 50's atomic caution tale.

This is one of those scary flicks I saw in the early 70's when I was very young (six years old, probably), and probably it was the scariest thing I saw at that time. Certainly, there was no other film like it. I really wonder what sort of attitude the filmmakers had when this was being made. Were they giggling fiendishly, thinking of all the people they would scare with these images? (Scaring people was obviously their plan.) Did they think the movie they were making was "cool"?

The action-packed climax is pretty much the last fifteen minutes of the film. The brain creatures attack the people in the house, and pretty soon, bullets are flying, axes are being swung, and brains are being sucked. In my mind, this completely, mind-blowingly over-the-top ending scene seemed to go on forever, like a seriously bad nightmare. It was so repellently real. The creatures have no eyes, and they sort of "sense" your presence electrically to zero in on you, before flying up at you and clamping themselves onto the back of your neck. The depiction of this was pretty effective, and it still surprises me how well thought-out the creature imagery was here. Surprisingly realistic.

It still works, quite well! Go see it.

A fringe scientist involved with mind over matter experiments unwittingly unleashes a horde of horrible, invisible, brain-sucking

whatchamacallits in this 1958 thriller that isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Although Canadian sci-fi films are usually an oxymoron, this one is at least entertaining, even though it makes use of the standard fifties cause celebre: atomic radiation. As a payoff for the audience, we finally get to see the "fiends" when the power from the conveniently nearby nuclear reactor is cranked up to reveal them as. . .brains. With brain stems. And antennae. And some surprisingly good stop-motion animation. Marshall Thompson, that staple of fifties B movies, does yeoman duty in this film by not only starring in it, but actually taking over the reins of director when the "real" director Arthur Crabtree showed up on Day 1 and refused to direct! It seems that Crabtree angrily told the producers "I don't do monster movies" and walked off the set, whereupon Thompson, to his credit, stepped up to the plate. Crabtree came back, a few days later, and the rest, as they say, is history.

All in all, "Fiend without a Face" may not be in the same league as, say, "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", but it's not really all that bad, either. Make a big bowl of popcorn, or get some decent pizza, and enjoy.