The Creeping Terror (1964)
You know sometimes I wonder what sort of insanity I suffer from that makes me watch movies like The Creeping Terror. This really is one of the worst movies that I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe that I actually sat thru it. But I did and now I’m going to write this review damn it!
This is your basic sci-fi alien monster lands and eats the locals kind of flick. Here we see the ship crash and the creature comes out to eat a couple of people. The army is called and quarantines the area. Only they don’t know that a monster is running around. Not sure how this is the case since a couple saw the sheriff go into the ship and never come out. The only creature the army finds is locked up and can’t move. Since they keep everything hush hush this allows the creature to shamble around munching up the locals until enough disappear for someone to catch on. They eventually kill the creature only to see the other one get loose. There is some goofy explanation about them being mobile labs and then he movie is over.
Were do I start with The Creeping Terror? The story is pretty standard and I suppose the movie wouldn’t be that awful if they had only recorded sound. There are two different stories about what happened. One is that they didn’t record the sound at all and the other is that they lost the sound when something happened to the film. Instead of dubbing the movie after the fact they seem to use what they have left which was a bit of dialogue here and there, with a voice over to fill in the blanks. So we see the character speaking but all we here is a disembodied voice telling us what they are talking about. There also isn’t any ambient sound or background in the movie either. This makes for one of the most boring and miserable experiences that I’ve ever had trying to sit thru a movie. I struggled to stay awake thru most of it.
Beyond the lack of dialogue and choices made to cover for it I’m not sure what else I should say. I could talk about the story and acting, but why bother? Really none of this matters with the sound issues. I guess I could talk about the creature. It appears to be an area rug with a couple of guys underneath it. We get scene after scene of people standing still or lying on the ground as the creature “attacks” them. There are some funny bits were we see their legs and they are pulled thru a hole when the creature “eats” it’s victims. But other then that I don’t have much to say about it.
This would have been a perfectly fine cheesy “B” creature feature if they hadn’t had the issues with the sound. But they did and that was pretty much the kiss of death for this one. Avoid at all costs.
If you do feel the need to check this one out then you are in luck. Mill Creek has put this out on a 50 pack called Sci-Fi Invasions. I’m a big collector of their older sets and have to say that I love what they have done with the new stuff. The DVDs are much nicer and they have a cool insert booklet talking about the movies contained in the set. So while The Creeping Terror didn't thrill me the DVD set did.
0 out of 4
reviewed by John Shatzer
© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer
