I recently received a DVD in the mail from Sinister Cinema
entitled – Invasion of The People Eaters. I bought the DVD fully knowing that
this title is the alternative title for what is regarded as one of the worst
movies of all time – The Creeping Terror. When I bought the DVD, I assumed that
perhaps this print may have scenes missing or later added to The Creeping
Terror. Be aware if you purchase this film from Sinister Cinema because this is
not the case. Only the title sequence has changed.
The Creeping Terror is notorious for the monster of the film
looking like giant carpet shag that lethargically crawls around locations as
his victims literally shove themselves into the opening at his feet. That is
how bad and unconvincing this monster is. The viewer cannot help but
laugh hysterically at the victims as they make no effort to escape the giant
carpet shag, but instead push themselves into his large orifice.
One teenage girl is consumed by the monster at a dance hall
as the monster makes his way across the dance room floor. Her sexy nylon
covered legs are shown as she pushes her way into the monster. A sun bathing beauty in a bikini is also consumed by the monster in another scene. Even a young mother is attacked while
hanging her laundry out to dry in her backyard. Instead of running from the
monster, she stares dumbfounded at him until he eats her for lunch.
The Creeping Terror is also notorious for the sound man
accidentally dumping the recorded sound for the film in Lake Tahoe, which is the
location where the film was made. Most of the film is dubbed in boring voice
over narration typical of industrial short films children watched in
elementary school. The Invasion of The People Eaters print sold by Sinister
Cinema has large portions of the film where the sound is not dubbed in sync
with the movement of the actor’s mouths, making it difficult to view (as if the
movie isn’t already tough enough to sit through).
The Creeping Terror may have been made in an attempt to cash
in on some of the success of a film made six years earlier – The Blob (1958)
starring Steve McQueen. The opening sequence shows spiraling lines encompassing
the title and credits, similar to The Blob, although they are not animated as
they are in The Blob. Happy Viewing!!!
I recently received a DVD in the mail from Sinister Cinema
entitled – Invasion of The People Eaters. I bought the DVD fully knowing that
this title is the alternative title for what is regarded as one of the worst
movies of all time – The Creeping Terror. When I bought the DVD, I assumed that
perhaps this print may have scenes missing or later added to The Creeping
Terror. Be aware if you purchase this film from Sinister Cinema because this is
not the case. Only the title sequence has changed.
The Creeping Terror is notorious for the monster of the film
looking like giant carpet shag that lethargically crawls around locations as
his victims literally shove themselves into the opening at his feet. That is
how bad and unconvincing this monster is. The viewer cannot help but
laugh hysterically at the victims as they make no effort to escape the giant
carpet shag, but instead push themselves into his large orifice.
One teenage girl is consumed by the monster at a dance hall
as the monster makes his way across the dance room floor. Her sexy nylon
covered legs are shown as she pushes her way into the monster. A sun bathing beauty in a bikini is also consumed by the monster in another scene. Even a young mother is attacked while
hanging her laundry out to dry in her backyard. Instead of running from the
monster, she stares dumbfounded at him until he eats her for lunch.
The Creeping Terror is also notorious for the sound man
accidentally dumping the recorded sound for the film in Lake Tahoe, which is the
location where the film was made. Most of the film is dubbed in boring voice
over narration typical of industrial short films children watched in
elementary school. The Invasion of The People Eaters print sold by Sinister
Cinema has large portions of the film where the sound is not dubbed in sync
with the movement of the actor’s mouths, making it difficult to view (as if the
movie isn’t already tough enough to sit through).
The Creeping Terror may have been made in an attempt to cash
in on some of the success of a film made six years earlier – The Blob (1958)
starring Steve McQueen. The opening sequence shows spiraling lines encompassing
the title and credits, similar to The Blob, although they are not animated as
they are in The Blob. Happy Viewing!!!
The Creeping Terror, 1964, 75 minutes, B&W, Metropolitan International Pictures. Directed by Art J. Nelson. Starring Nelson as Martin Gordon, Shannon O’Neil as Brett Gordon, William Thourlby as Dr. Bradford, John Caresio as Colonel Caldwell, Brendan Boone as Barney. Schlock-Meter rating: 2 and 1/2 stars out of 10.
The Creeping Terror is an abysmal, patched-together mess of a horror film. Watching it, I wonder to myself: How did films this bad get distributed? There was no family VCR in 1964. Did people actually go to the drive-in to see The Creeping Terror of Beast of Yucca Flats. Did they play the second half of a double-bill? Or grind houses on 42nd Street in Manhattan? I would love to know the answer.
Plot: A spaceship falls to the earth. It contains two monsters, one of which hides for most of the film. The monsters look just like a carpet gone amok. They are killer carpets (not at all scary) that slither along the earth at about two miles an hour. Despite that, their victims oblige them by standing very still, or backing slowly away, and allowing themselves to be pulled by unseen hands into the killer carpet. There is a scene, at a dance, where the carpet waddles in and kills most of the dancers, who just stare at it with barely disguised boredom. It is perhaps the worst edited scene ever filmed.
Near the end we learn that the killer carpet machines are from another world in outer space and they kill to analyze human body parts and learn our weaknesses as humans. How that was learned is mystery, since a healthy chunk of the dialogue is missing. Like the wretched Beast of Yucca Flats, viewers endure a pompous narrator who besides giving us the plot, gives a long-winded soliloquy on the joys of marriage. A sheriff’s deputy (Nelson) and his bride (O’Neil) help out the U.S. military in battling the killer carpets.
I’ve heard stories that director/star Nelson was a gadfly who rolled into a California community with his girlfriend O’Neil and convinced many townspeople to back him financially in a “can’t-win” horror film he wanted to make. To keep the cash rolling in, Nelson gave many of The Creeping Terror’s financial backers bit parts in the film. Then, the story goes, he skipped town before the investors could see what a dog of a film they were left with. If that tale is true, it’s far more entertaining than The Creeping Terror.
Someone once said that The Creeping Terror makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Citizen Kane. I’m not sure if I necessarily agree with that statement, but any self-respecting film critic will tell you that The Creeping Terror ranks in their list of top five worst films of all time. The Golden Turkey Awards, a book written by Harry and Michael Medved in 1980, has helped to catapult The Creeping Terror into cult status over the last thirty years or so.
Martin Gordon and his new bride Brett are returning home to Angel County, California after a two-week long honeymoon. Gordon’s uncle is the county sheriff, and Martin serves as his senior deputy. The sheriff receives a call to investigate the crash of a space rocket. Martin and Brett join him in the investigation. The group arrives at the crash site to see a space rocket covered with trees and undergrowth, as if the rocket has been there for a long time. They also find the hat of Ben’s junior deputy Jeff lying outside of the rocket. Jeff was killed while entering the rocket. The sheriff crawls under the rocket to investigate and is attacked and killed by an unseen creature inside who growls like a lion.
What follows for the rest of the film is a series of attacks by a monster that looks like a giant piece of carpet remnant with vacuum pipes sticking out of its head. The monster attacks a group of picnickers, a youth dance hall, a grandfather fishing with his grandson in a stream, a couple making out under a tree, and a mother hanging her laundry on a clothesline. Each victim stares longingly at the creature without any attempt to run or quickly get away from it. Some of the victims even shove themselves into the opening of the creature, which is presumably the mouth.
One scene in the dance hall shows a pair of sexy legs wearing nylons and high heels sticking out of the opening of the monster as if she shoved herself into the creature after it entered the dance hall. A girl making out with her boyfriend in a bikini under a tree willingly shoves herself into the creature as it hovers above her without allowing the creature to incapacitate her before it tries to eat her.
What really makes the film drag is the voice over narration throughout the entire film. The narrator sounds like many of the boring, monotone narrators of the sex education scare films we were forced to watch in junior high school to scare us into never having pre-marital or unprotected sex. Apparently the folks who worked on this film somehow lost the soundtrack to it, so many of the sequences of dialogue between actors is missing. This is why the boring narration was added later. Some scenes show actors together not talking, yet we hear a dubbed in sound of their voices to indicate that they are supposed to be talking to each other. Very strange indeed.
Every time I view this film, I can’t help but ask myself a number of questions concerning the lack of logic in the film. For example, in the dance hall scene, the viewer is treated to sequences of dancers on the dance floor shaking their booty, then continuous close up shots of the monster’s head outside the dance hall near some trees. Suddenly, by some strange force of magic, the monster appears in the dance hall, and the dancers start to panic. One girl shouts, “My God, what is it?” How the giant monster even got through the doors of the dance hall is anyone’s guess? He could barely fit in the space rocket, let along squeeze through the doors of a dance hall gymnasium. This adds to the unintentional humor of the film.
An opening sequence in the film shows a grainy stock footage shot of the launching of a space rocket played in reverse to indicate to the viewer that the shot is supposed to be the rocket crashing. This is another unintentionally funny sequence in the film.
The most ridiculous and funny sequence is near the end. A group of military soldiers slowly walk up to the creature and pretends to be firing their rifles into it. They pretend to jerk backward with the recoil of their guns, but it looks fake and unconvincing. Some of the guns even look like wood cut outs.
Not only has the Medved brothers’ book The Golden Turkey Awards helped to stir up interest in The Creeping Terror in recent years, but the book also nominated The Creeping Terror for the category of The Most Ridiculous Monster in Screen History. Unfortunately, the Ro-Man monster in Robot Monster won that category, but if my vote ever counted, I would place it for the monster in The Creeping Terror or the giant sheep monster in God Monster of Indian Flats. However, that does not mean that I’m not a fan of The Creeping Terror.
Like fine wine, The Creeping Terror gets better with age and multiple viewings. It’s not a film that would ever make it into anyone’s list of “must-see” or best film categories. If you’re a fan of bad and obscure films, then you must seek out The Creeping Terror. Watch it on a double bill with Plan 9 From Outer Space or The Beast of Yucca Flats and you won’t be disappointed, I promise.
