Fiend Without a Face

1958 "New Horrors! Mad Science Spawns Evil Fiends! ... Taking form before your horrified eyes!"
6.1| 1h14m| en| More Info
Released: 03 July 1958 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

An American airbase in Canada provokes resentment from the nearby residents after fallout from nuclear experiments at the base are blamed for a recent spate of disappearances. A captain from the airbase is assigned to investigate, and begins to suspect that an elderly British scientist who lives near the base and conducts research in the field of mind over matter knows more than he is letting on..

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Reviews

Develiker terrible... so disappointed.
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
mike48128 Only seen on TV on a small screen. A short film, probably due to the numerous "cuts" required by the British censors. Rated only 8 because of the hokum and implausible concept of a thought monster conceived by a "mad" mentalist. It's alive! A vampirish creation consisting of a brain and spinal cord with extra tendrils that sucks itself out of a living person, leaving only a pair of small wounds in the neck. As the radiation from the military base is turned up by the monsters, they become visible as they attack more humans! Zombies attack! It's in black and white, thank goodness. (Pretty-bad acting, too!) Advanced stop-motion photography makes it seem all the more real. Beyond any giant "bug" or giant animal horror film of the same genre I have ever seen. A disgusting and graphic ending. Rated "X" in the UK. However the "visible" monsters are quite crude and look totally plastic, which they are!
Hitchcoc Let's see. We have an air base where nuclear power is used to create a radar blanket surround the north pole. They are having trouble getting this to work properly. We have a nuclear power plant functioning in a small town. Suddenly, bodies start showing up with their brains and spinal cords sucked out of their bodies, with expressions of terror. The townspeople blame the soldiers that live among them. Apparently, it makes sense that a GI who has gone berserk would suck the brains out of people. They also blame the Air Force for their cows not giving much milk. Well it turns out that some scientist has been stealing the radiation before it gets to those planes to do some experiments in telekinesis. Like Walter Pidgeon in "Forbidden Planet," his mind has created invisible creatures. Anyway, these invisible things, when fed with enough nuclear energy, become corporeal. They look like mosquito larva with big brains and spinal cords that move like inch worms. Does this sound a bit bizarre. It is fun but don't think too much.
Adam Peters (28%) While it does have something to offer in its final quarter, this is too dry and badly paced to be anything other than a 1950's B-movie sci-fi fan's favourite. The cast are quite capable, but they play every scene so damn seriously that they almost deserve a medal for keeping a straight face during some of the more clunky writing and quite stupid monster attacks. The monsters themselves are for a good portion of the movie totally invisible, but when they actually do show up in visible form the movie finally becomes something to enjoy as essentially human brains with spines attached start attacking the main characters making this almost worth watching. Anyone with any interest in bad old movies (Robot monster, Manos, etc) should give this a look, even if it is actually a lot better made than the lower end and therefore less fun.
Spikeopath Fiend Without a Face is directed by Arthur Crabtree and written by Herbert J. Leder and Amelia Reynolds Long (story The Thought Monster). It stars Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Michael Balfour and Kim Parker. Music is by Buxton Orr and cinematography by Lionel Banes.Some sort of invisible assailant loose on the Canadian border and is attacking a U.S. Army Base and the local residents in the surrounding area. The locals are convinced it has something to do with the nuclear power plant, the army not so, especially since the unseen foe's modus operandi is to suck out the brains and spinal cords of its victims!A mental vampire. A fiend!Wonderfully bonkers Brit sci-fi horror that nicely builds premise and characters to then unleash the beasties in all their stop motion gory glory. It's a pay off well worth your patience, which when it comes down to it is not a lot to ask for in a movie that doesn't even run to 80 minutes. Standard clichés of many 50s creature feature schlockers apply, such as romance, straight backed heroics, dumb decisions made and averted, nice characters, bad characters, silly dialogue and some incredibly creaky science.The principles of thought control.The budget is obviously not stretching to great heights, but Crabtree was adept at creating great suspense and atmosphere with minimal cash funds, as he proves here. There's a sense of paranoia drifting over everything, perfect for the 50s fear of the nuclear age, and scenes such as when our hero is trapped in a mausoleum are skillfully crafted for maximum impact. Then the last 15 minutes arrive and it's The Alamo as our roll call of survivors try and stave off the attack of the killer brains! Delightful creations that look like brain snails with spinal cords that leap around and attach themselves to the victims necks.The effects are nifty for the era, the gore equally so, while the sound effects, and Orr's brilliant musical score, are of a real high quality. Daft for sure, but not insultingly so like so many cheaply turned out films of the time, this is a 50s sci-fi horror fan's fun bag ticket for a good night in. 8/10