Creeping Terror, The |
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USA • 1964 • 77m •
  • Directed by: Vic Savage. • Starring: Vic Savage, Shannon O'Neil, William Thourlby, John Caresio, Brendon Boone, Byrd Holland, Jack King, Pierre Kopp, Ken Savage, Mark Field, Les La Marr, Mary Price, Louise Lawson. • Music by: Frederick Kopp.      A creature that looks like a cross between a Chinese dragon puppet and the Pope sucks up people into its maw. A sheriff, his wife, and a ''handsome'' scientist battle it to the end, with a sub plot about the evils of bachelorhood.
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Review:
This abominable black and white Sci-Fi cheapie is the bastard-creation of film auteur Vic Savage, who, thankfully, produced only one other movie before wisely picking a different profession. The history surrounding Vic's film is a lengthy and convoluted affair, which was plagued from the beginning by problems stemming from financial and personnel issues to theft, a true ongoing train-wreck of ineptitude and amateurism, that all reflects back on the burning genius of director Vic Savage. Finally in 1964, after two years of turmoil, The Creeping Terror was finally ready to rumble across the cinematic landscape, reeling in the big bucks and causing untold amounts of damage at the box-office! Only none of that happened and not surprisingly, this crappy movie was relegated to a very narrow and short-lived release, afterwards it was all but completely forgotten and cast into the ever-expanding, fuzzy, gray void of dismal cinematic failures, where it would languish for the next 30 years. However there was some light, of a kind, at the end of the tunnel and The Creeping Terror was finally unearthed in September of 1994, only to become the next victim of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
So what is it that makes this movie so terrible? In short, everything. Absolutely everything, the casting, the acting, the photography, the sound, it's music, but above all else.... it's (so called) Special Effects. Good Lord!!! The effects they used to bring the monster to life (which in fact IS "The Creeping Terror") are the worst-looking movie effects ever. Evidently the costume that was intended to be used, was stolen back by the very same guy who made it, do to Vic's failure to pay up and what they ultimately ended up using is the most confounding and pathetic of creations (if you thought some of the FX in Roger Corman's early movies were bad, well.... check this thing out). Through the result of some on-the-set improvising by Vic and his crew, obviously made quickly and very cheaply, from commonly available materials and when the dust settled, an utterly confounding creature-creation was born. Composed mostly of old ragged carpets, a bit of stuffing, some wiring and several short lengths of flexible hosing, which were no doubt supposed to resemble something in the way of tentacles; and Vic somehow, someway, was content with the results and his soon his cameras begin to roll.
Unfortunately Vic Savages's Monster-of-Discarded-Carpet's tends to over-power the many other fine aspects of the movie, which is a bit unfair, because The Creeping Terror is an absolute master-class of all-encompassing mediocrity - a true horror for both the eyes and the ears - it also happens to stink too. The sound of the movie, loaded with hiss and pops the whole way, is a lifeless mash-up of mediocre monophonic sound and music, which consists mostly of a narrator (in place of actual dialog do Vic's stinginess, poor understanding of sound-recording, etc.), whose job it is to explain the the movies settings, the characters names, descriptions and emotional states, and important plot developments (which there aren't any). Apart from a handful of lifelessly delivered lines here and there, the movie relies mostly on over-dubbed voices, looped sound-effects (which are often out-of-sync with the visuals) and awful, awful music. The films soundtrack consists mostly of generic B-grade monster music, however it's sheer grinding monotony is interrupted from time to time with a handful of modern pop numbers - or at least what was modern in 1964 - for instance we get a heavy dose of The Twist during the dance hall sequence.
It's the pacing if anything: If there's one aspect of The Creeping Terror that drags it down more so then any other, it would have to be it's pacing. Which in no small way can be directly blamed on the monster itself, as it awkwardly ambles along, yet never mustering speeds any faster then that of a severely dehydrated, three-legged turtle (hence "creeping"). The films numerous action sequences are thee most comically pathetic and most unrealistic ever filmed, the monster moves so slowly, that even a cripple could crawl circles around it; yet it routinely claims many hapless victims, (ie people who conveniently just sit or stand in place, some of which actually appear to help the monster out, by maneuvering themselves into it's mouth). Sadly those scenes are the movies most exciting moments, because the majority of the movie on the other hand, is nothing but a sad collection of mundane sights of people doing purely mundane things (the exception being the scene were a woman takes her babies rectal temperature, that was an unusual touch), which not to any great surprise, makes for an extremely boring and listless movie. Vic simply didn't have a clue on how to generate thrills or frights.
All in all The Creeping Terror is a laughably inept movie from start to finish and after seeing it several times I'm completely convinced that it -was- the worst movie, that is until "Rollergator" happened upon the scene 32 years later. How fitting that the movie which dethroned The Creeping Terror, would star Joe Estevez.
On a final note, for those who don't know (I had forgotten myself) Vic Savage not only directed The Creeping Terror, but starred in it as well, he plays the lead-role of Sheriff Martin Gordon.
Review by Idiot-Deluxe from the Internet Movie Database.
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