ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Nigel P Tigon films never made a secret of being inspired by the larger Hammer horror company: this film is perhaps most indebted to their rival. It stars Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and briefly Michael Ripper, and the story's Victorian setting is familiar to Hammer fans. I don't know how successful this was upon release. It was actually Tigon's final horror outing, the company having all but ceased by the time of the film's release, having been rebranded as the very different The Laurie Marsh Group. I have a feeling it would have been more lucrative had it been released ten years earlier, when such a style of story-telling was in its prime.Cushing plays Professor Emmanuel Hildern, first seen (minus toupee) alongside elegant actor David Bailie in an almost psychedelic, featureless laboratory set relaying the story we are about to see. Lee is typically and masterfully cold and officious as brother James, whose ambition far outweighs any loyalty to his sibling. The charming Lorna Hailbron is Emmanuel's daughter Penelope, stoically attempting to keep the family home alive despite debilitating finances brought about by her father's experimentation into the dawn of creation. Emmanuel is fiercely over-protective of his daughter following his wife's descent into madness; he fears the condition may be hereditary. As it is, his deception is the instigator of Penelope's rapid decline. Too rapid, in my view – for years she has been the most sensible family member; suddenly she is certifiable.Such experiments regurgitate the skeleton of a previously unknown, outsized monolithic humanoid creature. The interesting thing is, unlikely as it may seem, any contact with water puts flesh back on the bones and brings the old boy to life! Energised by this revelation, Emmanuel removes one of the creature's fingers in order to investigate further (some suggest a certain phallic similarity with the outsized digit, which in the hands of lesser an actor than Cushing, could result in chortles from the audience during his examination of the prop). We are treated to many close-ups of the dormant monster, as if he is observing throughout.This is lovingly, sedately directed by Freddie Francis and seems to be well budgeted. James' asylum setting is impressive, as is the lively plight of escaped inmate Lennie (Kenneth J Warren), although this entertaining side-step has little to do with the plot.A word for Cushing's performance. It's a given really, that he always puts in a fine performance, but this fragile, broken soul is amongst his best. The ending, and the lead-up to it, is true classic horror with the creature finally animated and seen in restrained long-shots. Cushing sobbing and defeated after the creature has come to claim its revenge, is heart-breaking.

GL84 Recovering a skeleton from New Guinea, a London doctor finds that the creature might be a possible missing link in human evolution only for the discovery of water to reanimate the body and tries to keep his friends and family safe from the news.This one turned out to be quite the fun effort. What really gives this one quite a lot to really like here is the fact that there's a great deal of fine backstory generated by the presence of the skeleton and what it really means which is rather intriguing. By allowing for the unique location in New Guinea, there's a believability granted here to what the attempted course of action of having the skeleton get reanimated with their knowledge of studying it, and that's a rather nice achievement here made all the more possible with the film's insistence on spending the vast majority of the time studying the creature. Coming up with the manners of study, which brings the fun scenes of him reviving the beast and the discovery of the creatures' blood that leads into the attempt to inject it into her which is what really drives the film along here with this one featuring some solid work here in the later half trying to find her as she ventures out into the world for the first time as the lead-in comes off very nicely getting it out of their laboratory. The resulting scene in the pub where she nearly gets assaulted and runs away leading to the chase through the streets and into the warehouse leads to some nice action scenes here as well, and the rather frantic finale here is even more fun with the abduction of the creature and the eventual reanimation of the skeleton inside while they're all completely unaware of the incident really makes for a much livelier and engaging effort than it really should be as the full-on Gothic sensibilities are brought about in full-force during this section which is what makes it so fun. Although these here make this one enjoyable enough, there's still some problems here in the fact that there's just not a whole lot of action to be had within this as a vast majority of the time this one doesn't really do much other than really helping to build the boredom of just watching the two fumble around their equipment spouting off tons of inane scientific babble that doesn't really focus on anything interesting. Though the film moves along at a decent-enough pace, these are just overall bland and dull which just don't have any kind of interest throughout here with the film really generating the kind of endless monotony of just staring at these scenes of nothing going on which just goes on quite a long time. Spiced within these scenes is another rather lame angle, with the film focusing on nothing but truly lame sub-plots to pad out the running time as there's little need for the scenes of the doctor wandering around the grounds complaining about his charges or focusing on the escaped mental patient that really has no place in the film and should've been taken out as it has no place in the film. Alongside the weak effects for the creature who looks like a mass of jelly walking around, these here are the film's weak points that lower it overall.Rated PG: Violence and an attempted Rape.

poe-48833 THE CREEPING FLESH is one of those alleged Fright Films that has a LOT going for it- not the least of which are two of the foremost Superstars of the Supernatural, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Unfortunately, the storyline is so mired in sub-plots that it gets hard to tell who's at bat at any given time: we have Peter Cushing as a mad scientist who's unearthed the skeleton of a creature whose very blood is "the essence of Evil." He also has a daughter, begat with a mother who was mad (in the Mentally Unhinged sense), who may or may not be succumbing to madness herself. It doesn't help when daddy injects her with a sample of the "essence of Evil" blood taken from the reformed middle finger of the left hand of the aforementioned prehistoric skeleton (magically reformed when said digit came into contact with water). Meanwhile, a murderous inmate escapes from the asylum being run by Christopher Lee (who, upon investigating the escape, is forced to gun down ANOTHER inmate who makes a break for it). Thoroughly confused? If not, you WILL be before all is said and done. Given that the filmmakers had two of the Greats heading up the cast, one can't help but wonder why they didn't simply focus on Lee and Cushing...

scarletheels In the late 19th century, scientist Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) returns home to London with a prehistoric skeleton that he acquired in Papua New Guinea. While cleaning the skeleton, he learns that water triggers a horrific reaction - reanimation. He slices off the finger, now covered in flesh, and preserves it for later experiments. While having breakfast with his daughter, Penelope (the breathtaking Lorna Heilbron), Emmanuel reads a letter informing him of his wife's death. Unbeknowst to Penelope, her mother has been in an insane asylum since she was a little girl. Fearful that his wife's mental illness may be hereditary, Emmanuel has sheltered his daughter at their estate with only the servants to keep her company. She's not allowed outside, except for short walks within the gated premises. Emmanuel travels to the institution where his wife died. He meets up with his half-brother, James (Christopher Lee), who happens to be the insane asylum's director and a competing scientist. Emmanuel was always the favorite of the two siblings, the one destined to achieve greatness, so it's with great pleasure that James tells him that he is in the running for the prestigious Richter Award. In addition, he will no longer fund Emmanuel's transcontinental trips. I'm not familiar with most horror predating 1980. I rate this somewhere between 60%-70% (about a 6.5/10). I've never watched a movie, horror or other genre, with so much anticipation and dread for what may come. The climax is truly a frightening one. The suspense is nail-biting! Lee and Cushing are great but it's the beautiful Heilbron who steals the show. I want to watch more films she stars in. I recommend this to horror fans who want to explore the classics. No gore, torture, or loud music cues to instill a false sense of fear. I liked it!