The Flesh Eaters (1964)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Jack Curtis

Writer:

Arnold Drake (writer)

Release Date:

18 March 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Behind this Membrane...You Will Be Driven To a Point...Midway Between Life and Death!

Plot:

A group of young adults are trapped on a desert island only to find the water inhabited by a violent form of flesh eating organisms.

Plot Keywords:

Flesh Eating | Actress | Scientist | Pilot | Island

Cast

Martin Kosleck	...	Prof. Peter Bartell
Byron Sanders	...	Grant Murdoch
Barbara Wilkin	...	Jan Letterman
Rita Morley	...	Laura Winters
Ray Tudor	...	Omar
Christopher Drake	...	Matt
Darby Nelson	...	Jim
Rita Floyd	...	Radio Operator
Warren Houston	...	Cab Driver
Barbara Wilson	...	Ann
Ira Lewis	...	Freddy Miller

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Greece:K-13 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

Vulcan Productions Inc.

Trivia:

While filming on location at Montauk, New York, a real hurricane destroyed the sets and equipment. Production was delayed for a year and the cost rose from $60,000 to $105,000.

Quotes:

Omar: Hey! Wonder what makes 'em do it? You think they want the world to hate 'em? They wanna be punished because of some guilt complex? Hey - you think maybe they just kooky?

Movie Connections:

References Gunga Din (1939)

New life comes to an old drive-in movie

Yay! The Flesh Eaters is now on DVD for your viewing pleasure. This is no great work of cinematic genius but it has a certain charm to it that makes it worth seeing. A pilot is talked into taking a movie star and her secretary to Provincetown but because of inclement weather and a frozen carburetor they end up ditching the plane near some small and supposedly uninhabited island. There they meet up with a college professor guy, who is actually a mad scientist sort, former Nazi collaborator & such, who is conducting experiments with some weird little glowing things that will strip a human body of flesh in a pretty short time. There are some pretty decent little snappy lines, many from the actress, who is also quite the lush, but the pilot (Murdock) seems to suffer from little or no acting ability. This does take gore and a glimpse of skin a bit further than most "mainstream" movies of that day. The effects are pretty odd, some of them are kind of "see through" type stuff. Supposedly all the little glowing critters were made by scratching the film, which is strange but does provide a pretty neat effect. One scene where something is 'incubating' in a glass bowl in the tent reminded me of a big Jiffy Pop thing. Overall though this DVD is from a pretty decent print, and the 'extras' include deleted scenes but if they weren't important enough to splice into the movie then I guess I didn't really need to see them. A decent little horror/thriller picture for the early 60's and a proud addition to my collection. 8 out of 10.