Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
A group of scientists travel to a remote island to study the effects of nuclear weapons tests, only to get stranded when their airplane explodes. The team soon discovers that the island has been taken over by crabs that have mutated into enormous, intelligent monsters. To add to their problems, the island is slowly sinking into the ocean. Will any of them manage to escape?
Richard Garland ... Dale Drewer
Pamela Duncan ... Dr. Martha 'Marti' Hunter
Russell Johnson ... Hank Chapman
Leslie Bradley ... Dr. Karl Weigand
Mel Welles ... Jules Deveroux
Richard H. Cutting ... Dr. James Carson
Beach Dickerson ... Seaman Ron Fellows
Tony Miller ... Seaman Jack Sommers
Ed Nelson ... Ensign Quinlan
Maitland Stuart ... Seaman Mac
Charles B. Griffith ... Seaman Tate
Director: Roger Corman
Runtime: 62 mins
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050147/
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Codecs:
Video : 649 MB, 1509 Kbps, 25.0 fps, 656*496 (4:3), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4,
Audio : 50 MB, 116 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 0x55 = MPEG Layer-3, VBR,
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Yes, I gave the film 10 out of 10. I'm not proud. Where this movie is concerned I have no shame. I loved this movie from the moment I saw it on New York's Creature Features way back in the late 1960's as a five year old.
At five this movie scared the crap out of me, now its just cheaply done fun. How can anyone who reads the title or the plot, about a research team on a lonely island being stalked by giant crabs that eat the brains of their victims and then can then talk like them, and expect it to be anything other than it is? If you're interested by interested the plot, then odds are you're going to like it.
What makes the film stand up as more than just a grade z piece of trash is the fact the actors sell what they are doing. You believe that that believe. Had this film been done now it would have been a nod and a wink and it all would have been forgotten ten minutes after the cameras finished rolling. The visual effects, the destruction of the island and the crabs themselves are a cut above the typical 1950's horror/sci-fi monster, there is something ominous about them, even if they don't movie all that well.
A great popcorn film.
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It took me years to track down this entertaining and creepy Corman classic. If the budget had matched the story and plot, it would have been one of the greatest SF pics ever.
The "crabs" (actually they are more like energy creatures in the shape of crabs) are unique and dangerous adversaries who absorb the minds and personalities of their victims. This leads to a lot of eerie moments where the voices of dead characters come back to lure the survivors. "My leg no longer bothers me," says one. "It is almost exhilarating! You must join us..." Everything about the crabs is unpredictable. Sometimes they are almost jovial. "That was quick thinking!" one tells a human who just tried to destroy it,using the voice of a dead comrade.
Unfortunately, the crab monsters are none too convincing in sustained shots (though they are certainly memorable). I was on the edge of my chair waiting to see how the scientists got out of this one.
If you're not some MST3K nerd who pokes fun at everything that doesn't have 21st century production values, "Attack of the Crab Monsters" will definitely intrigue and entertain!
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It bizarre, preposterous, silly, campy, creepy, a bit gory, a little scary and a whole lot of fun.
Where does one begin with a film such as this. Campy, creepy, bizarre, for it's time quite shocking (a decapitation) and a favorite of 10 year to 14 year old boys watching Chiller Theatre showings of this Corman classic in the mid 60's.
Originally released with another classic Corman, Not of this Earth in 1957, this is one of the strangest horror films ever made.
Scientists are held captive on an Island by a gang of atomic mutated giant paper-mache crabs. They eat several brainy scientist types, luring them into their cave lairs via psychic communication, gotten I suppose through the assimilation of the scientists brains. Got that? Good.
It wasn't quite formula stuff then, but it is now. You know the group is isolated and picked off one by one... here it's an island, in slasher movies it's summer camps or sorority houses, or space ships (Alien) etc. etc.
But this is back in '57 and the formula was almost fresh then.
Enjoy it.
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* Ed Nelson "played" the crab monster with Beach Dickerson operating the monster's claws.
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