The Creeping Terror

Editors note: Yeah, this one isn't getting any better. Let's get this train wreck on the road!

Release: 1964
Director: Vic Savage (A.J. Nelson)
Company: Metropolitan International Pictures

Notable Cast: Haha, good one!

Plot: An alien lands on Earth and wanders around eating people. The local sheriff and military try to find the monster while investigating the strange alien ship.

The Monster: The best way to describe this Creeping Terror is that it's a mutated shag carpet from outer space. The monster moves at about the pace of a sloth as people flail about for minutes waiting for the inevitable demise. The creature is immune to small arms fire but can be blown up. It is also immune to guitar attacks so Jeff Jarrett would be ineffective in against this monster.

I usually try to post an image of the creatures from these movies but there really isn't a good image that captures the sheer absurdity of it. I highly recommend watching the Dance Hall video I posted at the start of this review as it's this monster and movie in a nutshell.

Thoughts: Where to even start with this thing. I have seen "worst movie ever made" thrown around a lot in my day. Most of the time, it's a lot of hot air and the movie is merely just mediocre or bad. This move though, this movie has a legit argument for being one of the worst movies ever made. There is actually a docudrama about the making of this film called The Creep Behind the Camera that I have not seen. Honestly, the drama around the making of this film is probably more interesting than the movie itself.

To start with, a vast majority of the audio was either lost, not recorded or was such poor quality as to not be usable. When they were trying to salvage it for release they used a narrator to cover up for the lack of audio. I think this could have worked with a better movie but this movie has a lot of filler content to pad out the runtime. Ultimately the narrator has to fill in this filler with odd tangents about details or aspects of the characters and their relationships that add nothing to the film.

And that's really a huge problem with the story of the film. There is a story here it's "strange alien lands from space and local authorities search for it while it eats people." That's been done a million times and it's been done well. That's honestly the same plot of The Blob and that is a great movie. But here the sparse plot points have no impact because they are stretched out by 10 minute scenes of the monster eating people or teens endlessly necking. A good example of this movies excesses is the lover's lane scene. It felt endless, especially the monster pushing over the car and eating the people inside.

Speaking of the necking, this might be one of the horniest (is that a word?) movies I have ever seen. Almost every scene has two "teenagers" endlessly going out before the monster shows up and eventually eats them. A good example of how this gets sledgehammered into the film is the newly married Martin Gordon has his friend over for a drink and he and his wife awkwardly just start going to town in front of him. It gets to feel a little gross the way this film just continually throws these prolonged scenes at you.

The one positive I will throw at this movie is the monster eating someone is hilarious the first time you see it. The monster is generally slow and it's just absurd to watch the people have to kind of crawl in and help in their own demise. Honestly, you could probably escape this monster with a sidestep and a moderately brisk walk.

Verdict: This really is just a terrible movie. If you just have to see this movie, I would recommend watching the MST3K episode of it. The riffing on that episode is pretty good and makes the film kind of tolerable. As a lover of bad films, there really isn't much to love with The Creeping Terror. The monster eating people is funny but it's not enough to carry the film. I think for me what really damages this film as having potential of being a better bad movie is the lack of audio. The narrator really detracts from the film as it makes the people cardboard cutouts. There's also no passion in this film. You watch an Ed Wood film and it's an awful movie that is crafted with love and passion.

This movie has the honor of getting the first DUD on this blog and getting added to the Hall of Shame. It's a film devoid of anything really and I would recommend avoiding it. Honestly, if you are at all tempted, watch Plan 9 From Outer Space instead.

Where To View:
Amazon Prime Streaming
Amazon Prime MST3K Version (paid link)
Sci FI Collection with The Creeping Terror (paid link)