Man, I am rather surprised to see that this film is currently rated four or so out of ten. It's better than that. It has been a good few years since I last saw this movie, but I remember that I enjoyed it, it was pretty cool.
Granted, you should never let the user rating determine your idea of a film's value. Most of the time it is right, or perhaps more of an "average" thing. anyway
I am glad to find someone else who likes this film! Just picked up Image's DVD release of the British print. I think it was only $6.99 in the bargain rack at SunCoast. Excellent buy.
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I just saw it yesterday, and while it is far from being as great as some other 50's horror movies, it still seems very underrated. I'm guessing the painted sets and other FX shortcomings irked viewers.
shareYou're right, of course. We're rating this movie after 50 years, and judging it by today's standards of SFX. The Twighlight Zone has held up well, mainly because it managed to avoid entering the SFX battle (perhaps because it was on a TV budget, and coudln't afford much SFX ?). This film has not aged well, because it's an SFX spectacular based on 50-year-old effects that seem laughable to us in the year 2006.
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Unless we embrace doubt, experience will merely reinforce prejudice.
You're right, of course. We're rating this movie after 50 years, and judging it by today's standards of SFX. The Twighlight Zone has held up well, mainly because it managed to avoid entering the SFX battle (perhaps because it was on a TV budget, and coudln't afford much SFX ?). This film has not aged well, because it's an SFX spectacular based on 50-year-old effects that seem laughable to us in the year 2006 ... True. The film actually builds up a very good, suspenseful story. Still, one can't help but be taken out of the experience when the monster is shown in it's full glory. I can't imagine this thing being frightening even back then. The idea of it is, but actually seeing it kills the suspense. I wish they would have held off on showing the creature. When Alan Brooks saves the little girl at the inn, they should only have shown tentacles from the fog, not the entire monster. Also, would it have killed Forrest Tucker to actually ACT as if he were seeing the monster during the shot? It was too early of a reveal. We should only have glimpsed the monsters in the finale, with more up close shots and less laughable scenes of them crawling up the mountain or sitting on the roof of the laboratory. This is where I think the film makers back then tipped their hand. Even back then, less is more. The first two-thirds of the film proves that! Overall, it's a very good film, despite the poor execution and filming of the alien monsters.
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I've just watched this film again after a wait of 30+ years. I thought the script and the acting were ok, but the monsters were poorly realized. Perhaps they should remake it?
I would love to see the original television serial the film was based on, but they have wiped the tapes.
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See - another loser whining about the monsters...
God, does everybody have to be a sheep!?!
See - another loser whining about the monsters... >>> Sheep are ones who chime in with no reason for their opinion, only cheap proclamations and insults because they can't handle the fact that others don't share their opinions. Get lost, jackass. We don't need idiots with chips on their shoulders trolling the board.
shareI hope it is not remade by Americans - sex scenes, irrelevant sub-plots, too many car chases and explosions, and excessive CGI effects.
shareI agree with you and the other posters - this film deserves a higher rating. I've seen plenty of movies that have higher ratings but are not as good as this one. I agree that the special effects were not that great, but the storyline is interesting and the acting is pretty good.
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I think it holds up fairly well and it's fun to watch!I love this movie!
shareI adore this movie! Granted it's got some of the cheeziest dialogue ever written, incredibly bad special effects and some of the cheapest sets this side of Ed Wood, but it's a helluva lot of fun and most definitely deserves better treatment! BTW, director Curtis Hanson loves this film just as much as we do...he came into my bookshop one night (we specialize in used books and have a rather substantial industry clientele) and we started talking about guilty pleasure movies along with a few other customers and this one topped the list.
shareIs this the film that had the giant tentacled eyeball who ate heads or something? If so, I loved it when I was a kid.
www.borderdogs.com
Yes indeed, the very one!
shareAll I know is thatas a kis in the early 1960s, this movie scared the beejeezus outta me!!
shareI imagine most people are rating it based on the version they saw on Mystery Science Theater 3000, the show that mocks the films it presents. I rated it a six. The acting is excellent. The film builds suspense well. But then things become way too convoluted. And I know the monsters are the main attraction and that they're what makes the movie such cheesy fun. But I could have done without them.
... J. Spurlin
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Hi,one can never be too rich or have too many friends. It was a staple on tv when I was growing up. It had alot of creepy images and scary moments. I can still remember being freaked out when they found the guy in the bunk with no head.
Yeah, this is actually one of the better - and smarter - science fiction films from the 1950s. The story was very interesting, and the acting was excellent. Some of the mountain footage was very nice, as well. The monsters may look cheesy by today's standards, but when I was a kid growing up in the 1970s and saw this a few times on WOR 9 from New York, I thought the monsters were the best part. I always couldn't wait to see the end when the monsters first appeared.
It's nice to now have the DVD, which allows the luxury of watching this whenever I want. It came in a two-pack, with the other DVD being the 1953 classic "Invaders from Mars," another gem.
Hi,one can never be too rich or have too many friends. Iliked the telepathic angle of it,with all the remakes in the breeze,this movie would do nicely in color and computer animated monsters.
I originally saw this when I was about six years old...they showed it for a week straight on the Million Dollar Movie on KHJ Channel 9 here in Los Angeles (God, I loved that...sorta the forerunner of all the cable repeats we've come to know so well) and I tell ya, it scared the bejeeezus outta me....enough so I had to sleep with the lights on for days afterward. Still, I fell in love with it, and I gotta say that despite having no real budget etc it's held up pretty darned well over the years. Bit of trivia here...this was originally a made for television film in Britain....think most of the cast from the film were in that production as well.
shareAnyone else think that the 2 sisters in this movie were hot?
shareJennifer Jayne (Sarah Pilgrim) was attractive, but I wouldn't call her "hot". But Janet Munro (Anne) was a knock-out. Great combination of vixen and girl-next-door. If you liked her here, watch "The Day the Earth Caught Fire". It's not only an excellent, award-winning sci-fi film, but Janet has a couple of near-nude scenes in it (as close as you could get in 1961), one of which is a pretty steamy love scene (well, the beginning of one anyway -- again, 1961!). The DVD also has a stills gallery which includes two topless shots of her, as well as some other cheesecake. She really had a beautiful face and body.
Unfortunately poor Janet became an alcoholic in the 60s (both her actor husbands were also alcoholics, so that didn't help), and by 1963 or so she had gotten somewhat heavy, was losing her looks, and was becoming so unreliable on the set that she found it almost impossible to get work. Considered Britain's most promising young actress in the late 50s, her drinking so wrecked her prospects that in her last film, in 1968, she was reduced to an unbilled bit part. She subsequently tried sobering up and seemed to be having some success, when she died suddenly in 1972 at the age of only 38. Whenever I watch her in "The Trollenberg Terror", so young and with so much potential ahead of her, and then think about what actually happened to her, I sometimes wish I could shout some sense to her on the screen. Such a waste.
By the way, I only just found out in looking at this site that Jennifer Jayne passed away in 2006, at 74. But at least she had a full life.
Seemed alot less "stiff" when it came to dialogue and mood than most horror movies I've seen from the time. I originally saw this on MST3k and there we some parts when they seemed they were actually watching and just had to throw out a witty remark for the sake of the show. Not a bad old horror movie at all, I liked it.
shareI agree with you, and one of the reasons it is a good film (despite its budgetary limitations) is the excellent script by Jimmy Sangster. He was really a great writer of sci-fi/horror/mystery, much in demand in Britain in the 50s and 60s, and he always came up with literate and plausible screenplays that delivered on the chills and suspense. This film has always been a favorite of mine.
But as to MST3K, did you see the very last episode of the series? At the end, back on Earth in Mike's apartment, he and the bots sit down to watch TV, and what comes on but The Crawling Eye -- the very first MST3K. And what do they start doing, of course, but making wisecracks...their lives just going around in the same old circle. Very clever and funny.
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Nope, sorry, wendybrad, The Crawling Eye (a.k.a., The Trollenberg Terror) was episode number 101 of the first season. The Green Slime was number 108, seven weeks later. I have the official MST3K book -- The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide -- and just re-checked to make absolutely sure. (The creators chose this numbering system -- starting from 101 instead of just plain 1, with succeeding seasons beginning with 201, 301, etc.)
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I also was a little disappointed with the monster when I first saw it.However, years later I was amazed while watching Starship Troopers to find it still alive and this time colonising whole planets with its offspring and, instead of pulling off heads,sucking the brains out of unfortunate humans.
shareYes, they were; although Janet Munro was even hotter (both literally and figuratively) in "The Day The Earth Caught Fire".
shareI agree. I think this film is pretty good for the era in which it was made. Defintely a decent horror flick. I would give it a 6.0 or thereabouts. And I think the concept of an alien living within a cloud was fascinating. I wouldn't mind seeing a remake.
The first time we done knocked on the do, the second time we gon kick the son of a bitch in
Then that cloud splitinto 5 clouds.
shareAgreed. All things considered it deserves better than its current 4.2 rating.
Hello
But not MUCH better. It was fun, I'll admit it, but IMO it would have been actually scary if it had gone in a different direction than the big octopus eyeball creatures. The first part of the movie was quite suspenseful.
I can see why this got the MST3K treatment!
Next time you see me, it won't be me