Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
kapelusznik18
***SPOILERS*** We get this amazing story straight from the horses mouth the eminent professor Emmanuel Hildern, Peter Cushing,who claims that he discovered the source of evil in the world at large. That in an over-sized humanoid skeleton that he dug up in the wilds of British New Guinea that pre-dates the Neanderthal and Peking Man by tens of thousands of years! As the professor soon finds out the skeleton reacts when water is dunked on it making it come alive and also having it's flesh and blood rejuvenated itself! It's later that Prof. Hildern's daughter Penelope, Lorna Heilbron, stumbles upon the fact that her mom who she thought died when she was a little girl has in fact been committed to a lunatic asylum run by Prof. Hilden's step brother James, Christopher Lee, where she passed away just the other day!Penelope now feeling that insanity runs in the Hildern family now completely loses it and starts picking up men, mostly sailors, on the street and after letting them have their way with her ends up murdering them! Caught and committed to James loonie bin it's her dad Prof. Hildern who's now feeling that maybe he's as crazy as both his daughter as well late wife was! The story takes a sudden turn with James now taking over the family business as well as his step brother's experiments in curing the world of evil by doing some blood work with his humanoid discovery to see if evil is what it, that nothing but a bag of bones, is bringing into the world at large!***MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS*** Out of left field ending as we get back to the beginning of this weird movie with Prof. Hildern now himself committed to James lunatic asylum and still blabbering about his discovery of evil with absolutely no logic behind it. Yes the old guy is as nutty as a fruitcake and even more crazy he's not even the person whom he claims he is. As for his now committed daughter Penelope she as well as James are not at all related to him but who he took in as family members-Together with that fictional bag of bones of his- to fill in a number of gaps in his empty and meaningless existence!
Leofwine_draca
THE CREEPING FLESH is one of my all-time favourite British horror films. Sure, it's a low budget product that feels inferior in terms of production values to a lot of Hammer fare, but it absolutely drips with Gothic atmosphere and dread and it has a complex and unusual storyline to boot. It's a shame that it's so hard to get hold of these days; the British DVD is long out of print and I had to make do with my old VHS for many years until recently picking up a Spanish DVD. It's the sort of film that cries out for a proper Blu ray restoration.It's hard to go wrong with the dream-team threesome of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in the lead roles (playing brothers, no less!) and Freddie Francis working as director. The latter makes sure this is a beautifully-shot film with great laboratory backdrops and costumes. The plot is a little reminiscent of HORROR EXPRESS at first, with Cushing retrieving an ancient skeleton from New Guinea, but when the regeneration storyline kicks in (with more than a nod to CARRY ON SCREAMING) the film really gets going.Much of the running time consists of a lengthy sub-plot involving psychiatry and a condemnation of common practice at the time; this gives Lee one of his most subtlety villainous performances. The exploration of hereditary madness leads to some unforgettable set-pieces. The monster stuff is great too, especially at the ghoulish climax. Cushing veers towards playing the annoying ninny from AT THE EARTH'S CORE on occasion, but by the end he's really invested you in his character. I'd argue that THE CREEPING FLESH is a great film that deserves better recognition.
Wuchak
Although "The Creeping Flesh" (1973) is not technically a Hammer film, it was made by a rival British company with Hammer alumni Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and director Freddie Francis.Lee and Cushing play two rival half-brothers; Lee runs a mental asylum and Cushing is a scientist trying to cure humanity of evil and insanity. Lee, it turns out, is also trying to find the same cure by experimenting on the lunatics in his asylum.Cushing is driven by the insanity and recent death of his wife. He is so paranoid about the "infection" of evil and madness that he overprotects his daughter.He discovers an 8-foot tall diabolical skeleton on one of his expeditions in New Guinea and becomes convinced that evil itself is somehow linked to this figure. He discovers that the skeleton strangely acquires flesh/blood when it gets wet. He subsequently develops a "vaccination" from the blood to supposedly give people immunization from evil and insanity, which he then administers to his daughter (!).As you can see, the plot is highly creative, if nothing else. Numerous issues are touched on in the storyline, including:The origin of evil and insanity. Sibling rivalry. The consequences of overprotection. Is evil and madness a disease for which a person can be vaccinated? The (lack of) ethics of "scientists." An escaped lunatic running amok. Having a carnal celebration after years of repression. The 19th century English pub scene (alcohol, whores and brawls). An 8-foot creeping horror.Some would contend that "The Creeping Flesh" bites off more than it can chew (especially at only 95 minutes). Yet, I would say that it addresses all of these items very well. I should also point out that it's not hard to follow, as another reviewer argues.Two parts of the film are very well done: First, when Cushing's daughter, Lorna Hailbron, finally escapes her father's overprotective clutches and attempts to "paint the town red" (naturally). Lorna does an exquisite job portraying the daughter in both her initial naive, modest state and, later, in her wild first-time-party-girl condition.Second, when the skeleton finally comes to life after acquiring all its flesh. You can see it lurking in the moonlight with a hood and cowl. This creepy image brought to memory artist depictions of the Flatwoods monster that supposedly appeared near that West Virginia village in September 1952.Interestingly, "The Creeping Flesh" has many similarities to "Horror Express," another Hammeresque film made the very same year. Each film stars Lee and Cushing; each features an ancient recently-discovered artifact that emanates evil (a skeleton and a frozen neanderthal respectively); each features numerous shots of people analyzing "evil" blood samples through a microscope. I like both films about equally, but give the slight edge to "The Creeping Flesh."Don't hesitate to check out "The Creeping Flesh" if this sounds like your cup of java. GRADE: B+
udar55
This has Peter Cushing as scientist Emmanuel Hildern, who returns from New Guinea with a huge humanoid skeleton. This skeleton forms skin when water is dropped on it and somehow Hildern is able to deduce from the blood in the skin that evil is a sickness that one can get like a cold. By combining good and bad blood, his theory is he can make someone immune to evil. He promptly injects it into his daughter Penelope (Lorna Heilbron), hoping she will not become mentally ill like his wife who recently died in a sanitarium run by his brother James (Christophe Lee). She, naturally, goes nuts and hits the town hitting on men in bars before running into an escaped lunatic. Are you still with me? The script for this is really out there and seems like three good ideas rolled into one. It is a credit to Cushing and Lee that they make it work. Of course, you should also praise director Freddie Francis for making it look good. You won't get too many surprises here, other than the fact that the monster comes back to life and feels the need to knock on the front door to announce its arrival. The opening minutes set up an ending you can see coming from a mile away, but it still has a nice sinister stamp on it.
