Product Description

A scientist's thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller, directed by Arthur Crabtree (Horrors of the Black Museum). This outstanding sci-fi/horror hybrid is a special effects bonanza, and a high-water mark in British genre filmmaking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27835 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENT.
• Released on: 2001-01-30
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 74 minutes

Features

• A scientist's thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller, directed by ARTHUR CRABTREE ("Horrors of the Black Museum"). This outstanding sci-fi/horror hybrid is a special effects bonanza, and a high-water mark in British genre filmmaking. Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com
Fiend Without a Face contains one of the most indelible images to emerge from sci-fi/horror movies of the atomic age: malevolent human brains, creeping like caterpillars on spinal-cord tails, choking the life out of their helpless victims! If that weren't enough to make any genre enthusiast drool with sick delight, the movie's also got an above-average plot (as B-movies go) and made genre history as an international success, independently produced in England, set in Canada, starring an American (Marshall Thompson), with magnificently grotesque special effects created in Germany!

The mystery begins near an American Air Force base in Manitoba, where unexplainable deaths are somehow connected to the base's atomic reactor, which is being used to power an experiment in advanced long-distance radar. Thompson (who later starred in the TV series Daktari) plays Major Cummings, who discovers that the lethal monsters--slurping, unseen "mental vampires"--are actually the horrific byproduct of thought-control experiments conducted by hapless, retired professor (echoes of Forbidden Planet's "monster from the Id"). Once visible, the fiendish brains are everywhere, attacking our heroes from every angle (in a scene that may have inspired Night of the Living Dead), and sputtering puddles of blood when riddled by bullets. This climactic scene--a triumph of latex rubber fiends, eerie sound effects, and stop-motion animation--was a gory breakthrough in 1958, and it's still a worthy precursor to every gross-out monster movie that followed in its trendsetting wake. Beware the faceless fiends! --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Only Criterion does them THIS well
Is there ANY fan of science fiction or horror movies who grew up in the 60's and *doesn't* remember this midnight snack? The odd thing to me is that someone at Criterion seems to have the same taste in odd genre movies from the 50's as I do - and anyone ensuring that movies like this, and even more especially "Carnival of Souls", deserves a round of applause. (Let's face it, this movie used to be found in the "Drive In Flicks" section of the rental places if they even HAD it.)

The video quality is as good as we can expect. It is certainly sharper and brighter than other recent presentations of the film, but unfortunately, there ARE sequences where the scratches and wear obviously could not be spirited away digitally. I sincerely doubt that any fan of the movie will mind; this isn't Bergman or Fellini we're talking about! (In the opening scene, an Air Force office is suggesting to his fellow officer that perhaps "sleep would be better than all the benzedrine you're taking." The other fellow proceeds to slam down another few bennies....only in the movies, folks!)

The extras include trailers from several other movies produced by Gordon, stills, production notes, and a full-length commentary by Gordon (executive producer) with Bruce Eder. There's a LOT of discussion about American actors in England, aiming for the American market, working with the German special effects duo, and even some very interesting background on the original "Weird Tales" story that was the basis for the film. Unfortunately, this is less a "commentary" than an interview - the discussion between the two is interesting, but almost NEVER has anything to do with what is happening in the movie, and frankly I can't recommend trying to watch the flick while listening to this track. This is quite a bit different from ANY other "commentary" I've come across, and I thought it really needed to be mentioned.

Once again, Criterion has set a gold standard for quality and value in a release. Oh, HOW I wish they could release Wise's "The Haunting"....

A mutant brain eating monster brain mondo cliche movie
Forget the title, "Fiend Without a Face" is the one with the brain monsters. That is all you have to tell people for them to go, "Oh, yes! That movie! I remember that movie!" This 1958 British horror film might not be beloved, but is certainly memorable because of the stop-motion animation that is used to have the monster, which look like big brains with horns and a spinal chord tail that they use to move around and strangle their victims (these must have been partially responsible for inspiring the face-huggers from the "Alien" series). This is also one of the goriest films of that decade, which was probably a way of covering up for the fact that you had actors screaming and writhing in pain with a big fake brain monster taped to their heads sucking out their brains.

Our tale is set at an American military base in Canada (interesting to see a British film play about American-Canadian tensions like this). The locals start dropping dead, screaming in horror, and the thinking is that it has to have something to do with the base, maybe that "atomic radar" thing they are working on, but probably just some sort of psychotic American G.I. (and this years before Vietnam, please note). But Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson), second in command at the base, has his suspicions about Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), a retired expert in psychic phenomenon. But a visit to the Professor's house reveals one of those great experiments gone horribly wrong that we so often find at the heart of films like this one.

The title "Fiend Without a Face" comes because for most of the movie the monsters are invisible (Steven Spielberg used this same approach with more success in "Jaws" and in both cases the rationale was more special effects problems that artistic sensibilities). I am not arguing this is a great horror film, but for a B-movie it does try to deliver for the final act. Yes, the killer mutant brains being invisible is problematic (a polite way of saying stupid, boys and girls), but there is something inherently appealing about the little killers once they pop up and starting hopping around in their cute little feeding frenzy. You can also have fun trying to figure out what there are more of in this film: horror movie clichés or killer brains (okay, clichés is the correct answer, but have fun counting both anyhow).

Fifties SCI-FI at its very best
What a trully fantastic little movie this is, a real SPFX shocker in its day, and a great story with some fantastic character acting. TV in the UK used to show this a lot in the 1980's but it has been missing for a few years, and it is one of my faves, so now thanks to the team at Criterion I can own this peice of trully bizarre sci-fi cinema history. The extras are great and the commentary is very informative, also there is an essay a sort of potted history of UK sci-fi movies from this era. The transfer is crisp apart from a few scratches on the stock film used, particularly the old plane shots and the radar base, but this is mere trifle compared to the overall mastery involved in the plot and effects, which are for the time pretty incredible to say the least. If you want any more proof of sci-fi from the golden age being intelligent, thought provoking and damn right scary then go and buy this movie, and be very very impressed....