FIEND WITHOUT A FACE: 1957

When Canadian villagers keep turning up strangled, locals suspect a "G.I. gone wild" from the neighboring U.S. Air Force base.

 

 

 A U.S. investigator(Marshall Thompson) reveals mindboosting experiments by the small rural community's resident mad scientist. His subconscious has produced flying brains with spinal tails and eyes on little stalks that materialize to drain people of their life energy. Another twist on Shakespear's TEMPEST ?? After being cornered at the doctor's home and laboratory, Thompson leaves his crew to shut down the nuclear plant feeding the mental monsters.

 Hoardes of storming brain creatues crash the boarded-up windows and doors of the refuge. They are knocked from the air by round after dead-eye round of .45 caliber defensive fire, deflating and gurgling black jelly in their repeated destruction, but the increasing onslaught keeps the terrified humans in check. Just as the barricades give way, and all seems lost, Thompson throws the dampers of the reactor and starves the brain-creatures out of existence.

 

 

 This is the kind of low budget project that makes one wish to pour $20 into a time portal to support it. Again the British brilliantly counter anyone's efforts in the realms of science fiction film. The movie's tense and truly climactic ending scenes hit the "shock level" mark that all producers seek, especially for the mid 1950's. These scenes are even scarrier than any in Ken Curtis' Attack of the Killer Shrews,1959! Harryhausen would be satisfied with most of the animation, and the actors give one very little to laugh at! Fiend Without A Face captures that feeling so telling of its time, it is a proud part of the Marshall Thompson collection.

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