The Flesh Eaters (1964)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

If you are going to sit down to watch this expecting some top notch special effects, intense acting, and a character driven plot, you deserve to be disappointed. Movies like this cannot conceal what they are or mislead people, so to criticize it for being cheap, hokey, and cheesy is sort like complaining that Star Wars takes place in outer space.If you are hoping to be entertained, then this movie won't let you down! A reminder of how creepy these old movies can be if you were lucky enough to see it when you were under age 12, movies like this always benefit most when the viewer can suspend their cynicism and imagine they are 10 years old. The lack of any sets used in the film is probably because the actors chewed all the scenery, the gore, for its time, was pretty darn shocking, and the monsters are somehow easily destroyed by the same thing they eat.Yes, skeletons shouldn't remain whole when the flesh is eaten off them. True, CGI effects blow away the lousy FX. Of course, a woman wouldn't tear off her shirt while the men stood by, still in their shirts and gawking when someone needed makeshift bandages. And I agree, Nazi scientists were not hiding out on Long Island in the 1960's. If you can accept these facts, and forgive the movie in spite of them (and many, many other similar flaws), you won't be let down for one second! Also, the song playing on the transistor radio in the opening scene, performed by a band called "The Teen Killers" is so catchy you won't stop whistling it for weeks!!!

Martin Kosleck's number was in the Los Angeles phone directory,and I just happened to dial long distance on two occasions in 1982.The man himself answered the first time,and Christopher Drake the second,and between them,I had the opportunity to express my appreciation for "The Flesh Eaters"(1962).Mr.Drake(who also appeared in the film)related the sad news that the director,Jack Curtis,had died in 1970,and that all the filmmakers were justifiably proud of their efforts,though only the distributors saw much of the profits.He added that shooting was done on weekends over two successive summers,which confirms the impression that it was a labor of love.What I never learned until recently,is that the film was shot silent and completely post-dubbed,an amazing feat that is not obvious on first viewing.Rarely offered starring roles(and doing only a dozen features after 1948),Martin Kosleck here gets to play what I consider the most detestable villain in cinema history,and it is clearly his own voice on the soundtrack,done in the same dedicated fashion as the rest of the cast.While the beatnik character of Omar may be off-putting to some,his death scene is my favorite in the picture,as the doctor effortlessly convinces the ninny that they should drink a toast to friendship,which hits "the ever lovin' spot"(Omar's words),unaware that the doc has spiked his drink with a fatal dose of Flesh Eaters(which the audience is clearly shown).Far better written than just a clichéd mad scientist,there is never a point when Kosleck earns any sympathy,even when his death scene is shown to be just as horrific as Omar's.But at Universal in 1944-46,Kosleck was treated like a star,and fondly remembered one in particular,the 1946 thriller "House of Horrors," in which his villainous "starving artist of ill repute," driven insane in clichéd fashion by an unappreciative public,never once loses our sympathy as he induces a spine-snapping killer known as The Creeper(Rondo Hatton)to strike back at his enemies.The top-billed leads,Robert Lowery and Virginia Grey,are such a tiresome,colorless pair of boorish nincompoops(along with all of the big city critics on hapless display),you begin to wonder if Martin's character is written to be the hero! His roles in bigger films like Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent"(1940),"Confessions of a Nazi Spy"(1939),and numerous other Nazis were usually small,so it was these "forgotten little programmers" that gave him more exposure and garnered more fan mail.On a final note,he pointed out that the actor he most enjoyed working with was Basil Rathbone,first in 1940's "The Mad Doctor," then 1945's "Pursuit to Algiers." The former was not about your typical mad scientist but a complex psychodrama,with Kosleck snuffing out his share of victims,the latter was one of the last Sherlock Holmes adventures,with Kosleck as another homicidal maniac,whose knife-wielding abilities are negated by Holmes' swift actions.There aren't many left from Hollywood's Golden Age,and there won't be another due to changes in technology,the death of the drive-ins,and the radicalization of Tinseltown.The films will survive the people who made them.

This movie is truly mind boggling. It can't even be called camp or corn, it is so bad! But it is also so hilarious. I could not stop laughing. Even for it's time this was hilariously horrible. The flesh eaters are a sort of monster much like the amoeba of "Angry Red Planet" It begins as a bunch of small flesh eaters, but a mad scientist changes it into one big one, and one super big one. What is so hilarious is that the two lead actors are so horrible, but the supporting cast seems to at least try to be thespians. The most interesting one is a beatnik. He pretty well steals the show for his small air time. Meanwhile the hero and heroine take off as many clothes as they can, and deliver lines so bad, you'd swear they were trying to be bad. I can almost promise their delivery will make you burst out laughing, because the others are almost convincing, then these two say their lines, and you can't help but laugh. I really believe that these two were secretly the butt of the jokes from the others. I not only mean the few actors, but the director, film crew, and stage hands. They no doubt set these two up and made them fools, and the two stars probably never knew. It's a good thing they weren't around a live volcano or in a crowded lifeboat. Guess which two would have been sacrificed through some sneaky planning? You'll also laugh at the scenes in which the hero jumps at the camera. It is proof that the crew were in cahoots to make him look stupid. I can just see them all laughing after a day's shoot, snickering at the two leads. I don't mean the two leads any disrespect. No doubt they did what they were told. At some time, we've all been fools. But you won't stop laughing. Still, it is a bad film.

You know they say that sometimes a movies is so bad, it's good. Well, I can assure you that this film does not meet that standard. The acting was so bad that it hurt. For what is rumored to be the first "gore" horror, it really disappoints with cheesy acting and a monster that is right out of Plan 9.This film has a collection of weirdo, including a mad scientist (Martin Kosleck), a ridiculous beatnik (Ray Tudor), and an aging drunken has-been actress (Rita Morley).It may be of interest in those who want to check out the oldies, or who are trying to get in the spirit of Halloween, but there are better films to do both.