The Creeping Flesh is set in the 19th Century in Victorian England as scientist Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) returns home after a three year absence in New Guinea looking for evidence of primitive man. His return home delights his daughter Penelope (Lorna Heilbron) but Emmanuel has little time for family reunions as he made a tremendous discovery in New Ginuea, a huge man like skeleton that may change everything we know about Neanderthal man & our own origins. While trying to clean one of the skeleton's fingers with water the creatures living flesh starts to grow back which disturbs Emmanuel, after doing some research he finds out that in ancient prophecy the New Guinea natives called it 'the evil one' & that one day it would again walk the earth spreading it's evil wherever it goes...
This British production was directed Freddie Francis who apparently took over from Don Sharp at short notice & was produced by Tigon Pictures & is an OK effort but in the end it doesn't quite work. The somewhat lethargic script by Peter Spenceley & Jonathan Rumbold which takes itself extremely seriously tries to be a bit too ambitious for it's own good & in the end I felt The Creeping Flesh came across as various loose sub plots which come & go & are all very tenuously linked together, I mean there just doesn't seem to be a single unifying thread throughout the film as it switches direction & narrative on several occasions. At first it starts like a monster film with the Skeleton which regrows it's own flesh then it becomes & good vs evil morality tale as it's blood is found to be pure evil & then it goes back to be a monster film for it's climax which sort of leaves things hanging in the air a little bit & it isn't even made clear whether what happened was true or whether it was the mad ramblings of nut-case. There are other various sub plots to confuse things even further like the death of Emmanuel's wife, the effect it has on his daughter, his half brother trying to steal the skeleton for himself & an escaped lunatic from an asylum who has no relevance to the story at all. Having said that it's well written, has some very effective moments in it & is definitely something a bit different even though it seems the filmmakers didn't quite know what to do with the bizarre ideas & themes.
Director Francis does a decent job & I absolutely love period British horror films, the production design is fantastic from the sets to the props to the costumes & they all have great detail. On the negative side of things I'm not convinced by Christoper Lee's fake goatee beard, the creatures severed finger looks more like a penis & the day for night shots look terrible as they usually do. There's a nice atmosphere & there's some scary & creepy moments as well. The creature when seen at the end looks pretty good actually & quite gross, you can tell it's a static rubber mask but it's a pretty good one all the same. Forget about any gore, they cut the creatures finger open to experiment on it but that's as gory as it gets.
Technically the film is very good with excellent production values, decent special effects, good cinematography & good attention to detail in the period setting. The acting is good from a great cast including the always watchable Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee are worth the price of admission alone.
The Creeping Flesh in my opinion is not a classic British horror & it's a touch slow going at times but it's something different yet still retaining that 70's Gothic Anglo horror feel & look, it's not always a total success at what it tries to do but it's watchable enough.
This British production was directed Freddie Francis who apparently took over from Don Sharp at short notice & was produced by Tigon Pictures & is an OK effort but in the end it doesn't quite work. The somewhat lethargic script by Peter Spenceley & Jonathan Rumbold which takes itself extremely seriously tries to be a bit too ambitious for it's own good & in the end I felt The Creeping Flesh came across as various loose sub plots which come & go & are all very tenuously linked together, I mean there just doesn't seem to be a single unifying thread throughout the film as it switches direction & narrative on several occasions. At first it starts like a monster film with the Skeleton which regrows it's own flesh then it becomes & good vs evil morality tale as it's blood is found to be pure evil & then it goes back to be a monster film for it's climax which sort of leaves things hanging in the air a little bit & it isn't even made clear whether what happened was true or whether it was the mad ramblings of nut-case. There are other various sub plots to confuse things even further like the death of Emmanuel's wife, the effect it has on his daughter, his half brother trying to steal the skeleton for himself & an escaped lunatic from an asylum who has no relevance to the story at all. Having said that it's well written, has some very effective moments in it & is definitely something a bit different even though it seems the filmmakers didn't quite know what to do with the bizarre ideas & themes.
Director Francis does a decent job & I absolutely love period British horror films, the production design is fantastic from the sets to the props to the costumes & they all have great detail. On the negative side of things I'm not convinced by Christoper Lee's fake goatee beard, the creatures severed finger looks more like a penis & the day for night shots look terrible as they usually do. There's a nice atmosphere & there's some scary & creepy moments as well. The creature when seen at the end looks pretty good actually & quite gross, you can tell it's a static rubber mask but it's a pretty good one all the same. Forget about any gore, they cut the creatures finger open to experiment on it but that's as gory as it gets.
Technically the film is very good with excellent production values, decent special effects, good cinematography & good attention to detail in the period setting. The acting is good from a great cast including the always watchable Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee are worth the price of admission alone.
The Creeping Flesh in my opinion is not a classic British horror & it's a touch slow going at times but it's something different yet still retaining that 70's Gothic Anglo horror feel & look, it's not always a total success at what it tries to do but it's watchable enough.