Review of The Creeping Flesh

THE CREEPING FLESH is one of those alleged Fright Films that has a LOT going for it- not the least of which are two of the foremost Superstars of the Supernatural, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Unfortunately, the storyline is so mired in sub-plots that it gets hard to tell who's at bat at any given time: we have Peter Cushing as a mad scientist who's unearthed the skeleton of a creature whose very blood is "the essence of Evil." He also has a daughter, begat with a mother who was mad (in the Mentally Unhinged sense), who may or may not be succumbing to madness herself. It doesn't help when daddy injects her with a sample of the "essence of Evil" blood taken from the reformed middle finger of the left hand of the aforementioned prehistoric skeleton (magically reformed when said digit came into contact with water). Meanwhile, a murderous inmate escapes from the asylum being run by Christopher Lee (who, upon investigating the escape, is forced to gun down ANOTHER inmate who makes a break for it). Thoroughly confused? If not, you WILL be before all is said and done. Given that the filmmakers had two of the Greats heading up the cast, one can't help but wonder why they didn't simply focus on Lee and Cushing...