Here is a surprisingly restrained horror offering from Tigon productions, a studio that attempted to rival Hammer pictures with films known for their violence ("Witchfinder General") and sleaze ("Virgin Witch").
For "The Creeping Flesh", Tigon also cribbed a few Hammer actors: Cushing, Lee, and Michael Ripper. According to Wikipedia, it was the last movie produced by the studio; their run in production was only seven years long.
I wonder if the film failed, and that was the cause of the stoppage. It doesn't feel like a failure, but then it's nothing great, either. Cushing is a scientist who has recovered a skeleton of "primitive man" from a trip to New Guinea. The skeleton is enormous, with a spacious ribcage and a massive deformed skull. It looks like the skeleton of Pumpkinhead.
Cushing is looking to isolate the cause of evil through his experiments. However, his brother, played by Christopher Lee, is also after the prize, and may be willing to interfere with Cushing's research to gain it.
Matters are further confused by a serum Cushing's character invents that is supposed to prevent evil. He injects his daughter with it when he fears she might be going crazy like his wife did. It doesn't work: instead she puts on a red dress and goes to a bar where she gets drunk and attacks someone. But why did he inject her in the first place? Why would an anti-evil serum stop a person from going crazy?
The movie ends with the long awaited arrival of the monster in an admittedly fairly tense scene. Unfortunately, the movie just doesn't bring all its pieces together well enough. I think the fault may be in the direction or script level; the performances are good.
For "The Creeping Flesh", Tigon also cribbed a few Hammer actors: Cushing, Lee, and Michael Ripper. According to Wikipedia, it was the last movie produced by the studio; their run in production was only seven years long.
I wonder if the film failed, and that was the cause of the stoppage. It doesn't feel like a failure, but then it's nothing great, either. Cushing is a scientist who has recovered a skeleton of "primitive man" from a trip to New Guinea. The skeleton is enormous, with a spacious ribcage and a massive deformed skull. It looks like the skeleton of Pumpkinhead.
Cushing is looking to isolate the cause of evil through his experiments. However, his brother, played by Christopher Lee, is also after the prize, and may be willing to interfere with Cushing's research to gain it.
Matters are further confused by a serum Cushing's character invents that is supposed to prevent evil. He injects his daughter with it when he fears she might be going crazy like his wife did. It doesn't work: instead she puts on a red dress and goes to a bar where she gets drunk and attacks someone. But why did he inject her in the first place? Why would an anti-evil serum stop a person from going crazy?
The movie ends with the long awaited arrival of the monster in an admittedly fairly tense scene. Unfortunately, the movie just doesn't bring all its pieces together well enough. I think the fault may be in the direction or script level; the performances are good.