Like many a horror film broadcast on TV in the late 1970s THE CREEPING FLESH was a topic of conversation at school the next day with the gory scene of the man getting stabbed in the throat with all his veins hanging out being most memorable moment
!!!! SLIGHT SPOILERS !!!!
Unfortunately when I saw this movie again a couple of nights ago I became aware that THE CREEPING FLESH is composed of memorable moments and little else . The title sequence featuring a painting that resembles Salvador Dali`s worst nightmare is memorable , the man trapped under the coach in a rain storm sequence is memorable , as is the image of the shadow falling against the house , but despite all the imagery and memorable moments the movie lacks a cohesive story
One reviewer mentioned Freud and watching the story play out as virginal and repressed Penelope evolve into an entirely different sultry creature it`s impossible not to notice some sort of Freudian sub-text . Alas this doesn`t seem to comprise of the bulk of the film and it`s impossible to work out what the bulk of the movie is about . Is it about the nature of evil ? What was the skeleton originally ? What were the skeleton`s plans ? You see if you stop to examine the movie in any great depth it ends up giving more questions than answers . I was also confused as to what how the scenario affected the 20th Century . Did the skeleton and Peter Cushing`s character experimenting on the essence of evil lead to world wars and genocides across the world ? If so then Nigel Kneale wrote a far better , more interesting and more cohesive story on human nature with QUATERMASS AND THE PIT
Not to be totally negative THE CREEPING FLESH is an entertaining traditional British horror with Christopher Lee , Peter Cushing and a few women with large breasts and I have mentioned the rather impressive imagery . It is rather disappointing if you`ve seen it with an absence of 25 years ( The man getting stabbed in the throat is laughably ungory when viewed today ) but I`ll still give it 6 out of 10
!!!! SLIGHT SPOILERS !!!!
Unfortunately when I saw this movie again a couple of nights ago I became aware that THE CREEPING FLESH is composed of memorable moments and little else . The title sequence featuring a painting that resembles Salvador Dali`s worst nightmare is memorable , the man trapped under the coach in a rain storm sequence is memorable , as is the image of the shadow falling against the house , but despite all the imagery and memorable moments the movie lacks a cohesive story
One reviewer mentioned Freud and watching the story play out as virginal and repressed Penelope evolve into an entirely different sultry creature it`s impossible not to notice some sort of Freudian sub-text . Alas this doesn`t seem to comprise of the bulk of the film and it`s impossible to work out what the bulk of the movie is about . Is it about the nature of evil ? What was the skeleton originally ? What were the skeleton`s plans ? You see if you stop to examine the movie in any great depth it ends up giving more questions than answers . I was also confused as to what how the scenario affected the 20th Century . Did the skeleton and Peter Cushing`s character experimenting on the essence of evil lead to world wars and genocides across the world ? If so then Nigel Kneale wrote a far better , more interesting and more cohesive story on human nature with QUATERMASS AND THE PIT
Not to be totally negative THE CREEPING FLESH is an entertaining traditional British horror with Christopher Lee , Peter Cushing and a few women with large breasts and I have mentioned the rather impressive imagery . It is rather disappointing if you`ve seen it with an absence of 25 years ( The man getting stabbed in the throat is laughably ungory when viewed today ) but I`ll still give it 6 out of 10