The Creeping Terror

Plot synopsis:
A newlywed deputy, Martin Gordon (Vic Savage), encounters an alien spacecraft that has crash landed in fictional Angel County in California. A large, hairy, slug-like, omnivorous monster emerges from the side of an impacted spaceship. A second one, still tethered inside, kills a forest ranger and the sheriff (Byrd Holland) when they independently enter the craft to investigate.
Gordon, now a temporary sheriff, joins his wife Brett (Shannon O'Neil). Dr. Bradford (William Thourlby), a renowned scientist, Col. James Caldwell (John Caresio), a military commander, and Caldwell's men were sent to fight the creature. Meanwhile, the monster stalks the countryside, devouring a girl in a bikini, picnickers at a "hootenanny", Grandpa Brown (Jack King) and his grandson while fishing, a housewife hanging the laundry, the patrons at a community dance hall, and couples in their cars at a lovers' lane.
The protagonists deduce that the monsters are mindless biological-sample eaters. The bio-analysis data is microwaved back to the probe's home planet through the spaceship.
Caldwell decides that the creatures must be killed, despite Bradford's objections. He orders his men to fire at the creature, which they do while standing close to one another as it moves towards them. Their gunfire proves ineffective, and all of the troops are devoured. Paradoxically, Caldwell decides a moment later to throw a grenade, and the creature dies instantly.
Ultimately, both creatures are destroyed, but not before the signal is sent. The dying Bradford suggests that this bodes ill for the human race, but observes that, since the galaxy to which the transmission was aimed is a million light years away, the threat may not manifest itself for millennia.

Tags: cult

Review:
There are so many fantastically awful bits in the movie I could mention...the death of Fat Grandpa, the anti-tree rage attack said fat person's grandson has shortly before the slaying, the tootling music that replaces sound for most of the movie's last third, the scenes where the army guys pretend to fire their toy guns at the alien...and the truly demented scene where the deputy sheriff ineffectually beats the control panels of the UFO with his gun...and later a steel pipe...
Highlights include the carpet guy attacking a high school dance (Monster makes sure he doesn't wreck tables and chairs) the army is called out in one scene (This "army" consists of five guys in helmets being transported in a pick-up truck!) 80 minutes of mindless fun.
In fact, you know its going to be a bad movie because it requires a narrator to explain what's going on as you watch it.
Look there been times when I've really been hungry for something that I don't have in the food pantry but I don't drive half way across the country just for a quick snack (which humans are for the monster since it can't seem to get full) But again I'm not a Chinese dragon.The film seems to be easily found on DVD thanks to MST3K, no idea where to get the original version.
By any standard of film-making (acting, lighting, sound, direction, writing, pacing, camera-work, sets, characterization, etc.) The Creeping Terror justifiably earns the very lowest score possible.
The incredibly dull monster, bad dubbing, bad acting, annoying narration and lack of narration during parts where you need it, the stupid couples who never learned how to run, the idiot military who cant figure out how to shoot a gun, the unexplained sub plots,no Torgo, EVERYTHING IS WRONG IN THIS MOVIE!!
I usually get a kick out of watching science fiction movies made forty or more years ago, especially those where the inside of the spaceship is so spacious with an enormously large amount of headroom, the astronauts dressed like factory workers, the equipment on board looking hopelessly cumbersome gawky and ineffectual.
The Swiffer, Shag pile..no sorry I mean err umm Monster (yes, that's the word I was looking for), the absolutely superb acting, the incredibly high quality sound track, the really authentic looking spacecraft (later eagerly emulated by the producers of 2001 - A Space Oddyssey), the crack troop of soldiers with their pop guns and water pistols, the Oscar nominated editing work.
An unintentional comedy starring the most mind-meltingly ridiculous "monster" (a.k.a. a pile of dirty blankets and slinkies); a deranged, rambling narrator; and a sleepy-eyed, half-baked sheriff and his vapid wife, this movie (and I use the term very loosely) is hilarious even without the "MST3k" gang- I'm glad they included the uncut version on the "MST3k volume 1" DVD, as I can finally watch this undercooked turkey in all its, er, glory.Q: "My God, what is it!?" A: It's the worst freaking movie ever made.Ever..
The monster literally looks like pieces of carpet mixed with the contents of a garbage can draped over some people crawling along at a snail's pace.
According to IMDb trivia, the original monster for The Creeping Terror was stolen days before shooting was to begin, and an alternative (something resembling a giant mouldy omelette or an unwashed duvet) was hastily assembled to take its place; several sources also state that director Vic Savage (hiding behind the pseudonym A.J. Nelson) lost the original soundtrack, which might explain why much of the story is told by a narrator.Although the lack of soundtrack could have been an intentional cost-saving measure, it doesn't alter the fact that Savage was clearly an all-round incompetent when it came to film-making, his dubious creative decisions easily qualifying this film as one of cinema's all-time worst.The plot for this mega-turkey sees a ravenous alien creature arriving on Earth to feed on humans.
Meanwhile, deputy sheriff Martin (played by director Savage, proving that he's every bit as bad at acting as he is at directing) and his wife Brett (Shannon O'Neil) try to track the thing down and destroy it.After eating several canoodling couples, everyone at a hootenanny, members of a community dance hall, some incredibly dumb soldiers, and an old guy so fat that you would think it might burst, the monster is destroyed, leaving Martin pondering the wonders of the universe, and the viewer trying to figure out why they just wasted part of their life watching such utter garbage.1/10 (not even the hilarious dance scene could make me give it more)..
Spaceship lands on Lake Tahoe and unleashes a big sluggish alien-creature that (not too convincingly) eats people.With its groan-worthy cheap 'FX' and sloppy direction, The Creeping Terror is easily one of the worst sci-fi horrors of the drive-in era.
The films monster looks like a Chinese dragon made of shag carpeting, the acting is dull, the editing is slow and haphazard, and nearly the whole film is narrated by a flat voice-over.
ZERO STARS out of ****I have chosen to review this film to warn people.Many people may tell you that movies like Plan 9,Bug,Monos:The Hands of Fate,Battlefield Earth and House of the Dead are bad.DON'T BELIEVE THEM!
I stumbled on the worst movie of all time.The story of The Creeping Terror is one of no context or sense.A fake looking alien UFO has landed on earth and out comes a giant alien that eats everyone it finds.Some military try to stop the massacre before it is too late.The story sounds standard and nothing special,but that isn't what makes the film so bad.The main problem with the film is that the alien that comes out looks like a giant rug that is dressed up in such a way that it looks more hokey than it does scary.If that isn't bad enough,the monster has a very strange way of eating people.Not only does it have a strange way of eating,but it also has trouble eating too.It looks like it eats people with it's belly button.When it actually does eat people it takes so long for the creature to get the people into it's gaping belly button that eventually,it gives up and some people's hands come out of the hole and give the food a hand while they try to get in the beast.This is no joke.And to make things even funnier,when the creature moves,it stands up,thus making things more obvious that the creature is just a rug.If you are not convinced yet,look down at the bottom of the alien when it walks and you will see someones feet while they try to move the monster.Actually, you will see a lot of feet trying to move the monster.That is just one of the many things that are just plain wrong about this movie.Bad acting,bad plot,bad music,bad cinematography,bad actors,bad script, these are just the least of this film's problems.What a piece of work.This film must be seen to be believed.I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see how low some movies can go in terms of really low quality.watch out for the thermometer scene though,it's kind of gross.
The word "plot" can scarcely be mentioned in the same sentence with this movie.The best thing about The Creeping Terror is the sets.
Name whatever outstanding example of bad film-making you like, from any genre: terrible no-budget children's movies, high-school drama class projects, you name it, this pile of turkey dung tops them all.
There's no question that this "creeping bush-like monster from another planet story" is a terrible movie.
The monster in this film which emerged from a crash landed space ship looks like a beach version of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent.
What can you say about a film that makes Ed Wood's 'Plan 9' look like a horror masterpiece?I say like the french do: 'Magnifique!'I get a kick out of this film every time I watch it.Some of my thrills:The fact that they lost most of the soundtrack is utterly charming.
The narration added is often hilarious, especially the attempt at characterization in the Barney/Brett/Martin domestic situation.Contains one of the scariest scenes ever filmed....the terrifying rectal thermometer episode with the infant ranks up their with Hitchcock's shower scene from 'Psycho'.The plodding and obvious 'quilt' that is the 'Creeping Terror'.
This is a thoroughly inept and fun time at the cinema.I am giving all of my 'bad movie' reviews a six, which equals to a 'ten' for a truly fine film.
As bad as 'The Creeping Terror' is, I do so look forward to seeing it again.I can't say the same thing for so many other truly bad movies.Two thumbs up, and in both of my hands -- rectal thermometers!!!.
I don't know if that's true though.The triple bill to die for; This, "Beast of Yucca Flats," and "Robot Monster." I'll bring the beer.Bad movies at their worst..
This movie has it all, terrible acting, horrible action, and not one iota of suspense, if you were ever to go see it in it's original farm my god have mercy on your soul My Grade: F MST3K Version: Episode 127 sees the inhabitants of the Satellite of Love opening a coffeehouse, Servo becoming the ship's security guard, and Crow becoming a sovereign nation among other things.
The best scene is when it gets some people in a car: it looks like the Creeping Terror is humping the car.
It was obvious that after the filming of this garbage of a movie the director (or some other idiot) decided to add a narrator throughout most of the movie to TALK OVER key dialogue and explain little inane things in the plot that never came up again.
One of the silliest movie monsters of all time, with the usual low production values expected from this type of film.
(Watch for the scene in which the voice of the female character on the screen is heard but it's one of the men whose lips are moving!) Overall, one of the funnier "bad movies" out there..
The PlotA newlywed sheriff tries to stop a shambling monster that has emerged from a spaceship to eat the citizens of an American town.From the worst acting ever to the monster who is essentially a guy wrapped in a carpet this has got to be the biggest hoot on earth.The space ship is a Mercury launch in reverse and then once it's on the ground it looks nothing like what you just saw AND the police say there was a plane crash!
It looks like it could be the Bat-mobile from the original serial in the 40s.The only bad thing about this film is that the director only made two movies so he couldn't get Ed Wood status.
I can't have been more than seven at the time so some of it went over my head, but for several years it was my primary source of information on things strange and campy with good coverage of monsters in particular and I always tried to seek out any film it mentioned (even back then I took the claim that anything was the worst of its kind to be a recommendation).
The Creeping Terror earned a mention, with an entrancing picture of its monster too, but until recently I never actually saw the film.
Things get off to a teetering start when it becomes clear that narration will be handling the plot-work and the tipsy feeling shortly tumbles into outright hilarity as reversed footage of a rocket launch brings the titular alien fiend to Earth, before the revelation that the craft that has actually landed looks nothing like the rocket seen earlier.
Hilarious, great reading.Now, am I going to contend that The Creeping Terror is NOT a bad movie?
(No, killing the box office at that time were RomComs, searing adult dramas or widescreen Technicolor Biblical Epics.) You do it because you think monster movies are cool.Having conceded that at the very least, Art Nelson had good intentions with this film, let us now compare and contrast the final results to another film with an equal amount of film making competence (ZERO), but with a much different motivation behind the scenes.
Best part:  you can see the arms of the "eaten" actors pulling new victims into the mouth.I also heard from another member that they lost the soundtrack at one point and had to resort to narration.I enjoy these really bad movies, though.
Well for one thing the film is filled with awful sleep inducing narration(which is most often completely unnecessary), more narration and even more narration..you get the idea.Also the monster looks completely ridiculous and is maybe the slowest moving monster in the history of cinema..yet hardly any of its braindead victims think to just run away.
This is, by far, the most remarkably bad film ever made.The use of American rocket launches shown in reverse to simulate the space craft's landing is mind boggling.The creature devours its hapless victims with little difficulty (they actually assist the creature by crawling into its open mouth).If you look closely, you can see the feet of 10 or so people creeping along under the moldy quilt that passes as the alien.
I know it's a bit of a cliche these days to enjoy movies because "they're so bad they're good", but The Creeping Terror is one of those flicks that is so far removed from mainstream cinema it exists in another dimension,The creature in question is rubbish - it is basically a piece of tarpaulin draped over some poor sweating actors and is the most lumbering, unthreatening thing you'll ever see.But it's the weird atmosphere that appeals - the narration, the poor production values and the scenes inside the spaceship which are a bit creepy, I admit.I saw this film once in 1983.
The actual hero looks like Hugh Hefner's nerdy younger brother.3) The monster (which seems to be portrayed by about fifteen people walking around under a huge tarpaulin) is so helplessly inept that his victims must be accommodating enough to stand stock still (screaming hysterically) for about five minutes while the monster approaches, and then to voluntarily crawl inside the monster's mouth.4) Speaking of crawling, the alien spaceship can only be entered by having the interloper crawl underneath it, more or less as if it were a car having its transmission fixed.5) The assortment of odd minor characters, such as the bachelor co-worker who is invited over to the newlyweds' house to watch them make out, the big, suety fishing Grandpa who looks like Alan Lomax, the folksinger at the picnic who busts up a perfectly good Gibson L-5 archtop trying to fend off the monster, and the Adlai Stevenson look-alike who drives over to Lovers' Lane ...
His first victim looked like she was actually CRAWLING into the mouth of the monster while it was making gagging noises.
However there was some light, of a kind, at the end of the tunnel and The Creeping Terror was finally unearthed in September of 1994, only to become the next victim of Mystery Science Theater 3000.So what is it that makes this movie so terrible?
The effects they used to bring the monster to life (which in fact IS "The Creeping Terror") are the worst-looking movie effects ever.
Vic simply didn't have a clue on how to generate thrills or frights.All in all The Creeping Terror is a laughably inept movie from start to finish and after seeing it several times I'm completely convinced that it -was- the worst movie, that is until "Rollergator" happened upon the scene 32 years later.
Only there is clearly no hands inside them when we see the monster eat, I guess the person in command had to move to make space for the victims to get in.So many stories are floating around about the movie's production.
I'm giving this two stars just for the movie itself because it is so bad.The MST3K version is better because of the funny comments.I have a question:did the director think it would be more scary if he had the people in the movie not run away from the monster??
Most of them just sit there or stand there for this slow moving carpet to swallow them or they crawl inside instead.Notice the dance hall scene where they have more than enough time to get away and then,there's a fight on the other side.I know it's just a movie,but would anyone in their right mind continue to fight with someone if there's this alien on the other side eating your friends??
I did enjoy it,but only with the MST3K gang though I did watch a bit of the movie by itself,but it wasn't the same.What makes it worse,aside from the monster and the acting(if you call it that),is that the dialogue was lost,so there's A LOT of narration!!!
But for those that are connoisseurs of truly awful movies like Plan 9 from Outer Space give The Creeping Terror a shot..
Having seen such God-awful "classics" like Plan 9 From Outer Space, Manos, the Hands of Fate and The Wild World of Batwoman, this film, The Creeping Terror has them beat.
This movie is almost entirely voice-over narration, which plays over boring scenes of people doing mostly nothing.
That monsterMost of this abomination is footage of the "terror" creeping up on people at a snail's pace, confronting them, and the victims failing to do anything short of standing still and screaming.
It's so cheap and bad that in comparison, films like MONSTER A GO-GO, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and ROBOT MONSTER actually look appreciably better!
Heck, the acting and construction of most home movies from the time period is at least as good as THE CREEPING TERROR and surely it must rank in anyone's top 100 of the worst films of all time.Now does my horrible appraisal of the film mean you should not watch it?
Normally, a movie like that would at least end up in the so-bad-it's-funny category but the overuse of narration makes this thing thoroughly frustrating to watch..