Dark Sky Films has been responsible for the release of several ultra-obscure low-budget horror and exploitation gems over the past few months. But with this recent release, the label’s really hit its stride. Originally released in 1964, THE FLESH EATERS is a hodge-podge of horror and Sci-Fi clichés—a stranded travel party, a mad professor bent on world destruction, a genetically mutated monster, Nazi experiments, a buxom blonde, a dash of gore and bargain-basement special effects. But overall, the film puts all these elements to good use.
A down-on-his-luck pilot Grant Murdoch (Byron Sanders) grudgingly agrees to fly drunk and has-been movie star Laura Winters (Rita Morley), and her level headed assistant Jan (Barbara Wilkin, the buxom one) to a place called Provincetown. In the air he encounters mechanical problems and is forced to land on a supposedly uninhabited island. Once on the island the three encounter the lecherous and leering Professor Bartell (Martin Kosleck), who offers the visitors some primitive accommodations, much to the chagrin of Miss Winters. Kosleck is highly effective with his annoying faux-German accent, and self-aggrandizing and snippy quips. While on the island the “guests” experience several strange happenings—a skeleton at high tide, a slimy, electrified entity that eats through flesh, a strange incubator cultivating the monsters, plus, the death of a wayward beatnik (who spouts some of the corniest peace-and-love dialog imaginable)—and come to realize that Bartell is behind it all. And it’s not long before they discover that he has even more devastating plans up his sinister sleeve.
What works best in THE FLESH EATERS is its hopeless, foreboding atmosphere. The dialog is often silly, the acting negligible and the special effects obviously low budget, but the creepy ambiance that imbues the film comes off without a hitch. You truly get the feeling that all is lost and nothing is fixable, and that’s what elevates film above the hordes of paranoid, atomic age B-movies of the day. The bonus features on this DVD are also quite intriguing. Extra scenes were actually filmed by director Jack Curtis, but he chose not to use them. One of said scenes depicts Nazi lab experiments with the flesh eaters, with naked young women jumping into a vat of liquid containing the lethal ooze, only to reemerge as hair and bones. These sticky scenes are so blunt and emotionless in composition that they make for some truly uncanny viewing.
With its paranoid aura, low-budget charm and unpretentious approach, THE FLESH EATERS is an enjoyable little romp back to the golden age of cheap B-movies. Go ahead, help yourself.
+ Jim Kaz
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