I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Yes you read it correctly, we are really plumbing the B-movie depths here with this little beauty. Attack of the crab monsters huh, just when you thought they had used every known bug and fishy-type thing possible, they throw this at you, what's next...lobsters, ahem! Yes its yet another 1957 flick, the year of the giant creature feature, and yet again the movies poster is completely bullshit, at no point does a female get grabbed by a giant crab like that. You notice every one of these giant creature B-movies has an almost identical poster layout.Believe it or not this movie is actually a Roger Corman offering. Maybe not so surprising seeing as this Hollywood legend has seemingly been around forever, making movies in all genres and having worked with everyone. In all honesty I was a bit surprised as I didn't realise Corman went back this far into the 50's giant bug phenomenon.Plot wise its a bit different than the usual fair, not as straight forward as you might expect. OK...first off the basic premise is what you would expect, a team of scientists are sent to a remote Pacific island to look for the last team that went missing. At the same time they are also following on with the research into the effect of radiation in the area after nuclear bomb testing (of course). Naturally some giant mutated crabs ate the last team (shocking), and are a result of the bomb testing (you don't say). The interesting and bizarre twist comes in the fact that these crabs absorb the minds of their victims and are able to telepathically communicate with other living humans. When this happens the telepathic messages from the crabs are in the voices of the dead victims that have been eaten. So not only is this a giant creature feature, its also a weird kind of spiritual ghost story of sorts, well that's the way it comes across at times.Now its clear to see this movie was made on a small budget, the fact its a Corman movie means you can bet your bottom Dollar it was probably made for a pittance. What gives this notion away? well for a start there is nothing to look at, no fancy sets, no lovely locations, no swish props or costumes etc...nothing. It was clearly shot on the coast in America somewhere and inside a small hut for the most part, probably a basic set was used. The giant crabs in question also look pretty terrible it must be said. Yes they do have some decent scale to them, they are large mechanical puppets that do look like crabs and the actors are able to interact with them. The problem being they obviously don't move too well, they tend to just sit in one place and move the odd limb around in jerky motions. The other problem being they have two large humanoid eyes, why would you do this?? it looks ridiculous. This has happened in other giant bug movies before, giving the creature humanoid eyes which in turn gives the creature a face, emotions, something you don't wanna see on a large killing machine. What's more these eyes look dreadful! big pupils, big eyelids and they almost look like they have eyelashes, they make the creature look like a giant child's toy. Seriously what were they thinking?!Speaking of eyes, the lead female character (played by Pamela Duncan) sports some incredibly obvious and large fake eyebrows. Seriously these things look like they've been painted on with a thick brush and look totally out of proportion, its quite absurd really. As for the cast and their acting skills, well, there's not much to say really. We've seen this type of acting in all these big bug B-movies, its a very formulaic type of performance which doesn't really tend to change much. The characters are all the same too, the handsome lead, the older scientist, the attractive female and a few other blokes that are essentially monster fodder. The only difference here is the inclusion of a French character, it doesn't add anything really, other than a different accent to listen to.In general, I didn't like this movie, the plot is just weird with all the telepathic nonsense going on. Other plot explanations just don't make any sense either, like how on earth these crabs manage to create earthquakes on the island, and why, but mainly how. Apparently the crabs want to reach the mainland so they can eat more humans and absorb their minds, no clue why they would wanna do this, or how this benefits them, but there you go. It feels more like an alien invasion sci-fi flick with all this talk of absorbing human minds, mind you (no pun intended), the film is atmospheric at times I'll give it that. There were moments when it did feel a bit creepy, especially with the haunting telepathic messages and the clicking noise the crabs make. There was also the odd bit of gore too, a decapitation and the loss of a hand, don't get too over excited though.4/10

...........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL Nine Years Old…That's how old I was when CRAB MONSTERS was released! When did I become a B Movie junkie? Probably from age 7 or 8, who knows, maybe even 6! When the conversation turns to those schlocky B movies of the 50's and 60's, this Roger Corman classic is one of the first that comes to mind! Corman is King! He really knows how to pack a lot of action into 62 minutes! Yes, this 1957 Classic is barely over one hour in length! With this in mind, no doubt, CRAB MONSTERS gives us on screen fun within its first couple minutes…What is there to analyze about a classic Corman film? From the beginning, we all knew that the bad guys (In this case, the gigantic via radiation Crabs) would all get theirs in the end and the world would be safe…until the next Roger Corman film was released a couple months later!....Ah….Those were the days, right? Whatever your age bracket, you can get together with friends, some popcorn, snacks and some ….(?????) and have an hour of cinematic roller-coaster fun, from one of the most prolific names in Hollywood, who has been involved in about 500 FILMS…WOW! 8*.....ENJOY!/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!.....KissEnglishPasto@Yahoo.com

People are trapped on a shrinking island by intelligent, brain-eating giant crabs...The film was written by Charles B. Griffith and produced and directed by Roger Corman. Not unlike other Corman productions, he gave Griffith the title before any writing even started. Like other films of the 1950s, the problem is traced to radiation, this time from the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests. But then we stray a bit -- there are not just mutated giant crabs, but ones who have gained intelligence by absorbing the minds of their victims.Interestingly, because the film is set on an island, one of the stars is Russell Johnson, best known for his role as the Professor on "Gilligan's Island". He had already made his mark in science fiction thanks to "It Came from Outer Space" (1953) and "This Island Earth" (1955).The film also stars Mel Welles before he became "known" (and I use that loosely) for his role in Corman and Griffith's "Little Shop of Horrors" and the much later Corman-financed cult classic "Chopping Mall". (He also wrote, directed and produced the 1971 Italian film "Lady Frankenstein".)This was Corman's most profitable film to date, and it is easy to see why. With a small cast and crew, but a unique plot and an inventive villain, this film is all about ideas and not about budget. For a perfect example of how Roger Corman became the king of low budget film, you need not look any further than this one.

How a film called Attack of the Crab Monsters could ever not be celebrated amongst the cinematic greats is beyond all sense and reason. The title alone is so evocative and exciting that it would hardly be more noteworthy if every word were followed by an exclamation point. What's more, this glorious title does not even mislead its audience – no false advertising with this titan of excitement, this goliath of grotesquery. Make no mistake, the crab monsters do attack… and then some! Director Roger Corman, immortalized in film history as the man pivotal in kickstarting the careers of Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and Robert De Niro, as well as the creative force behind recent masterpiece Sharktopus, here delivers his opus, his most decadent gift to the industry and viewers alike. Who could forget those blaring opening title cards? "You are about to land in a lonely zone of terror! You are part of the second scientific expedition dispatched to this mysterious bit of coral reef and volcanic rock. The first group has disappeared without a trace! Your job is to find out why!" The very assembly of words is more shocking and chilling than a jellyfish popping up in the midst of one's swim trunks. Indeed, the film becomes all the more horrifying through the weight and responsibility it bestows upon the viewer. Who would dare to fail to find out where and how the first group disappeared?! No idle watching here! And then. Tension, so thick, it feels ready to crack like an overcooked crustacean leg, as the smouldering scientists sear the screen, steadily speculating that the seemingly idyllic island is not as tranquil as it seems. What are those mysterious noises at night? Why does the voice of the French (?) professor continue to be faintly heard by the intrepid heroes, nights after his tragic and mysterious disappearance? Is he a ghost? Or have they merely descended into the bowels of… madness? The twist, of course, is as elementary as it is cunning: the professor has been absorbed into the psychic hive mind of the giant, radioactive land crabs, which also absorbed the essence of the former expedition crew! Whether this classic scene has been watched once or a thousand times, it never loses its raw poignancy, its emotion, its numbing fatality – an effect none of its countless imitators and parodies through the ages can do justice to. Indeed, as the intrigue continues, the crabs craft an increasingly persuasive argument to the benefits of being part of their psychic hive mind. No more feeble physicality, only a mass of mercury! No more moral quandaries, only some mighty impressive claws! Who could argue for tiresome autonomy and humanity, when faced with the prospect of having claws like that? Even the absurdist fretting of Ionesco pales in comparison to the existential torment embodied by Corman's masterpiece. As such, the film's genius lies not in its cutting edge special effects (groundbreaking even today), but in the psychological fearlessness of its narrative. Why be human, when you could be a crab? Such a message lingers long after the film's (surely purposefully) jarring ending, haunting one's thoughts, like the murmurs of oh so many psychic crabs. Like the man whose hand is pointlessly severed by a falling rock, all we can do is gape in stunned horror that Corman's treatise on the human (and crustacean) condition has yet to attain its rightful recognition. -5/10