everything you have heard about this movie is true.

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

(28%) While it does have something to offer in its final quarter, this is too dry and badly paced to be anything other than a 1950's B-movie sci-fi fan's favourite. The cast are quite capable, but they play every scene so damn seriously that they almost deserve a medal for keeping a straight face during some of the more clunky writing and quite stupid monster attacks. The monsters themselves are for a good portion of the movie totally invisible, but when they actually do show up in visible form the movie finally becomes something to enjoy as essentially human brains with spines attached start attacking the main characters making this almost worth watching. Anyone with any interest in bad old movies (Robot monster, Manos, etc) should give this a look, even if it is actually a lot better made than the lower end and therefore less fun.

Fiend Without a Face is directed by Arthur Crabtree and written by Herbert J. Leder and Amelia Reynolds Long (story The Thought Monster). It stars Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Michael Balfour and Kim Parker. Music is by Buxton Orr and cinematography by Lionel Banes.Some sort of invisible assailant loose on the Canadian border and is attacking a U.S. Army Base and the local residents in the surrounding area. The locals are convinced it has something to do with the nuclear power plant, the army not so, especially since the unseen foe's modus operandi is to suck out the brains and spinal cords of its victims!A mental vampire. A fiend!Wonderfully bonkers Brit sci-fi horror that nicely builds premise and characters to then unleash the beasties in all their stop motion gory glory. It's a pay off well worth your patience, which when it comes down to it is not a lot to ask for in a movie that doesn't even run to 80 minutes. Standard clichés of many 50s creature feature schlockers apply, such as romance, straight backed heroics, dumb decisions made and averted, nice characters, bad characters, silly dialogue and some incredibly creaky science.The principles of thought control.The budget is obviously not stretching to great heights, but Crabtree was adept at creating great suspense and atmosphere with minimal cash funds, as he proves here. There's a sense of paranoia drifting over everything, perfect for the 50s fear of the nuclear age, and scenes such as when our hero is trapped in a mausoleum are skillfully crafted for maximum impact. Then the last 15 minutes arrive and it's The Alamo as our roll call of survivors try and stave off the attack of the killer brains! Delightful creations that look like brain snails with spinal cords that leap around and attach themselves to the victims necks.The effects are nifty for the era, the gore equally so, while the sound effects, and Orr's brilliant musical score, are of a real high quality. Daft for sure, but not insultingly so like so many cheaply turned out films of the time, this is a 50s sci-fi horror fan's fun bag ticket for a good night in. 8/10

The 1950s was the decade of the cold-war paranoia sci-fi/horror movie, clever studios cashing in on the potential threat of an invasion or missile attack by the 'commies'. Fiend Without a Face proves to be one of more memorable efforts from this era thanks to its innovative script, neat direction from Arthur Crabtree, and a charming cast, but most of all perhaps, because of its cool creatures—disembodied brains, with spinal cords for tails, that suck their victims' heads dry.For much of the film, these monsters—the result of experiments in thought materialisation by well-meaning scientist Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves)—are completely invisible (but remain threatening due to the creepy noises that they make before attacking); however, after receiving an extra power boost from a nearby atomic plant, they finally appear in all their hideous glory, looking just a bit like like face-huggers that have been to university.US Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson) leads the desperate battle against the crawling brains, only pausing to make moves on the prof's shapely assistant Barbara Griselle (stunning actress Kim Parker); eventually, after an impressive stand-off against the creatures (a scene that utilises some fun stop-motion animation and plenty of 'goop'), Jeff stops off at a nearby handy-dandy dynamite depot and eliminates the beasties by blowing up the power station (rather strangely, he doesn't seem the slightest bit concerned about the very real possibility of a radiation leak as a result!).A little note of interest: although the film is set on a US air-base in Manitoba, Canada, it was actually shot in Walton-on-Thames in the UK (which, incidentally, is where I did my school work experience as a teenager).

Arthur Crabtree's 'Fiend Without A Face' used to play a lot on late night '70's television ( along with 'The Night Caller' and 'The Earth Dies Screaming' ). It scared the hell out of me the first time, and even now manages to elicit the odd shudder.It is set in Canada, where an experiment is underway at an Air Force Base to develop long-range radar with nuclear power. A sentry on guard duty is attacked by an invisible creature which sucks his brain out through two holes in his neck. Similar deaths occur in the village. Major Jeff Cummings ( Marshall Thompson, later to star in Ivan Tors' hit television show 'Daktari' ) investigates, and the trail leads to one Professor Walgate ( Kynaston Reeves ) who has been experimenting with thought power. He has inadvertently unleashed the 'fiends' - invisible for most of the film ( hence the title ) but when we get to see them they are truly horrible, resembling nothing less than human brains with waggling antennae and which propel themselves along the ground like caterpillars. The creatures were realised with stop motion animation, and are impressive for their time. What really makes them scary though is the ghastly sound effect which accompanies their attacks - a slurping combined with what sounds like a man with a wooden leg clumping upstairs. Once heard it cannot be forgotten.The climax has the main characters barricaded in a room while the fiends endeavour to break in by coming down the chimney and the window and so on. The film was shot in the U.K. hence the presence of British actors such as Reeves and Michaerl Balfour. The story has its absurd side, of course, such as Barbara ( Kim Parker ) embracing Jeff at the end, seemingly forgetting her father has just died.A nice little British sci-fi B-movie then. Joe Dante must have been a fan as his 'Looney Tunes Back In Action' ( 1998 ) features a cameo from the fiends!