Sadly Over-hyped

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

From my favorite movies..

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The only people who will not be STERILIZED with FEAR are those among you who are already DEAD! The Flesh Eaters is a 60's film which is all but forgotten. I don't know why, because it's pretty damn good especially considering it was the director's only film and the cinematographer's use of black and white and unusual camera angles made the film even more interesting.There are some gruesome effects in this as well which was something probably not seen much at that time. As the title implies, these microbial monsters devour human flesh at an alarming rate, so we see a few choice scenes of what I'd call "gore" in this film. However, there are some weird composite FX shots which don't work very well, and at times the movie drags with some long dialog scenes. The acting is very good though, and if you can find it check out the version with the Nazi experimentation scene in it.I'm not usually into remakes, but I think the Flesh Eaters could be remade well if placed in the right hands.

Surprisingly effective low-budget horror film about a creep (Martin Kosleck) on an isolated island trying to replicate Nazi experiments with flesh-eating organisms. A pilot transporting an alcoholic actress and her assistant is forced to make an emergency landing on the island and business picks up from there. A good B horror flick with some nice cinematography and special effects that were gory for the time. Despite its budgetary limitations it's pretty neat. Most of the movie takes place in one location, on a beach. Several moments of unintended hilarity, such as Byron Sanders' character talking about his ex ("I actually loved that little tramp.") or every scene involving Ray Tudor's beatnik (I'm comin', my people, I'm comin'!"). Sexy Barbara Wilkin has a nice scene taking off her shirt to help bandage Sander's wound. Tame by today's standards of course. Martin Kosleck is good fun as the mad scientist and the rest of the cast is enjoyable enough. Worth a look even if it isn't going to change your life.

Martin Kosleck's number was in the Los Angeles phone directory,and I just happened to dial long distance on two occasions in 1982.The man himself answered the first time,and Christopher Drake the second,and between them,I had the opportunity to express my appreciation for "The Flesh Eaters"(1962).Mr.Drake(who also appeared in the film)related the sad news that the director,Jack Curtis,had died in 1970,and that all the filmmakers were justifiably proud of their efforts,though only the distributors saw much of the profits.He added that shooting was done on weekends over two successive summers,which confirms the impression that it was a labor of love.What I never learned until recently,is that the film was shot silent and completely post-dubbed,an amazing feat that is not obvious on first viewing.Rarely offered starring roles(and doing only a dozen features after 1948),Martin Kosleck here gets to play what I consider the most detestable villain in cinema history,and it is clearly his own voice on the soundtrack,done in the same dedicated fashion as the rest of the cast.While the beatnik character of Omar may be off-putting to some,his death scene is my favorite in the picture,as the doctor effortlessly convinces the ninny that they should drink a toast to friendship,which hits "the ever lovin' spot"(Omar's words),unaware that the doc has spiked his drink with a fatal dose of Flesh Eaters(which the audience is clearly shown).Far better written than just a clichéd mad scientist,there is never a point when Kosleck earns any sympathy,even when his death scene is shown to be just as horrific as Omar's.But at Universal in 1944-46,Kosleck was treated like a star,and fondly remembered one in particular,the 1946 thriller "House of Horrors," in which his villainous "starving artist of ill repute," driven insane in clichéd fashion by an unappreciative public,never once loses our sympathy as he induces a spine-snapping killer known as The Creeper(Rondo Hatton)to strike back at his enemies.The top-billed leads,Robert Lowery and Virginia Grey,are such a tiresome,colorless pair of boorish nincompoops(along with all of the big city critics on hapless display),you begin to wonder if Martin's character is written to be the hero! His roles in bigger films like Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent"(1940),"Confessions of a Nazi Spy"(1939),and numerous other Nazis were usually small,so it was these "forgotten little programmers" that gave him more exposure and garnered more fan mail.On a final note,he pointed out that the actor he most enjoyed working with was Basil Rathbone,first in 1940's "The Mad Doctor," then 1945's "Pursuit to Algiers." The former was not about your typical mad scientist but a complex psychodrama,with Kosleck snuffing out his share of victims,the latter was one of the last Sherlock Holmes adventures,with Kosleck as another homicidal maniac,whose knife-wielding abilities are negated by Holmes' swift actions.There aren't many left from Hollywood's Golden Age,and there won't be another due to changes in technology,the death of the drive-ins,and the radicalization of Tinseltown.The films will survive the people who made them.

Just a couple of weeks ago I caught a flick on the Monster HD channel called "The Brain Eaters", so when this one followed I just had to be there. There's just something dreadfully intriguing about pictures this cheesy, and if you watch enough of them, you really get to form a weird perspective and insight. For example, when I first saw the skeleton that washed ashore in an early scene, I couldn't help but wonder if it was the same one that was used at the bottom of the swimming pool in the following year's "Teenagers From Outer Space". You watch enough of these and you can put together all kinds of connections that your friends and relatives will marvel at.Now if I didn't know better, I'd also be wondering if Omar's 'Rosebud' raft was an inadvertent tribute to 1941's "Citizen Kane". Geez, I can't believe I even came close to that one. But you know, this flick has it's share of great lines like the one in my summary above. Or how about Murdoch's excellent analysis of the stranded islanders' situation - "Let's face facts Professor, we've stumbled onto a living horror".Here's what I'm thinking. You take the basic set up, a number of people of diverse backgrounds on an isolated island in the middle of an ocean. Let's say you've got this professor, a washed up actress full of herself, a hot looking assistant that the viewer can immediately relate to. Throw in a rugged good looking hero, and as a foil, come up with a beatnik character for the young set. You might also want to add an eccentric wealthy couple whose money is no good in their current predicament. I guess there's no way of knowing which work came first or which one inspired the other, but in "Gilligan's Island", the laughs were at least intentional.