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The Crawling Eye (1958) - Directed by Quentin Lawrence
"You watch on the screen, see what happens."
Everybody knows Mystery Science Theater 3000, the show where a guy and two robots talk through the worst movies ever made. MST3k is one of my favorite shows, and I sometimes watch it just to see the terrible movie since crappy movies amuse me. But the shows first episode almost felt like the show had not reached its proper ground, because the first episode's featured movie, The Crawling Eye (known internationally as The Trollenberg Terror), is NOT one of the worst movies ever.
In this classic 1950's independent film, a monster that surrounds itself in clouds in the Trollenberg mountains terrorizes climbers, killing one of them. As a woman gets a strange sensation from those mountains, scientists try to unearth the secrets of the mountain, unaware it's a giant eyeball.
OK, since this was the first MST3K episode ever (unless you count season zero), I expected a crap-fest fit for popcorn and laughs. But it was actually an OK movie. I was very interested in it after the plot twist at the intro, which was fairly well delivered. And there was some story to the film which kept me interested in where the film would go. It took some science into account, kept the characters occupied and never doing nothing, and did what it could to connect them, dispite some unexplained questions that will never be fully explained. I still don't understand why that woman had the visions.
And I'm going to get this out of the way: the effects for the monster were awesome for 1958. If you're gonna make a crawling eye, that's practically the way it needed to look. Even some Star Trek costumes were cheesier than this. The way that creature was made was the best part about the whole movie, because I was expecting something like terrible stop-motion or a big plastic doll. The realism of the creature made the film a little more exciting than I anticipated.
As for the criticism, it's enough to warrant a severe cut from its rating. The acting and characters weren't that spectacular. If I had to fault the movie for anything, it would definitely be the flatness of the characters. Sometimes they were so dull ina cting and development to the point I considered turning off the film. No movie should ever make that mistake.
Well, that's my review for the first MST3K film, The Crawling Eye. Its a little boring, but more well developed than most, if not all of the movies featured on that show. I'd welcome a remake if they put more focus into the character.
"You watch on the screen, see what happens."
Everybody knows Mystery Science Theater 3000, the show where a guy and two robots talk through the worst movies ever made. MST3k is one of my favorite shows, and I sometimes watch it just to see the terrible movie since crappy movies amuse me. But the shows first episode almost felt like the show had not reached its proper ground, because the first episode's featured movie, The Crawling Eye (known internationally as The Trollenberg Terror), is NOT one of the worst movies ever.
In this classic 1950's independent film, a monster that surrounds itself in clouds in the Trollenberg mountains terrorizes climbers, killing one of them. As a woman gets a strange sensation from those mountains, scientists try to unearth the secrets of the mountain, unaware it's a giant eyeball.
OK, since this was the first MST3K episode ever (unless you count season zero), I expected a crap-fest fit for popcorn and laughs. But it was actually an OK movie. I was very interested in it after the plot twist at the intro, which was fairly well delivered. And there was some story to the film which kept me interested in where the film would go. It took some science into account, kept the characters occupied and never doing nothing, and did what it could to connect them, dispite some unexplained questions that will never be fully explained. I still don't understand why that woman had the visions.
And I'm going to get this out of the way: the effects for the monster were awesome for 1958. If you're gonna make a crawling eye, that's practically the way it needed to look. Even some Star Trek costumes were cheesier than this. The way that creature was made was the best part about the whole movie, because I was expecting something like terrible stop-motion or a big plastic doll. The realism of the creature made the film a little more exciting than I anticipated.
As for the criticism, it's enough to warrant a severe cut from its rating. The acting and characters weren't that spectacular. If I had to fault the movie for anything, it would definitely be the flatness of the characters. Sometimes they were so dull ina cting and development to the point I considered turning off the film. No movie should ever make that mistake.
Well, that's my review for the first MST3K film, The Crawling Eye. Its a little boring, but more well developed than most, if not all of the movies featured on that show. I'd welcome a remake if they put more focus into the character.