The Revenge of the 31 Days of Cheese - Day 2 - The Crawling Eye

Continuing our little British Horror movie side bar today’s slice of cheese is 1958’s the Crawling Eye.

Staring Forest Tucker (yes the f-troop guy). Really there isn’t much to the film; you got an Eye and it crawls right? That’s about it. What else do you need?

Forest Tucker plays the male lead who is going by train to the Trollenberg Mountain in Switzerland where folks have been dying a lot more than usual – on the way he meets the female lead Anne (Janet Muro for those of you keeping score) and Janet’s sister. Anne it turns out is Psychic which has something to do with the plot but in the end not much. they all get off at Trollenberg (Anne has some sort of psychic episode and insists of getting off there) and get rooms at what seems to be the one hotel in the area – then after drinks (yes it’s another British film so get used to this) Forest is sort of staked by this creepy guy who offers to help him unpack (which is as weird as it sounds) and then is overheard making a phone call about Forest. After that Forest heads up to a scientific station set up high in the mountains via cable car. The scientific station is run by a friend of Forests who is studying cosmic rays – and who, after showing off the place – which is about as well fortified as a bunker on Normandy beach in WW 2 – says ominously that what was happening in Peru is happening again. There is a stationary cloud on the mountain and it’s very cold in the cloud and it’s radioactive – Dah! Dah! Dah! Goes the music. Seems back in Peru people died Psychic’s acted wonky and there was radiation. Forest is some sort of U.N. guy who tried to get the Peru incident investigated but the cloud was gone by the time the team arrived so he’s kind of behind the 8 ball and not willing to cry wolf just yet. This of course means people die but that’s okay Forest – at least you won’t look like a fool.

There is much talk at the bar later about the accidents and it seems two folks are going up the mountain to investigate why – One is a overweight gentleman who is said to be some sort of geologist (we’ll call him Dead Meat #1) and the other is a mountain guide who doesn’t think anything odd is happening at all (he will be known as Dead Meat #2) . Before they start off they have a drink (and buy the rest of the bar one – this is a British movie after all) and then well they go to get killed.

In order to build suspense the movie shows us Anne and her sister doing their mind reading act for the rest of the folks in the hotel (along with Forest’s Friend). We briefly flash to the dead meat climbers who are who have reached a rest shack about ½ up the mountain and we’re back at the party when all of sudden Anne enters into a trance describes dead meat #2 becoming dead meat #2 and the faints. Forest calls the shack and we get confirmation that Dead Meat #2 is not in the shack and then shortly afterwards we see dead meat #1 become dead meat.

The next morning – we see the villagers go up into the mountain (against their better judgment) but as Forest explains if they did the sensible thing the body count of the film wouldn’t be as high as it needs to be – well he doesn’t really say that but that’s the effect.

At the cabin the find dead meat #1 frozen and headless – it seems to like to off heads – so they are either dealing with Aliens or the Red Queen. They continue their search until they discover dead meat #2 wandering about on the mountain. It turns out he’s carrying dead meat #1’s head in his knapsack and in a further show of bad manners kills the two climbers trying to rescue him.

Meantime at the hotel drinks are being drunk and it turns out the creepy guy is a reporter who had heard about what had happened in Peru and suspects that this is the same thing.

Could it be Aliens – nobody asks that but well who the hell else is it going to be?

Anyway just then Dead Meat #2 shows up – he doesn’t seem to remember anything and he talks about how hot it is – he has trouble pouring a drink, he can’t light a cigarette – but when Anne comes downstairs he gets real active real quick and tries to kill Anne – Forest bashes him in the head and down he goes but he doesn’t bleed. He’s some kind of zombiecile under control of THE ALIENS.

Later Dead Meat #2 wakes up and tries to kill Anne again – this time Forest shoots him. Meantime the cloud is moving Forest orders everybody up to the Cosmic Ray Station which is only slightly less well armored than Fort Knox – there is a predictable bit where a child’s ball is left behind – then the child runs after it and finally we get to see the creatures. And yes they have a bit old eye and the crawl. Forest rescues the girl and they all hole up in the cosmic ray station as the eye creatures slither towards them.

There is another zombie attack on the rather helpless Anne. Forest says she is a menace to them but the film never quite makes clear how she is a menace. In the end Forest is able to call in an air strike that kills them using incendiary bombs the Alien’s weakness is heat – I’d think that sort of thing would be a greater menace than some physic but I’m not an alien. So a rather odd alien invasion is beaten off – and the world can rest easy – and then as the alien bodies smolder in the dying sunlight – the Psychic and the reporter go for a walk and Forest starts looking for the booze.

This film is also famous for being the very first film Mystery Science Theater 3000 did on the comedy channel. Worth a look for the eye creatures which are a hoot and there is a nice bit of build up here and there.

Enjoy with Stilton Cheese crackers and more Scotch.