The Flesh Eaters

[Andrew]

People stranded on an island discover that the ocean around them is filled with tiny flesh-eating organisms.  This B&W b-movie terrified me as a child.

Click here to go to the Review

[Raffine]

I've always had a special place in my heart for this creepy little movie.

The ingenious special effects (they scratched and poked pin holes in the surface of the film to depict the FLESH EATERS) are actually pretty effective.

Am I the world's only Martin Kosleck fan?



I thought so...

[JaseSF]

No definitely not. I love this movie. In its way, when it works it's a creepily awesome horror chiller. When it doesn't work, well it's still a lot of fun.  There's a neat review of this one by Chadzilla at Scifilm (http://www.scifilm.org/reviews3/flesheaters.html) and my old pal, a definite Martin Kosleck fan for certain, Dr. Abner Mality has a detailed review that can be found at his site Wormwood Chronicles. Just go to www.wormwoodchronicles.com, click on "Philm Freaks" and the select "Flesh Eaters - The Skinless Game".

[Shadow]

I remember catching this on TV around 1980 or so and it scaring the crap out of my friend. For months afterwards he would warily eye the water whenever we went swimming.

[Joe the Destroyer]

That flick looks freakin' awesome!  I have to catch that some time.

[Dennis]

I watched this one on late night TV and even with commercial interuptions it still gave me a scare, very fun film to watch the night before a trip to the ocean.

[Raffine]

Thanks for the links, Jase.

Kosleck was pretty memorable as a sort of "Johnny-Come-Lately" Dwight Frye in many of the later Universal monster movies, using playing some sort of dememented assistant to the villian. He was also in several of those Lon Chaney, Jr. "Inner Sanctum" mystery movies, as well.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Looking at the images at the review, reminded me why I miss black-and-white films. Blood often looks better in black-and-white than it does in color.

[JaseSF]

Doc also probably knows more about Andy Milligan than anyone else I've ever met online except for you Raffine.

[Raffine]

Doc also probably knows more about Andy Milligan than anyone else I've ever met online except for you Raffine.

Yep, I just read his essay ANDY MILLIGAN: HOME MOVIES OF THE DAMNED. He expertly summed up Milligan in one sentence:

This is not a "lovable" loser like Ed Wood, Jr. or even Al Adamson, but a tormented, twisted fellow who created movies so psychologically repulsive and visually horrible that it requires a will of iron to endure just about any of them.

Good stuff! 

And he's right; I know my curiosity about Milligan was peaked by that Michael Weldon quote I use in my signature.

Another Weldon quote I love is referring to hard-core ERASERHEAD fans: "You probably wouldn't feel comfortable in a room alone with one of them". 

 

Back to THE FLESH EATERS: wasn't the ending in color on some prints or at least tinted red? I'd swear a VHS copy I saw years ago ended like that.

[Scott]

This was a childhood favorite of mine that I recently rented from Netflix. It's has some classic B moments. It was quite a film for 1964.

[Flangepart]

  I think this has a lot of riffing potential. Yep...i gotta see this puppy...

[Toxic]

I enjoy this movie too. The 'blood in the eye' routine was beyond stupid, but you go with it. One of the things I find hilarious about the movie is this..... She 'very carefully' unbottons her shirt, one by one, takes it off as daintily as possible, then rips it to shreds to make bandages! HA ha ha ha ha ha. If she can rip the shirt into shreds with her bare hands, surely she can just rip the shirt off at the buttons sending them flying.

The DVD has a good deleted scenes. Herr Doktor talks about his Nazi concentration camp days and the film shows nude women jumping into swimming pools full of flesh eaters. You see boobs, butts, and nipples! 

[FLU-BIRD]

My god what were they thnking when they made this movie and long before they made JAWS frankly a shark is more scary

[Kim]

For many years I've carried a memory of a movie I thought was called "Creeping Flesh". I was about 5 years old. I had begged, pleaded and practically threw myself around in an attempt to get my babysitter to give in at the time and allow me to watch it instead of going to bed. Of course she gave in and I regretted my stupidity for years afterward. For many, many nights I lay in my bed staring wide eyed into the darkness while the horrid image of a skeleton wearing a raincoat and hitchhiking on the side of the road, (his bony thumb sticking out of the sleeve of the coat) burned it's way endlessly into my brain!! I couldn't admit to my parents that I had seen the movie because I'd made a solemn promise to the babysitter. If she let me watch, I had to swear I'd never tell on her. If I did she might never be able to babysit me again which meant no more shoulder rides, t.v. past bedtime and a bunch of other things that made her cool to keep around. No, I would keep my promise.  I had a heapload of skeleton dreams for many years after. The image of that damned skeleton in the raincoat is still as crisp and clear in my mind as it was the day I watched it. I am 42 years old now. I have a wonderful collection of 50's and 60's B sci fi and horror flicks that is growing by leaps and bounds. I am proud of my collection. If it wasn't for this site I would have never known the true name of the movie that made such a huge impact on my life as a kid. Of course it scared the Hell out of me then but isn't that what they were meant to do? Out of that fear grew a love for the best damn movies ever made. I am so excited to now be able to find and add this great flick to my collection.