Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Nothing special, just another movie about giant mutant crabs who collect human consciousnesses and use telekinetic powers to cause geological disruptions. Really, nothing special, you've seen one, you've seen them all. Only Roger Corman (and his regular writing partner Charles B. Griffith) could come up with a movie about crabs who mutated after nuclear tests and obtained telepathic and telekinetic powers. Corman's exploits tended to use more original and outrageous ideas even compared bigger budgeted studio contemporaries. So, this time the monsters are not simply giant brutal killing machines - this time they are also intelligent. Film's running time is merely over an hour and almost every minute of it is filled with action - looking for missing companions in the caves, or fighting with the monsters, or running from them. The plot is simple - an expedition goes to the island to investigate what happened to previous expedition who got lost without a trace. The film's budget was $70.000 and it made a whole million back at the box office, thus making 'Attack of the Crab Monsters' most profitable film Roger Corman ever directed.It's title is classical 'That Monster From There' type they made tons in the fifties, but very few could get close in the department of originality. Corman had sense to add a twist to the film to make it more intelligent - that is making the Styrofoam monsters intelligent. With that turning simple monster movie into highly entertaining (and surreal) experience.What a fun.

Here's another great title from Roger Corman, but it's a shame about the movie itself which has a lot of potential but doesn't really take that anywhere. The silly script and bizarre storyline seems to have been made up on the spot (knowing Corman's track record, maybe it was) and is a far cry from the acclaimed Poe adaptations he would be creating a few years later. Instead what we have is a campy, no-budget B-movie in which giant, poorly-designed crabs go around and kill a few people with their rubber claws. Oh, and they're indestructible and can communicate telepathically with people, okay? Still, it's not the worst film ever made and will pass the time moderately well for bad movie lovers, and the best thing is that it's admirably short.The strange storyline and ridiculous plot elements (the island on which our cast are stranded is shrinking all the while) make for one weird film which plays like a bad nightmare. To make matters even more bizarre, a scene halfway through the film which shows a man falling down a rope into a pit is actually tacked on to the beginning of the movie, so you start off in the thick of the action and wonder what the hell is going on! There is no explanation for this error and it just added to the experience for me.The cast will be an unfamiliar one to people who don't watch a lot of these type of films, although Mel Welles appears in a small supporting role as a scientist. Richard Garland is the boringly straight hero while Pamela Duncan makes for a voluptuous heroine who looks great in a swimsuit. The movie is surprisingly gory in places for the time in which it was made, with the standout being the discovery of a headless corpse. However, the crabs fail to be the least bit threatening - or even plausible - with one risible moment showing a crab apparently "snoring". That's a new one on me! It's a shame that the budget and technical proficiency behind this film was so low, as the spirit was indeed willing as you might say. This is a film which will only appeal to those devoted to Corman's career or crappy B-movies of the '50s in general.

Attack of the Crab Monsters is the greatest movie ever made! It has everything! It has crabs! It has monsters! It has crab monsters! It even has monster crabs! It has claws! Claws for tearing! Claws for smashing! Claws for waving! Claws for spreading terror! The crabs are so big they are monstrous! They are huge! If you ever came across a crab in a dark alley you would not want it to be one of these crabs! They are so big they send scary crab-shadows all over everything! They are terrifying! I still can't sleep! The Professor from Gilligan's Island is in this and even he is afraid! He is a genius but still he is afraid! He is smart enough to know to run in terror from the Crab Monsters! They are horrifying!!!!

As a friend of mine pointed out, if someone gives Corman $60K to make a film, he'll manage to make it look like it had a budget of a million. Alas, if he gets a million to make a movie...it'll still look as if it had a budget of a million. Of course, this also means that Corman movies have a certain look and rough charm that lets the viewer identify anything he's done within a minute of starting to watch it, even if they start in the middle.AOTCM...well, it has its charms. As with all Corman films, there's a germ of an intriguing idea driving the screenplay, and there's mystery, intrigue,suspense,claustrophobia, and some hard working actors trying to sell the ludicrous dialog. They actually manage to get through some typically over-packed expository stuff in the beginning without bogging things down, and the screenplay cleverly lets us get to see the characters for a few minutes before introducing them by name. So "Attack" actually starts out pretty well.Alas, about 15-20 minutes in (I count it as the spot where the geologist decides to shimmy down into a newly created pit), the brains of the movie sort of leak out its nose and ears and things get turgid and pretty silly after that. Major plot holes start developing and are never plugged up, there's a couple of plot twists that don't really lead anywhere, at least two of the characters seem suicidally dumb, and the movie just stops dead at the end as if it were a Roadrunner cartoon.Still, I liked it for what it was and had a pretty good time. I was pleased to see Russell Johnson in the mix (his character actually has a wistful moment with the heroine which comes off pretty well), and the idea of telepathic crabs luring their victims to their doom with the voices of the crabs' previous victims has a certain zing to it.Strictly sci fi movie fodder, like most of Corman's output, but if you like his style, you'll like this.