This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is one of Corman's worst. It's hard to believe that a great professional like Leo Gordon wrote this. If the Cormans butchered his script, he should have taken his name off of it. There is eye candy in it for both males and females. The leading ladies are pleasant to look at, and it seemed that Jan Shepard truly enjoyed planting her chest against Ken Clark's bare, hairy wall.

More gruesome creepy-crawly creatures turn giant-size with disappointing effects in this undeniably cheap slice of swampland scaremongering produced by exploitation legend Roger Corman in his inevitable cost-cutting manner. Whilst the authentic-seeming swamp locations help to add a lot to the atmosphere of the movie, the ramshackle production values hamper it from the start, with a supposedly monstrous "giant leech" looking more like a dirty, poorly-patterned floating blanket with badly drawn-on eyeballs. Also hampered by unbelievable wooden acting from the leads and an emphasis on dialogue and plot development over the bloodsucking action promised in both the title and advertising, this is a Z-movie escapade only of interest to real fans of golden-oldies who can forgive their films' many flaws.Genetic mutation as a result of pollution is the predictable explanation behind this horrific puzzle but it's a shame the monsters are so poorly-seen yet still very tacky and unbelievable from what we do see. Towards the end there's an overload of underwater photography which alternates between being creepy and silly (the creepiest parts are when the corpses of the eaten victims float to the surface, released from their underwater caves). The man vs. monster battles which always form an integral part of such movies are rather poorly done and you never get the sense that the characters are in real danger, despite the best efforts of the music which would have you on the edge of your seat.The build-up to the battle involves lots of cheesy dialogue between redneck types and arguments as to whether the swamps should be bombed - the ecologist debate vs. the rational government approach. The acting is pretty much poor from all performers, who it seems are amateurs at this kind of thing, in fact even the unconvincing leeches themselves are better actors than most of the cast! Even though its only an hour in running time, Attack of the Giant Leeches sorely tested the patience of even this kindly reviewer - sometimes bad movies are so good that they become gems; this is so bad that it's not even funny, just poorly done and with a minimum of skill on the parts of all involved. A spiritless and unconvincing film only for generous fans of the period.

Shot over eight days on a super-low budget - with brothers Gene and Roger Corman as producer and executive producer respectively - Attack Of The Giant Leeches is a typical 50s sci-fi cheapie. The 50s was awash with films like this, brief and often absurd time-fillers made to capitalise on Cold War fears. Here, rocket activity in the Cape Canaveral area is blamed for mutated leeches which grow to human size and drag unsuspecting local yokels into the swamp. Well, it's a plot… of sorts.Local poacher Lem Sawyer (George Cisar) stumbles across a large creature quite unlike anything he has ever seen whilst wandering through swampland in the Florida Everglades. He shoots the creature several times. Later, adulterous woman Liz Walker (Yvette Vickers) and her secret lover Cal (Michael Emmett) are having one of their romantic trysts out in the swamp when Liz's husband Dave (Bruno VeSota) shows up. Dave chases the pair of them with a gun, planning to shake them up good, but to his horror he instead witnesses them being dragged into the swamp by one of the gigantic creatures shot at by Lem at the start of the film. No-one believes Dave when he tries to tell them what happened – everyone assumes he killed them in a fit of rage, and has concocted the story about the creatures to get himself off the hook. Later, some more locals searching for the missing bodies also go missing, and game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark) heads into the swamp in search of answers. He discovers a pair of human-sized, blood-sucking leeches hiding in an underwater cave, feeding off the blood of the human victims they have dragged away from the water's edge.Cheap, stupid and generally laughable, Attack Of The Giant Leeches is a pretty weak offering in all departments. Much of it is shot in such glum colour that the action is difficult to see. The acting is wooden at best, and the dialogue often borders on the downright ridiculous. It's a surprise to learn the script is by TV and film character actor Leo Gordon, who appeared in countless westerns in the 50s, 0s and 70s. Alexander Laszlo's score is a weird jingling and jangling of instruments which sounds almost as if it's being improvised on the spot. If nothing else the film is extremely short, its running time coming in around the hour mark. It may be nonsense but at least it's brief nonsense. No-one in their right mind would seriously recommend Attack Of The Giant Leeches, but if you're an addict of these low budget 50s sci-fi B-movies you may find some charm in it.

This is one of those so-bad-it's-good '50s monster flicks that is as much fun as its title, and stacks up as a quick and easy 60 minutes of monster madness. Residents of a small hick town are plagued by rubbery blood-sucking creatures living in a nearby swamp that kidnap human victims and keep them barely alive in an underwater cave so they can keep sucking them dry. For a movie of this era, it's pretty gruesome in the way the leeches suck their victims' flesh and how this leaves them as stone-faced corpses floating back up to the surface. It's always a treat to see sexy Yvette Vickers (ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN) as the town tramp, who two-times her "tub of lard husband" (Bruno Ve Sota). With Gene Roth as the doubting sheriff. **1/2 out of ****