Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

As dead bodies missing brains and spinal cords begin to mount, the staff at a nearby nuclear power plant try to prove that radiation poisoning is not to blame while a scientist questions if telekinesis is responsible in this low budget horror film. There are several eerie moments early on as the titular fiend remains invisible while choking its victims and the filmmakers make good use of the shadowy interiors of their indoor sets. The film is most famous though for its climax in which the monsters become visible, which ultimately proves a mixed blessing. The stop motion effects are very innovative and even quite creepy, however, the monsters also look incredibly plastic (rather than organic) in close-up and several of their attacks are inane. The best asset of the film is probably its telekinesis pseudoscience with a fascinating scene in which a scientist gradually manages to move a book page with his mind, however, this all gets a little lost amidst the film's 1950s Cold War paranoia slant with fear of thought control and the unknown possibilities of nuclear energy. There is also some terribly silly comic relief (walking in on a woman coming out of the shower) and all of the characters are barely fleshed out beyond stereotype, but as far as B-feature monster movies go, this is certainly one of the more imaginative and atmospheric entries out there.

The plot to "Fiend Without a Face" appears absurd on paper today; it was probably also perceived as somewhat absurd in 1958, although the collective cultural consciousness at that time was less judgmental when it came to films about walking, moving brains and "mental vampires." The plot hinges on a US-Canadian military base that becomes inundated with creatures that are the offspring of a local atomic experiment, and Marshall Thompson is in charge of investigating a string of mysterious deaths as a result.In some ways just as hokey as you'd imagine, and in others ten times more sophisticated than you could ever predict, "Fiend Without a Face" is a prime example of '50s sci-fi schlock done right. It borders on absurdist science fiction, but the political climate of 1958 speaks to the film's nuclear content and the imagined terrors of the period. Accentuated by some impressive use of stop-motion animation in creating the animated brain-things is one major highlight of the film, coming into full focus as it reaches its finale. Again, all hokiness aside, the actual concept of the villainous creature(s) is grotesque— living, moving brains with spinal cords— and that alone is enough to lend some heebie jeebies no matter how fantastical that may be. Classy black-and-white cinematography provides the usual appropriate framing of darkness and shadows common to the horror films of this era, and there are some great compositions on display here.Overall, "Fiend Without a Face" is everything you'd probably expect from a film about killer brains, but the fact remains that, at the end of the day, it's quite simply a really well-made film. It delivers equal numbers of suspense and visual flair, it's classily shot, and the special effects are a treat. It may be the cinematic equivalent of a '50s dimestore sci-fi novel, but that's fine by me. 9/10.

Fiend Without a Face rises above the typical 50s matinée fare with decent special effects, a suspenseful plot, and some surprisingly gruesome violence for the era. At an isolated Alaskan Air Force Base, people begin turning up dead with their brains and spinal cords removed. What follows is a confrontation with an invisible and deadly force.Despite a silly concept which strains the bounds of even fifties science fiction, the film manages to create a genuinely suspenseful atmosphere. The director gives us numerous shots of experimental jets flying through the sky ominously, while the setting adds a sense of isolation and foreboding in many respects similar to John Carpenter's The Thing.The film also benefits from some surprisingly graphic violence for its time period. When a monster gets shot, blood flows. All in all, this is an entertaining fifties creature feature that is definitely worth a look.

The 1950s was the decade of the cold-war paranoia sci-fi/horror movie, clever studios cashing in on the potential threat of an invasion or missile attack by the 'commies'. Fiend Without a Face proves to be one of more memorable efforts from this era thanks to its innovative script, neat direction from Arthur Crabtree, and a charming cast, but most of all perhaps, because of its cool creatures—disembodied brains, with spinal cords for tails, that suck their victims' heads dry.For much of the film, these monsters—the result of experiments in thought materialisation by well-meaning scientist Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves)—are completely invisible (but remain threatening due to the creepy noises that they make before attacking); however, after receiving an extra power boost from a nearby atomic plant, they finally appear in all their hideous glory, looking just a bit like like face-huggers that have been to university.US Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson) leads the desperate battle against the crawling brains, only pausing to make moves on the prof's shapely assistant Barbara Griselle (stunning actress Kim Parker); eventually, after an impressive stand-off against the creatures (a scene that utilises some fun stop-motion animation and plenty of 'goop'), Jeff stops off at a nearby handy-dandy dynamite depot and eliminates the beasties by blowing up the power station (rather strangely, he doesn't seem the slightest bit concerned about the very real possibility of a radiation leak as a result!).A little note of interest: although the film is set on a US air-base in Manitoba, Canada, it was actually shot in Walton-on-Thames in the UK (which, incidentally, is where I did my school work experience as a teenager).