An okay-to-good '50s monster romp which suffers from a lack of action in the first hour - but more than makes up for it in a thrilling finale which involves a bunch of people being trapped in a farmhouse while the monsters mass and attack outside. Before this we have to put up with a bunch of unlikeable, clichéd characters shouting and fighting each other. Firstly there are the dumb, heavily-accented "country folk" who blame the murders on the new scientific research station in their midst; then the wooden, stern military officers who romance the ladies and save the day.Marshall Thompson stars in this film, and he puts in the same stoic, expressionless performance as he did in FIRST MAN INTO SPACE, playing exactly the same character too. Nobody else figures much in the story, which is populated with the kind of stock characters you always see in these '50s flicks - the female assistant with the tight sweater, the old fuddy duddy scientist, and the military chief who absolutely will not, no, cannot, listen to reason.Although supposedly set in America, this was filmed in England, and works wonders on a tight budget. To liven up the snail pace of the first hour we have a few creative death sequences which manage to be effective despite having no special effects at all. You see, these monsters are invisible, so the actors and actresses have to pretend to be attacked. What makes these potentially-laughable attacks work are the gloopy, gooey sound effects loudly imposed over the on screen action. Things move on to a shot of an invisible monster moving through bushes, a door and then a house, all achieved with some clever effects a la THE INVISIBLE MAN.Viewers need to take a break from reality while watching this, as the explanation for the creation of the monsters has to be one of the most unbelievable I've ever heard - I won't go into it here because it's too confusing. Thankfully, when the monsters do eventually become visible, they're nicely designed, all brains and tentacle and slithery tails (also doubling as spinal cords, as it happens). The superb ending sees a ton of these "fiends" shot at, and they bleed strawberry jam all over the place and rot away in some surprisingly graphic moments which foreshadow the disgusting disintegrations which marked the destruction of the disturbing demons in THE EVIL DEAD. The stop motion effects used to animate them are brilliant, and a must-see.This exciting finale has obviously been quite influential in the genre - check out the scene where the heroes barricade themselves in a room, hammering planks over the windows while the monsters mill around outside - recreated almost shot-by-shot in Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I've no doubt that the designers of the facehugger in ALIEN saw these monsters beforehand too. Check out the hilarious bit where the old fuddy duddy runs outside and is immediately devoured by three of the creatures. "He was a brave man" says one bystander - stupid, more like! Usually I would rate this film higher, but it's only average because the first hour (below average) outweighs the final twenty minutes (superb).

(28%) While it does have something to offer in its final quarter, this is too dry and badly paced to be anything other than a 1950's B-movie sci-fi fan's favourite. The cast are quite capable, but they play every scene so damn seriously that they almost deserve a medal for keeping a straight face during some of the more clunky writing and quite stupid monster attacks. The monsters themselves are for a good portion of the movie totally invisible, but when they actually do show up in visible form the movie finally becomes something to enjoy as essentially human brains with spines attached start attacking the main characters making this almost worth watching. Anyone with any interest in bad old movies (Robot monster, Manos, etc) should give this a look, even if it is actually a lot better made than the lower end and therefore less fun.

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.

Fiend Without a Face starts late one night in Winthrop in Canada near a US air force base as a local man Jauque Griselle is found dead in some woods by a sentry, the man's death remains unexplained & over the next couple of days more of the locals turn up dead. The US base & is nuclear reactor are being blamed by the townspeople & it's up to Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson) to try & uncover the real reasons behind the mysterious death's, he contacts Barbara Griselle (Kim Parker) & becomes suspicious of her elderly scientist boss Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves) who is conducting strange experiments in the field of telekinesis that have created thought creatures that live by absorbing radiation & eating people's brains. Trapped in the professor's house & surrounded by these creatures Major Cummings has to destroy the creatures before they multiply & take over the world...This British production was directed by Arthur Crabtree & the script was based on the short story 'The Thought Monster' by Amelia Reynolds Long published in 1930 in an edition of Weird Tales, this 70 minutes film is surprisingly good actually & is a nice mix of sci-fi & horror. The script is lean & to the point despite a few goofs, a nuclear power plant reaching meltdown even though the fuel rods have been removed & then it is blown up with no significant damage to the surrounding area (hello, how about nuclear fallout?) & the fact that Major Cummings can't open the crypt door from the inside but Chester can open it easily enough from the outside? Also, if one of the creatures made it's way down the chimney & killed Melville why did none of the survivors in the room try to block the chimney afterwards? Overall though I can forgive some sloppy plotting because Fiend Without a Face has a lot going for it, it's brisk at only 70 minutes, it has it's fair share of creepy moments, the scientific aspect of the plot is fair easy to follow even if it doesn't make perfect sense, that character's are functional, the first fifty odd minutes serves as a nice little horror mystery with the unexplained death's while the last fifteen minutes goes for all out horror as the thought creatures are revealed & attack people stranded in a house in scenes that are reminiscent of The Night of the Living Dead (1968) complete with boarded up windows. I can see why Fiend Without a Face is still well know today, it's a good little film that makes the most of what it has & gives us a different sort of monster.Although set entirely in Canada this was filmed in London in England, there's some grainy stock footage of real planes & the like but nothing too distracting. Director Crabtree manages to build up a fair bit of tension & suspense, I love the heart thumping on the soundtrack. The end siege is well handled & never lets up, it's worth watching the previous hour or so just for this standout set-piece. The thought monsters look cool, they are just human brains with antenna that crawl on the floor as they push themselves with their spinal cord like tails. The effect is somewhat lost when they start jumping around & flying through the air. During a time when most monster films simply used guy's in rubber suits it's nice to see that stop-motion animation was used here & while not perfect it's pretty good for the era. There's a bit of blood here whenever one of the monsters is shot but nothing graphic is shown happening to any of the people.Supposedly shot on a budget of a mere £50,000 this opened in the US some six months before the UK, filmed in black and white the production values are alright if not amazing. The acting is OK apart from Constable Gibbons played by Robert MacKenzie who gives a truly terrible performance.Fiend Without a Face is a nice little sci-fi horror film from the late 50's that is better than it had any right to be & stood the test of time quite well despite some goofs in it's science & plotting. I liked it, I liked the monsters, I liked the atmosphere & I liked it didn't tone down the horror elements especially at the end. Fans of classic sci-fi & horror should definitely give Fiend Without a Face a watch.