Attack of the Crab Monsters

Rating:
Summary: Fares no better on DVD...
Review: ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS is one of a handful of B films that Roger Corman did for Allied Artists when he wasn't churning 'em out for Nicholson and Arkoff at AIP. It also happens to be one of his most beloved 50s monster efforts. Frequent collaborator Charles Griffith concocted the script and strays from the abundant humor present in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, playing it straight this time (that is if you can accept a giant talking crab as serious). Griffith also appears in the film (he gets decapitated early on) and directed some underwater scenes.

A group of scientists find themselves marooned on a nuclear-affected atoll in the Pacific where they have come searching for members of a previous expedition. After doing some research, they learn that the other scientists were eaten by giant mutated land crabs, and that these creatures have also absorbed their minds. The menacing crustaceans begin to snack on this new set of guests, using telepathy (articulating with the voices of the person they just devoured) in order to summon their next victim.

Like all of the early Corman films, this was made on shoestring but was reportedly his highest grosser up until that time. It's a tight 60+ minute effort with very little time for chat, and the giant crabs don't look too bad at all in comparison with other 50s sleaze creatures. The film boasts a classic Corman stock ensemble: Richard Garland (PANIC IN YEAR ZERO) and Pamela Duncan (THE UNDEAD) are the heroic love interests, the vastly underrated Russell Johnson (still years away from "Gilligan's Island") is a life-saving technician, Mel Welles and Leslie Bradley are scientists with accents (you haven't lived until you've heard a giant crab speak with Welles' Mushnik persona), and Beach Dickerson and Ed Nelson are in there as well. Nelson also operated the crab and legend has it that Jack Nicholson did as well!

ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS has been released on DVD by Allied Artists Classics, a company whose legitimacy is still in question. Previously released on VHS, they utilize the same substandard transfer and it fares no better on the digital format. The full frame black and white image looks generations down in quality, with nonexistent black levels and video tape dropouts during the start of the show. The print source is in decent shape, but the overall appearance is dark and dingy. Sound quality is OK, if you can get past some hiss. This would be fine if this was an under-$10 budget release, but this baby retails for about $25! If you're willing to shell out the bucks, the quality is acceptable and this title is essential to any 50s monster movie buff's collection. Also included is the original trailer and a still gallery.

Rating:
Summary: "I can grow a new claw in a day..."
Review: FROM THE VIDEO CASSETTE:
A group of scientists are stranded on a mysterious island where they have come in search of a previous expedition. Their mission is to report the effects of nuclear testing near by has caused in the areas marine and animal life. What they find is more than they bargained for, giant intelligent crabs with the ability to absorb the memories of those whom they eat.

This is truly a Roger Corman movie. Russell Johnson make a habit of being stranded on islands (the Professor in "Gilligan's Island) And the monsters are quite cute. I wonder if the crab monsters prefer Alaskan Kings and that is why they only have governors. They have a strange diet of brains and radio tubes. The consumed people, become part of the crab, like what happened with the plant in "Little Shop of Horrors"

If you really like atomic bugs, then after this watch "Them!"

Rating:
Summary: from the DVD edition.
Review: Okay. To be honest I expect more from a DVD. Digitally enhanced this is not. Very poor picture quality. It looks like it was copied from a VHS tape on EP mode that had lemonade spilled on it and sat in the sun.

Any way the movie: I grew up when the Aleins series was out. I was scared of that. This scared me more than that. It was extermly creepy. (Watching it alone in the dark did not help) This crab when exposed to radition, grows big with a hunger to boot. Nothing like that tang of human flesh. But it get worse. You know you are what you eat? The same is true for this guy. This monstor has access to the thoughts of all his victims. And he used mental thought patterns to "call" his next victim. Only it uses the voices is of past victims. Way beyond scary. I get the willies just writing the review! Like a sick to your stomach scary! Once you get past the ripples in the video in the beginning, the image quality improves significantly. Maybe it's the child in me that was scared, my earlist memory is a dream when a giant crab was trying to get me. Brrrr! (Maybe I saw this movie as a kid or something!