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Summary: Criterion Does it Again
Review: This movie caused severe damage to me as a child. I had nightmares for days afterwards; I still have some residual terror because of it. Thanks to Criterion Collection I'm able to relive all that trauma. The film is fast paced and well made. The fiends are brains with attached spinal cords. They leap onto people and choke them within a few seconds. They are fast and many. There seems to be no escaping them and no way to stop them. And of course they mutiply and grow oh so fast. The black and white picture is crisp and clear; sound quality is excellent. There are many extras including some campy movie trailers from the same era/genre; there is commentary from from film' producer and genre film historian Bruce Eder. Thanks Criterion. You've done it again.
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Summary: MY FAVORITE FIEND!!!!!!
Review: This movie scared the hell out of me when I was at home one day watching tv by myself as a young boy! At the same time, I was too compelled to see the outcome to change the channel. Could have sworn the fiends were in the house with me! At any rate, Criterion done a fine job, as always, on the release. The price is a little steep, but the picture is a whole lot cleaner than the old VHS copy I owned, and the sound is really clear. There are some real nice extras, also.
Rating: 
Summary: a cool film, original plot, good effects
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.In this film, invisible monsters (which later become visible) shaped like human brains, are attacking people on and near an American military base in a rural area of Manitoba, Canada. The deaths are initially blamed on radition from the power reactor on the base but when an autopsy reveals the brain and spinal cords are missing from the victims, they look elsewhere. The film, made entirely in the UK, looks convincingly like North America. The special effects, made with stop-motion photography are well done and the acting is also typical on 50's B horror flicks. The Criterion DVD has plenty of special features. There is a theatrical trailer for the film plus four other films. "First Man into Space" "Haunted Strangler" "Corridors of Blood" and "Atomic Submarine." There are also images of lobby cards and newspaper ads for the film, an essay by Bruce Eder prodution photos, and a feature length conversation/commentary by Tom Weaver and the film's executive producer Richard Gordon.
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Summary: Essential horror film viewing
Review: This starts as a solid little b-movie programmer, with crisp direction, plotting and acting (especially by the fine Marshall Thompson), and ends with one of the most shocking special FX sequences in horror-film history. This stop-motion animation sequence, involving a gruesome fight between crawling brains and humans must be seen to be believed. Anyone who ever saw this film as a child may be permanently scarred, and all adults interested in horror sci-fi cinema should see it as well. Essential!
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Summary: Fifties SCI-FI at its very best
Review: What a trully fantastic little movie this is, a real SPFX shocker in its day, and a great story with some fantastic character acting. TV in the UK used to show this a lot in the 1980's but it has been missing for a few years, and it is one of my faves, so now thanks to the team at Criterion I can own this peice of trully bizarre sci-fi cinema history. The extras are great and the commentary is very informative, also there is an essay a sort of potted history of UK sci-fi movies from this era. The transfer is crisp apart from a few scratches on the stock film used, particularly the old plane shots and the radar base, but this is mere trifle compared to the overall mastery involved in the plot and effects, which are for the time pretty incredible to say the least. If you want any more proof of sci-fi from the golden age being intelligent, thought provoking and damn right scary then go and buy this movie, and be very very impressed....
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Summary: ...... never sounded so good
Review: What really gets me about Fiend without a Face is the sound. The sound of the titular fiends sucking out the brains and spinal cords of their victims is delightfully disgusting. The picture quality is not quite up to the standard of The Blob, but you know Criterion did the best they could. Someone else mentioned The Haunting. I'd like to add to my Criterion Wish List another seminal, overlooked, and long out-of-print on VHS classic, I Married a Monster from Outer Space.
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