FIEND WITHOUT A FACE
A film review by Shane R. Burridge
Copyright 1996 Shane R. Burridge
(1957) 70m.
Low-budget horror flick follows similar paths to most monster movies of the 50's. USAF Major (Marshall Thompson) is assigned to investigate the death of a local farmer near an isolated airbase in Canada. There may be a link between other mysterious deaths and radar experiments conducted by the base. Meanwhile an elderly professor (Kynaston Reeves) is pursuing research of his own. Scenario falls into the wave of horror productions that presented atomic radiation as the new boogeyman of the postwar era. Its monster, however, is not the fallout-mutated freak favored by other B-pictures. In fact, it's not until the film's end that we see the creature(s) at all. Story's premise mixes telekinetic energy and nuclear radiation in a fairly hodgepodge manner - the professor's simple mind-concentration experiments might as well be witchcraft or demon-summoning. Arbitrary treatment of science almost loses only anti-war element film has to offer. The creature is clearly meant to personify the spirit of war latent in mankind - after all, as the prof spells out, it is evil and feeds on radiation (if it feeds on radiation then why is it attacking people for mental energy?). More revealing is the way the story assumes that thoughts released to wander free of human minds will automatically become amoral and harmful. So much for the concept of free will! Besides, it's never established whether the creature is a product of the id (as in FORBIDDEN PLANET, which came out a year earlier), the ego, or the superego; or whether it is from the reptilian, mammalian, or human parts of the brain. At least these details might have provided some rationale for the monster, instead of simply writing off humanity as being inherently self-destructive. In spite of flaws, film is still a notch above most B-pics, thanks to a couple of creepy moments, and a keen finale in a living room.
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