Must See Movie...

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A series of gruesome decapitation murders in a remote Swiss town turn out to be the grisly handiwork of hideous alien monsters. Director Quentin Lawrence not only keeps the enjoyable and engrossing story at a steady pace, but also ably crafts a strong spooky gloom-doom atmosphere. Jimmy Sangster's compact script presents a neat array of interesting and engaging characters. Forrest Tucker makes for a solid and likeable take-charge hero. The lovely Janet Munro likewise impresses as fragile psychic Anne. Moreover, there are sound contributions from Laurence Payne as stalwart reporter Philip Truscott, Jennifer Jayne as the concerned Sarah Pilgrim, Warren Mitchell as jolly scientist Crevett, Andrew Faulds as the rugged Brett, and Stuart Saunders as the hearty Dewhurst. The tentacled eyeball monsters are pretty creepy looking. Both Stanley Black's robust score and Monty Berman's crisp cinematography are up to par. Look fast for ubiquitous British bit player Reg Thomason as a rescue worker. A fun little flick.

The filmic adaptation of a 1956 UK TV serial of the same name, The Trollenberg Terror is a whole bunch of fun and not deserving of the stinker reputation it has in some sci-fi loving circles.Action is set in Trollenberg, Switzerland and concerns a creature from outer space that has taken residence in a radioactive cloud atop of the Trollenberg mountain. As the bodies start to pile up and various climbers go missing on the mountain, the United Nations send a boffin to help the local scientists to hopefully solve the mystery.The effects work has been the source of some disdain, and in truth it's poor but not the worst from the 1950s pantheon of "B" schlockers. The back projection scenes are crude, but again in keeping with the fun aspects of the genre and era. However, Jimmy Sangster's screenplay is tight and produces brainy conversations and strong sequences.Horror comes by way of headless bodies turning up and that once sane people turn into maniacs as "the terror" weaves its magic. On the normal human side the narrative is given a boost by Janet Munro's (excellent) telepathic darling, something which troubles the visitors greatly and puts her in grave danger. The psychological aspects of the story mark this out as a genre piece of worth.Elsewhere director Quentin Lawrence does a study job with what is available to him, Forest Tucker is the hero in waiting, playing it reserved like, and Warren Mitchell proves good foil for Tucker and the Terror! It's not a great film, but it is a good one, let down in some tech departments for sure, but strengths elsewhere make up for its flaws. 7/10

The Trollenberg Terroris set in the Swiss village of Trollenberg where several climbers have mysterious disappeared while climbing th Trollenberg mountain with one being found dead after having been decapitated. A nearby research observatory run by cosmic ray scientist Professor Crevett (Warren Mitchell) has detected a strange cloud that seems to be hovering at the peak of the mountain, Crevett sends for UN scientist Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) who arrives is shown the cloud & informed that is is radioactive. The cloud starts move down the mountain as more people turn up dead, finally the scientists realise that they are dealing with hostile aliens that want to take over the world.This British made sci-fi horror film was released in the US under the more sensationalistic title of The Crawling Eye & was cut down from 84 minutes to 75 minutes by the distributors who wanted to get to the alien monsters quicker, the version I will be basing my comment on is the full 84 minute cut under the title The Trollenberg Terror. Directed by Quentin Lawrence from a script by Hammer horror regular Jimmy Sangster this is a fairly decent little sci-fi horror film, the setting helps with it's small isolated village & hazardous mountain terrain & the actual alien monsters are kept off screen until the last fifteen minutes which helps build suspense because when they do make an appearance the special effects are not very special at all. There's a fair amount of theorising going on & huge leaps of logic are made by the character's, it's never really really revealed why the aliens are here anyway apart from a guess by Crevett. There's no explanation as how the aliens decapitated that guy in the log cabin since all the doors were locked from the inside, why did they decapitate people anyway? It moves along at a decent enough pace & has a nice mix of horror & sci-fi but I wouldn't call it a classic. A perfectly fine way to pass 80 odd minutes but not much else, it's fairly predictable & just about meets the genres standards but rarely rises above them if truth be told.Once the alien monsters are seen at the end they look alright when required to do nothing but sit there, when they need to move & act menacing the effects fall apart. The monsters look like giant pulsing brains with an eye & tentacles that are alright conceptually but when brought to life on screen with unconvincing model shots, silly sound effects & tentacles that look more like rope the effective creepiness that the film had built up with it's mystery is lost. The main hero doesn't even really get to fight them as he just ask's for a load of bombs to be dropped, The Trollenberg Terror never quite comes to life. The film was based on an original six part television series made by the BBC called The Trollenberg Terror (1956) which no longer exists, the makers obviously saw the success the Quatermass film had after that too had been adapted from a BBC serial & wanted to cash-in with more of the same. Unusually for a film of this period there's a headless body shown & a decapitated head in a sack.Shot on what was probably a low budget this was filmed in Middlesex here in England. Production values are alright, some of the sets look a little fake & the special effects don't hold up too well but it's a product of it's time & could have been worse. The acting is OK, it's not great but again it could have been worse.The Trollenberg Terror, of the The Crawling Eye if you prefer is a good 50's sci-fi horror film that is of it's time & suffers from the limitations of it. A decent enough way to pass 80 minutes if nothing else.

The film is set at the Trollenberg--a mountain in the Alps. It seems that several mountain climbers have been decapitated recently. Upon investigating, they discover that it's due to the presence of aliens. One way they know is that a lady among them seems to have psychic powers and she can sense these otherworldly creatures. The other is that they actually see the bizarre things. To try and describe the odd creatures is very hard--you really have to see it. It looks a bit like an octopus, a giant eyeball and a lot of pus all rolled into one.This is a decent 1950s horror/sci-fi film, though the monsters themselves are certainly NOT the highlight of the film. Another less than stellar aspect of the film is how incredibly easy these things turned out to be! What is decent is the rest of the story as well as the acting--led by veteran American actor, Forrest Tucker, in this British production. While far from great, the film is less silly than most (at least until you see the aliens) and the story (at least up until then) seems thoughtful and interesting.By the way, if you do watch the film, you'll see that in a rare case of actually accomplishing something, the UN comes to the rescue.