Waste of time

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This early 'roughie' has acquired legendary status as the first really gory horror film to be made in America since the introduction of the Production Code of 1934.Montauk, Long Island provides a suitably desolate and atmospheric backdrop, well-used by director/cameraman Jack Curtis, and which saved on the construction of sets during a production that Martin Kosleck later recalled took place in fits and starts over a three year period. The visual punch of the exteriors also owes a lot to scriptwriter Arnold Drake, who brought his experience in comic books to bear by storyboarding the film in advance; while vivid visual effects were achieved by such low-tech means as scratching holes on the negative with a pin to create the eerie glowing points of light that depicted the creatures in their miniature form. Drake's script also has a dry wit that enhances the far-fetched proceedings, along with Radley Metzger's editing and Julian Stein's score.The four leads are all good (although surely they could have come up with a more original name for the hero than Grant Murdoch?). Barbara Wilkin and Rita Morley satisfyingly metamorphose from figure-hugging dresses into figure-hugging slacks upon arrival on the island, and the latter's performance as drunken diva Laura Winters improves considerably when her character eventually sobers up. It's probably not Ray Tudor's fault that Omar the beatnik has already outstayed his welcome before he even sets foot on dry land, since he was obviously written that way; but it makes his gruesome death all the more eagerly anticipated.The ending, however, comes as a bit of a letdown, since the flesh eaters were ironically a far more interesting and unusual menace while they were microscopically small; when they ultimately coalesce into one enormous and repulsive monster, the film's conclusion becomes disappointingly conventional. The gruesome gore effects that give this film its legendary status derive from the disgustingly intimate nature of the corrosive havoc they wreak on their victims - stripping flesh bare, tearing them apart from inside, and so on - in ways that derive directly from their tiny size.

The only people who will not be STERILIZED with FEAR are those among you who are already DEAD! The Flesh Eaters is a 60's film which is all but forgotten. I don't know why, because it's pretty damn good especially considering it was the director's only film and the cinematographer's use of black and white and unusual camera angles made the film even more interesting.There are some gruesome effects in this as well which was something probably not seen much at that time. As the title implies, these microbial monsters devour human flesh at an alarming rate, so we see a few choice scenes of what I'd call "gore" in this film. However, there are some weird composite FX shots which don't work very well, and at times the movie drags with some long dialog scenes. The acting is very good though, and if you can find it check out the version with the Nazi experimentation scene in it.I'm not usually into remakes, but I think the Flesh Eaters could be remade well if placed in the right hands.

"Grant Murdoch" (Byron Sanders) runs a charter airplane which two young ladies named "Jan Letterman" (Barbara Wilkin) and "Laura Winters" (Rita Morley) hire to fly them to Provincetown out near Cape Cod. Unfortunately, a hurricane causes them to make an emergency landing on a semi-deserted island. The only occupant is a marine biologist by the name of "Professor Peter Bartell" (Martin Kosleck) who helps them survive the hurricane. They soon discover that they are stranded and that there is a flesh-eating microorganism which is gradually making its way inland. At any rate, rather than disclosing all of the details and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this was a strange and campy horror film from the early-60's. Although it had good camera work, some pretty actresses and some decent performances there really wasn't anything unique about the movie that separates it from typical grade-B movies made during this time. Even so, I suppose it's worth a look for those who enjoy films from this time-period. As such I rate it as average.

**SPOILERS** Trying to get to Provincetown MA. for a play that she's staring in the famous and temperamental actress Laura Winters, Rita Morley, who's stranded in NYC, some 300 miles away, gets herself so smashed on gin that she'll have trouble remembering her name much less her lines. This has her very concerned agent Jan Letterman, Barbara Wilkin, get a charted plane to fly Laura there for opening night as a major storm approaches the New England coast.Down and out shuttle pilot Grant Murdoc, Byron Sanders, who at first balks at flying through the dangerous cloud-cover changes his mind when Jan offers him three times the amount of cash that he usually takes for the flight. Airborne and on a due north course to Cape Cod with the storm overtaking his plane Murdoc is forced to land on this uncharted and , what at first looks like, deserted island in Long Island Sound. Murdoc together with Jan and the barley sober Laura are surprised to find this creepy-looking guy who claims to be a professor in marine biology Peter Bartell played Joseph Gobbels look-alike Martin Kosleck.Acting normal, which is a herculean task for him, not to get his guests on the island suspicious to his real intentions Bertell is well on his way of perfecting this radio active and flesh eating algae or plankton. Who's formula he's planing to sell to the highest bidder, the US the USSR the UK and even Germany East or West. With which it, the country that Bertell sells it to, can not only conquer the waves but the world as well.Things get a little muddled for Bertell when he loses himself in a fit of carnal and uncontrollable lust when he finds Laura sunning herself on the beach all by herself. Bartell tries to rape the drunken, but very well endowed, Laura who fights off the horny old guy. Laura had already gotten herself so drunk that the next day she completely forgot what happened to her. Which gives the hot in the pants Bertell a second chance at her which he does later in the film.It's later that when this spaced out beatnik Omar, Ray Tudor, shows up on his raft that things really start to get out of hand. Omar together with Laura later discover what Bartell is doing which cost them both their lives. I turned out that the professor himself is, more then anyone in the movie, responsible for his own demise by thinking that he can fool with the laws of nature and get away with it. Bartell's mad experiments with the man-eating plankton which, after he electrifies it, turns into a glowing and flesh-eating crab-like monster. A monster which there's no way of him controlling or stopping from swallowing all life, human as well as fish and animal, on earth.Really a Martin Kosleck movie with everyone else in the film, with the possible exception or the drugged out and mind addled beatnik Omar, just there going through the motions and nothing else. Kosleck or the person he's playing Proffesor Peter Bartell gives it all he's got as the crazed, in the flashbacks we don't really know for sure if he was or wasn't, ex-Nazi mad scientist who like his deceased and beloved Fuhrer wants to take over the world. In Bartell's case for a nice and tidy profit not to, like in German Fuhrer Adolph Hitler's case, National Socialize or Nazify it.Like all movie about mad scientists Bartell screws himself up big time by him trying to create an army of killer and flesh-eating micro organisms he instead creates, by electrifying the waters off shore, a giant illuminating crab. The glowing crab has the crazed Bartell run for his life only to get attacked by flesh-eaters who make short order of him by turning Bartell into a bag of bones.Murdoc who found out, through Laura's strange death, what can stop this crab-like creature and with a syringe of anti-flesh-eating serum, plain human blood, sticks it to it and puts an end to this insanity. An insanity of gigantic proportions that only a fruitcake, with lots of nuts in it, like Professor Peter Bartell could have dreamed up.