Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.

Sometimes, a filmmaker gets just one chance to make an impression behind the camera. A young man named A(rthur). J. Nelson got his one chance in 1964, and the impression he left was a rather dubious one. His only film as a director is The Creeping Terror, where Nelson was not only the director, but also the editor and the star (performing under the stage name of Vic Savage). As he made this film, Nelson was faced with two major problems. First, the special effect that was supposed to be the title character disappeared just days before filming was to begin. Then, most of the soundtrack of the film's dialog vanished. Since Nelson was already making a low-budget movie, he had to resort to fast - and very cheap - fixes.

The title character was replaced by some sort of creature that looks like a combination of carpeting and vacuum hoses. In some scenes, parts of the people controlling this comically hideous-looking beast can be seen. For the dialog that was lost, Nelson turned to voice-over narration by Larry Burrell. Voice-over narration may be effective in documentaries, but here, the narration just adds to the campiness. It gives the movie the quality of an audio novelization with pictures.

As an actor, Savage doesn't help his cause. He acts with as little conviction as his story has, and his cast follows suit. Even the growl of the fear-inducing creature sounds like it's vomiting. Savage plays Martin Gordon, a newly-married sheriff's deputy who's coming home from his honeymoon with his wife, Brett (Shannon O'Neil, Nelson's real-life wife). Before they can reach home, they are summoned to the scene of a crash by the sheriff, who also happens to be Martin's uncle. A craft of unknown origin has crashed in the woods near the sheriff's department. The sheriff crawls into the craft, and is promptly attacked and killed by a creature inside it.

Before he died, the sheriff ordered his other deputy, Barney (Norman Boone), to alert the Air Authority in San Francisco. An hour later, a team of troops led by Colonel James Caldwell (John Caresio) investigates. Two soldiers who enter the spaceship manage to avoid contact with the monster, who is harnessed inside it. Caldwell calls Washington, who orders suppression of the incident. Washington also sends Dr. Bradford (William Thourlby), an expert in space emanations, to command the investigation. Martin assumes the duties of sheriff. Meanwhile, another creature from the ship roams the surrounding area, eating anybody that doesn't move from its path. The victims include a young housewife, a grandfather and grandson on a fishing trip, and a group of people attending an outdoor hootenanny.

Bradford, meanwhile, monitors the creature inside the ship to see if he can learn something about it and try and stop the destruction. Ultimately, he believes that the only purpose the creatures have is to create mass destruction, and that the ship serves as a transmitter to the home planet of the creatures. The consumption continues as the other creature hits a dance hall and local makeout point. In spite of his beliefs, Bradford orders Caldwell and his men to not kill the monster. He orders Martin and Barney to be the second line of defense. When his troops become casualties, Caldwell has no choice but to destroy the roaming monster with a hand grenade. When he sees the Caldwell and his troops are dead, Bradford takes a grenade to the other monster and kills it, at the cost of his life. Martin is then left to try and destroy the transmitter.

The events of The Creeping Terror make no sense. The day after the spaceship lands, Caldwell orders the deputies to not create a panic in the media. That gives the people of the county a full day to have already heard about the death of the sheriff. The people are told he has gone fishing in British Columbia. When the terror hits the dance hall, some people start fights rather than make the effort to leave. The fight gets so out of hand, one woman has her top torn from her. Instead of running out of the shot, she covers herself and hides behind one of the brawlers. In spite of what Bradford confides to Martin, these men have found a way to battle the creatures they face. Martin will just have to emphasize that people should run for cover when they see such a creature creeping toward them. This film marked final movie credits for Nelson, who died in 1975 at age 41.

No improved special effect or full soundtrack of dialog would have saved The Creeping Terror. It was already sufficiently lacking in acting and story before troubles arose. In his own special way, Arthur J. Nelson took his troubled little film and accentuated everything that was bad about it. The Creeping Terror, as a result, has found an audience, but not the sort most entertainers would try and find on purpose. The movie even got new commentary when it was presented on the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000, and is one of the MST3K shows that has been released to home video. I've never seen this episode, but I can guess that the stars of that show were as amused as I was. A. J. Nelson may not have made a critically acclaimed film, but he made a film that has become a classic in its own right.


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Recommended: No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older