Greetings, gang - the Cap'n has quite a bit to do for tomorrow, but I didn't want to leave you high and dry after a long weekend of not being around, so here's a quick review of an early Roger Corman joint, Attack of the Crab Monsters. It may be low budget, but the film packs a few punches when it counts and is head and shoulders more interesting than a lot of cheapies from the 1950s and 60s.
I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised with Attack of the Crab Monsters, even if it barely scraped the hour mark. It's a compulsively watchable low budget sci-fi / horror hybrid from the late 1950s, one that overcomes its limitations with good ideas and tactful execution.
Sure, the dialogue is often silly (an example: "Dr. Weigand, you are a great nuclear physicist, while I am a simple provincial botanist, but there are things I do not understand" "There are many things I do not understand also, Jules. You had better climb."), and continuity is touch and go. And let's not forget the "Day for, well, Everything," but Attack of the Crab Monsters exemplifies everything that would become the "Corman Technique." Yes, the budget is limited and shortcuts are taken, but the story makes up for its shortcomings, silly accents, and limited effects.
Speaking of which, I have to say that Corman wisely holds off the crab monster (technically there are two, making the plural title accurate), instead suggesting with sound and creature POV shots something terrifying in the dark. Believe it or not, the monster itself doesn't look all that bad; the legs perhaps don't move as they ought to, but it's much larger than I was expecting and Corman avoids the old "normal creature on miniature set" trick that hampers so many films from the 50s and 60s.
Attack of the Crab Monsters is also a more bleak movie than the beginning would lead you to believe, with its joke-y seamen and goofy French botanist (played, of course, by an American). The central gimmick (that an irradiated crab is capable of ingesting its victims and assimilate their memories and voices) is used effectively to keep you guessing, even if the title leaves nothing to the imagination. The constantly shrinking island (a result of nuclear tests that left the area unstable, coupled with strategically placed dynamite) adds some tension, and one is able to mostly overlook the "from the house to the cave and back again" structure of the middle of the film.
The film also doesn't skimp on some gore, in particular a major character losing their right hand in a graphic fashion, especially for 1957. The ending is abrupt, appropriate, and when considered in the context of everything that came before, actually rather bleak for the survivors. It makes sense when coupled with the opening voice-over, a quotation of Genesis 6:7 ("And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them"). I've given credit to Corman for the trappings and construction of the film, but writer Charles B. Griffith deserves as many kudos for setting the stage for the director / producer.
I'd always caught pieces of the film on television - it was a fixture on Joe Bob Briggs' Monstervision - but had never actually watched the film from beginning to end until today. It's certainly a "lazy afternoon" kind of movie, or one you can put on in the background at a party, with enough lurid imagery to catch the eye of a wandering guest, and I'd certainly consider programming it during a Horror or Summer Fest afternoon session. While not the best cinema has to offer, Attack of the Crab Monsters is never dull and well worth checking out if you see it on TV.
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