Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 5 out of 5!
MY FAVORITE FIEND!!!!!!
This movie scared the hell out of me when I was at home one day watching tv by myself as a young boy! At the same time, I was too compelled to see the outcome to change the channel. Could have sworn the fiends were in the house with me! At any rate, Criterion done a fine job, as always, on the release. The price is a little steep, but the picture is a whole lot cleaner than the old VHS copy I owned, and the sound is really clear. There are some real nice extras, also. Rated 4 out of 5
A mutant brain eating monster brain mondo cliche movie
Forget the title, "Fiend Without a Face" is the one with the brain monsters. That is all you have to tell people for them to go, "Oh, yes! That movie! I remember that movie!" This 1958 British horror film might not be beloved, but is certainly memorable because of the stop-motion animation that is used to have the monster, which look like big brains with horns and a spinal chord tail that they use to move around and strangle their victims (these must have been partially responsible for inspiring the face-huggers from the "Alien" series). This is also one of the goriest films of that decade, which was probably a way of covering up for the fact that you had actors screaming and writhing in pain with a big fake brain monster taped to their heads sucking out their brains.Our tale is set at an American military base in Canada (interesting to see a British film play about American-Canadian tensions like this). The locals start dropping dead, screaming in horror, and the thinking is that it has to have something to do with the base, maybe that "atomic radar" thing they are working on, but probably just some sort of psychotic American G.I. (and this years before Vietnam, please note). But Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson), second in command at the base, has his suspicions about Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), a retired expert in psychic phenomenon. But a visit to the Professor’’s house reveals one of those great experiments gone horribly wrong that we so often find at the heart of films like this one. The title "Fiend Without a Face" comes because for most of the movie the monsters are invisible (Steven Spielberg used this same approach with more success in "Jaws" and in both cases the rationale was more special effects problems that artistic sensibilities). I am not arguing this is a great horror film, but for a B-movie it does try to deliver for the final act. Yes, the killer mutant brains being invisible is problematic (a polite way of saying stupid, boys and girls), but there is something inherently appealing about the little killers once they pop up and starting hopping around in their cute little feeding frenzy. You can also have fun trying to figure out what there are more of in this film: horror movie clichés or killer brains (okay, clichés is the correct answer, but have fun counting both anyhow).  Rated 3 out of 5
Fiend Without a Face has a face today...
Fiend Without a Face was made when the military budgets were unknown to the public, news reels showed threat of nuclear war, fear of radio activity peaked, and the pinnacle of post-war sci-fi genre. Thus, the 50s was a time when pseudo-science and CNS-vampires could strike fear in an audience. Presently, Fiend Without a Face can be seen as a feeble attempt to give the audience a shaky yawn. Nevertheless, it is a film historical monument of past times when the unknown was unknown to the audience and it offers some amusing moments.
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