Review #668: 'Attack of the Crab Monsters' (1957)

It's hard to believe that just three years before Roger Corman would begin his Edgar Allen Poe cycle of films that would bring him international acclaim, he made this - a dirt-cheap black-and-white radiation movie about giant crabs who can communicate telepathically with humans (yes, you read that right). Charles B. Griffin (who also worked with Corman on B-movie classics It Conquered the World (1956), Not of This Earth (1957) and A Bucket of Blood (1959)) is on writing duties, and he delivers a humour-laden script that is well aware of just how ridiculous it is.

After the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests, a group of scientists are sent to a remote island to investigate the disappearance of a former party and further there research into the effects of nuclear testing on plants and wildlife. It soon becomes apparent that giant mutated crabs are responsible and have eaten the scientists that were there previously and have absorbed their minds. With the island collapsing before their eyes and with one of their group missing, they must destroy the crabs and escape.

Corman manages to make the film just about as entertaining as it can be, given the budget limitations and the bunch of cornball actors (apart from Russell Johnson of Gilligan's Island fame). It runs at just 62 minutes, and every scene is filled with 'suspense' or 'action', two aspects that Corman usually demanded ran constantly throughout his movies. The crabs themselves look ridiculous and actually move forward - oh the horror! - rather than sideways, but watching crap actors getting hit over the head with a giant paper mache claw never gets old. Certainly an amusing way to pass an hour.


Directed by: Roger Corman
Starring: Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Leslie Bradley
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie