VividSimon Simply Perfect

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

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Adam Peters (28%) While it does have something to offer in its final quarter, this is too dry and badly paced to be anything other than a 1950's B-movie sci-fi fan's favourite. The cast are quite capable, but they play every scene so damn seriously that they almost deserve a medal for keeping a straight face during some of the more clunky writing and quite stupid monster attacks. The monsters themselves are for a good portion of the movie totally invisible, but when they actually do show up in visible form the movie finally becomes something to enjoy as essentially human brains with spines attached start attacking the main characters making this almost worth watching. Anyone with any interest in bad old movies (Robot monster, Manos, etc) should give this a look, even if it is actually a lot better made than the lower end and therefore less fun.

Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) Fiend without a Face is a little better than the title would suggest, as long as you have low standards. It's about an invisible menace terrorizing a military base and surrounding town in Canada, and it stars Marshall Thompson, late of First Man into Space.Thompson plays Major Cummings, who's in charge of a nuclear-powered program run at the base, a program intended to enhance surveillance techniques and allow the U.S. to spy on the Soviets at a greater range. The trouble is that even when maximum nuclear power is exerted, the images returned by the spy plane soon fades.At the same time, the locals are a mite anxious about having a nuclear program nearby (some things never change). The constant takeoffs and landings of the various aircraft scares the cows, annoys farmers, and so on. And then a bunch of cows winds up dead, and no one can figure out why. The carnage is only beginning, though – soon prominent citizens and soldiers alike are meeting their demise, with their brains apparently – I am not making this up – sucked out of their skulls through two holes in the back of the head.Oh, and there's a love interest. There has to be. How could our hero save the day if there were no love interest? Here she's played by Kim Parker, for whom movie this was undoubtedly a career highlight.So this is a low-budget, 1950s monster movie. Except you can't see the monsters, hence the "without a face" part. They're like Predator, if Predator was merely a brain and a spinal cord and kind of shuffled on the ground like an inch worm. Still, when these monsters are invisible, they're effectively scary, which is a nice respite from the low-budget effects.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Fiend without a Face, 1958. In Canada, a essential NORAD US Air Force base using experimental atomic power to extent missile watching radar deep into the USSR has a series of power surges. Local villagers are found gruesomely dead. The base is blamed. An alien species is discovered and addressed.*Special Stars- Marshall Thompson.*Theme- Atomic power use can cause major concerns by civilians.*Trivia/location/goofs- B&W. This film is a member of the prestigious Criterion Collection. This film was rated 'X" in the UK and had to censored to be exhibited there due to the scary aliens and violence. The stop-motion brain with spinal cord monsters are impressive for the time. One of the most memorable child's nightmare films of the 50's due to the graphic special effects.*Emotion- A memorable film primarily for the 'brain monsters' and how they move & attack their victims, are shot and destroyed. This is enjoyable vintage 50's atomic-age monsters at it best. A real viewer's treat.

ShadeGrenade Arthur Crabtree's 'Fiend Without A Face' used to play a lot on late night '70's television ( along with 'The Night Caller' and 'The Earth Dies Screaming' ). It scared the hell out of me the first time, and even now manages to elicit the odd shudder.It is set in Canada, where an experiment is underway at an Air Force Base to develop long-range radar with nuclear power. A sentry on guard duty is attacked by an invisible creature which sucks his brain out through two holes in his neck. Similar deaths occur in the village. Major Jeff Cummings ( Marshall Thompson, later to star in Ivan Tors' hit television show 'Daktari' ) investigates, and the trail leads to one Professor Walgate ( Kynaston Reeves ) who has been experimenting with thought power. He has inadvertently unleashed the 'fiends' - invisible for most of the film ( hence the title ) but when we get to see them they are truly horrible, resembling nothing less than human brains with waggling antennae and which propel themselves along the ground like caterpillars. The creatures were realised with stop motion animation, and are impressive for their time. What really makes them scary though is the ghastly sound effect which accompanies their attacks - a slurping combined with what sounds like a man with a wooden leg clumping upstairs. Once heard it cannot be forgotten.The climax has the main characters barricaded in a room while the fiends endeavour to break in by coming down the chimney and the window and so on. The film was shot in the U.K. hence the presence of British actors such as Reeves and Michaerl Balfour. The story has its absurd side, of course, such as Barbara ( Kim Parker ) embracing Jeff at the end, seemingly forgetting her father has just died.A nice little British sci-fi B-movie then. Joe Dante must have been a fan as his 'Looney Tunes Back In Action' ( 1998 ) features a cameo from the fiends!