CHEWING ON 'THE FLESH EATERS'

Film critic David Hutchison reviews Jack Curtis' THE FLESH EATERS in FILMS AND FILMING, March 1969. Unlike his colleague who ravished ROSEMARY'S BABY in the same issue (see MMW poster earlier this week), Mr. Hutchison, after chewing on his thoughts about the film, finds enough of the horror/sci-fi film to swallow. What's even more amazing, is that overall, he seemed to like it! He calls the special effects (by Roy Benson) "frighteningly convincing, which is unusual in such a low-budget production", and concludes with summarizing THE FLESH EATERS as "a film to be seen and enjoyed as an engaging piece of nonsense". On a side note, stateside critic Leonard Maltin wasn't so kind to FE, calling it "occasionally tense, but gruesome and boring."

Hutchison's review was written after the 1968 re-release of the film. It was originally released in the U.S. in 1964 (not 1962 as mentioned in the review) and included the flashback sequence of the Nazis experimenting on human subjects using the flesh-eating microbes that had been cut in the earlier version.

The FILMS AND FILMING review was written after THE FLESH EATERS was re-released. FJA offered us Monster Kids a sneak peak before its first release in FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #29 (July 1964).

One of the greatest FM covers by an unfortunately uncredited artist.