| The Trollenberg Terror | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Quentin Lawrence |
| Screenplay by | Jimmy Sangster |
| Story by | Peter Key |
| Based on | The Trollenberg Terror 1956 TV serial |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Monty Berman |
| Edited by | Henry Richardson |
| Music by | Stanley Black |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Eros Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Trollenberg Terror (U.S. title:The Crawling Eye; also known asCreatures from Another World[1]) is a 1958 Britishscience fictionhorror film produced byRobert S. Baker andMonty Berman and directed byQuentin Lawrence (in his directorial debut). The film starsForrest Tucker,Laurence Payne,Janet Munro, andJennifer Jayne.[1] The special effects are byLes Bowie.[2] The story is based on a 1956 BritishITV "Saturday Serial" television programme[3] written byGeorge F. Kerr, Jack Cross andGiles Cooper under the collective pseudonym of "Peter Key".
The film was first released asThe Crawling Eye in the United States on 7 July 1958 byDistributors Corporation of America, and released later in the United Kingdom asThe Trollenberg Terror on October 7, 1958 byEros Films.[2] It played on adouble bill with the British science fiction filmThe Strange World of Planet X, which was retitledCosmic Monsters for its U.S. release.
The Trollenberg Terror's storyline concernsUnited Nations troubleshooter Alan Brooks, later joined by journalist Philip Truscott, investigating unusual accidents occurring in the area of a resort hotel on the fictional Mount Trollenberg in Switzerland. Brooks suspects that these deaths are related to a series of similar incidents which occurred three years earlier in theAndes Mountains, which involved an unexplained radioactive cloud formation believed by locals to be inhabited.
On the Swiss mountain Trollenberg, one of three climbers is suddenly killed, his head ripped from his body. Two sisters, Anne and Sarah Pilgrim, a London mind-reading act, are travelling by train toGeneva when Anne faints as the train passes the mountain. Upon waking, Anne insists that they must get off at the next stop.
UN troubleshooter Alan Brooks, in the same train compartment as the sisters, is going to Trollenberg's observatory to meet with Professor Crevett. Crevett goes on to explain that, despite a series of climbing accidents, no bodies are ever found, and an always-stationary radioactive cloud is regularly observed on the mountain's south face. Brooks mentions similar incidents that took place inSouth America in theAndes three years earlier, just before a similar radioactive cloud vanished without a trace. Local rumors circulated that something was alive in the heavy mist of the cloud.
Anne is giving amind-reading demonstration at the nearby hotel when she"sees" two men in a base camp hut on the mountain. Dewhurst is asleep when the other man, Brett, under some kind of mental compulsion, walks outside as the cloud envelopes the hut. Anne suddenly faints again. Brooks phones the hut, Dewhurst answers, screams, and then the connection suddenly goes dead.
A rescue party, including Brooks, climbs up to the camp hut looking for both men. Anne, in atrance-like state, urges the rescuers to stay away. Inside the hut, the rescuers discover that everything is frozen solid, despite the door being locked from the inside. Dewhurst's body is found under a bed with its head missing. Aspotter plane arrives and circles overhead, and a man is spotted a half mile away. The first rescuer finds arucksack at that location with a severed head inside. He is set upon and killed by Brett, who also kills the second rescuer when he arrives.
Later at the hotel, Brett suddenly staggers in, claiming that he had been lost on the mountain. Soon after, he attacks Anne with a knife, but Brooks manages to subdue him. Brett sustains a severe head gash during the struggle, but no blood flows from the wound. He is heavily sedated and locked away. Brooks recalls to journalist Philip Truscott a similar incident in the Andes that followed a similar pattern: a man murdered an elderly woman who allegedly hadpsychic abilities like those displayed by Anne. The killer's body was discovered to have been dead for at least 24 hours prior to his murder of the old woman. Brett escapes his improvised cell and resumes his hunt for Anne, this time armed with a handaxe. Before he can reach her, Brooks dispatches him with a pistol. Brett's flesh appears crystallized upon inspection and rapidly decomposes in the heat.
The cloud has begun to move down the mountainside towards the hotel, so the guests retreat up to the fortified observatory. A mother realises that her young daughter is missing as they enter the cable car. In a thickening mist, a giant tentacled creature with a single huge eye appears at the hotel, smashing down the front door. Brooks manages to rescue the child from the lobby, both of them narrowly escaping. They return to the cable car, but the delay gives the mist a chance to reach the car platform. The transport motor begins to freeze, starting and stopping, the cable slipping, but the cable car arrives safely. The single cloud has now split into five while converging on the observatory.
Hans, who left the hotel by car, suddenly turns up at the observatory. Once inside, he begins exhibiting the same obsession with Anne. Hans tries to strangle her, but Brooks and Truscott stop him as Brooks stabs him. As the monsters near the observatory, everyone makesMolotov cocktails to combat them. By radio, Alan orders an aerialfirebombing raid against the observatory, which has reinforced walls and concrete roof that can withstand the assault.
Truscott strikes one of the creatures with a Molotov cocktail, setting it ablaze. He is caught by a tentacle from another monster now atop the observatory's roof. Brooks sets that one ablaze with another Molotov cocktail, forcing it to drop Truscott. Later, Truscott firebombs another creature that manages to breach a portion of thick wall to get at Anne. The aerial firebombing assault begins and successfully torches the remaining monsters.
† Reprising role from TV version.
The Trollenberg Terror was the final film shot atSouthall Studios, one of the earliest pioneer film studios in the United Kingdom, and was one of the last films released by Distributors Corporation of America.[citation needed]
Mitchell's role was originally meant to be played byAnton Diffring, but Diffring pulled out of the part at the last minute.[4] It was an early film role for Janet Munro.[5]
The Trollenberg Terror was released in the United States on July 7, 1958. It received an October 1958 release in Britain.[6]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Several sequences in this Alpine science fiction production are genuinely alarming, although much more could have been made of the dramatic moments. The film gives the impression of having been shot and edited in a great hurry and the characteristic addiction to close-ups of such details as severed heads and melting flesh is more in evidence than in most science fiction pieces. More accomplished direction might have resulted in a film as effective as theQuatermass film series".[7]
In the 1 January 1959 issue ofThe New York Times, film critic Richard W. Nason reviewed the double feature starringForrest Tucker and opined that "...The Crawling Eye andThe Cosmic Monsters do nothing to enhance or advance the copious genre of science fiction".[8]
TheRadio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Efficiently suspenseful British cheapie marred by awful special effects. Two bits of cotton wool stuck on a mountain photo make do for the cloudy snowscapes in veteran Hammer scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster's screen version of theBBC [sic] TV series. Forrest Tucker is miscast as the hero, but Janet Munro is affecting as the telepathic heroine the aliens seize as their mouthpiece."[9]
Film historian and criticLeonard Maltin consideredThe Trollenberg Terror as "ok, if predictable", a feature that showed its humble origins, being adapted byJimmy Sangster from the British TV series (also calledThe Trollenberg Terror) about cloud-hiding alien invaders on a Swiss mountaintop. Maltin noted that the film was "hampered by low-grade special effects".[10]
The main title music fromThe Crawling Eye was featured on the albumGreatest Science Fiction Hits V by Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra, released in 1979 onGNP Crescendo Records.[11][12]
The Trollenberg Terror was one of the inspirations for writer/directorJohn Carpenter's 1980 horror filmThe Fog.[13]
InStephen King's 1986 horror novelIt, one of the protagonists,Richie Tozier, watches the film and it terrifies him. A crawling-eye creature later appears as a manifestation ofPennywise, the novel's title monster.[14]
A scene of the film was briefly seen in the 1998 filmSmall Soldiers when the Gorgonites, Slamfist, and Ocula are watching a wrestling match on television and one of them accidentally hits the TV remote which changes the channel showing a scene of the film's crawling eye creature.
TheFreakazoid episode "The Cloud" spoofed the film's opening credits, as well as key elements of the plot, though with the victims being turned into clowns instead of being killed.[15][16]
A song called "Crawling Eye" was featured on Americanhorror punk band theMisfits' 1999 albumFamous Monsters; the song's lyrics directly referenced the plot of the film.[17]
The film was shown on theMeTV showSvengoolie on 26 November 2022.[18]
In the 2023Riverdale episode "Betty & Veronica Double Digest", a4D screening of the film is held to increase popularity of a financially struggling movie theater.[19]
Under the titleThe Crawling Eye, the film was featured in the first episode of the TV seriesMystery Science Theater 3000 after the series moved fromKTMA toThe Comedy Channel. The episode aired on November 25, 1989.[20]The Crawling Eye was also briefly mentioned at the end of the season 10 finale (the secondseries finale) coveringDanger: Diabolik.[21] Because the Comedy Channel was not available in the Twin Cities, the cast and writers watched the episode at a bar in Bloomington, Minn., the only town in the area that offered the channel.[22]
As is the case with all the first seasonMST3K episodes, writer Jim Vorel rated the episode poorly, ranking it four spots from the bottom at #193 in his evaluation of the show's first twelve seasons. "The film itself is nothing too special or memorable," Vorel writes, and not as painful as some others. However, the "uninspired riffing" byJoel and the 'bots bring the episode down, and they contribute "more low-energy or awkward moments" than later in the series.[23]
The episode featuring the film was released on theMystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVII DVD collection byShout! Factory on March 16, 2010. TheCrawling Eye disc includes the film's original theatrical trailer. Other episodes in the collection includeThe Beatniks (episode #101),The Final Sacrifice (episode #910), andThe Blood Waters of Dr. Z (episode #1005).[24]
