Creepy-Creatures Double-Feature (The Slime People + The Crawling Hand) — Creepy-Creatures Double-Feature (Blu Ray/ DVD)

Here from VCI Entertainment, we have a dual DVD/ Blu Ray release of two low- budget creature features from the 1960s…one regards a severed alien-possessed hand, and the other subterranean slime people overtaking LA.

The first two films here is The Crawling Hand; it’s a blend of sci-fi & small-town horror. It concerns the severed hand of an astronaut that is infected by some alien entity, and despite its rather ridiculous premise, it’s played deadpan/serious, aside from touches of unintentional humour, largely stemming from the few moments of bad acting.

The film was directed by Boston-born Herbert L. Strock. Between the mid 1950s and early 1980’s, he had fourteen feature credits, and around the same number of TV series episodes/ TV films. His features included A-men agents going to investigate horror/ sci-fi The Magnetic Monster (1953). Camp B-movie horror I Was a Teenage Frankenstein ( 1957), western Rider on a Dead Horse (1962), and sea serpent horror Monstroid (1980).

The film opens with simple but effective credits- showing an astronaut from the back- he’s barely moving, standing in front of a spacecraft window- as the stars spark/merge to make out the text of the credits.

After flashes of stock footage of a larger control room, we drop into a small office where Curan (Peter Breck) is smoking, looking stressed, and pacing- he’s in charge of the mission to the moon that is just returning, but there’s an issue: the air in the spaceship is running out. Coming in to help/ advise is the thinly moustached Dr Max Weitzberg (Kent Taylor)- they have all but given up hope, as it’s fifteen minutes since the air ran out... all of a sudden, the screen crackles to life, and we see the dark-eyed/ sweaty astronaut- he’s begging for the pair to press the self-destruct button, as well as suddenly ranting out the word 'kill'. They press the button.

We then move to a small coastal town, where student lovers Paul Lawrence (Rod Lauren) and his Swedish girlfriend, Donna (Allison Hayes), are out on the beach, frolicking and swimming. We get omnibus shots of bits of spacecraft in the sand, then Donna falls, coming face-to-face with a severed hand/ wrist in a space glove. She understandably panics, but Paul is somewhat fascinated… returning to the beach to pick up the body part.

As the film unfolds, we switch back and forth between office buildings where Steve is getting uptight & smoking more. And the small town, where the hand is starting to cause issues- as it can move on its own, and likes strangling people..

The hand effects are well enough done, been quite eerie and tense. The problem is for a thirty-or-so-minute block, where the hand is not present, and instead it’s replaced by one of our characters who keeps having Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde-like switches.

The film does have, I’m afraid, pacing issues with some scenes dragging on way too long. The acting, as you expect with a B-movie, is decidedly mixed, moving between competent to hammy or wooden. The Crawling Hand is fine, if a tad too serious in tone for its own good.

The other film here is The Slime People, which is a blend of dystopian sci-fi and creature feature. The black & white shot picture is set in LA/ surrounding countryside, where the titled creatures have come up to the surface, created an impenetrable fog wall, and are taking out all the humans.

It was directed by and stars Kingston, New York born Robert Hutton. This was his only directorial credit. Though he’s primarily known as an actor, between the early forties and mid-seventies, he has an impressive ninety credits- taking in TV & film work- with notable roles in the likes of Destination Tokyo (1943), The Steel Helmet (1951), and They Came From Space (1967).

Unusually for a creature feature, we get a brief glimpse of our monster upfront- the Slime People are humanoid creatures, with domed/ scale layered heads, slime-dribbling mouths, three-clawed hands, lumpy/ swampy appearance, and carry long spears- I’d say they look somewhat like the Zygons, who appeared on Doctor Who in the 1970’s. We see two of the creatures pull themselves out of the drain covers in the pre credits.

Next, we’re up in the air, where we meet our lead Tom Gregory (Hutton), who rather looks like a young Russ Meyer, with a thin/ neat moustache, gelled/ side parted hair, and a half-zipped-up jacket. We find out he’s a sports reporter, flying a plane, and needs to come into land- he’s told by air control in LA, he can’t land in the area & must move on. His issues get worse, so he has no option but to land at a small airport- he gets out, and the place is completely deserted, and the phones don’t work…he’s pondering what to do, when a car pulls up inside; there’s pipe-smoking & hat-wearing Prof. Galbraith ( Robert Burton), and his two twentysomething daughters.

The prof informs Tom that LA/its surrounding countryside is under attack from the Slime People- they’ve made some sort of impenetrable dome around the area, and are seemingly dropping the temperature so they can live on the surface.

As the film unfolds, we get a few others joining up with the group- there’s a young/ happy to follow orders soldier, an unbalanced writer who is carrying around a goat, and a few looters.

Starting off, we get some neat abandoned/ in wreck ‘n’ ruins buildings, and a decent enough sense of dread. As things unfold, we start to see more Slime People, as the group try to figure out how to kill them/ break the dome.

The acting, for clearly a low-budget affair, is fine. With the pace/ unfold of the whole thing being entertaining and campy enough, we get a few human vs Slime people with folks & creatures getting speared. There are some nicely moody & suspenseful moments. But there is one big issue with the film- that’s the use of actual fog/ smoke and fog effects- as quite often it’s difficult to see what is going on, where characters are going, and who is who. I just don’t understand why this issue is so bad, and the new scan hasn’t really improved the situation.

All in all, The Slime People is a passable mix of dystopian sci-fi and creature feature- I just wish the picture/ definition of the whole thing was better, because at points it gets so frustrating.

Moving onto the extras on here- various places claim there are commentary tracks for both films, but these weren’t listed on any of the menus. The only extras I found were Unearthing The Slime People ( 55.00), which finds author/ creature feature fan Tom Weaver quoting from interviews he had with several of the actors & one of the producers, mixed in with a telephone interview with leading lady Susan Hart- who played one of the doctor's daughters. This is a most interesting & fascinating featurette/ interview, as it gives a real insight into working on a B-movie in the early 60’s. It’s an audio-only affair with visual backing of stills/ poster art/ etc.

Exploring 1950’s and 60’s Sci-Fi, Creature Features (2.56), which looks at the two films to hand, as well as, for some reason, another 60’s creature feature entitled GorGo- plus a brief/ general overview of the genre as a whole in the 50’s/ 60’s. And a sci-fi/ creature feature gallery.

This is a decent enough double bill of low-budget creature features. Neither film is given a great scan, but I guess that adds to the lopsided charm of the pictures. Extra-wise, the interview/ featurette is well worth a play…it's just a pity regarding the promised commentary tracks- though I’m not sure that’s down to them not being here, or user error on my part.