Movie: Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL
Plot:
A fieldworker in Pompeii uncovers a stone-encased victim of Mount Vesuvius. The newly-unearthed victim seems to have a violent streak. Hilarity ensues.
Reaction:
I'm not really an expert in 1950's horror movies, but this struck me as very much the quintessential 1950's monster movie. You have a lumbering monster who's in some ways human but in some ways not. He develops an attraction for a particular woman, and that attraction serves as the catalyst for the destruction he causes as well as the destruction he suffers in the end. At some point, he carries her off like a bridegroom crossing a threshold, and she does a lot of screaming and fainting. The viewer gets to feel the tension, even while knowing that everything will work out in the end (for everyone but the monster, that is), because that's the contract the movie makes with the audience. And there's a feeling of release when it all ends.
Curse did a really good job of matching the template, and so I found it to be a good entertaining bit of fluff. But that also means that it didn't do a whole lot to distinguish itself -- which isn't really necessary if you're looking for a simple entertaining show and nothing more.
I did find the narration annoying. I realize it was necessary for exposition purposes, and I also realize that there is often no way to add necessary exposition in a natural-feeling way. But I still didn;t like it. At times it made the film seem like a PSA, and at others it made it feel like The Twilight Zone.
While this wasn't a great or deep movie in any way, it was a nice little gem.
Ratings:
Me: 7.25
Ethan: 6
Ethan: 6
Joe: 10
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