The Creeping Flesh Movie Review

 

 

 

 

 The Creeping Flesh is a 1973 horror movie directed by Freddie Francis and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

The film begins with Professor Emmanuel Hildern(Cushing) who needs help with his research. He meets a young man who is a doctor. He tells him that his story. Three years ago, in 1894,he brought back a skeleton from New Guinea. He lives with his daughter, Penelope(Lorna Heilbron) and he has a brother called James(Lee), who runs an asylum. Emmanuel's wife was locked up in the asylum and she has finally died. The Professor wants to make a big name for himself in his field by showing the skeleton to the world. There is something unusual about it. Emmanuel has lied to his daughter about her mother. He told her that she had died instead of revealing that she was languishing in an insane asylum. James is writing a book on mental disorders and he is hoping to win the same prize that Emmanuel is hoping to secure. He was subsidising Emmanuel's research but he is going to cut him off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lunatic escapes from the asylum. Penelope is curious about her mother. She wants to know more about her. Emmanuel is washing the skeleton when he sees that it is starting to grow. James is performing experiments in his asylum. He has to shoot one of the inmates when he tries to escape.
The police are on the lookout for the escaped inmate who made it out. His name is Lenny. The professor has a helper who tries to wash the skeleton but is stopped by Emmanuel. It seems that the skeleton is being brought back to life by water. It is an ancient being who is evil. Her develops a serum from the blood on the skeletons newly grown flesh. He tests it out on a monkey and it seems to work. Emmanuel thinks that his serum will get rid of evil or madness for good.

 

 Penelope finds out about her mother. Emmanuel is scares in case she goes mad like her mother did.
In a moment of madness, he injects her with his serum. The lunatic Lenny goes mad also and tries to attack people in town. Penelope wanders off. She is upset over her mother. Emmanuel finds the monkey had died. He is worried about his daughter. He goes to look for her. She is going crazy. She attacks a man. She hides in a store. The police are after Lenny and her. She bumps into Lenny and he takes her hostage. She knocks him off a ledge and kills him. She is taken away and put into the asylum run by her uncle James. He brings her home to Emmanuel. James sees the lab and he finds notes that Emmanuel has been making. He takes them with him. He wants the skeleton also so he can take credit for the discovery.

James gets a man to steal the skeleton for him. Unfortunately, the man exposes it to the rain! What happens ??? It reforms into a man. It seems to be alive. It comes after the professor. It wants its finger back. It takes his finger as payment. That is the end of the professor's story. We find out that Emmanuel is in the asylum. His daughter is there too. James claims that both of them are insane and he has won the prize for his work. Emmanuel claims that he is James' brother, but nobody believes him. He is also missing a finger. Is his story true or is he insane?? Nobody knows.

This was a fun film. The story had a lot going on at the same time, but it was interesting. Cushing was great as always and Lee was great as the not so nice brother. I think that the ending is left up to the viewer to decide. Was he mad or was his story real and did his brother stitch him up. I'm not sure , to be honest. All in all, I enjoyed this film and I definitely recommend to all lovers of Cushing and Lee. I will give it a 6/10.