Everybody knows they want to see a movie with giant crabs decapitating people and then absorbing their brain powers. Especially if its directed by Roger Corman,(Undisputabely, king of the B’s.)Corman had just started his sci-fi romp when he made this film, and this is, in my opinion, an unforgettably funny film.
Following the disappearance of a scientific expedition from a small pacific island where an A-bomb test took place, Proffesor Weigand’s team arrives to search for them. It isn’t long before things start happening, and slowly, the team gets picked off by the giant crabs,(mutated from the A-bomb test). It was pretty suspenseful in some places!
Almost the whole team has annoyingly strong french accents and with Ronald Stein’s dreadful “broken instrument” overture droning in the background the whole time, be sure to have an aspirin handy.
One of the things that made me laugh the most when watching this film was when the professor described his theory of the crabs. He says something along the lines of: “Usually a copper atom runs along the electric current until it reaches the next atom. But in this case, the copper atom circles the next copper atom and then flows back across the current. The crabs must therefore be made up of fixed liquid matter, mutated by the radiation to large sizes. They would therefore be able to emit heat radiation to destroy the island. When they eat the brain of a victim they must store the knowledge in their own minds and store it. Therefore enabling telepathic communication possible. The only way to destroy them would be to send a negative current of electricity to destroy the positive charge.” WHAT?!!! I guess Corman was stuck for ideas for a valid theory and thought it better to cram a load of complicated nonsense into the audiences minds to make them think: Well that sounds complicated, so it must be correct!
***UPCOMING SPOILER*** The ending was mega-cheesy. The main guy makes a heroic attempt to pull down the radio transmitter to electrocute the crab. It saves the two remaining people but ends in his death. BOO HOO. Pamela Duncan didn’t look the least bit bothered and was pretty namby-pamby throughout the whole film.
But no matter how many faults I can find in this film, and no matter how hilarious it is, I still think its a classic 50’s sci-fi B-movie! Thanks Corman. (Apologies for any mistakes in “the crab theory!”)
