Roger Corman. It's a name any self respecting B-movie fan should revere. Known for launching the careers of such names as Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson and Jonathan Demme (and more) as well as cranking out tons of drive-in goodness as the head of New World Pictures, Concorde and New Horizons; Corman is a fascinating guy and you can learn all about him in his 1990 book "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime" or the 2011 documentary Corman's World. Everyone has to start somewhere and for Corman it was cranking out low-budget poverty row fare. Attack of the Crab Monsters is such an effort.

Entrenched firmly in the atomic scare of the 50s and consistently showing its minimal budget, this is a radiation packed 63 minutes that contains all the expected scientific babble, token female character (Pamela Duncan, sporting a tight sweater) stuffed in amongst all the men and the goofy creature effects that the decade prescribed to. It's definitely cheap but due to its short running time, pleasingly silly attack scenes and the fact our titular creatures are frigging psychic(!!) this made for a pretty entertaining time.

Things open on a group of people aboard a life boat landing on the beach at what seems to be a deserted island. It's a mixture of Navy personnel and various professionals/scientists who, as we soon learn, are here to investigate the radioactive properties of the area - as well as being the second team there since the first disappeared.

Not long after arriving they witness a series of disasters as one crewman ends up decapitated, the plane they flew in on explodes (off camera since the budget couldn't cover such a thing) and a series of earthquakes rock the island. As if that wasn't enough, they soon hole up at the nearby research station and become the targets of some giant, super intelligent mutated crabs who are hiding out in a dank cave system underneath the island and using their newfound ability to send psychic messages (posing as their human victims) to lure the humans into their trap. This leads to the usual abrupt ending of 50s monster movies that involves urgent music throbbing on the soundtrack, lots of scenes of our heroes running and electricity put to good use.

For what it is, Attack of the Crab Monsters makes for an agreeable time. Corman seems to be aware of his limitations and delivers a watchable creature feature. I found pretty much every character to be generic (and that's even considering some of the poor accents certain actors put on) and there's some padding with our cast wandering about, scuba diving and spending a good chunk of the flick aimlessly chatting but I did dig the fact that the script by Charles Griffith tries to do something different by having our monsters able to communicate the way they do. I also think Corman made a good decision in keeping them off-screen for most of the flick only showing us a glimpse of a thrusting claw or a close-up of an eye before trotting them out in their spindly-legged glory in the last third.

We all know Roger went on to create a B-movie legacy but it's also worth noting that Griffith would continue to work with him writing such cult classics as A Bucket of Blood, Little Shop of Horrors and Death Race 2000 as well as directing the Jaws rip-off Up from the Depths and Ron Howard starring car chase flick Eat My Dust. Also worth mentioning is that co-star Russell Johnson would go on to play the much beloved professor on "Gilligan's Island".

If you want to check out this early Corman flick be sure to avoid all the various crappy quality public domain DVDs and pick-up the Shout! Factory triple feature that also includes the original Not of This Earth (remade in 1988 and 1995!) and War of the Satellites. (Chris Hartley, 9/9/13)

Directed By: Roger Corman.
Written By: Charles Griffith.

Starring: Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Leslie Bradley.