Compared to some of the other horror films I’ve seen from the 1950’s and before, I immediately felt that this film appeared to be much more modern than the others. Unlike many other horror films from this time period and before, this film contains a pre-credit scene which, I believe, was beneficial to the film. The initial sequence helped to introduce some degree of a backstory to the film and the transition from this scene to the opening credits was made smooth by following the train (into a tunnel) that we would eventually learn carried the film’s main characters. I often try to question and understand how certain effects were accomplished in films; in this opening scene, the crew used stop motion in order to show a rope quickly tearing and snapping. While it was obvious was was happening, I thought that, considering the resources that would have been available at this time, the way in which the crew went about displaying this was clever and efficient. Whether it was done on purpose or not, I thought that the inclusion of items that slightly resembled eyeballs was cool. Things like the darkened train tunnel or a gauge on a machine added a new dimension of suspense because it constantly reminded the audience of what was to come. Early on in the film I was very interested. There were a number of intentional holes left in the film to keep the audience guessing and I felt that the way in which this was done helped pique my curiosity. However, between the twenty and fifty minute marks, I felt that the story slowed and became uninteresting. This portion of the film lacked enough substance to really make it interesting. Forrest Tucker’s Alan Brooks was the best character in the film. Tucker executed this performance very well and the acting was incredibly believable. Brooks, however, was quite strange in the sense that he was always fantastically nonchalant about everything (whether he was just having a normal conversation or shooting someone). The creatures (which took over an hour for us to see for the first time) were sadly quite unintimidating. However, I found it very interesting that the monsters in this film were the inspiration for John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980) and that they also made a cameo in Stephen King’s novel, It (1986). Considering that this film is not the most well-known horror film, it was interesting to read that the film was inspirational enough to inspire one of the greatest horror fiction writers of all time (if not THE greatest). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052320/?ref_=nv_sr_1
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