Powerful

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I like B-grade sci-fi, but this one is even below my standards. I can't think of anything good to say about it but this - if you can find the MST3K production you'll have a great time. The movie is terrible, but the terribleness can't be fully appreciated until you see Joel and the Robots give their inimitable critique. They nail some rip-snorters out of this one. Sadly, all I have is a VHS version recorded from TV that I ripped onto a DVD (yuck) and I've never found it on any of their compilations. It's disappointing because along with "It Conquered the World" it's my MST3K guilty-pleasure favorite.As far as the stand-alone movie, forget about it - unless you like really bad directing, acting and unlikable characters.

The silvery aliens mostly resemble a certain tire company trademark. Is it Unaroyal? John Ashley appears along with some Beach Party music from his 1964 film, sometimes completely in the wrong mood for a scene. The air force men want to keep the aliens a secret, but their spy monitors only watch the car windows at make-out point. It was funny in all the wrong places. A crawling hand resembled a large toad, really. But most of all, where were the eye creatures? The posters and ads are filled with giant eyes nowhere to be seen in the movie. I suppose they needed 3D glasses or magic goggles that might be able to spot the "eye creatures" this film was supposed to be about so that anyone at all would want to go see it.

There's a part of me that wants to rate The Eye Creatures a 1 or a 2 out of 10, the rational part of me I guess. And yet, I just can't do it, for all its daft plotting, ill conceived humour and crackpot performances there's a guileless charm to the whole affair that I can't help but love. Sold straight to television by American International Pictures along with various other Larry Buchanan pictures during the 60's, The Eye Creatures deals with a minor alien invasion and the intrepid teens who deal with it, whilst forces of authority either attempt to cover things up, watch people making out or simply get the wrong end of the stick and confuse matters. The film is thoroughly imbued with late 50's nascent teen rebellion themes, dusted with a silliness more of its time and all decked out in colourful fashions and cosy sets, it makes for an exceedingly dated yet oddly comforting experience, jokes constantly fall flat and the acting falls flatter but there's a simmering pleasantry underlying the whole experience that is hard to dismiss. Regrettably things are pretty slow and the silliness begins to grate, more regrettable is the underuse of the titular creatures. A sweet design, hulking off white humanoid horror beasts, decked out in obscene bulges, they have the right sort of goofy yet imposing presence and it's a real pity that they don't appear more and are so easily dispatched. Things are far too tame as well; with a bit of a darker edge the film would have gained a significant boost. Acting predictably is pretty dire, though John Ashley is relatively sound as the hero and Buchanan regular Tony Huston makes a welcome appearance. As the hero's girlfriend with whom he plans to elope, Cynthia Hull is pretty pleasant I guess, I nice looking gal with the right sort of demeanour. Little more to add really, OK Les Baxter (uncredited) score and editing was handled by SF Brownrigg, later to become a 70's horror notable with the likes of Don't Look In the Basement and Keep My Grave Open. The editing is nothing to write home about though…Basically nobody outside of thoroughgoing trash addicts will get anything out of this one, but since I fall under that category I liked it well enough. Buchanan has done better, but this could have been a whole lot worse, I give it a 5/10.

Okay, here we go again. Another huge loser from Larry Buchanan. First of all, I doubt for one minute that the army would allow their expensive equipment to be used the way they did. Just to get their rocks off. Secondly, the old man who thinks he owns the whole freakin' mountain. The creatures themselves was kind of cool. But if all can afford is one eye creature, then show only one eye creature. Keep the others behind the bushes like they were suppose to stay. The crawling hand was just awful, you can see the rest of the arm in the light. I was thinking Larry Buchanan did it again by ripping off an older movie INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, but I did some research and he just based it on the same book THE COSMIC FRAMED which would explain all the similarities. But that doesn't explain the costume goofs, the character issues and the plan cheapness of the flick. I give THE EYE CREATURES....A HALF A STAR.