First, Alex Marsh has not combined a nerve gas & a hypnotic, that's what he is ATTEMPTING TO DO, when things go horribly wrong. He does not experiment on himself either. Being overtired, he spills some and inhales the gas and gets some of the liquid on his hands.
You get an idea how terribly wrong when his lab assistant asks where their mice are and Marsh says one of his formulations killed them all.
But to the film. It's very low budget. The only real money spent is on the makeup and the CinemaScope. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The score is also pretty good. Bongo drums, an organ, a tom-tom, an occasional piano (or harp) and an ominous droning noise thrown in. The score really sets the mood.
If you want to know what Malibu and the Pacific Coast Highway looked like in the early sixties, this film will show you.
It's a very short film, moving along at a rapid clip of about an hour. It's not enough time for the viewer to establish empathy with the characters, or even to know much about them. But, this also means that the horror that befalls Marsh (and his lab assistant, a gas station attendant, and his boss) is very brutal. Quite a few characters die horrible deaths in quick succession.
Marsh is desperate, thinking he can be saved with a serum or chemical magic. Frankly, he seems insane toward the end of the film, but you know he's doomed.
Not a bad film to spend just an hour on.
Note: The makeup on Marsh reminds me a bit of "The Thing" from the Fantastic Four. The makeup is quite good though. And yes, that's Agar under all that!
You get an idea how terribly wrong when his lab assistant asks where their mice are and Marsh says one of his formulations killed them all.
But to the film. It's very low budget. The only real money spent is on the makeup and the CinemaScope. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The score is also pretty good. Bongo drums, an organ, a tom-tom, an occasional piano (or harp) and an ominous droning noise thrown in. The score really sets the mood.
If you want to know what Malibu and the Pacific Coast Highway looked like in the early sixties, this film will show you.
It's a very short film, moving along at a rapid clip of about an hour. It's not enough time for the viewer to establish empathy with the characters, or even to know much about them. But, this also means that the horror that befalls Marsh (and his lab assistant, a gas station attendant, and his boss) is very brutal. Quite a few characters die horrible deaths in quick succession.
Marsh is desperate, thinking he can be saved with a serum or chemical magic. Frankly, he seems insane toward the end of the film, but you know he's doomed.
Not a bad film to spend just an hour on.
Note: The makeup on Marsh reminds me a bit of "The Thing" from the Fantastic Four. The makeup is quite good though. And yes, that's Agar under all that!