I suppose that, given its lurid title, the 1957 sci-fi/horror flick, Attack of the Crab Monsters, could have been presented as a “Guilty Pleasure.” But surprise, the film garnered some decent reviews, and it grossed a million bucks on a paltry $70,000 budget. (These days, $70K wouldn’t cover one day of lunch at a film shoot.) You probably never heard of anyone in the cast, except perhaps for Russell Johnson, who played the Professor on Gilligan’s Island.

A TOTAL WAVE OF TERROR!

Attack of the Crab Monsters, directed by Roger Corman—king of the B-movies—was indicative of the 1950s paranoia over the far-reaching effects of atomic and nuclear power. In this case it targeted the aftermath of the 1946 Bikini Atoll nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific.

A quick overview: some scientists and a support crew arrive on a remote island to look for members of a previous expedition that have inexplicably vanished. The island appears to be sinking into the sea, perhaps from the effects of radiation. Larger than normal crabs—minimally so—are all over the place. Two of the crustaceans are a bit bigger: like, each one is the size of a house! Not only that, after consuming the first group they absorb their brains and can communicate telepathically with the second group, luring them to their deaths. (I’m not making this up.) Will any of the team—and the island itself—survive?

Ah, lunch!

Given its age, its spare script, and its “special effects,” Attack of the Crab Monsters might offer a few laughs for today’s CGI-bred audiences. But the actors in the film, which runs a tad over an hour, take their roles seriously. For me, this was one of the better 1950s sci-fi/horror films.

No crab legs for dinner.