Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / TheCreepingTerror

Go To

1%%
2%%Zero context examples are not allowed. Please add context before removing the comment.
3%%
4
5[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/creepingterrorposter.jpg]]
6[[caption-width-right:350:Carpeting a countryside in mortal terror!!]]
7
8There once was a man named Vic Savage. You're probably thinking "So?" Well, he knew an {{Exploitation Film}}maker named Allan Silliphant (who would later direct ''The Stewardesses'', the most profitable 3D movie with respect to budget of all time) who was related to Stirling Silliphant (writer of ''Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight''). Vic bought a story from Allan, pretended he bought a story from Stirling, and pulled together some investors - supposedly by promising cameo roles. He took the money, made... a "movie," and disappeared with most of the investors' money.
9
10The story is about a UFO that releases a giant caterpillar-like monster who begins eating random people. It turns out that the monsters (there's a second one inside the ship) are actually robots sent to analyze human beings for aliens. Although the monsters are destroyed by the end, the spaceship still beams its collected data into space...
11
12This "movie" would later be remembered as being particularly bad even for ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. For tropes and specifics relating to the ''[=MST3K=]'' version, please check the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S06E06TheCreepingTerror episode recap page]].
13
14A documentary-turned-drama, ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1686027/ The Creep Behind the Camera]]'', was released in 2014 about Vic Savage and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CGfEOHiNmk his scamming]] of the town investors.
15
16----
17!!This film provides examples of:
18%%* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:There are two Terrors on the ship.]]
19* TheCameo: Most memorably obese Investor #5 as Bobby's grandpa.
20* CarFu: The second monster is defeated by ramming it with a truck! Armies of the world, take note: when guns are useless, grab a Ford!
21* ClothingDamage: A blink-and-you-miss-it moment. When the monster attacks the dance party, a woman tries to escape, only for a guy to come after her and pull her away ''tearing her dress top off''.
22%%* DeathOfAChild: Bobby.
23* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: At one point, it looks like the Terror is ''humping'' a convertible.
24-->'''Mike:''' You see, when a monster and a car love each other very much...
25-->'''Crow:''' He's mistaken the car for a lady monster!
26%%* DullSurprise: "My God, what is it?"
27%%* FauxlosophicNarration
28* {{Fanservice}}: The various shots of [[HelplessKicking wiggling female legs]] disappearing down the monster's gullet. [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Servo]] speculated that the director had a vore fetish.
29** FanDisservice: And for others, it is ruined by the fact that, well, they are getting eaten (and that it doesn't apply to the male victims).
30** In the nightclub/high school gym a woman in shiny pants shakes her butt for the camera, however, it also cuts away to the monster a couple times.
31* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The drunk at the party is seen still drinking at the bar while everyone is slowly trying to either leave or crawl into the monster's mouth.
32* TheEndOrIsIt: [[spoiler: The Terrors are destroyed, but the information they collected is successfully sent to their masters.]]
33* GainaxEnding: The second monster is killed, but the spaceship sends off a signal to... somewhere... and the threat that more monsters may come is raised, though there's some speculation by the film that the society from which it came is extinct now.
34%%* Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
35* GodzillaThreshold: The military is forced to use... ''a grenade.''
36* HereWeGoAgain: The spaceship has a ''second'' creature in it.
37* HollywoodTactics: Apparently infantry engagement rules in the '50s required soldiers to stand tightly clumped-together and fire at the enemy from ''seven feet away.'' Colonel Caldwell only thinks to use a grenade after his entire squad is eaten.
38-->'''Crow:''' What kind of memorial do we build to ''those'' guys?
39* ImprobableWeaponUser: The young folk singer weaponizes his acoustic guitar against the Terror. It works as well as you might expect, especially when said guitar has no strings and is a breakaway prop.
40* ImprobableInfantSurvival: The actual baby survives the film.
41* InformedConversation: Most of TheNarrator's narration is what the dialog would have been.
42* LeaveTheCameraRunning: A lot of long scenes of nothing going on, except dancing, or driving, or playing a guitar...
43* MonsterMisogyny: One of the most blatant examples.
44* TheNarrator: Who seems to only talk when the characters should be. The plan was originally to dub it over, similar to ''Manos'', but they decided to use a narrator instead.
45-->'''Crow:''' "Actual dialog startled everyone!"
46%%* ShaggyDogStory
47* ScienceIsBad: [[JerkAss Doctor Bradford]] is clearly wrong for taking any kind of non-military action. Not that the military are any better.
48* SoundtrackDissonance: Most of the scenes with the monster eating people are set to jazz music. Completely takes away from the scariness of the situation.
49* SwallowedWhole: How just about everyone gets it, though the men go down fast while the [[MonsterMisogyny women go down struggling, wriggling, and screaming all the way.]]
50* TokenRomance: During the party, one character is stewing about her boyfriend standing her up, then a pair of guys duke it out (presumably over her) while the monster rampages. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment This subplot is suddenly introduced and vanishes just as quickly.]]
51* TooDumbToLive:
52** Almost all of the victims tend to stand in place and scream rather than flee the easily outrunnable creature, except the ones in cars. They just kind of sit there and scream, even though they could out speed the monster by walking away casually. The monster design pretty much makes it impossible to eat anyone without their willing assistance.
53--->'''Mike:''' Now, if you can help out by climbing ''in''... ''(the bots chortle)''
54** In an attempt to stop the transmission of humanity's biological data, Martin rushes into the UFO, loaded gun in hand--then tries to ''pistol-whip'' the computer. Needless to say, this doesn't work.
55--->'''Mike''': Hey, hey, there's ''bullets'' in the other end of that thing!
56* WatsonianVersusDoylist: How does the monster eat people? Doylist explanation: They crawl into its mouth. Watsonian explanation: Doesn't exist.
57* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The first victim's boyfriend is never seen nor heard from again after he runs off and leaves her to her fate. Apparently, he didn't think it worth telling anyone about the monster.
58

Top