Fiend Without a Face
All is quiet as night falls at Air Force experimental station 6. A sentry (Sheldon Allan) stops to light a cigarette on his rounds when he hears strange noises coming from the woods. Hearing a scream coming from the woods the sentry runs to investigate. He finds the body of a man his face hideously distortedSometime later base security officer Al Chester (Terry Kilburn) and his Commander Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson) discuss the death. The FBIs report on the dead man indicates no criminal record of suspect connections. Chester suggests handing over the incident to the local authorities for investigations.They then check in with Dr Warren (Gil Winfield) who intended to do an autopsy on the man. Dr Warren reports Mayor Hawkins (James Dyrenforth) and Dr Bradley (Peter Madden) from the local county coroners department claimed the body before he could examine it.Col Butler (Stanley Maxted) calls Cummings to a meeting with Mayor Hawkins and the dead mans Sister Barbara Griselle (Kim Parker) Griselle and Hawkins point blank refuse to allow the military to conduct the autopsy. Butler then shows Barbara her brothers diary found where he was killed. Butler demands to know why her brother was keeping meticulous records of flight operations around the base. Griselle is furious at the invasion of privacy and Butlers very selective reading of the diary. She shows him pages of notes in the diary where her brother was tracking milk production of his herd and trying to correlate the falling production with the increasing aircraft activity.Later Cummings drives Barbara home; he apologizes for Butlers and explains the General had no real malice towards her brother, rather he was just doing his job. She takes the apology on face value and seems engaged by Cummings warm tones of reconciliationAn unknown time later, Cummings is supervising an experimental radar test at the base. It is hoped they can increase the range of current technology and begin directly monitor Soviet air activity in Siberia. The key to success is the amount of power they can run through the system. For this a small atomic reactor was built at the base.The test progresses normally and Cummings begins calling for more power to be delivered. His engineer warns they are in danger of overloading the reactor. Initially the technology begins to show promise before a sudden power drain kicks in. Butler is frustrated by the result. They know they are producing enough power, but beyond a certain point they are not delivering that power to the systemNearby at a farm owned by the Adams, Amelia Adam (Lala Lloyd) hears a strange noise in the barn. She goes to investigate and catches sight of something moving through the hay stored in the barn. Before she can react she is attacked and killed.Her husband, Ben (Meadows White) hears the commotion and runs to her aid. He in turn is attacked and defends himself briefly with a pitchfork against the unseen attacker before also being killedAt the funeral of Barbaras brother, people begin to hear about the double fatalities. Mayor Hawkins immediately blames the airbase and calls Butler with a series of accusations. Capt Chester tries to investigate but is ordered away from the crime scene by a local police officer,Howard Gibbons (Robert MacKenzie)Finally a joint autopsy is arranged, both Doctor Bradley and Warren have no trouble agreeing on their findings. All the victims have two small holes at the base of the skull. Further investigation shows that the entire brain along with the spinal cord is missing.Butler vows to get to the bottom of the mystery. He contacts the top medical and scientific experts in the Pentagon and instructs Cummings to get out among the villagers and see what they know.Cummings begins with Barbara. She works for Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves) transcribing his notes for scientific papers. Cummings is aware of Walgate and his extended interest in paranormal activity. Cumming senses a mutual attraction from Barbara, and begins to act on the emotion. Howard Gibbons interrupts the moment and an altercation occurs with Gibbons accusing Cummings of tom catting. Helen breaks up the fight and orders Cummings from the house.Cummings thinks he might have something and gets Chester to locate everything Walgate has published to see if any of his previous work can be connected with the deaths.Later that night Mayor Hawkins retires to bed when something invisible begins entering the house. Roused by the strange sounds Hawkins investigates and is killed instantly by an apparently invisible entity.News of Hawkins death set the town on edge. Constable Gibbons tries to calm the situation by arranging for a posse to go into the woods. Gibbons is convinced some sort of maniac is hiding in the woods. This seems to have the desired effect of getting the towns energy directed to something positive.Further background information about Walgate comes through from the FBI. He is considered eccentric but definitely a genius. Armed with this new information Cummings visits Walgate, he explains to the scientist the problems the deaths are causing. Walgate has worked out the reason for the base and the need for its own nuclear reactor. Although he gets every detail correct, Cummings admits to nothing.Walgate then focuses of the deaths and seems to take an unhealthy interest in the facial expressions of the dead. The professor suddenly turns very aggressive to Cummings. Barbara breaks up the conversation blaming Cummings dismissively and throws him out yet again.The posse Gibbons organized continues their sweep of the forest well into the night. Close to dawn, two of the men well away from the main group hear something odd in the trees. They go to investigate and get separated. One of the men becomes spooked and retreats shouting assistance.At daybreak the search parties return to the town without finding Howard Gibbons. A council meeting is called. Cummings is invited to the meeting to explain the Air Force position. He begins by reinforcing there no radiation involved and records and confirmed there are no missing military personnel to explain the deaths
The meeting is broken up when Gibbons stumbles into the meeting.He seems to be severely mentally retarded an incapable of normal speech. After the meeting Cummings confides to Barbara he thinks Walgate is behind the problems. For no apparent reason he tells Barbara he is going to investigate the cemeteryIn one of the vaults he finds a passage leading deep underground. He finds the newly interned body of the Mayor and Walgates favorite pipe. Suddenly from above he hears the vault door close, and realizes hes trapped. Finding two candles and begins to explore the vault in hope of finding another exit.At the base Capt Chester cant find Cummings. Calling Barbara he finds out that Cummings is probably at the cemetery. Chester stops to collect Barbara so they can continue on to the cemetery. Once there they hear strane thumping noises and realize Cummings trapped in one of the vaultsCumming then confronts Walgate over what has been occurring. He is convinced Walgate has developed some form of mind control. Walgate refuses to answer till Cummings shows him the pipe he retrieved from the vault. Walgate finally seen Cummings and intentionally locked him in the vaultWalgate explains he was examining the Mayor to determine the cause of death. Walgate seems to have a stroke and mutters something about shutting down the power plant before passing out. Cummings goes to Butler and after arguing Butler agrees to shut downAt the power plant the process for shut down commences and the technicians realize all the rods controlling the pile have been smashed. Butler immediately organizes emergency replacements. A call comes through; Walgate has regained consciousness and wants to speak to the base commander in person.Walgate explains his theory of thought amplification, he realized telepathy was not the answer and he needed to find a way to produce an entity powered by will power. He had been using electrical energy to power the process, after many failed experiments; he is in the middle of trying again when the house is hit by lighting. The extra power allowed him to turn the page of a book using only thoughtHe now understood that power was the key to the process, and began designing more powerful tests. His work progresses to a point where even a bigger power source was needed. When the airbase was constructed he worked out how to draw on the energy from the atomic powerEventually he created a life form based entirely on thought and hence invisible. One night, he discovers his lab in a shambles. Instinctively he knew his new creature had escaped. Instead of creating something to benefit man, hed created a fiend. He also believed there was more than one. When the first of the deaths occurred he decided that it was his fiends behind it.One of Butlers men sees a commotion outside and investigates. Butler tries to call the base but discovers the line has been cut. The solider outside screams and is instantly dead. Butler understands the danger and orders the others to begins to barricades themselves in the room.Walgate is asked how they can be rendered visible; he surmises that with enough power from the pile it could be done. Back at the installation one of the technicians becomes concerned at the fluctuations he is seeing in the power levels, as be checks instruments he is killed by one of the creatures.Now with unlimited power available, one of the creatures attains visibility. It is nothing more than a brain attached to a spinal cord and a number of tentacles protruding from the brain stem. It moves using a clumsy worm like motion.Back at the house another creature begins to attack, Melville (Launce Maraschal) becomes panicked at the enclosed situation. Looking outside, Butler sees all the creatures are now visible and at least three are attacking the house.They study the creatures for a short while then Cummings decides to try shooting the creatures. He kills one easily and while they concentrate on killing the others, one of the creatures drops down through the chimney and kills Melville.Cummings realizes they need to shut the power down. He volunteers to go because he knows the layout of the control room. Walgate also goes out to try and distract the creatures and improve Cummings chances. The creatures fall for Walgates decoy and Cummings escapes to safety. Cumming reaches the plant and breaks in as one of the creatures attacks him. Working his way to the control room he discovers a large number of base personal dead.Those still at the house realize the end may come soon. Theyre almost out of ammunition and the creatures seem to be massing for a final attack. At the last second as all their defenses collapse Cummings shuts down the control room with a bombSuddenly the remaining creatures writher in death then dissolve into nothingness. Cummings returns to the house and the waiting arms of Barbara. They kiss as the final credits rollChapman_glen@yahoo.com
insanity, cult, flashback