The Creeping Terror

**The Creeping Terror** (released under the alternative title *The Crawling Terror*) is a 1964 horror–science fiction film directed, produced, and headlined by Vic Savage. The story follows a slow-moving, slug-like alien that emerges from a spacecraft resembling a camping trailer and proceeds to swallow people whole in a small California town. The film is widely regarded as one of the worst ever made.

**Plot** Deputy sheriff Martin Gordon and his wife Brett are driving through the fictional Angel County, California, when they meet Martin’s uncle, Sheriff Ben. Together they investigate a reported plane crash site. There they find an abandoned forest ranger’s truck, the ranger’s hat, and an alien craft that looks like a camping trailer. A large, sluggish creature had already left the ship before they arrived. Believing the ranger may be inside, Ben crawls under the craft and enters. Screams and lion-like growls are heard, and Martin radios for help.

A military unit commanded by Colonel James Caldwell arrives in a civilian truck. Two soldiers enter the craft and report a large, tethered creature inside. The next day, Dr. Bradford, a leading expert on space emissions, arrives to oversee the investigation. Meanwhile, the escaped creature—despite its painfully slow pace—manages to approach and devour a bikini-clad girl, a housewife hanging laundry, a man and his grandson, picnickers at a hootenanny, and several teenagers and couples at a lovers’ lane.

Caldwell orders his troops to attack, hoping to capture the creature alive. The soldiers stand close together, walk slowly toward the monster, and fire small-caliber weapons. The attack fails, and all but two troops are eaten. Caldwell throws a grenade, killing the creature. Dr. Bradford examines the dead tissue, then rushes back to the spacecraft and sets off an explosion. The blast mortally wounds Bradford but does not damage the craft or its equipment, and it frees the tethered creature inside. As the creature prepares to eat Bradford, Martin’s police car crashes into it, killing it. Bradford explains that the creatures were mobile laboratories designed to consume humans, analyze their bodies for weaknesses, and transmit the data to space.