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The Creeping Flesh

The Creeping Flesh

Horror · Science Fiction · 1973

A Victorian scientist returns to London with his paleontological bag-of-bones discovery from Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, when exposed to water, flesh returns to the bones, unleashing a malevolent entity on the scientist's family and friends.

Movie details

The Creeping Flesh

“A terrifying journey through the nightmare worlds of evil, insanity, and terrible revenge.”

1973 Horror · Science Fiction 1h 32m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.1 / 10

4.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

83 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A Victorian scientist returns to London with his paleontological bag-of-bones discovery from Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, when exposed to water, flesh returns to the bones, unleashing a malevolent entity on the scientist's family and friends.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Creeping Flesh?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Oliver, a lonely autistic boy, seeks solace and refuge in his ever-present cell phone and tablet. When a mysterious creature uses the boy's devices against him, his parents must fight to save their son from the monster beyond the screen.

Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Freddie Francis

Written by

Jonathan Rumbold · Peter Spenceley

Peter Cushing

Peter Cushing

Emmanuel Hildern

Lorna Heilbron

Lorna Heilbron

Penelope Hildern

Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee

James Hildern

George Benson

George Benson

Waterlow

Catherine Finn

Catherine Finn

Emily

Hedger Wallace

Hedger Wallace

Doctor Perry

Duncan Lamont

Duncan Lamont

Inspector

Court is in session

Put The Creeping Flesh on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Prestige Tourist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.