Cult Movie Preppers #3 | Freeview | The Creeping Terror (1964)

With Savage having disappeared, the main financier, William Thourlby (who appeared in the film as Dr. Bradford), acquired the remaining film stock and had an edited version created in an attempt to recoup some of his investment. Sound reels for a later portion of the film had gone missing, so Thourlby added constant and occasionally intrusive narration. Some parts of the film he could not explain because of their lack of apparent narrative purpose, and the plot gets hazy. Principal photography began in late 1962, but instead of shooting at scenic Lake Tahoe as Silliphant had expected, a muddy pond at Spahn Ranch in Simi Valley, California was used. When the film's special effects creator was not paid for his work, he allegedly stole the original creature costume a day prior to shooting, forcing Savage and his remaining crew to assemble a poorly constructed replica. In John Stanley's Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide (1988), the resultant creature is described as "...an elongated alien monster resembling a clumsy shag rug..." Because of Savage's difficulties in securing financing, filming was episodic and did not conclude until 1963. In 1994, The Creeping Terror was featured in episode #606 of Mystery Science Theater 3000; the cast, crew and viewers of the program became noted critics of the film. TV Guide described The Creeping Terror as "pure camp," and claimed it might be the second-worst horror film ever made, behind only Plan 9 from Outer Space. Stirling Silliphant would later write In the Heat of the Night, for which he received an Academy Award, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, among other films. The opening credits were created by Richard Edlund who would later work on visual effects for major films such as Star Wars (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984).