The Trollenberg Terror (1956)

Genres - Horror  |   Run Time - 180 min.  |  
  • AllMovie Rating
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Share on

Synopsis by Bruce Eder

The Trollenberg Terror was a six-part serial shown on Saturday Serial, on Britain's ITV Network in 1956. Written by Peter Key and directed by Quentin Lawrence, it offers a plot mixing mystery, grisly murder, and science fiction, along lines somewhat similar to Nigel Kneale's immensely successful BBC serial The Quatermass Experiment (1953). The story is set in a small village in the Austrian Alps, where a series of horrible deaths has taken place, their bodies mutilated and all of them involving mountaineers who have gone above a certain level on this one peak called the Trollenberg. At first, these seem like unfortunate accidents, but there also seems to be a tie-in with a pair of sisters (Sarah Lawson, Rosemary Miller), one of whom is drawn to the site of the deaths. An investigation by reporter Philip Truscott (Lawrence Payne) and Professor Crevet (Ray De La Torre determines that the deaths are the result of an alien invasion that has taken place on the upper reaches of the Trollenberg, by an extraterrestrial race called the Ixodes. And they are preparing to move down the mountain, to warmer, more densely populated areas. The television version of The Trollenberg Terror was so successful, that it was licensed in 1957 by Eros, a low-budget British studio, and made into a feature film of the same name (U.S. title: The Crawling Eye), also directed by Lawrence and starring Payne, with American actor Forrest Tucker moved into the lead role.