"The Creeping Flesh" (1973) is another movie I haven't seen since I was a kid. It stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and was directed by Freddie Francis, whose films waver in quality from highly enjoyable to pretty dull. This movie, unfortunately belongs in the latter category. The story involves a scientific treatment of evil as a living organism; a disease that can be cured. Cushing thinks that he's found that cure in the skeleton of a pre-Neanderthal giant with a large brain cavity. This skeleton, when it gets wet, regenerates its tissue. From the blood, Cushing develops a serum, which he doesn't test adequately before administering to his own daughter, hoping to prevent her from developing the mental illness that destroyed her mother. Instead, the serum unleashes his daughter's inner Hyde. As for the skeleton, Lee steals it for his own needs, during a rain storm, and the skeleton comes back to slimy fleshy life, and to exact vengeance on Peter Cushing.
It sounds as if its full of potential, but the science is silly, and the movie meanders at a slow pace, with very little happening along the way. The living skeleton makes an impressive, imposing presence, but has a surprisingly small amount of screen time, and the movie ends with almost no resolution. It's always enjoyable to see a movie with Cushing and Lee in it, but there are many others that are more rewarding.
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