Fiend Without a Face is a 1958 independently made British black-and-white science fiction-horror film drama directed by Arthur Crabtree, and starring Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Michael Balfour, and Kim Parker.

The screenplay by Herbert J. Leder was based upon Amelia Reynolds Long's 1930 short story "The Thought Monster", originally published in the March 1930 issue of Weird Tales magazine.

Postmortems reveal the victims were murdered and the brains and spinal cords are missing from the corpses; the only clue left behind are two puncture marks at the base of each skull.

Unknown to Professor Walgate, the nuclear power radar experiments underway at the nearby U. S. airbase have greatly enhanced his mental abilities to the point that, through him, his living thought projection has become a malevolent and invisible new life form.

The invisible creatures eventually attack and kill the military personnel at the airbase in order to take over control of the radar station's nuclear reactor; two of them dial-up the power to very dangerous levels.

[5] Screenwriter Leder was originally set to direct the film, but being American, was unable to obtain a British work permit in time, so Crabtree replaced him as director.

The crowds that gathered to watch the caged Fiend grew so large that NYC police finally ordered the display case removed because it was creating a public disturbance.

[5] Five months later, Fiend Without a Face created a public uproar after its British premiere at the Ritz Theatre in Leicester Square in London's West End.

What may give the film a special interest for devotees of the genre is the final scene in which the creatures, hitherto invisible, appear as mobile brains with proboscis projections and trailing tails; the anatomical device whereby they are able to fly through the air as well is not explained.

"[8] A reviewer for Harrison's Reports wrote in May 1958, "Up until the last two reels, this British-made science-fiction-horror program horror melodrama is fairly interesting in the usual fantastic sort of way, because it deals with unexplained, invisible monsters who strangle their victims and supposedly suck out their brains and spinal cords.

"[9] In contrast, a reviewer for Motion Picture Daily in June 1958 wrote, "This entry in the science fiction, horror division sweepstakes is well and logically constructed, capably acted and directed with an eye toward building suspense.

[Note 2] MGM was also surprised by market research showing Fiend Without a Face to be a "stronger draw by far" than its companion release, The Haunted Strangler, which failed to generate much audience interest.

[21] The online website Dread Central offered an October 2013 update from Frumkes on his Fiend Without a Face remake: I've wanted to do this film for 40 years, so I already had it all in my head, and it wasn't hard to write.

It's a mature film, but it has a Street Trash sensibility, so the people who like my work will not be disappointed.The website also posted a still from a fundraising trailer that Frumkes had shot for the remake with director Franco Frassetti.

Montreal-based filmmaker Rémi Fréchette produced, co-wrote and directed a web series (2013) and a horror comedy feature film (2014), both called Les Jaunes, which shared the themes and images of Fiend Without a Face, including the military aspects, rural setting, and energy-based brain creatures.

In Les Jaunes, an epidemic of yellow crawling brains threatens the lives of the inhabitants of Fort Vince, a reclusive Northern Quebec town.