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| SCREAM
AND SCREAM AGAIN |
| 1970:
Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing all appear
(although the last two only breifly) in this horribly plotted
horror thriller from director Gordon Hessler and writer Christopher
Wicking, who are also responsible for the even stupider Cry
of the Banshee. Price is a doctor creating synthetic humans,
but one of them gets loose and goes on a murderous rampage.
Meanwhile, in what I think is supposed to be some Eastern European
nation (although it's clearly England), SS-like officials are
doing ... something. It's really amazing just how bad the storytelling
is. I've seen this two or three times, masochist that I am,
and it's still really hard to make heads or tails of
it. It's somewhat redeemed, though, by some good gory humour,
such as when a handcuffed killer breaks free by tearing off
his own hand, and when a kidnapped man being used as a guinea
pig keeps waking up to find more of his body parts missing.
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| SCREAM
OF THE DEMON LOVER |
| 1971:
There's some good photography in this Euro-horror (Spanish/Italian
in origin) about a young woman travelling to the castle of a
sinister baron to assist him in his scientific experiments.
But local girls keep dying, and the doctor doesn't seem too
knowledgeable when it comes to science ... and of course, given
the country and year of origin, there's plenty of gratuitous
nudity. Interestingly, though, the sexual elements are less
extraneous than usual - they actually have something to do with
the story, as a deformed subhuman is enthralled by statuesque
beauty but repulsed when women express their sexual desire.
There are even a few decent twists to the story; at one point,
it seems as though the baron is a werewolf, but - well, I wouldn't
to give it away and spoil the only reason for watching the movie
(other than the profuse nudity, of course). Don't get me wrong
- this isn't what I'd call a 'good movie' or anything - but
it does offer a few decent surprises.
Back
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| THE
SEVENTH VICTIM
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| 1943:
Heavily symbolic Val Lewton production (he was responsible for
a whole slew of these in the forties), with typically evocative
atmosphere, about a young, sheltered girl who ventures into
the dark dregs of the city to find her missing sister. Turns
out that sis has hooked up with a crew of satanists. Also involved
is Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont. Effectively eerie,
especially the scene in the subway derived from a popular urban
legend (you know, the one where three guys are sitting next
to each other, and the one in the middle is ...) Director Mark
Robson delivers a unique and atmospheric picture. Back |
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| SHE-DEMONS
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| 1958:
Man, I've seen this movie three or four times, and I've just
got to say - them she-demons is hot! See, three shripwreck
survivors - Hero (Tod Griffin), Bitchy Rich Heiress (Irish McCalla),
and Ethnic Sterotype Sidekick (Victor Sen Young) end up on an
island run by an evil ex-Nazi who's turning the local girls
into demons in an attempt to repair his wife's skeletoidinously
deformed face. Amusingly cheap dreck featuring every cliche
in the book. Director Richard E. Cunha delivers what is, without
a doubt, the greatest she-demon movie ever made. Back
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| SHRIEK
OF THE MUTILATED
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| 1974:
Four college students - an upright citizen, his babe girlfriend,
a swinging hipster, and a chick with big glasses - pack into
a big van decorated with wavy flowers and go off to a remote
island estate to investigate sightings of the abominable snowman.
No, it's not a Scooby-Doo episode, although it follows
pretty much the same formula. Alan Brock delivers a cool performance
as the evil Doctor Prell, who's got sinister motivations up
his sleeve. There's a few great scenes, including a bit in which,
after the hipster's been killed by the snowman, they use a chunk
of his dead body to bait the creature ... and the chunk is quite
clearly a T-bone steak! The scene in which a crazed ex-student
of Prell's cuts up his wife and then takes a bath, only to have
her use her last ounce of energy to electrocute him with a toaster,
is worth the price of admission. Apocalyptic Shostokovich music,
which has also made appearances in The Brain Eaters,
The Shining, and Barb Wire, is used in the score.
I won't give anything else away, but a WARNING - Do NOT
read any other reviews of this movie! NONE! Because most of
them give away a nifty twist that I honestly did not see
coming. So don't read those reviews and spoil your enjoyment
of this true Scooby-Dooean classic! Back
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Text
copyright 2000 by Conall Pendergast.
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