Seddok - Der Würger mit der Teufelskralle

A young singer/dancer has a car accident and loses her good looks to several large scars on one side of her face. She is soon visited by a lady with a solution to her facial problem just as she contemplates suicide with a revolver. The lady takes her to a doctor working out of a lab in his basement that has come up with a drug/serum that will make her face all better and supposedly cause the young, beautiful girl to fall in love with him. Nothing real special here at all. The film is very Italian and cheaply-made, but it does have some nice camera work here and there. The acting leads are all hams(prosciutto)and way over the top in terms of believability. The fellow playing the policeman does do a fine job amidst the bacon around him! The film has a somewhat grainy quality and some poorly lit scenes, but atmosphere is created through the lens. Although the serum must have some component from a living-turned-recently-dead woman, the scientific premises used in the film are very big flights of fancy. I laughed quite a bit at the serious turn the film tries to make explaining that the doctor's work sprung from his experiences in Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The lines are uttered with little conviction and carry virtually no plausibility in them. Though a bad movie in many ways, one could do far worse as a means of entertaining oneself on a cold evening.

This is a good example of how distributors can ruin a movie. I have watched the 103 min original Italian widescreen version on DVD, entitled "Seddok, l'erede di Satana" ("Seddok, the heir of Satan"), which is a nice old-fashioned b/w horror flick based on a Frankenstein variation, with dialogs explaining the characters very well. But the movie was cut by a quarter of an hour for the export cinema version, ridiculously retitled "Seddok, der Würger mit den Teufelskrallen" ("Seddok, the strangler with the devil's claws"), and then it was cut by another quarter of an hour for video release. The fragment of what is used to be ended up under the title "Atom Age Vampire", and everybody complains how poor it is - well, if you tried getting the complete picture (both referring to widescreen format and its running time), you probably would have a better impression, although it can't be denied it is rather slow moving, and they wouldn't get away with this 'scientific' explanation of skin restoration anymore.

Like a previous poster mentioned, I also purchased this film for about 50 cents (USD). I wasn't expecting much from a DVD film that didn't even cost one dollar. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise! The change sequences from human to monster were amazingly well done for the time and the acting and dubbing to English were not bad either. Also, the late 50s early 60s black and white look and feel to the film was a plus. Many of the Italian made horror films I've seen from this era have a certain atmosphere and charm to them that is fascinating to watch. They often have a more bizarre or off beat story then USA made horror films of the same period. That's refreshing if you are a horror film fan like me and see lots of these movies hoping for something a little different. If you have the chance to view it, this film is well worth your time.

Having read comparisons between this movie and Mario Bava's films, I'd looked forward to seeing it for sometime. It's the story of a horribly disfigured woman who goes to a doctor for some unconventional treatments. It seems he has developed a serum that will restore the woman's beauty. But, the serum must be applied regularly and the supply soon runs out. As the doctor has fallen in love with the woman, he must do whatever it takes to get the ingredients to make more serum - even if that means killing other women.

Let's see, comparisons with Bava. 1. Black & white - so is Bava's Black Sunday. 2. Well, there really isn't a 2 as far as I'm concerned. Atom Age Vampire makes most other "slow" movies seem like roller coaster rides. I actually had to wake myself twice and rewind the movie. Also, while I'm generally one of those people that will defend dubbing in Italian movies, I can't do that here. This is one of the first times I can actually say that the dubbing got in the way of my enjoyment of a movie.

A crazed Professor Levin goes to rather bizarre and extreme lengths to ensure his formerly disfigured young girlfriend remains beautiful, desirable and under his control.

This Italian Science Fiction/Horror epic is really quite silly thanks in large part due to the English dubbing and likely editing. But the film does work somewhat on a soap opera level and has some better than average transformation sequences. Actually it's quite entertaining but not always for good reasons. Still it was better than I was expecting.