Amok, l'homme à deux têtes

Obviously this is a bad movie. But what else did you expect from a movie with a title such as this one has. I'll admit, this movie its title is the only reason why I really wanted to see it and no, I also certainly don't regret I did. Yes, it's still being a bad movie but it's just one of those movies that is fun to watch, regardless of how bad things get in this movie.

The movie does work out as fun because of its insane and silly concept. Main concept of the movie is a scientist experimenting on putting two heads on one body. But I seriously still don't understand with what purpose the professor was executing his experiments. As far as I understood it, it all had something to do with successfully transplanting limbs from one body onto another but this all doesn't explain why our dear professor and his disabled assistant are experimenting with putting extra heads onto animals bodies. But needless to say that this is simply one of those movies you really shouldn't think too much about, while watching it.

I was really interest to see how they had done the two heads effect on one human body in this movie. The answer is; poorly. It's quite laughable actually. For certain shots they used an obvious (very) fake puppet head, that never gets shown from the front and for its close-ups it's basically the one guy standing very close behind the other guys back, to create the illusion of two heads on one body. This should pretty much sum up how this entire movie is being like. Silly, cheap, poorly done and just overall bad but you still can't help being amused by it all.

No, it's not really a story with much good story and that also is really foremost its downfall. This movie could had still been a much better and more entertaining one if more was happening in it. Now the 'monster's rampage doesn't happen until far into the movie. It's all such a big waste and shame. Surely they could had come up with some more original and entertaining stuff than what they show in the eventual movie. They waste too much time with this movie by setting up its shallow characters and shaky plot, that is being filled with holes and inconsistencies.

I also just love it how mentally challenged persons why behave like little kids in movies always wear dungarees. In this movie that isn't any different and he's constantly wearing the same sweater as well in this movie to complete things. I also just love how insane and over-the-top the smirking murderer is in this movie. Those two are the persons who get attached to one and the same body in this movie, so prepare yourself for lots of insane madness.

The movie foremost sounds like a crazy B-monster movie from the '50's and for most part the movie is also really being that way but it it's actually an '70's movie, so it's still has lots of hints of the exploitation genre in it as well. The movie is not that bloody or gory but it still features plenty of killings and also some nudity. The camera-work and especially its editing are being quite experimental at times, which also makes it all the more apparent that you're watching an '70's movie here.

Funny that somehow Bruce Dern ended up being in this mess, that foremost is still being a silly/bad fun one to watch.

4/10

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There's no doubting this is a very bad film by anyone's standards, but it isn't without some entertainment value. Bruce Dern – clearly on his uppers back in '71 – takes on the mad scientist role with such laid-back indifference to the part that his performance alone is worth the cost of the rental or purchase or ninety minutes of your life. Never will you see an actor so clearly embarrassed by the rubbish he has somehow found himself saddled with or trying so hard to appear invisible. Dern speaks each of his lines with a kind of preternatural calmness that leaves you wondering whether some underhand producer hasn't drugged him so that he believes he's floating through a dream. His character is assisted by Max (Berry Kroeger) who, quite frankly, is the creepiest thing in the film – like a strange uncle whose lap your mum warns you not to sit on when you're a kid…

The plot follows the typical monster-movie template. Once again our monster is stitched together from people's body parts in a fortress-like laboratory to which access is denied to the good doctor's long-suffering wife (Pat Priest). But, unlike Frankenstein, this is no meditation on the dangers of man playing God, rather than a frank attempt to titillate undemanding teens. Of course, wifey can't resist having a peek in the lab and before you can say 'don't open the door!' she's opened the door and – well, I'm sure you can get the rest.

The poor simpleton who has a maniacal killer's head grafted onto his neck (don't you hate it when that happens?) is something of a giant, and he's filmed from a low angle so that no money has to be spent on special effects. I'm sure Messrs Bloom and Cole must have been pretty close friends by the end of the shoot. Of course the killer quickly becomes the dominant partner and forces his neck-mate to embark on a killing spree. He lumbers around the countryside, chancing upon necking teenagers and wasted bikers who, for some reason, find it impossible to outrun him and, cackling wildly, summarily dispatches them for no apparent reason other than he's completely bonkers.

The single moment of any worth in the film is the point at which director Anthony Lanza cuts away from the murder of the female biker, just as those brainless cackles are beginning to rise. It's a moment of restraint totally at odds with the rest of the movie.

A maniacal killer's head is fused to the lumbering, gargantuan body of a man with the mind of a small child by a scientist who just happens to specialize in fusing two-headed creatures in his spare time. Why? He says to show everyone what a genius he is. Why on Earth would anyone want to create a monster with two heads - neither containing the brain of anything remotely resembling worthiness? Such is the premise in this bizarre, fascinating, and God awful film made in 1971. Bruce Dern plays the "mad" scientist with decided disinterest. Can you blame him? He strolls around with drink in hand and never shows any real depth of character. By the film's end, his performance just caves in. The two-headed monstrosity, which battles bikers on bikes wielding chains and has a cumulative IQ of 60, is a true sight of ineptitude to behold. John Bloom, who would later get an even worse role as Frankenstein's Monster in Al Adamson's horrendous opus Dracula Vs. Frankenstein, plays Danny - a hulking man that lost his mind when he was left for dead in a mine shaft years ago. Now an adult, Danny is dutiful to his father, is treated like a mental defective by all concerned, and sweats a lot. The head of Albert Cole, a man who we see leering or laughing with crazy glee, is attached when Cole tries to rape Dern's wife(more on her in a minute) and kills Danny's father. Dern and his limp-wristed former surgeon assistant(Barry Kroeger) feel the time is right to make a two-headed freak with the body of Cole at their disposal and the mentally deficient Danny just there. This movie is a real hoot to sit through as every minute in bad - bad but fun. The story stinks. Director Anthony Lanza has little savvy. The production values virtually non-existent(although the head thing looks better here then some of the other two--headed monsters of the same era). Acting? What acting? C'mon - Casey Kasem as a doctor/hero? Dern looks like he lost a bet and had to be in the picture. Cole is annoyingly disgusting and ridiculous. Bloom is okay at best. But I really liked Pat Priest as Dern's wife. She sure didn't give a great performance, but she made a believer out of me as she fainted(several times), ran from crazy Cole, lounged in a chair by the pool, laid in bed either of her own accord or bound and gagged, and finally was tied and put in a cage in the lab - all in either a bikini, a small nightie, or some other light attire that showcased her attributes, the brightest things about this dreadful dreck. This movie is very, very bad, and I must confess I loved every minute of it. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Just hearing that soundtrack where every beat foreshadows something suspenseful will happen and rarely does. Or how about the dialog used in the picture? Whew! This is one of the all-time great of le bad cinema.

Casey Kasem, Marilyn Munster, Bruce Dern, and Seymour in a campy horror cheapsterpiece that is good for some laughs.

Bruce Dern is a mad doctor/scientist, and of course, nobody has ever seen a mad scientist in a movie before. He concocts a plan to take a dead head off one guy, and surgically attach it to another guy. Neither he nor you will ever know why he wants to do this, but it provides the backbone for this juicy camp novelty, that looks to have been made on a budget of about ten bucks, and two S&H green stamps. Casey Kasem was not doing a top 40 show or Scooby Doo cartoon that week, so he drops by. He's a colleague of Dern, but not nuts like Dr. Dern is. I love the scenes where our hero, Dr. Kasem, turns on the radio, to listen to his own voice doing the radio news announcer. Pat (Marilyn Munster) Priest is the blonde bombshell romantic interest (of more than one character, if you catch my drift). And of course, the two-headed transplant: both actors combine to actually give this awkward looking beast some real emotion.

They're all good, in a campy way, but a special treat this movie had was a popular local late night horror host seen here in L.A. in those days, named Larry "Seymour, the Master of the Macabre" Vincent. He used to offer up golden turkey monster flicks, in order to poke fun at their awfulness, MST3K style. He roasted himself for doing "Transplant," although his all-to-brief screen before making a routine horror film exit, was actually pretty good acting. Sadly, Seymour died fairly young, leaving this as one of his few film appearances.

The idea is goofy, but the script has enough going on that the actors can work with it. They all seem to have had fun making the flick, too. Considering the z-budget, it's not bad at all. This can actually be entertaining if you go in expecting dumb but amusing camp.

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Roger (Bruce Dern) is a doctor doing experiments on animals. He is putting two heads on a single body and he finally gets his chance to do it with humans when a large but mentally challenged man becomes available as a subject but he puts the head of a killer on him and soon the monster is running loose.

THE INCREDIBLE 2-HEADED TRANSPLANT was the type of film that AIP was turning out to drive-ins back in the day when this type of exploitation was grand. As with a lot of drive-in films, the most important thing was a great title and there's no question that this film has that. With that said, there really isn't too much exploitation here and it's a tad bit too dry for its own good.

Apparently the mad scientist role was originally meant for someone like Vincent Price but the role went to Dern instead. Dern is certainly a very good actor and he gives a good performance here but he plays it so serious and straight that it just doesn't added enough entertainment value for the type of film it is. The performance was more for a serious medical drama than a drive-in "B" picture. Casey Kasem was fun to see in his role and we also got Gary Kent, Pat Priest and Albert Cole.

The film is certainly mildly entertaining and the two-headed monster has an interesting look to it. The film is worth watching but at the same time there's no question that it falls well short of being a good movie. It also got outdone by the following year's THE THING WITH TWO HEADS.