Grite, Grite Outra Vez!

Gordon Hessler was not all that great a director. He wasn't particularly good at setting up interesting shots or getting good performances out of his actors, but occasionally he managed by default to create a movie that was so completely off-the-wall and bizarre that those shortcomings could be forgotten.

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN is a good example of that. It is by no means a good movie; in fact, it's really pretty bad. But you literally have no idea where it's headed, and by the time you get there, even though it's a tad underwhelming, it's still just oddball enough to keep you hooked.

Basically, it's the story of a serial killer who preys on bar-hopping women, and who, incidentally, seems to have superpowers of some sort. Or, maybe it's the story of a military conspiracy of some sort? Or is it the story of some kind of body parts black market? Believe it or not, all these seemingly unrelated plotlines eventually come together, and it's a wacky ride all the way.

The biggest disappointment for me, is the scarce screen time of headliners Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. They literally have less than twenty minutes of screen time combined, and only Lee and Price even appear together, in one very brief scene. The main characters seem to be a disgruntled Scotland Yard detective, and a younger, less cynical police officer.

I recommend this movie to any fan of AIP or any of the three horror stars, but most people will not have the patience to sit through it. Fans will enjoy it, if only for it's sheer weirdness.

This film was released before I was born, so I don't know anything about its ad campaign, but I imagine it went something like, "Lee, Cushing, and Price: Together at Last!!" This is true: they all are in this movie, but what we have here is a movie about a bunch of pseudo-Nazis (complete with knockoff uniforms) trying to create the master race by assembling people from assorted "perfect" body parts. Price has a substantial supporting role, but Cushing and Lee have basically cameos, and none of them share any meaningful screen time. So, basically, they are together in the credits only.

Now for the movie. Yes, it has a solid plot, but the movie doesn't follow it. It mostly has to do with the police tracking one of "composite" superhumans as he goes on a rape and murder spree. This does make for two of the best moments of the movie: when the killer, handcuffed to a car bumper, tears off not only his hand to escape, but a third of his forearm. The other is when a killer falls off a mountain and barely gets a scratch.

The real highlight is the final 20 minutes, when Price explains, in classic Bad Guy fashion, the entire master race thing to the hero. Price is a great actor, but he's a terrible doctor, because 1) he puts on his own surgical gloves, and 2) contaminates them 10 seconds later. A fight ensues between Price and the head of the fake Gestapo, and that's it. I don't know if I can recommend this movie to anyone, because fans of the three horror institutions in this film will be disappointed, as will genre fans. Watch it if you're bored, or for the goofy dialogue.

Starring three of horror cinema's greatest icons - Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee - this rather atypical American International Pictures release consists of several seemingly disparate plot threads that director Gordon Hessler attempts to pull together in the final act, with little success, the ending almost as confusing as everything that precedes it.

The film opens with a jogger collapsing and waking up in a hospital bed where he finds that he is missing a leg! The action then cuts to an unspecified Eastern European country where Konratz (Marshall Jones) is killing his dictatorial superiors in a bid to seize power. Meanwhile, a murder investigation leads London police detective Supt. Bellaver (Alfred Marks) to the home of Dr. Browning (Vincent Price). Christopher Lee appears as Fremont, a government official who is trying to secure the release of a spy, and Cushing, in what amounts to little more than a brief cameo, plays one of those who stands in the way of Konratz's climb to the top.

While there are some decent scenes along the way, including a perilous car chase, and a killer ripping off his own hand to escape from the police, the choppy nature of the narrative and the disappointing ending make Scream and Scream Again a far from essential 70s horror, despite its trio of genre greats.

If you want to see Price, Cushing and Lee together in a good film, I recommend The House Of The Long Shadows: it's much more fun, and you get John Carradine thrown in for good measure.

Amicus made a mix of several genre on this picture, Sci-Fi, Terror and Spying, the deadly sin lays out in casting three legendary actor of Terror, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as top billing, however they sadly appear as ordinary supporting casting, Peter Cushing just screened on few minutes and already died, Lee summed all takes around ten minutes or so, only just Vincent Price has more than fifteen minutes, anyway they weren't the main characters at all, they are calling as a bait to catch the audience, in any matter whatsoever the movie doesn't let down under any circumstances, aside the plot is split in two, the storyline is engrossing in all senses, except the oddball premise, there many praiseworthy sequences, as car chase that ends up with a backbreaking pursued of the Vampire killer until he throw yourself at acid pool, has another highlight regarding the overwhelming acting of weird Superintendent Bellaver (Alfred Marks) with a whimsical British humor, the movie also exploit the sex appeal of the gorgeous girls, aside the nonsensical sub-plot as an alleged and ill-fated Nazi-forces counterpart from some country of iron curtain on British ground that reach on the edge of the insanity or beyond, the remains is fully average!!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5

A killer who has a literal thirst for blood is prowling the nightclubs for fresh young victims. The police decide to set a trap to catch this man. A young policewoman poses as his new victim while wearing a wire. The killer meets the young policewoman and takes her with him to a secluded spot where he proceeds to drink her blood...

Vincent Price in interviews a number of years after the film was made, said he never understood the script at all. Not surprising, as the novel featured aliens and the film changed them to Communists (or something like that). And that is probably the least of the problems...

I mean, the choking of women and the pointless blood sucking? A jogger who is getting his legs removed? Yellow acid for some sort of research? It does not really all add up. Really sweet cars, though.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee appear, though not much. Heck, even Vincent Price does not really show up until the second half. But if you like these guys, do not mind waiting, and are okay with not really understanding what you are watching, check this one out.