La cara del terror

Fernando Rey is a wheelchair-bound professor who has developed a formula that can heal scar tissue. When he alights upon the badly disfigured "Norma" (Lisa Gaye) he injects her with his serum with almost miraculous results, which he proceeds to display to his peers and friends. Unfortunately, the serum begins to wear off and "Norma" - who had only recently escaped from a mental institution determines to exact revenge on the doctor and his assistant "Alma". The acting and dialogue are competent, but the pace is shockingly slow - far too many development scenes and far too little actually happens to keep the attention until the last ten minutes when "Norma" goes on a bit of a murderous spree. Although the dubbing is not bad, and it looks like some of it has been re-shot in English; it still struggles to make much headway leaving more blemishes on the story than his serum could really ever hope to cure.

The lugubrious, dermally destructive Sci-horror hokum Face of Terror remains a wild experiment in scientifically sinister terror!!! An ill-fated doctor Taylor (Fernando Rey) unknowingly tests his hugely unstable serum upon troubled mental patient Norma (Lisa Gaye), hoping to remedy her severe burns, only to induce hysterically antisocial results! Much has already been made of the derivative text, so I shall, instead, note the film's entertainingly psychotronic goofiness!

Catastrophically, the good doctor Taylor's revolutionary solution proves violently counter revolutionary, and briefly beautified Norma's plasticized dermal tissues angrily revolt, shockingly turning her into a shriekingly vengeful harridan! Talky, with a sluggish pace, Spanish 60s spookshow 'Face of Terror' will, to many viewers, appear like a relic from a bygone age. Arguably not on par with Jess Franco's macabre monochromatic masterpieces, this camp, melodramatic B/W Euro-schlocker is hopefully not without interest to more forgiving vintage Drive-In/Midnight Movie fans. The spectacularly shrill climax is exquisite, plus the groovy musical interludes, and lounge-y score are legit!!!

Dr. Taylor (Rey) develops a revolutionary new process of restoring badly damaged human skin. His synthetic skin can quickly and painlessly eliminate scarring. Unfortunately, the Madrid Institute of Mental Health denies his request to start human testing of his procedure.

Soon after being rejected, he is approached by a desperate woman (Gaye) with appalling burn scars on the left half of her face from an accident involving an oil lamp. What Dr. Taylor doesn't know is that she is an escaped mental patient from the very institution that had just rejected his work. He agrees to attempt the procedure on her free of charge since she is to be the first human test subject. It turns out to be a resounding success.

Unfortunately, the patient flees the doctor when he discovers her true identity and wants to turn her in. During her escape, she incapacitates him with a blow to the head. Now on the run, she struggles to remain at large and even escape the Madrid area. The film follows her desperate plight to both remain free and prevent her new skin tissue from deteriorating.

"Face of Terror" (U.S. title) is rather well done in many respects. The cast is decent and the production values are fine. There are some genuinely chilling moments as our fleeing mental patient plots murder in order to get her way. Pacing is slow at times and the entire film is rather predictable, but it is still worth seeing if one is a dedicated fan of the genre.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Isidoro Ferry and William Hole Jr.; Executive Producer: Jack Miles; Released by Futuramic Films in America. Screenplay by Monroe Manning; Photography by Jose Aguayo; Edited by Antonio Ramirez; Music by Jose Buenagu. Starring: Lisa Gaye, Fernando Rey, Virgilio Teixeira, Gerard Tichy, Emilio Rodriguez and Conchita Cuetos.

Owing to Georges Franju's earlier classic "Eyes Without a Face", this oddly localed horror film (made in Spain) dealing with plastic surgery and revenge is very amateurish, partly due to hack auteur William Hole. The professional leading players help save the day, but it's really a waste of a good title.

Attempting to solve a medical conundrum, a doctor tests a special serum to restore a disfigured woman's beauty through a secret surgery only to later realize not only does the serum wear off but his victim is an escaped mental patient and forces him to try to stop her.

This one wasn't all that bad of a horror/thriller. Once this one gets going, among it's better qualities is the fact that there's a rather great deal of fun to be had with the effects of the surgery. Although slightly neutered, it comes off rather well in the context of the story and features some rather fun times throughout here with the different after-effects of the operation showing her treatment and recuperation along the way that delivers just enough to give us an idea something is off about the procedure and brings in some rather nice and welcomed elements in this section. From the worries about the liquid drying too quickly to the differences in body temperature causing an adverse reaction to the process, this section really drives home a rather grisly set-up to the later realization that she's deteriorating and coming undone while she continues on with her newfound freedom the lifestyle currently gives her. The ways in which she goes to keep that identity a secret from others, often resorting to shocking murders to cover up her crimes, this carries the later half along with the police investigation to find her after the escape using the different means of evidence to find her. This does enhance the pace leading into the finale in her confrontation in his laboratory from the varying threats and brawling to the surprise manner in which it concludes itself, which along with the grotesque look of the disfigurement makes for the film's positives. There's not a whole lot really wrong here, as the film's main flaw featured here is the change in storyline from the other efforts from that time-period does make this one stumble with it's pacing. Bringing onboard the plot line about her escape into the world at large and not keeping it focused on him killing for attempts to perfect the formula, there's not a whole lot of actual action to be found here for a large part of this one. This focus on the investigation instead doesn't give this one a ton of interesting things to do and simply following her on the run trying to stay out of the police's custody that never amounts to anything and really lets the film get dragged out far more than necessary. It never really keeps to a consistent pace and causes the film to feel far longer than it really should without having much going on around the main story, and while it does enhance the finale with the contrast against the other scenes, for the most part, it's not a big factor going on around here. Along with the quite shortsighted and abrupt ending that just stops the film suddenly, these here are really all that hold it back.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.