Screaming Yet Again ...
I first caught this film on late night television many years ago as an impressionable youngster. I remembered it fondly (and not without a laugh) as a quirky, kitschy horror/sci-fi/political thriller whose odd parts (forgive the bad pun) were held together by shots of a runner in a hospital bed, screaming as he progressively loses his limbs.
Years later, when I rented this film, my views changed very little. Time has passed, and the movie appears even more dated than it did when I first watched it in the early 1990s. Dated, quite often in a 'good' way, too. For example, check out the hilariously inappropriate jazzy/60s music that permeates the scenes of murder, violence and intrigue (though the singing in the nightclub has been removed from some video copies, presumably - as one other reviewer suggested - to avoid copyright problems).
The film's loose series of episodes added a nightmarish feel to the proceedings. The subplot with the runner losing his body parts is just brilliant, and Marshall Jones gives a delightfully awful performance as the sadistic Konratz, stomping around a Nazi Germany- type country that seems unrelated to the runner or the investigation into a series of vampiro-sex crimes. Then Vincent Price pops up as a Mad Doctor Type, and Chris Lee as a government agent ...
That these episodes are ultimately not sewn together satisfactorily in the conclusion (forgive the second bad pun) is a disappointment. I know, I know, this film is trash, it's not to be intellectualised. But there's a fine line between being cryptic and mysterious, and just teasing your audience for no real purpose than to tease them. I would make a joke here about SASA not being the sum of its parts, but you know what I mean ...
Nevertheless, still kitsch fun, some laughs and cringe at that jazzy music score. Time to scream again?
Years later, when I rented this film, my views changed very little. Time has passed, and the movie appears even more dated than it did when I first watched it in the early 1990s. Dated, quite often in a 'good' way, too. For example, check out the hilariously inappropriate jazzy/60s music that permeates the scenes of murder, violence and intrigue (though the singing in the nightclub has been removed from some video copies, presumably - as one other reviewer suggested - to avoid copyright problems).
The film's loose series of episodes added a nightmarish feel to the proceedings. The subplot with the runner losing his body parts is just brilliant, and Marshall Jones gives a delightfully awful performance as the sadistic Konratz, stomping around a Nazi Germany- type country that seems unrelated to the runner or the investigation into a series of vampiro-sex crimes. Then Vincent Price pops up as a Mad Doctor Type, and Chris Lee as a government agent ...
That these episodes are ultimately not sewn together satisfactorily in the conclusion (forgive the second bad pun) is a disappointment. I know, I know, this film is trash, it's not to be intellectualised. But there's a fine line between being cryptic and mysterious, and just teasing your audience for no real purpose than to tease them. I would make a joke here about SASA not being the sum of its parts, but you know what I mean ...
Nevertheless, still kitsch fun, some laughs and cringe at that jazzy music score. Time to scream again?
- j-thompson4
- Dec 22, 2003