Director: Howard W. Koch
Year: 1958
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
While allowing a film crew to make a movie at his castle, the Baron decides to use the opportunity to finish his ancestor's brain-swapping experiments and begins using the crew to help complete them before he lets the hulking creation loose upon the unsuspecting filmmakers.
Review:
This actually wasn’t all that bad of an entry. This one definitely has its moments and features some good stuff from time to time, and a lot of this comes from the overall setup found here. That is, namely, in the beginning, where the film crew's twist makes the action-packed chase through the swamplands or his monologue down in the crypt a bit jolting, and the constant scenes of action being interrupted by the filmmaking process give the film a great angle at first. The location works nicely as well, being the kind of grand Gothic design that manages to have all its usual theatrics played up rather nicely, such as the chase through the forest features them running through the fog-enshrouded swamplands, while the big scenes in the castle showcase the grand layout of the facility.
Down below, this features all the technological machinery, giving a nice contrast to the old-school atmosphere, especially in the times spent in the lab trying to reanimate the body, which is pure old-school sci-fi goodness. These scenes feature the creature protecting his lair from the film’s crew members who stumble upon the area, which results in a somewhat enjoyable final half to this one, where the series of confrontations down in the lab generates some enjoyable action with a rousing finish. These here do raise it up, although it does have a few rather big issues here.
Its main issue is that it’s just marred by a criminal lack of energy and enthusiasm when it's not dealing with the baron's antics, as the film crew isn't that interesting and hardly ever does anything. These make the film such a drag that it grinds to a halt during the non-film shoot scenes, and that isn’t helped at all by the other troublesome nature featured here in the endless discussions which center around the use of the machinery and his family heritage. These discussions go nowhere, and all they end up doing is highlighting how much filler they actually do seem to be, as there’s little of interest here that isn’t recapped from other entries involving the adaptation.
That also leads to the other rather big flaw here, the overall cheapness, which is featured all throughout here. From the cramped-in feeling of the castle, the type of film that’s being shot there, and the execution of the special effects, the monster looks like a joke in concept and remains incredibly laughable, which proves to be a big downfall. The other big problem is the finale, as the entire thing is over so hurriedly, it's impossible to realize what had happened until the credits start to roll. These issues make this one a real missed opportunity since this one could've been decent.
Overview: **.5/5
A cheesy enough adaptation, but it is still watchable enough, this one gets off some immensely likable factors, even though these are also let down by the negative points that render it a middle-tier genre effort. Those who appreciate this era of genre fare, who enjoy this style on display, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like, while most others out there should heed caution.
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