Director: Mario Mancini
Year: 1972
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Midnight Horror
Genre: Frankenstein
Plot:
After a series of recovered bodies, a police inspector realizes that the bodies being left behind were committed by the sewn-together monster of a local doctor who used a serum created by his professional rival to delay rejection of transplanted organs and tries to stop the creature’s rampage.
Review:
This was a flawed, sleaze-filled take on the mythos. Among the brighter spots for this one focus on the idea of the rampage being conducted as it is through some intriguing storylines. The story here of the main regeneration formula being developed as a way of ensuring the organs are successfully accepted following surgery and not rejected, which makes the perfect excuse for the doctor to use it on his creation so it can survive long enough to go on its rampage across the city, which is found to result in the killer targeting prostitutes and other random victims found along the streets. It’s a fun enough main setup that allows this one to go through a solid enough main starting point with the series of interactions that take place here while also allowing this one to generate the kind of necessary involvement by the authorities to get the film as a whole moving along.
When it comes to these scenes focusing on the killer loose in the city and taking out victims, the mix of cheesy action and sleazy visuals helps this one out nicely. Featuring the creature stumbling upon victims in general states of undress or even outright stripping down to make time with him under the assumption of a client they’re going to sleep with, this one brings about a nice bit of nudity in these encounters, which gets brought about even further with some of the outright cheesy gore on display from the dispatch. With this bringing about numerous victims from the slow-on-the-uptake police officers investigating everything that fails to do much to stop the slaughter, it provides the perfect space for more of these situations to occur in the second half as the series of encounters with the creature spread throughout the city. Overall, these manage to provide quite a lot to enjoy here.
There are some factors here keeping it down. The biggest drawback with this one tends to be the kind of sluggish and generally lackluster tempo that leaves the film immensely dull for large stretches of the running time. As we’re supposed to be following the reporter working alongside the police investigating everything, who are incredibly stupid and not that bright, there are plenty of lame and underwhelming scenes of them trying to put everything together only to be proven wrong on the next murder. Alongside this is a series of obviously ludicrous and bland scenes of padding out the running time, including a forced romantic relationship, an endless striptease sequence, and action at a race car track, it all comes off with a sense of blandness when not being interrupted by the killer’s antics. As everything takes place with an air of cheap and flimsy production values, making it look far more low-budget than it should, these all manage to hold it back quite heavily.
Overview: **.5/5
A somewhat watchable sleazy variation on the story, there are some worthwhile elements to be had with this one that thankfully manage to bring about enough to like over its issues. Those with an interest in this particular style of sleazy genre fare, or who aren’t bothered by this style of feature, will have the most to like here, while most others should heed extreme caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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