(1974, Anamorphic Widescreen) Bill Greer, Deedy Peters, Lynne Marta, Jim Dean, Tony Reese, Dorothy Green. What we’ve got here is a good old-fashioned, American-made drive-in horror schlockfest that undoubtedly would have made guys chuckle with delight as their girlfriends squirmed in their car seats. The opening scene has a couple of teenage lovers making out in their car when suddenly…a monster pops up! We all know what happens next, thus setting the tone for the entire film. The setting is a castle-turned-sanitarium somewhere out in the desert. The central character is a mad doctor (we refuse to call him a mad “scientist” because that would be far too generous) who seeks to find a method of eliminating the inherent evil in people. He uses torture and murder to accomplish this. His methodology (of course) is never really explained. The result of his experiments (also not fully explained) is the creation of a multi-tentacled Lovecraftian-style monster, which rips its victims to shreds, two of which are deputy sheriffs. The doctor’s hunchback assistant whips and maims the doctor’s test subjects in the castle dungeon. When one of them dies, he chops her legs off so he can cram her body into a crate more easily. In fact, the entire castle and cave beneath seem to be filled with monsters, madmen, and madwomen running about with unchecked abandon, threatening the doctor’s wife and hapless nurse. There’s a scene with a scantily-clad babe and a poisonous snake that’s most unnerving. There’s also a Charles-Manson-type maniac locked in one of the dungeon cells, whose sole purpose seems to be leering with sadistic glee at the barbaric goings-on (his maniacal stares are truly unnerving). And of course it wouldn’t be a torture dungeon without a guillotine. Greer, as the mad doctor, gives it his all; but he looks more like a used car salesman who should be dressed from head to foot in ‘70s polyester clothing. This is absolutely one of the most outlandish, schlockiest, over-the-top, grade-Z horror films ever made. It simply has to be seen to be believed. And the schlock is non-stop from beginning to end. One IMDB reviewer said, “This is what Manos, The Hands of Fate would have looked like if they’d had an extra $100 for set construction.” A must. The print is a bit splicey in spots but it’s from 35mm and the color is very nice.
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