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SCREAM
AND SCREAM AGAIN
1970
Director: Gordon Hessler
A group of Cruel Minded-Loonies
plans to take over the world with the help
Of The Amen Corner.
Scream and Scream Again is a jam packed Horror/Sci-Fi/Cop flick with ADD
and a little splash of acid, but it's bizarre enough to enjoy. Starring
the Three Amigos of Horror (Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter
Cushing) with a strong supporting cast presented in garishly colorful
style, Scream and Scream Again earns points for sheer audacity, plus it's
got some neat-o horror goodies to offer as well.
At first it appears to be your standard "Vampire-Wannabe Psycho On
The Loose" vibe but soon turns into something just a tad bit harder
to swallow. The story soon reveals, through the use of many discarded
body parts, a New World order in the pursuit of immorality. However their
first experiment, Keith, transforms into a rather hard-to-kill blood-thirsty
psycho freak. The local police, finding this young man ridiculously difficult
to apprehend, realize something is a tad amiss.
After being pursued by the police for about 55 kagillion city blocks,
Keith promptly dives into a vat of acid, thoroughly melting himself. Suddenly,
the police find there investigation beginning to take a rather gruesome
turn. Meanwhile, the unlucky random schmuck, who we only saw once running
throughout the opening credits, keeps waking up in a hospital with various
limbs missing each time!(Damn, sucks to be him all of a sudden.)
Though the shifts in narrative threaten to unhinge the tale as a whole
and often it seems like it's comprised of two essentially unrelated tales,
jammed serviceably into one rather bizarre film, Scream and Scream Again
is (like many of its late-sixties horror peers) a pretty good time. The
direction is crisp and well paced, the scare scenes are presented with
humor and colorful nastiness, and the actors are on-board for the full
'theatrical horror' treatment. The result is an old horror flick that
may have you chuckling more than a little, but it's not likely you'll
be bored.
The movie has been
released on DVD as one half of an MGM "Midnite Movies" double
feature, along with 1969's The Oblong Box.
- Bloody Bethy
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