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Friday, November 29, 2019

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN (1970)

Oddly watchable horror mash-up ineptly juggles multi-pronged storylines to inexplicably compelling effect. What starts as a police procedural on the hunt for a serial killer (with a homicide unit who might pass for Keystone Kops in dull British suits), jumps to Fascist Politics and a side-story of government power grabs (is this Nazi-like gang in office or shadow cabinet?) before we meet up with research scientist Vincent Price. Is he involved in the killings? Possibly harvesting body parts for some nefarious project? And what about that big yellow vat of flesh-eating acid he keeps in the shed? Yikes! But wait!, now we meet the human ‘harvester,’ a sharp-looking man-of-mystery, haunting the ‘Mod’ nightclub scene in hopes of collecting live lady specimens for the next experiment. Price building mix-and-match helpmates? Possibly with alien help. Double yikes! Not much is especially clear on this one, yet Gordon Hessler megs with abandon, rarely bothering to tie one sequence to another, letting the narrative line fall where it may. Watching is like changing channels on an old tv during commercial breaks. Peter Cushing shows up for a brief scene, while Christopher Lee, some sort of government enforcer, at least gets to meet up with Price for a big finish. None of them with screen time commensurate with their billing. But fun, if you don’t mind the mess.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: A sharp print of the official Stateside release is out on Kino Lorber along with a not so sharp alternate ‘uncut’ edit with only minor differences. Certainly not enough to make up for its inferior print quality.

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