Disjointed horror film that was made from a heist film that was cut apart and had new scenes added. It has something to do about a zombified people going around killing. The original film was a crime caper film about a jewel heist. Watching the film for the first time in years, and for the first time without commercials I found it to be an absolute disaster area of a film. Its awful. Its films like this that make me hate Al Adamson films because they are such patchwork messes with new and old footage mingling freely. After listening to the commentary on the DVD I have to temper my criticism of the film since its clear that the scenes from the original heist film were actually really good. Had that film been released (it couldn't get released because it had no stars) I'm pretty certain that it would have had a nice reputation and Adamson might have gone on not to be a hack. The trouble was that Adamson was willing to sell his film short and shoot and reshoot and cut apart the heist film. Producer Sam Sherman who does the commentary takes the blame for ruining the film with the re-cuts and rewrites. The film as it stands now seems to be about four films blended together, which is about right since the heist, the cops, the zombie and what ever else all seem to be in different films made at different times. Sherman in his commentary said the film plays better with commercials and he ain't kidding. Watching this on TV you can blame the station for hacking it up, however seeing it sans commercials you realize what a nightmare it is. Awful
24 Reviews
Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1977
kevinolzak27 May 2014
"Blood of Ghastly Horror" first began life as an unreleased Al Adamson heist feature from 1964 titled "Echo of Terror," then with new footage of go-go dancers and a brutal stabbing slipped out from Hemisphere Pictures in 1965 as "Psycho A-Go-Go" (not to be confused with "Two Tickets to Terror," in reality a rerelease title for 1961's "Half Way to Hell"). Adamson shot new footage of John Carradine in 1966, resulting in a second release, as "Fiend with the Electronic Brain," playing in selected Southern states as early as Dec 1967, courtesy David L. Hewitt's American General Pictures. By 1969, still more footage was shot, with Kent Taylor and Regina Carrol (Mrs. Al Adamson), and still later Tommy Kirk, resulting in what producer Samuel M. Sherman accurately described as an 'interesting editing exercise.' The finished (?) product was issued in 1972 by Sherman's Independent-International Pictures Corporation, simultaneously playing on television under yet another new title, "Man with the Synthetic Brain." Only a devotee of outright schlock could really appreciate what remains, provided they possess the knowledge of its convoluted backstory. We begin with a zombie-like creature named Akro (Richard Smedley) committing several murders, switching gears to a police investigation conducted by Sgt. Cross (Tommy Kirk), relating the background on Dr. Howard Vanard (John Carradine, entering at the 17 minute mark), who had implanted an 'artificial brain component' into almost dead Vietnam veteran Joe Corey (Roy Morton). He succeeded in saving Corey's life, but turned him into a homicidal maniac, later avenging himself on the remorseful Vanard by strapping him into his own device and electrocuting him (at the 37 minutes mark). Sgt. Cross now follows the trail of Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor), father of the dead Joe Corey, who uses his voodoo powers to create the hideous Akro, seeking vengeance now against Dr. Vanard's daughter Susan (Regina Carrol), with most of the final half hour consisting of the original unissued heist footage, and Joe Corey's high altitude pursuit of stolen diamonds. As a director, Al Adamson displays a casual disregard for narrative competence, coupled with an inability to even focus the camera in the right direction, often leaving the performers off screen as they spoke. John Carradine is the biggest name in the cast, and is accorded top billing over Kent Taylor, who only enters at the halfway point, once Carradine's bespectacled scientist bites the dust. Tommy Kirk is the other veteran actor, not what one would expect for a solemn police sergeant, but as the only actor to work with both Al Adamson and Larry Buchanan ("Mars Needs Women," "It's Alive!"), deserves a measure of respect for surviving such highs and lows in a screen career soon to fade. "Blood of Ghastly Horror" is undeniably a bad film, but "Horror of the Blood Monsters" reached a new low even for Al Adamson. Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater aired this film once, July 23 1977, paired with second feature "The Black Cat" (1941).
Blood of Ghastly Horror (1972) *
JoeKarlosi25 July 2006
Don't ask me how I did it, but even though this is technically a botched and splicey patchwork of a movie, I had a good time with it. It's poorly made to be sure, but somehow it's also mesmerizing in its ineptness at the same time. It helps going in to know the history...
It was directed by drive-in movie maestro Al Adamson (of "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" fame), who originally planned a straight jewelry heist picture in 1964 until meeting up with producer/mentor Sam Sherman who persuaded him to gradually add new scenes and ideas specifically for the horror/sci-fi television market in the early '70s. It was finally sold to TV with the lucrative title of MAN WITH THE SYNTHETIC BRAIN, but Sherman thought it could be milked further, so the movie was also played at theaters where it became known as BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR.
Ultimately emerging as connected pieces of different half-baked incarnations (one of these was even called PSYCHO A-GO-GO before the music was eliminated), the movie begins with a zombified maniac running around town strangling people. Through flashbacks within other flashbacks we're treated to a background story of how a Vietnam vet named Joe Corey was wounded and then "helped" by a wacky scientist named Dr. Vanard (the always welcome John Carradine) who planted some sort of mechanism inside Corey's head and unintentionally turned him into a murderer with a taste for jewel robbing (which is how the old 1964 heist footage managed to get utilized). But this man-made killer's got an angry dad who's also a scientist and is even nuttier than Dr. Vanard. He's out to even the score for what was done to his victimized son, and that includes making a mummified and whimpering she-monster out of Vanard's sexy daughter (Regina Carrol, director Adamson's wife).
This isn't a film for most audiences, but anyone who revels in idiotic or badly made exploitation films of the '60s and '70s would want to get a load of this concoction. You've got to hand it to Sam Sherman and Al Adamson, in any case... they knew how to have fun and freak out audiences. The current DVD available by Troma is badly framed, however... this cuts out some widescreen and results in an unfortunate pan/scan affair. But it's unlikely at the time of this writing that there's any better source material. * out of ****
It was directed by drive-in movie maestro Al Adamson (of "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" fame), who originally planned a straight jewelry heist picture in 1964 until meeting up with producer/mentor Sam Sherman who persuaded him to gradually add new scenes and ideas specifically for the horror/sci-fi television market in the early '70s. It was finally sold to TV with the lucrative title of MAN WITH THE SYNTHETIC BRAIN, but Sherman thought it could be milked further, so the movie was also played at theaters where it became known as BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR.
Ultimately emerging as connected pieces of different half-baked incarnations (one of these was even called PSYCHO A-GO-GO before the music was eliminated), the movie begins with a zombified maniac running around town strangling people. Through flashbacks within other flashbacks we're treated to a background story of how a Vietnam vet named Joe Corey was wounded and then "helped" by a wacky scientist named Dr. Vanard (the always welcome John Carradine) who planted some sort of mechanism inside Corey's head and unintentionally turned him into a murderer with a taste for jewel robbing (which is how the old 1964 heist footage managed to get utilized). But this man-made killer's got an angry dad who's also a scientist and is even nuttier than Dr. Vanard. He's out to even the score for what was done to his victimized son, and that includes making a mummified and whimpering she-monster out of Vanard's sexy daughter (Regina Carrol, director Adamson's wife).
This isn't a film for most audiences, but anyone who revels in idiotic or badly made exploitation films of the '60s and '70s would want to get a load of this concoction. You've got to hand it to Sam Sherman and Al Adamson, in any case... they knew how to have fun and freak out audiences. The current DVD available by Troma is badly framed, however... this cuts out some widescreen and results in an unfortunate pan/scan affair. But it's unlikely at the time of this writing that there's any better source material. * out of ****
The Movie with a 1,000 Faces?
Bruce_Cook21 December 2003
[Also released as: "The Fiend with the Atom Brain", "Fiend with the Electronic Brain", "The Love Maniac", "The Man with the Synthetic Brain", and "Psycho A Go-Go"].
The Film that Wouldn't Die: a movie which has endured more surgical alterations than the Frankenstein monster. Each version has been equally monstrous, but the history of this movie is a real hoot. Behold:
In 1965 Al Adamson produced and directed a very low budget quickie called "Psycho A Go-Go", in which an ex-soldier is turned into a zombie-slave-killer by criminals who implant a device in his brain. The film was a big flop.
Four years later Adamson tried to jazz it up by adding new scenes and giving it a new title: "Fiend with the Electronic Brain". This new version was also a big flop.
In 1971 Adamson decided the film needed more new scenes, and this time he got Kent Taylor ("The Day Mars Invaded Earth") and John Carradine to help out. Even better, Adamson persuaded his sexy wife, Regina Carrol, to play Carradine's daughter. Best of all, he got Tommy Kirk ("Mars Needs Women", "Village of the Giants") to play a police detective who investigates the murders. To celebrate the film's big upgrade, he retitled it again: "The Man with the Synthetic Brain". Even with these well-known stars and nifty new title, the film was still a big flop.
So Adamson waited awhile, gave the film another new title, "Blood of Ghastly Horror", and re-re-re-released it. Naturally the film was a big flop again because it was the same terrible movie that had flopped the last time.
Is that the end of Adamson's Indestructible Movie? Definitely not -- in fact, this isn't even the entire middle of this remarkable film's history. At various times the movie has also been released under the title's "The Man with the Atomic Brain" and (get this) "The Love Maniac".
Maybe the next reincarnation of this unkillable film will be disguised by a really tricky title -- like "War and Peace" or "The Eleven O'clock News". Good heavens, what if we just walked into some theater and found ourselves trapped into watching . . . "X: The Unknown Movie"!
The Film that Wouldn't Die: a movie which has endured more surgical alterations than the Frankenstein monster. Each version has been equally monstrous, but the history of this movie is a real hoot. Behold:
In 1965 Al Adamson produced and directed a very low budget quickie called "Psycho A Go-Go", in which an ex-soldier is turned into a zombie-slave-killer by criminals who implant a device in his brain. The film was a big flop.
Four years later Adamson tried to jazz it up by adding new scenes and giving it a new title: "Fiend with the Electronic Brain". This new version was also a big flop.
In 1971 Adamson decided the film needed more new scenes, and this time he got Kent Taylor ("The Day Mars Invaded Earth") and John Carradine to help out. Even better, Adamson persuaded his sexy wife, Regina Carrol, to play Carradine's daughter. Best of all, he got Tommy Kirk ("Mars Needs Women", "Village of the Giants") to play a police detective who investigates the murders. To celebrate the film's big upgrade, he retitled it again: "The Man with the Synthetic Brain". Even with these well-known stars and nifty new title, the film was still a big flop.
So Adamson waited awhile, gave the film another new title, "Blood of Ghastly Horror", and re-re-re-released it. Naturally the film was a big flop again because it was the same terrible movie that had flopped the last time.
Is that the end of Adamson's Indestructible Movie? Definitely not -- in fact, this isn't even the entire middle of this remarkable film's history. At various times the movie has also been released under the title's "The Man with the Atomic Brain" and (get this) "The Love Maniac".
Maybe the next reincarnation of this unkillable film will be disguised by a really tricky title -- like "War and Peace" or "The Eleven O'clock News". Good heavens, what if we just walked into some theater and found ourselves trapped into watching . . . "X: The Unknown Movie"!
Even for an Al Adamson film, this one is a pile of crap
planktonrules26 May 2009
Al Adamson might just have been the worst film director in history. I truly think that his films are at least as bad as Ed Wood's and both men finished up their careers making porno flicks. This film, made in the pre-porno days, manages to perhaps be the worse excuse for a film Adamson ever made--even worse than Dracula VS. FRANKENSTEIN!! That's because this master of the super-super cheap drive-in film found a way to make this film even cheaper and cheesier than the rest--he took apart an older film he made (PSYCHO A GO-GO) and pieced it together with some new scenes to make an entirely new film!!
The original film, PSYCHO A GO-GO was actually one of Adamson's best films (though its current rating of 2.0 is hardly stellar). It was about a jewel robbery gone bad and particularly focused on a psychotic killer within the gang and his evil deeds.
Now, the same guy who was killed at the end of PSYCHO A GO-GO is back as a zombie re-animated by John Carradine with an electronic brain! And, it's up to Tommy Kirk and a bunch of other no-talents to unravel the mystery (about the murders, not why they agreed to be in this pile of bilge).
Much of the film makes no sense at all and it's all quite confusing and stupid--with very large chunks of the old film re-used haphazardly. Apparently none of this was important to Adamson. What was important, it seems, is managing to make a new film for $5.78. The only people who could enjoy this dull mess are bad movie freaks like myself who occasionally enjoy laughing at horrid films. And this one has it all--very bad acting, the director's stripper wife making yet another gratuitous appearance in one of his films, non-existent writing and terrible direction (with quite a few out of focus and poorly framed shots).
The original film, PSYCHO A GO-GO was actually one of Adamson's best films (though its current rating of 2.0 is hardly stellar). It was about a jewel robbery gone bad and particularly focused on a psychotic killer within the gang and his evil deeds.
Now, the same guy who was killed at the end of PSYCHO A GO-GO is back as a zombie re-animated by John Carradine with an electronic brain! And, it's up to Tommy Kirk and a bunch of other no-talents to unravel the mystery (about the murders, not why they agreed to be in this pile of bilge).
Much of the film makes no sense at all and it's all quite confusing and stupid--with very large chunks of the old film re-used haphazardly. Apparently none of this was important to Adamson. What was important, it seems, is managing to make a new film for $5.78. The only people who could enjoy this dull mess are bad movie freaks like myself who occasionally enjoy laughing at horrid films. And this one has it all--very bad acting, the director's stripper wife making yet another gratuitous appearance in one of his films, non-existent writing and terrible direction (with quite a few out of focus and poorly framed shots).
Plan 9 - no. Robot Monster - no. This is the worst of all time!!
- Chumpy29 November 1999
Only because this movie hasn't graced MST3K, has it not received attention as the worst of all time. I saw this film over 20 years ago and still remember it as the worst ever - without having seen it since. And yes, I have seen "Plan 9" and "Robot Monster" and a number of the films shown on MST3K, like "Manos, The Hands of Fate" and "The Puma Man."
This film, which I saw as "The Man With The Synthetic Brain," is truly terrible. A crime film which becomes a mad scientist film, which becomes a chase film, and ends up as a zombie movie!
I saw this on TV, and when coming back from commercial breaks, I frequently thought that I was watching a different film entirely. Both in plot and cinematography, it's like a film pieced together from ill-fitting parts of other films. A Frankenstein of films - at least in the method by which it seems to have been made.
The dialogue is horrible and most of it unnecessary. A typical line: "I flew in.....on a plane!" That would be opposed to flying cross country by flapping his arms. I'm glad they explained that one, I'd have been lost otherwise.
The best part (or worst)? The ending with a Witch Doctor / Scientist shown wearing a Witch Doctor mask and a lab coat. Why a lab coat? Why not?! The lab coat would protect his delicate mix of monkey brains, goat lips, fish heads and guano from suit lint. The suit lint would ruin everything!
Only see this film if you love bad films. Anyone looking for even a below average B-quality movie would be very disappointed by "Blood of Ghastly Horror."
p.s. Who gave this movie a "10?" Were they confused by one of the 300 titles used to repackage this bomb? Then again I note that there were two "10" votes and two writing credits on the film. I sense a conspiracy. Someone get Mulder and Scully on this.
This film, which I saw as "The Man With The Synthetic Brain," is truly terrible. A crime film which becomes a mad scientist film, which becomes a chase film, and ends up as a zombie movie!
I saw this on TV, and when coming back from commercial breaks, I frequently thought that I was watching a different film entirely. Both in plot and cinematography, it's like a film pieced together from ill-fitting parts of other films. A Frankenstein of films - at least in the method by which it seems to have been made.
The dialogue is horrible and most of it unnecessary. A typical line: "I flew in.....on a plane!" That would be opposed to flying cross country by flapping his arms. I'm glad they explained that one, I'd have been lost otherwise.
The best part (or worst)? The ending with a Witch Doctor / Scientist shown wearing a Witch Doctor mask and a lab coat. Why a lab coat? Why not?! The lab coat would protect his delicate mix of monkey brains, goat lips, fish heads and guano from suit lint. The suit lint would ruin everything!
Only see this film if you love bad films. Anyone looking for even a below average B-quality movie would be very disappointed by "Blood of Ghastly Horror."
- SCG
p.s. Who gave this movie a "10?" Were they confused by one of the 300 titles used to repackage this bomb? Then again I note that there were two "10" votes and two writing credits on the film. I sense a conspiracy. Someone get Mulder and Scully on this.
Ed Wood fans, take notice!
emm21 October 1998
Al Adamson was a next-generation Ed Wood who directed many movies in the history of bad cinema, such as DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN, SATAN'S SADISTS, THE FEMALE BUNCH, and lots more. Not too surprisingly, you may have noticed Regina Carroll appearing in almost every one of his films. I believe the public hasn't taken Al Adamson's name in widespread recognition too seriously, but then again, Ed Wood bounced back into popularity due to the highly-praised 1994 movie about his life and career. But enough said....
Whatever you'd like to name this picture is totally beyond me! Don't complain about thinking this is a horror film, because it's not. This is a fine piece of work by a respectable genius who made something look like a collage, which complicates everything in the movie's framework. The first thing you see are zombies attacking a woman. Next comes a scene that resembles 007. Later on, a stupid mad scientist and a 10-minute long mom & daughter mountain chase makes you wonder what the hell Al Adamson was doing in making a HORROR movie! Yucksters will definitely enjoy this and his other weird films, but they usually lack the spirit of famously familiar Ed Wood material, however they are a little more modern considering they were released during the early years of the anti-social generation. BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR is okay, but Al's other movies are probably much better than what I saw.
Whatever you'd like to name this picture is totally beyond me! Don't complain about thinking this is a horror film, because it's not. This is a fine piece of work by a respectable genius who made something look like a collage, which complicates everything in the movie's framework. The first thing you see are zombies attacking a woman. Next comes a scene that resembles 007. Later on, a stupid mad scientist and a 10-minute long mom & daughter mountain chase makes you wonder what the hell Al Adamson was doing in making a HORROR movie! Yucksters will definitely enjoy this and his other weird films, but they usually lack the spirit of famously familiar Ed Wood material, however they are a little more modern considering they were released during the early years of the anti-social generation. BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR is okay, but Al's other movies are probably much better than what I saw.
You name it, it's bad.
bkoganbing28 July 2017
Three people whose careers saw better days star in Psycho A Go Go. John Carradine, Kent Taylor, and Tommy Kirk are the stars and the rest of the cast of this monstrosity are a bunch of never wases. Carradine plays a scientist who puts an electronic pulse in the brain of a wounded Vietnam vet who becomes a psychotic killer. Taylor is another scientist and Kirk the homicide cop assigned to catch this deranged killer.
It's sad to see someone like Kent Taylor in this stuff, he had a respectable career in some decent roles in B pictures. Like so many when the studio system collapsed he took work where he found it. Carradine just didn't care, he would sign for anything at this point of his life. And we all know how Walt Disney had Tommy Kirk blackballed with the major studios because he discovered he was gay. This was all he could get.
This one doesn't even have the saving grace of an overacted Carradine performance, no special moment like he had like in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with that spread eagle oratory. He just took the money and ran. Hopefully all their checks cleared. There ain't a spark of anything in the three dull faced stars.
You name it, it's bad, acting, direction, camera work.
Skip this one if at all possible.
It's sad to see someone like Kent Taylor in this stuff, he had a respectable career in some decent roles in B pictures. Like so many when the studio system collapsed he took work where he found it. Carradine just didn't care, he would sign for anything at this point of his life. And we all know how Walt Disney had Tommy Kirk blackballed with the major studios because he discovered he was gay. This was all he could get.
This one doesn't even have the saving grace of an overacted Carradine performance, no special moment like he had like in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with that spread eagle oratory. He just took the money and ran. Hopefully all their checks cleared. There ain't a spark of anything in the three dull faced stars.
You name it, it's bad, acting, direction, camera work.
Skip this one if at all possible.
Bits of three films pieced together with new footage.
lesunra18 October 2023
This was my introduction to Al Adamson films. I didn't watch anything else he did for 15 years....
Blood of Ghastly Horror is disjointed, grainy and clearly has footage made at different times. There's some footage dating back to the early 60s, an unreleased heist movie. That footage was salvaged and used for Psycho A Go-Go then again with The Man With the Electric Brain starring John Carradine. Parts of the footage of those three turn up again with new footage starring Adamson regulars, Regina Carrol (his wife), and Kent Taylor(I think he did 3 films with Adamson). This also has a glassy eyed and sickly looking Tommy Kirk who was completely lost in addiction by the early to mid 70s when this was filmed.
None of the scenes come together well and I'm not sure to this day what the plot was. I think it was a revenge plot avenging the death of Joe Corey played by Roy Morton, who was the only actor in all three of the previous movies. This was Adamson's third attempt to do something with that early heist film footage and it's the worst artistically speaking but I'm sure it was marketed well for drive-ins which is why people still talk about Al Adamson movies and not something by John Kirkland or Leonard Kirtman.
Blood of Ghastly Horror is disjointed, grainy and clearly has footage made at different times. There's some footage dating back to the early 60s, an unreleased heist movie. That footage was salvaged and used for Psycho A Go-Go then again with The Man With the Electric Brain starring John Carradine. Parts of the footage of those three turn up again with new footage starring Adamson regulars, Regina Carrol (his wife), and Kent Taylor(I think he did 3 films with Adamson). This also has a glassy eyed and sickly looking Tommy Kirk who was completely lost in addiction by the early to mid 70s when this was filmed.
None of the scenes come together well and I'm not sure to this day what the plot was. I think it was a revenge plot avenging the death of Joe Corey played by Roy Morton, who was the only actor in all three of the previous movies. This was Adamson's third attempt to do something with that early heist film footage and it's the worst artistically speaking but I'm sure it was marketed well for drive-ins which is why people still talk about Al Adamson movies and not something by John Kirkland or Leonard Kirtman.
Synthetically Braindead
Coventry30 August 2007
I watched this Z-grade excuse for a "movie" under its title "The Man with the Synthetic Brain", but I can assure that any form of brain activity is the absolute last thing you should expect to find here. Now I am aware that one shouldn't anticipate much when selecting a movie directed by the notoriously incompetent director Al Adamson (his other "highlights" include 'Blood of Dracula's Castle', 'Satan's Sadists' and 'Brain of Blood') but this worthless excuse for a motion picture is literally insufferable. The first 3 minutes are the only ones worth mentioning, actually. During this falsely promising intro, we witness a Frankenstein-type monster savagely strangling no less than five people. What an awesome opener, you'd think
but then Adamson suddenly opted for a completely retarded and incoherent narrative structure, involving long & confusing flashbacks and unrelated sub plots. Don't even ask to summarize the concept, as it quickly got so boring and uninteresting that I lost all attention. Apart from during the intro, there's absolutely no other action or bloodshed, the acting performances are almost painful to observe and not one of the dialogs makes a slight bit of sense. John Carradine looks really fatigue in his umpteenth role as unstable scientist (and cause of all horror) and Adamson's direction totally lacks style and inspiration. Even horror fanatics that have a weakness for 'so-bad-it's-good' cinema shouldn't view this dud, as it's too terrible.
I just watched this Al Adamson mess-terpiece...
tarwaterthomas5 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
...and this is the greatest example I can think of on how to make a truly craptacular motion picture. You young kids who watch movies made by The Asylum have no idea of movies that came out when I was a teen, and they were made out of spit and bailing wire and how these same fractured flickers starred screen legends who used to be famous one time until their career hit the skids for no real reason other than it's a case of stuff happens all the time and you get paid on Friday. But even though Al Adamson remains the worst moviemaker in Hollywoodland, he did put the likes of John Carradine, Kent Taylor, and former Walt Disney star Tommy Kirk back to work. In this stupor saga, there's a blue-skinned super strong zombie dubbed Arko (Richard Smedley) who strangled five people in an alley way, including two cops, a streetwalker and her customer, and an innocent young woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. John Carradine plays your typical mad scientist Howard Vanard, who implants an electronic device into the brain of former Vietnam War veteran Joe Corey (played by Roy Morton), only to have him become a psychotic killer as he is part of a criminal outfit who have committed a jewel robbery. One of the thieves tosses a bag of the stolen jewels into the flatbed of a pickup truck belonging to construction head honcho (David Clarke). Only, his little girl Nancy (K. K. Riddle) finds the pretty sparking things and stashes them inside her little black doll. She and her mother Linda Clarke (Tacey Robbins) are being held hostage, and David Clarke, husband and father, is in a panic. As for Joe Corey, he kills Dr. Vanard. The doctor's estranged daughter Susan Vanard (played by Al Adamson's wife Regina Carroll) just flew in from France upon hearing of her father's death. Little does she know that her deceased dear old dad has a jealous colleague named Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) who happens to have a son named.....wait for it....wait for it.... Joe Corey. The ol' jewel robber himself. And because Dr. Elton Corey doesn't like how the late Dr. Howard Vanard had treated his beloved son, Dr. Corey decides to exact vengeance by experimenting on Susan Vanard and transform her into an ugly zombie babe. In the meantime Linda Clarke and daughter Nancy manage to escape their captors thanks to one of the robbers who happens to be black, and pays with his life after Joe Corey kills him. He chases after Linda and Nancy, and the chase leads into the foothills near Lake Tahoe, where part of this feature was shot. Joe Corey pays with his life, David Clarke reunites with his wife and little girl, and Elton Corey gets strangled by Arko the zombie; Susan drinks a potion that restores her to her beautiful self. The end. If you can hang in there to this picture's last thirty minutes, there is actually quite a bit of action and suspense. An uncredited Jennifer Bishop plays Dr. Vanard's receptionist; you might remember her from VAMPIRE MEN OF THE LOST PLANET, which made it to the silver screen in 1969. All right, now I want you to stay with me because I am about to lead you into confusion territory. BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR started out as a crime thriller from 1964 as ECHO OF TERROR. It sat on the shelf for over a year until Al Adamson and his favorite producer Samuel Sherman shot some scenes of go-go girls dancing their behinds off and some musical numbers, and the modified movie was released in 1965 as PSYCHO A-GO-GO. Two years later, some footage of Al Adamson's favorite actor John Carradine was shot and the modified feature was released as FIEND WITH THE ELECTRONIC BRAIN (1967) by American General Picture, founded by director/producer/screenwriter/visual effects supervisor David L. Hewitt. Well, Al Adamson went back to the well over four years later, removed the dancing scenes and musical footage (BOOOOOOOO); he then filmed new scenes of John Carradine, Kent Taylor, Tommy Kirk, Regina Carroll, Richard Smedley, and Barney Gelfan, and was reissued in 1972 as BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR. It was then edited for television and sold to Allied Artists Television as MAN WITH THE SYNTHETIC BRAIN. Then there's a raunchy version of this movie and it's called THE LOVE MANIAC. It was filmed in widescreen Techniscope and advertised as "Chill-O-Rama". See how confusing this was. Try watching this movie sometime. One more thing: one of the directors of photography was Vilmos Zsigmond, who went on to much better things (THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS; CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND; THE DEER HUNTER; THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS; ASSASSINS; HEAVEN'S GATE). Whew. I'm finished with this review. Thanks for your kind indulgence.
Films can be compelling for different reasons
InjunNose13 May 2015
Warning: Spoilers
When you've reviewed a hundred or so movies, you find there really isn't much to say about the ones you love and that picking apart the ones you loathe is just tiresome. What remains interesting is how a film that isn't "good" in any objective sense can light a spark in your imagination. For me, "Blood of Ghastly Horror" (which I first saw as "Man with the Synthetic Brain" on cable TV in the 1980s) is one of those films. It's been noted elsewhere that "BGH" is a patchwork effort and that its seams are painfully visible, so I won't belabor that point. (It's true, of course, but has nothing to do with what fascinates me about this movie.) I will say that what I consider surprisingly profound about such a cheap drive-in horror flick crops up in both the "Psycho A-Go-Go" scenes shot in 1965 and the darker, grimier footage from 1972--which might or might not say something about the themes that preoccupied director Al Adamson over the years. Was he interested in Schopenhauer or Beckett? I have no idea, but there are two scenes in this film that touch on something other than the customary monster-menaces-pretty-girl fare of the genre. The first is the confrontation between Roy Morton and John Carradine. Morton's character was badly wounded in Vietnam, and Carradine's character--a doctor--performed a series of radical electrical experiments to rescue Morton from a vegetative state. He can walk and talk and feed himself again, but the experiments have also turned him into a homicidal maniac. "Who were you to play God with my life?!" Morton roars at Carradine (before killing him) in one of the most jarringly realistic exchanges of dialogue in any horror film. It's played totally straight, not for melodrama as it might be in a Frankenstein flick, and it works. The second scene doesn't arrive until the end of the movie, and it's more difficult to describe what makes it work, but I'll try. The 1972 footage looks dirty and low-rent even by Al Adamson standards, but in my opinion this worked to his advantage. As "BGH" winds down, Akro (Richard Smedley)--a reanimated corpse who performs strongarm duties for a mad scientist--learns that his days are numbered. All that remains of the formula which prevents him from decomposing are a few drops, and his master has just thrown the vial containing those drops against the wall in a fit of pique. Akro kills the scientist and then collapses, dragging himself across the floor in an attempt to lap up some of the formula. He knows it's futile, and yet...wouldn't any of us do the same thing in his place? Slowly, painfully, Akro reaches the wall against which the vial has shattered, extending his hand to catch what's left of the precious liquid. He brings his fingers to his lips, sucks at them, and dies. The scene plays out to the sound of Regina Carrol's despairing screams and a starkly urgent Harry Lubin cue (kettle drums and strings), and it's difficult for me to believe that Adamson didn't know precisely what he was doing when he staged it. These two bizarrely thoughtful moments won't be enough to make most viewers wade through what is undeniably a poor film. (Many would even argue that there is no deliberate philosophical reflection in these scenes, to which I would respond that such ruminations were turning up in unexpected quarters at the time "BGH" was made...even in hardcore porn films like "The Devil in Miss Jones".) Fair enough. But they've made me a compulsive watcher of "Blood of Ghastly Horror" for almost thirty years.
Which version did you see?
mark.waltz3 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
I'd have to do research to figure out which version I saw, based upon what I've read, but frankly, I don't want to waste any more on this film (if you can call it that) than I have to. It is a hodge podge of multiple plots, none really developed, part 60's crime drama, part psychedelic anti-establishment protest, and most interestingly (not by much) mad doctor horror film with poor John Carradine sinking very low in his extremely long career and somehow being the only classy element of what has to be one of the most pointless movies ever made. When the individual stories do meet up, the bad acting, horrible writing and truly wretched production values have already ruined half of this lengthy flick. How this was made, let alone distributed, is a puzzle to me, being not only everything I describe it above to be, but ghastly dull. The soundtrack is noisy, so if you make it through, it won't lull you to sleep, but chances are, you'll give up after the appearance of Carradine's overly tanned daughter who delivers an embarrassingly lifeless performance.
as bad as the title implies
rossaw11 February 2002
Like horror has blood. A tossed salad of scenes whose relationship makes only a klutzy kind of sense. Combine this with the worst directing, photography, sound effects, and music imaginable and you have some idea what you're in for. Night scenes too dark to see the characters. A woman screams but no sound comes out -- they forgot to add it. A zombie wraps his arm around someone and they scream and fall dead to the ground. A man being shot grabs his chest before the gun goes off. Or how about the score -- a psychotic killer is chasing a woman and her child with intent to kill, accompanied by swinging jazz. This chase scene incidentally is most of the movie, or seems like it, killer running, woman and child running, killer, woman, on and on ... Zombies and mad scientist plot elements are stuck onto it with spit and string. To say this is a cheesy horror film is to be generous. Someone said it had never been used on MST3K -- that's probably because they'd be putting more work into ridiculing it than the filmmakers did in making it.
Wow, No Plot
arfdawg-124 November 2020
Strange movie with no real plot. There are zombies and jewlery hold up men and a mad scientist who lab is literally set up in an office toilet!.
None of it is good.
The writing is atrocious.
The only think I found interesting are the street scenes of 1967 Los Angeles. And the fact that people still smoked indorrs back then.
It's a step above Ed Wood and that's not saying much.
None of it is good.
The writing is atrocious.
The only think I found interesting are the street scenes of 1967 Los Angeles. And the fact that people still smoked indorrs back then.
It's a step above Ed Wood and that's not saying much.
Pretty bad, even by Adamson standards.
Hey_Sweden14 April 2016
A true mishmash of a movie, "Blood of Ghastly Horror" is an affair that was fudged with repeatedly over a period of several years. As its associate producer Sam Sherman says, you could fall asleep while watching, and wake up thinking that you're watching a different movie. It moves from sci-fi / "zombie" tale to serial killer feature to heist film to chase picture, and is just barely coherent.
It deals with, more or less, a character named Joe Corey (Roy Morton), who was given a new lease on life by a typical Mad Scientist, Dr. Vanard (John Carradine), who implanted an electronic device in his brain. However, this turns Joe into a homicidal madman. Some time later, Joes' father, Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) seeks revenge with the help of his own special serum.
Always reliable veterans Carradine and Taylor give the proceedings their best shot, but "Blood of Ghastly Horror" may be tough to stick with even for dedicated schlock lovers such as this viewer. Once Carradine is gone from the story, things degenerate into a not especially riveting pursuit through snowy mountains. Producer & director Al Adamson could usually give his low budget efforts some entertainment value, but this one is more along the lines of just plain bad, rather than so bad that it's funny.
Among the illustrious thespians filling out the supporting cast are Tommy Kirk (who sure came a long way since his days at Disney) as a detective, and Adamsons' wife, actress & dancer Regina Carrol, as Carradines' inquisitive daughter.
There are indications that the original heist film might have been okay. However, the end result is a mess that's only entertaining in spurts.
Four out of 10.
It deals with, more or less, a character named Joe Corey (Roy Morton), who was given a new lease on life by a typical Mad Scientist, Dr. Vanard (John Carradine), who implanted an electronic device in his brain. However, this turns Joe into a homicidal madman. Some time later, Joes' father, Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) seeks revenge with the help of his own special serum.
Always reliable veterans Carradine and Taylor give the proceedings their best shot, but "Blood of Ghastly Horror" may be tough to stick with even for dedicated schlock lovers such as this viewer. Once Carradine is gone from the story, things degenerate into a not especially riveting pursuit through snowy mountains. Producer & director Al Adamson could usually give his low budget efforts some entertainment value, but this one is more along the lines of just plain bad, rather than so bad that it's funny.
Among the illustrious thespians filling out the supporting cast are Tommy Kirk (who sure came a long way since his days at Disney) as a detective, and Adamsons' wife, actress & dancer Regina Carrol, as Carradines' inquisitive daughter.
There are indications that the original heist film might have been okay. However, the end result is a mess that's only entertaining in spurts.
Four out of 10.
Blood of Ghastly Horror review
JoeytheBrit18 April 2020
A well-meaning scientist's attempt to aid the recovery of a war vet by implanting a device in his damaged brain is highly successful... apart from the unfortunate side-effect of turning his patient into a psychotic killer. The complex flashback-within-flashback structure of Blood of Ghastly Horror isn't a creative decision on the part of infamous schlock director Al Adamson, but his attempt to make one movie out of two. The result is exactly the kind of near-incomprehensible mess you'd expect, but at least it's never boring and there's some neat cinematography from Vilmos Zsigmond. The crime story, which culminates in a really quite good extended chase scene, is far better than the horror movie into which it's spliced.
Make it over
BandSAboutMovies4 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Fiend With the Electric Brain: The Fiend with the Electronic Brain is - sort of - Al Adamson's 1965 movie Psycho-A-Go-Go which is also - sort of - Blood of Ghastly Horror.
Psycho A-Go-Go is all about Joe Corey taking part in a diamond heist with the stolen contraband hidden inside a little girl's doll when it isn't about Tacey Robbins singing.
This remix has Joe Corey's madness explained as he is an injured Vietnam vet who is experimented on by Dr. Vanard (John Carradine). Everything that happened in the first version also happens here but Joe is off the hook, I guess, because of the surgery on his mind.
Venard wanted to heal the soldier's shrapnel injuries with electric shock therapy, but he turned Joe into a woman-killing monster who is now hunting him down. He straps Dr. Vanard to his own lab equipment and electrocutes him before we somehow find ourselves back in that jewel robbery, the diamonds in the doll and the forest haunting of the woman and her daughter, all before Joe gets shot and falls off a cliff.
Beyond also being Bloof of Ghastly Horror and also The Man with the Synthetic Brain, a Sam Sherman retitling for TV. You could see this movie four times and be taken every time as you're seeing the same story with little tweaks along the way with footage being Xeroxed over and over and over.
I get upset when Spielberg or Lucas comes back and meddles with their movies but I am in no way upset that Al Adamson just kept trying to make this movie better. Arguably, he didn't. He tried and you have to give it to him for that.
Blood of Ghastly Horror:Dr. Howard Vanard (John Carradine) implants a strange electronic machine into the brain of 'Nam survivor Joe Corey (Roy Morton) who becomes a psychotic killer.
This is the same story that we saw in The Fiend With the Electronic Brain.
Joe Corey steals some diamonds and the jewels are thrown into the back of a pickup truck. They end up in a doll, which is taken by Linda and her daughter Nancy to a cabin. A cop saves them by shooting Joe and the villain falls off a cliff to his demise.
This is the same story that we saw in Psycho-A-Go-Go.
Seven years later, Dr. Vanard's daughter Susan (Regina Carrol) begins to get psychic prank calls from Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) and his zombie Akro. Elton is the father of Joe and wants revenge on everyone connected with the death of his son. Sgt. Cross (Tommy Kirk) gets his partner's head in the mail and tracks down the witch doctor mad scientist just in time to watch Akro kill Corey and die himself. Also, for some reason, they age Susan and turn her into a zombie but she gets better.
This is not the same story.
The Man With the Synthetic Brain, however, is pretty much the same story without all the nightclub moments. That was Sam Sherman's version for TV.
I have a weird way of thinking about movies. If a major studio did this, I would be angry. But when it's Independent-International, I am so pleased with their ingenuity.
Psycho A-Go-Go is all about Joe Corey taking part in a diamond heist with the stolen contraband hidden inside a little girl's doll when it isn't about Tacey Robbins singing.
This remix has Joe Corey's madness explained as he is an injured Vietnam vet who is experimented on by Dr. Vanard (John Carradine). Everything that happened in the first version also happens here but Joe is off the hook, I guess, because of the surgery on his mind.
Venard wanted to heal the soldier's shrapnel injuries with electric shock therapy, but he turned Joe into a woman-killing monster who is now hunting him down. He straps Dr. Vanard to his own lab equipment and electrocutes him before we somehow find ourselves back in that jewel robbery, the diamonds in the doll and the forest haunting of the woman and her daughter, all before Joe gets shot and falls off a cliff.
Beyond also being Bloof of Ghastly Horror and also The Man with the Synthetic Brain, a Sam Sherman retitling for TV. You could see this movie four times and be taken every time as you're seeing the same story with little tweaks along the way with footage being Xeroxed over and over and over.
I get upset when Spielberg or Lucas comes back and meddles with their movies but I am in no way upset that Al Adamson just kept trying to make this movie better. Arguably, he didn't. He tried and you have to give it to him for that.
Blood of Ghastly Horror:Dr. Howard Vanard (John Carradine) implants a strange electronic machine into the brain of 'Nam survivor Joe Corey (Roy Morton) who becomes a psychotic killer.
This is the same story that we saw in The Fiend With the Electronic Brain.
Joe Corey steals some diamonds and the jewels are thrown into the back of a pickup truck. They end up in a doll, which is taken by Linda and her daughter Nancy to a cabin. A cop saves them by shooting Joe and the villain falls off a cliff to his demise.
This is the same story that we saw in Psycho-A-Go-Go.
Seven years later, Dr. Vanard's daughter Susan (Regina Carrol) begins to get psychic prank calls from Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) and his zombie Akro. Elton is the father of Joe and wants revenge on everyone connected with the death of his son. Sgt. Cross (Tommy Kirk) gets his partner's head in the mail and tracks down the witch doctor mad scientist just in time to watch Akro kill Corey and die himself. Also, for some reason, they age Susan and turn her into a zombie but she gets better.
This is not the same story.
The Man With the Synthetic Brain, however, is pretty much the same story without all the nightclub moments. That was Sam Sherman's version for TV.
I have a weird way of thinking about movies. If a major studio did this, I would be angry. But when it's Independent-International, I am so pleased with their ingenuity.
Strike three!
BA_Harrison29 October 2019
Blood of Ghastly Horror: what does that even mean? It's just a bunch of random horror-related words clumsily strung together to sound scary. Still, it's quite apt, since this film from director Al Adamson makes very little sense whatsoever, being the third incarnation of a movie that originally started life as Psycho A-Go-Go in 1965. Not happy with his first cut, Adamson went back to the editing room, adding new footage featuring John Carradine as a mad scientist and releasing it as The Fiend with the Electronic Brain. Still not content, he added more new footage, and gave it the title Blood of Ghastly Horror. No wonder the story is so scrappy.
Carradine plays a mad scientist (for a change), Dr. Vanard, who uses a special electronic implant to repair the damaged brain of Vietnam veteran Joe Corey (Roy Morton), but alters the man's personality in the process. Corey, now a violent psychopath, joins a gang of thieves who rob a jewellery store but lose their haul whilst escaping, the bag of valuables landing on the back of a pickup truck owned by David Clarke (Kirk Duncan). Corey tries to track down the jewels, using whatever means necessary.
Meanwhile Corey's father Elton (Kent Taylor) seeks revenge on Dr. Vanard for his son's condition, using a Haitian zombie named Akro as his instrument of death.
All of this is shoddily thrown together with little concern for narrative cohesion, the resultant mess a colossal bore that gives credence to that old adage 'If at first you don't succeed, just give up'.
Carradine plays a mad scientist (for a change), Dr. Vanard, who uses a special electronic implant to repair the damaged brain of Vietnam veteran Joe Corey (Roy Morton), but alters the man's personality in the process. Corey, now a violent psychopath, joins a gang of thieves who rob a jewellery store but lose their haul whilst escaping, the bag of valuables landing on the back of a pickup truck owned by David Clarke (Kirk Duncan). Corey tries to track down the jewels, using whatever means necessary.
Meanwhile Corey's father Elton (Kent Taylor) seeks revenge on Dr. Vanard for his son's condition, using a Haitian zombie named Akro as his instrument of death.
All of this is shoddily thrown together with little concern for narrative cohesion, the resultant mess a colossal bore that gives credence to that old adage 'If at first you don't succeed, just give up'.
Now With Zombies in the Mix, Third Time's a Charm!!!
Pumpkin_Man2 December 2020
First, there was Psycho a Go Go. It was your basic 'heist gone wrong' flick where criminals dump some jewels in a man's truck, the daughter finds them and the crooks invade the home, while the daughter and mom are away on vacation. The worst criminal, Joe Corey tracks them down and harasses them. There was nothing supernatural about it.
Then, there was Fiend with the Electronic Brain. It's basically the same movie, but with a few added scenes with John Carradine as Dr. Vanard, who now has the story of being the one who operated on Joe to make him evil.
Now, we come to Blood of Ghastly Horror, which is the craziest weirdest one of the 'trilogy' I suppose this could be viewed as a sequel to Fiend With the Electronic Brain, but that would be pushing it. This time, there is a lot more new footage, and even has a brainless zombie, under the control of mad doctor, Dr. Elton Corey, who is the father to Joe, the psycho from Psycho a Go Go. He wants revenge for his son's death, so he sends Akro, his zombie minion out into the night to do his dirty work.
Two detectives, Cross and Grimaldi are looking into the case, and reminisce about archive footage from the other two films. They interview Susan Vanard, daughter to the doctor who operated on Joe. Dr. Elton wants to kidnap and transform her into his newest zombie. Will he succeed?
Out of the three films of the same thing, I gotta say this one was my favorite, mostly because of the zombie creature, Akro, who just randomly kills like 5 people at the beginning of the film. His makeup is pretty bad and cheesy, but that's what makes it great. If you love silly trashy grindhouse flicks, you'll love BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR!!!
Then, there was Fiend with the Electronic Brain. It's basically the same movie, but with a few added scenes with John Carradine as Dr. Vanard, who now has the story of being the one who operated on Joe to make him evil.
Now, we come to Blood of Ghastly Horror, which is the craziest weirdest one of the 'trilogy' I suppose this could be viewed as a sequel to Fiend With the Electronic Brain, but that would be pushing it. This time, there is a lot more new footage, and even has a brainless zombie, under the control of mad doctor, Dr. Elton Corey, who is the father to Joe, the psycho from Psycho a Go Go. He wants revenge for his son's death, so he sends Akro, his zombie minion out into the night to do his dirty work.
Two detectives, Cross and Grimaldi are looking into the case, and reminisce about archive footage from the other two films. They interview Susan Vanard, daughter to the doctor who operated on Joe. Dr. Elton wants to kidnap and transform her into his newest zombie. Will he succeed?
Out of the three films of the same thing, I gotta say this one was my favorite, mostly because of the zombie creature, Akro, who just randomly kills like 5 people at the beginning of the film. His makeup is pretty bad and cheesy, but that's what makes it great. If you love silly trashy grindhouse flicks, you'll love BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR!!!
Bad Film within Very Bad Film within Extremely Bad Film
Athanatos7 August 1999
First they filmed a crime drama. Then they decided to make it into some sort of sci-fi flick, by adding footage which explains the criminal's behaviour in terms of a synthetic brain place in the head of a soldier. Then they decide to wrap this with some incredibly trashy low-budget early 70s zombie monster footage.
A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet...
Atomic_Brain30 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Blood of Ghastly Horror is a maniacal, schizophrenic mess of a movie which weaves in and out between tawdry strips of the West, the dismal and brutal world of cops and gangsters, plus an absurd mad doctor plot with the incredible John Carradine as said doctor. The Independent International Drive-In classics are always good for an incredible credits sequence, and Blood is no exception, offering animated psychedelic montage by Bob LeBar playing over Outer Limits music. And of course, what Adamson monstrosity would be complete without the obligatory red-herring, shot-silent prologue, here with a weird beast which attacks seedy types at midnight in the alley. Al Adamson's flicks are oddly disorienting and yet engaging at the same time, in other words, pure cinema: claustrophobic settings, stifling close-ups, bright color palettes within the cheesiest of settings, hastily scripted dialogue that only hits at coherency - and of course completely inchoate, even chaotic montage. As such, Blood of Ghastly Horror is more of a tone poem on the impotence of violence in modern society then a coherent and plausible melodrama. The cinematography is reckless and breathtaking, juggling unnerving close-ups, bad zooms and murky establishing shots in a style which might be dubbed "visceral hallucination". Also, there is the Adamson obsession with showcasing middle-age swingers in tawdry night-life scenarios. The entire first hour of the film is a flashback suffered by side-burned detective Tommy Kirk, one of Cinema's most skewed and odd actors. Another flashback features a long chase in the snow. Indeed, along the way, there are many boring, tangential flashbacks, but that's the late great, Al Adamson for you. Time is ever mercurial in the weird cinematic universe of Al Adamson, and narrative and aesthetic detours are inevitable and ubiquitous. The eventual monster looks like David McCallum with silly putty on his eye. In grand exploitation fashion, the film's title refers to absolutely nothing, purely a bit of ballyhoo poetry designed to lure in the paying suckers. And we paying suckers couldn't have been happier. Several other titles tacked onto this film gave it new life in several reincarnations over the years, but as they say, "a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet." According to producer Sam Sherman, there's a story behind why Blood of Ghastly Horror seems to be three or more different films coming from entirely different narrative universes, but the backstory meant nothing to those of us who were lucky enough to witness this strange and utterly bizarre film on the drive-in screen, and it should mean nothing to anyone who can enjoy what is surely, in retrospect, a shining example of commercial modern art at its most creative and rebellious, from a moment of creative freedom in cinema long, long gone.
Poor but Fun
Michael_Elliott13 October 2008
Blood of Ghastly Horror (1972)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Drive-in master Al Adamson strikes back once again with another mix and match film. Apparently in 1964 Adamson finished a police thriller but it couldn't be sold so he and producer Sam Sherman started filming new scenes to try and make it better. Five or six films were eventually "made" but this one here is the one that finally sold and apparently made a profit. Considering there are five or more movies on display here it's pretty hard to follow any story but it involves scientists (John Carradine) doing brain work on a killer who eventually goes out and kills. Make sense? Well the movie certainly doesn't. The Carradine footage is obviously the most recent thing filmed for the movie and he does have a few campy moments, which earn a few laughs but I'm really not sure what his footage has to do with too much of the film. The cop footage seems to come from Adamson's Psycho a Go-Go, which is also pretty bad but this film does have its charm because it moves at a nice speed and you really can't believe your eyes with what you're watching. Tommy Kirk and Kent Taylor are also scattered around the film and what they're doing exactly is anyone's guess. This is certainly an important film if one wants to see this type of drive-in fluff but others should stay far away.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Drive-in master Al Adamson strikes back once again with another mix and match film. Apparently in 1964 Adamson finished a police thriller but it couldn't be sold so he and producer Sam Sherman started filming new scenes to try and make it better. Five or six films were eventually "made" but this one here is the one that finally sold and apparently made a profit. Considering there are five or more movies on display here it's pretty hard to follow any story but it involves scientists (John Carradine) doing brain work on a killer who eventually goes out and kills. Make sense? Well the movie certainly doesn't. The Carradine footage is obviously the most recent thing filmed for the movie and he does have a few campy moments, which earn a few laughs but I'm really not sure what his footage has to do with too much of the film. The cop footage seems to come from Adamson's Psycho a Go-Go, which is also pretty bad but this film does have its charm because it moves at a nice speed and you really can't believe your eyes with what you're watching. Tommy Kirk and Kent Taylor are also scattered around the film and what they're doing exactly is anyone's guess. This is certainly an important film if one wants to see this type of drive-in fluff but others should stay far away.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
