Atom Age Vampire (1963)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Sadly Over-hyped

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Atomic Age Vampire, is not your average vampire movie.The movie opens with a woman horribly disfigured after an automobile accident.The story, it does not immediately feel like horror.Unusual treatment is suggested. The movie adds a mad scientist; or a weird science horror twist, to the plot.The treatment, suggesting: affecting people with vampirism.Miraculous regeneration treatment with a cost.From the start, it feels more like science fiction than actual horror.The story, seems to be a little over- drawn. It takes a while, to get to the vampire element of the tale.When I think atomic age; I think of films lie Return of the Vampire. I don't see the relation to era in the movie's title.Atomic Age Vampire, is not necessarily a bad movie; it just does not feel to me as being a classic horror film.

On the strength of my theatrical viewing of THE WOLFMAN (2010), given that I am currently going through a "Euro-Cult" phase anyway, I opted to check out a handful of Gothic Horror efforts for the coming week. More by accident than design, I started things off with this one, involving as it does a man turning into a monster (though the change, in this case, is self-imposed in the "Jekyll & Hyde" manner). Actually, apart from the latter (much-abused) tradition, the film was obviously inspired by one of the more influential horror classics of the era – the sublime EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1959). In fact, here we have yet another girl whose face gets scarred (though the auto accident occurs so quickly that one can hardly even see what it was the driver had averted to end up off the road!) and cured (if only for a little while, causing periodical resort to murder) by an eminent but clearly deranged scientist (who has no qualms about sacrificing a devoted assistant to the cause on realizing he has fallen for his patient!). In spite (or because) of the poor-quality print I acquired, the Gothic atmosphere – though, like EYES WITHOUT A FACE (or, for that matter, a similar albeit vastly superior Italian offering i.e. I VAMPIRI [1956]), this actually retains a modern-day setting – is quite nicely done (with the laboratory scenes in particular exuding that recognizable Universal feel, even if the radioactive chamber in which the transformation occurs seems to derive more from the tele-portation machine of THE FLY [1958]) and we even get the obligatory hulking dumb servant. The make-up, by the way, is reasonably hideous but as for convincing (to say nothing of scary), that is another matter entirely: incidentally, I found it quite insensitive to suggest that radiation victims could go insane and embark on an apparently haphazard killing spree!; at one time, he even performs the gland extraction vital for his operations (off-screen) in a packed cinema and under the cops' very nose! For what it is worth, both the film's international and original titles are misleading – the monster is clearly not a vampire but, then, the Italian moniker translates to SEDDOK, THE HEIR OF Satan (though actually referred to by that name, it makes no sense and also seems to come out of nowhere!). Unfortunately, the English dubbing is atrocious and so harshly recorded as to make the dialogue unintelligible at times!; all things considered, however, I found the film – whose most recognizable cast members are Alberto Lupo's villain and heroic Sergio Fantoni – to be a pleasant surprise (especially in view of Leonard Maltin's unflattering BOMB rating). For the record, although the version I watched is 87 minutes long, apparently there are other prints in circulation running anywhere between 69 and 105!

Atom Age Vampire played for years and years in drive-ins across America, I really have no idea why the film seemed to be a perennial of the drive-in circuits but it was. Strangely the film never seemed to play in New York on TV and I never saw it until the advent of home video.The film is the well worn tale of a mad scientist seeking to restore the beauty of disfigured woman and turning into a monster in the process. Its the sort of thing you've seen both before and since both better and worse. Here the film is infused with European settings and moody black and white photography that seem to make the film better than the normal. Not a great film it is an entertaining one and the sort of thing best watched on a dark and stormy night with the lights out.

"Seddok, l'erede di Satana" aka. "Atom Age Vampire" of 1960 is a cheesy but fun Italian trash Horror film with a bad reputation that tells a story very familiar to fans of 60s Eurohorror. Unluckily for this film (but luckily for my fellow Eurohorror lovers) "Atom Age Vampire" has a storyline that is almost identical to those of TWO fantastic films from the same year, George Franju's masterpiece "Les Yeux Sans Visage" (aka. "Eyes Without A Face") and Giorgio Ferroni's brilliantly atmospheric Gothic gem "Il Mulino Delle Donne Di Pietro" (aka. "Mill of The Stone Women"). Two years later, Spanish cult-director Jess Franco would create another highlight about a similar theme with "Gritos En La Noche" (aka. "The Awful Dr. Orloff") of 1962. "Les Yeux Sans Visage" is positively one of the most fascinating Horror films ever made, and "Mill of the Stone Women" as well as "The Awful Dr. Orloff" are also wonderful films that no genre-lover could possibly afford to miss. In comparison to these fantastic films, this "Atom Age Vampire" is incredibly weak, of course, but, as far as I am concerned, it is not awful and has its qualities.As said, the story is familiar. An ingenious but nuts scientist is obsessed with restoring the face of a beauty who was disfigured in a car accident. And he has no scruples to commit whatever crime or insane experiments in order to make his ambitions a success and restore her beauty... Most of the performances are ridiculous and the plot line is considerably weaker than in the aforementioned comparable classics, but its still fun to watch. The film does have a certain atmosphere and morbidity, however (allthough not comparable to "Eyes Without a Face", "Mill of the Stone Women" and "Dr. Orloff", of course), and the makeup effects are actually quite well-done. The jazzy score is also quite decent, but it doesn't always fit in. Some of the character behave in downright absurd manners and the dialogue is often more than ridiculous and unintentionally funny ("Am I wrong or are you getting fatter?"). Logic is also not the film's strongest point, of course. So "Atom Age Vampire" is certainly a cheesy film that cannot compete with highlights about the same topic, but I still think it has a certain charm. Try to get hold of the Italian language version, the dubbing is terrible (which is not something that can be blamed on the film itself, in my opinion). This can easily be skipped, but it can also be enjoyable to my fellow fans of low-budget 60s Horror. Make sure to watch "Mill of the Stone Women", "The Awful Dr. Orloff" and especially "Eyes Without a Face" before this one though.