Scream and Scream Again

Despite the title and promise of three horror titans teaming up, SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN is a bust. Vincent Price plays a mad scientist working for some vague army of lunatics bent on taking over the world...Christopher Lee is a British government official who may or may not be in on it. Peter Cushing pops up in a (very) brief cameo. Most of the film centers on the police trying to track down a "vampire killer" and as such, it's not too bad, just don't expect Price, Lee and Cushing to be sharing much screen time. Gordon Hessler's direction is alternately clever (he stages a few very good chase scenes) and oddly edited (there are far too many abrupt edits and Price's wrap up of the plot is really silly). There's very little to actually scream at...the film is not scary in the least.

After the excellent adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Oblong Box' earlier in 1969, director Gordon Hessler would team up again, in the same year, with horror legend's Vincent Price and Christopher Lee for this second feature. This time, fellow legend Peter Cushing joins the already impressive line up, which allows Scream and Scream Again to be one of the few films to profess starring roles from all three British legends. However, all is not as it seems as Peter Cushing appears in the movie for all of about one minute and the other two stars don't appear for much more than one minute either. The majority of the acting is left to an unknown cast, meaning that, basically, the three big names are only in the movie for the sake of the poster; which is something that I find very irritating indeed. The wayward plot follows something to do with a Nazi-esquire group that wants world domination and a Frankenstein-esquire scientist that is attempting to build a race of super-humans. Or something. This movie is very messy indeed and although it never becomes boring, there is a number of occasions when the audience is forced to ask themselves what exactly is going on, and why. The lack of plot shows through at times as the film features an overlong chase sequence midway through, and ends with a nice, but rather off with the rest of the film, mad scientist scene. The film meanders through it's two basic plot lines, but it doesn't fit together well because the stories have very little to do with one another. The sixties swing atmosphere is nice, but it isn't very horrific and doesn't create the best atmosphere for a horror movie. The music isn't very good either, and it throws any chance of capturing a mood of malevolence out of the window and replaces it with a very tacky feel. If you haven't guessed it already, I'm basically saying that this film isn't very good. I hate to pass bad comments about a film that includes three of the best actors of all time, but I'd be lying if I didn't.

VERY confusing horror has three different story lines: one involves a man killing women in London and draining their blood; another has people being kidnapped and slowly have their body parts being removed one by one; the last deals with some strange Nazi-ish organization trying to take power (or something). It all ties in with Vincent Price as a scientist. The movie starts off confusing and it (somewhat) makes sense at the end. But it has a horrible script, terribly fake gore and director Gordon Hessler never was that good. This could be easily dismissed if it weren't for three cast members--Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. OK--you have three of the best horror movie stars ever to do a movie together. So what do they do? Give them a nonsensical script; give Cushing only one short sequence; make sure they NEVER show up together (aside from Lee and Price briefly) and just hope it will work. Well, it didn't. I know some people find this fascinating for its political implications but this is supposed to be a HORROR movie--not a political statement. Dull, heavy-handed and a terrible waste of talent--although Cushing, Lee and Price ARE good. Just for them I give this a 4.

This movie is so bad that anyone who enjoys it is beyond help. What a waste of talent...The movie doesn't make sense, is badly directed, has a jazz score (For a horror film?) It's like a group of High School students with a little money made this. Usually the Brits can do no wrong in making a movie..Wow,I'm surprised. Where was Hammer when you needed them? Made in 1970, there are some surprising scenes of sexuality. It's clear Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing needed to pay their car payments, or else how would they ever agree to even appear in this mess.

A jogger goes for his daily run , suffers chest pains and is rushed to hospital only to find that his leg has been amputated The above sequence takes up the title sequence and is a good opening hook . Alas however it seems mainly to function only as a hook to draw the audience in because we never find out the name of the jogger . The scenario also collapses when it's given any thought such as how lucky it is for the villains ( Or how unlucky it is for the victim ) that someone conveniently falls unconscious and needs hospital treatment in order for the plot to progress As the story continues the more ideas are thrown in to the plot and unfortunately there's far too much plotting going on . We find ourselves in a totalitarian regime where a militarist is eliminating party rivals who stand in his way and it's never actually revealed as to whether it's a communist or fascist dictatorship . It's left ambiguous but is also unconvincing and whilst all this taking place there's a series of murders taking place in England which the press have dubbed " The vampire killings " By the end of the movie you can just about get your head around the ideas being explored - one of a new breed of humans being created but the experiment is too premature hence replicant humans running amok but the plotting is never cohesive enough to make the premise convincing in any way . The film also suffers from scenes that are completely disposable and a lack of internal continuity . For example when a nameless character such as the jogger from the opening scene is at the mercy of the villains he is operated on without any explanation where as when it's the girlfriend of the hero the operation is delayed so the villain can explain his plan and motives to the hero T There is an element of cheating where the marketing is concerned . You can understand that this was hyped at the time as " the movie starring Vincent Price , Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing - three legends of horror coming together in one movie " The reality is however that Cushing appears in one very short scene while Price and Lee are sidelined for most of the movie . Instead it's Alfred Marks police detective who carries the first half of the movie only for him to abruptly be written out and replaced by his sidekick SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN isn't nearly as impressive as the sizable minority view paints it as . It's a film that does have some good ideas but unfortunately it has too many ideas none of which are meshed in to a great plot and all of them are woefully underdeveloped

Three of the most famous horror stars appear in this film, but don't be fooled - it's definitely a complete dud, an incoherent, unbelievably bad pastiche of disconnected scenes. Peter Cushing's role is little more than a cameo and Christopher Lee just drops in and out of a few sequences. Only Vincent Price has some substantial screen time in the final 20 minutes - which is the only part of the movie that saves it from being utter trash. (*1/2)

***SPOILERS*** In the movie "Scream and Scream Again" you actually get two bad movies for the price of one. #1. A Vampire-like serial murder Kieth, Michael Gothand, is on the loose in England killing and sucking the blood out of young ladies that he picks up in the local Go-Go nightclubs. #2. A mad scientist Dr. Browning, Vincent Price, working in league with the chief of intelligence of the UK Fremont, Christopher Lee, who's also in some kind of alliance with the head of the secret police Konratz, Marshall Jones, of some unknown Eastern-European communist country. Kieth is trapped in his murderous actions when the local police have a decoy police woman Sylvia, Judy Huxtable, pose as one of his potential victims. Picking Sylvia up at a local club, that features the live repetitive and monotonous music of a group called The Amen Corner, Kieth and his new girlfriend are followed by the police to this lover lane where he, after giving Sylvia a big smooch, starts to bite into her and starts sucking out her blood. The police lead by Supt. Bellaver, Alfred Marks, comes to Sylvia's rescue only to have Kieth break away from them and lead them on a long car and foot chase. When Kieth is captured by the cops he hacks off his right hand, that was handcuffed to a police car, to get away and continue his mad dash to what seems like nowhere. Finally trapped at the Dr. Browning estate Kieth jumps into a vat of acid, that just happened to be there in a deserted barn, and kills himself. Dr. Browning who comes on the scene of this insanity seems to be totally unmoved at all by this bazaar behavior of, what turned out to be, one of his subjects. We now begin to realize what happened to the jogger at the start of the movie who ended up in a hospital, after he suffered what looked like a heart-attack.The jogger then ended up having his legs arms and later even head amputated. Dr. Browning it turns out is constructing a master-race made out of human spare parts that resulted in the somehow murderous and superhuman-like Kieth and that he himself, and those who work for him, are; not really human beings but Frankenstein-like monsters themselves made out of human remains. Things start to go bad when back in the unnamed Eastern-European country where Konratz, another one of Dr. Brownings creations, starts to get really bad toward the local inhabitants, who are starting to revolt in the streets, with his brutal and sadistic torture of them. Konratz is called into his superior Benedek, Peter Cushing, office and told that he's being canned from his post as head of the country's secret police. Konratz trying to talk Benedek out of firing him gives him a deadly love-tap on his left shoulder that ends up killing him and thus replace Benedek as chief of the secret police. Later Konratz travels to England to talk turkey with his fellow pieced-together member of Dr. Brownings master race Fremont about this U-2 spy planes English pilot who was shot down over his country. Told that he'll have the pilot released if all the evidence about the vampire-killer, Kieth, is handed over to him. Fremont agrees to have that done but somehow Supt. Bellaver didn't get the news yet and that cost him his life. Konratz going to Dr. Browning's place to shut down his human spare parts operation, it's starting to get out of hand, has it out with the mad doctor who ends up dumping him in a vat of acid killing him only to have Fremont show up and finish the job that Konratz started. Idiotic movie that is the only film where the top three British horror masters, Vincent Price Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing, were ever in together with Cushing only in the movie for one scene where he immediately killed off.

I first saw this film when it was released in 1970.At the time it was considered very shocking.Looking at it now,compared to todays horror films,I suppose it would be considered tame.I still think it is a great example of how a shocker should be made.You never know what is going to happen next!The film has everything,non-stop action, agreat cast(including the big three-Lee,Price and Cushing),and good special effects.So take my word for it-watch and enjoy!

Gordon Hessler was not all that great a director. He wasn't particularly good at setting up interesting shots or getting good performances out of his actors, but occasionally he managed by default to create a movie that was so completely off-the-wall and bizarre that those shortcomings could be forgotten. SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN is a good example of that. It is by no means a good movie; in fact, it's really pretty bad. But you literally have no idea where it's headed, and by the time you get there, even though it's a tad underwhelming, it's still just oddball enough to keep you hooked. Basically, it's the story of a serial killer who preys on bar-hopping women, and who, incidentally, seems to have superpowers of some sort. Or, maybe it's the story of a military conspiracy of some sort? Or is it the story of some kind of body parts black market? Believe it or not, all these seemingly unrelated plotlines eventually come together, and it's a wacky ride all the way. The biggest disappointment for me, is the scarce screen time of headliners Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. They literally have less than twenty minutes of screen time combined, and only Lee and Price even appear together, in one very brief scene. The main characters seem to be a disgruntled Scotland Yard detective, and a younger, less cynical police officer. I recommend this movie to any fan of AIP or any of the three horror stars, but most people will not have the patience to sit through it. Fans will enjoy it, if only for it's sheer weirdness.

There is little to recommend this film. First, even though it is billed as a Vincent Price/Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee film, none of these horror icons appear in the film for more than a few scenes. Personally, I hate it when a name actor puts his name on a film, and only appears in one or two scenes. It elevates a bad film to a higher level than it deserves. Secondly, the plot is a jumbled mess, with the separate plot lines of British cops trying to catch a serial killer and a sadistic officer in a eastern block country torturing people for fun. These plot threads aren't tied together until the last ten minutes of the film, and not even well then.