Scream and Scream Again

_**Odd and bewildering mixed-genre flick with Price, Lee & Cushing at least entertains**_

A so-called “vampire serial killer” is on the loose in London (Michael Gothard) and a loose connection is made to the mysterious clinic of Dr. Browning (Vincent Price). A curious young doctor eventually pursues this lead for answers (Christopher Matthews). The impressive cast also includes the likes of Christopher Lee, Marshall Jones, Alfred Marks and Peter Cushing in a glorified cameo.

“Scream and Scream Again” (1970) is a London-based crime/drama and political thriller with a bit o’ sci-fi/horror. It meshes superhuman vampiric killers with Nazi-like militarists and Frankenstein-ian doctors. It’s a mix of the contemporaneous “The Tormentors” (with a WAY bigger budget) and the later “The Formula” (1980) with the Frankenstein element of “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” (2008). (I realize the latter two came much later; I’m just giving potential viewers an idea of what to expect with this oddity).

The female cast is decent with Judy Huxtable (Sylvia), Judy Bloom (cop), Yutte Stensgaard (Erika) and Uta Levka (nurse).

Christopher Wicking’s script eliminates a key revelation of Peter Saxon’s book (“The Disorientated Man”), which makes the story more mundane and political, which I favor. But the conflicting subplot involving the fictional Eastern European Communistic country could’ve easily been removed altogether, making the story less confusing and more streamlined. It’s like trying to cram a war story into a crime thriller/horror flick.

The movie runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in London and Surrey County, which is just south of the city.

GRADE: B-/C+