Dr. Edmund Redding wants to find the secrets within the ancient Aztec pyramid of Tenochtitlan; he hypnotizes a young woman, Ann Taylor, who is apparently a reincarnated human sacrifice to an Aztec God. After a sumptuous flashback reveals the ritual and the modern passage into the pyramid, the fearless Dr. Redding goes in search for the secrets of the ancient Aztec civilization. Once he shows up there are a peaceful Mummy (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) and a creeping zombie. While Dr. Redding begins to present his glorious findings to the science community, the lights kick off and shots blast, the Doctor has been killed and-you guessed it-the classic monsters are gone. Soon the Chaney mummy is in the hands of a mad scientist and the bastard's soon thawing the beast out. The scientists walk away like disappointed Frankensteins, but when the mummy actually wakes alone, he faces a full moon and mutates into a screaming werewolf; meanwhile, the other monster is on the loose and the plot is falling into a pile of you know what.
It's especially nice to notice that terrible movies from the 1960s are photographically superior to most horror movies in today's movie theatres. The music is so good in The Face of the Screaming Werewolf that it had to be stolen from a better film-as a matter of fact it sounded very familiar. The formidable music flows atop lengthy moments through corridors and human sacrifice, but the one thing interesting the film does is stop the music when the monsters appear, and, of course, this makes the scene much creepier-you'll know what I mean when the depraved zombie slides out of the darkness.
The ambiguous lair of the mad scientist adds an amount of suspense to Face of the Screaming Werewolf; after all, scattered around every frame are wax figures with grotesque expressions and terrible gasps.
Basically, the film is filled with nostalgic absurdities that will bring the Ed Wood, Jr. fan back to where their fandom began. Besides, How many horror flicks have we seen where a mummy is thawed out and ends up being a freaking werewolf?
Watch it for the score and watch it for the sake of adding to the reasons why you visit the horror movie over and over again.
Guest-written review by Brad Guillory
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1964
DIRECTOR: Gilberto Martínez Solares
WRITING CREDITS: Gilberto Martínez Solares, Alfredo Salazar
GENRE: Adventure, Crime, Horror
CAST: Lon Chaney, Steve Conte, Rosa Arenas
COUNTRY: Mexico
RUNTIME: 60 min
RATING: 8/10
Face of the Screaming Werewolf Website/IMDB Click here
Face of the Screaming Werewolf Trailer Click here
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