Jekyll tends to hang out in opium dens and brothels, giving Franco the opportunity to screech the narrative to a halt in order to focus on a sultry dance number by a scantily clad woman. Shades of Franco’s later work which focus highly on the female form come to play heavily here as well. While this is a very dark film, it is never obscured to the point where you can’t tell what kind of action is going on and these scenes of action punctuate a truly lurid and sordid tale of deceit, revenge, and murder. Franco seems to be championing the Universal style here, but his European roots highlighting some more sophisticated work with lights and darks really do shine through here. The cobblestone ruins of the castle and the dark streets Andros walks through make for long and creepy shadow-play. Franco makes all of the elements work even through the story is a bit rocky.įranco does this by constructing some fantastically moody and atmospheric scenery for this wacky tale of mad science to play out in. His work, though, lives on beyond him and seeing all of these elements play out through Franco’s gothic lens is rather amazing. Orlof (or Orloff) isn’t really a major part in this film. Still, despite the lifts from other films, the film itself plays out rather nicely. CALIGARI, and an out and out swipe of the name Jekyll from DR. There’s the mad scientist angle from FRANKENSTEIN, the use of a robot like minion to carry out evil deeds from THE CABINET OF DR.
ORLOF before it, Franco’s script feels like it has been cobbled together from parts of other films. When Andros’ daughter Melissa (Agnès Spaak) arrives at Jekyll’s castle to claim an inheritance, she finds herself in the middle of a murder spree and the reanimated corpse of her dead father. Jekyll then proceeds to use Andros to fulfill a bloodlust that has cursed him since his betrayal. Jekyll, who was recently betrayed by both his wife and brother Andros (Hugo Blanco), murders his brother and uses the body to create an automaton which is basically a reanimated corpse revived by sound waves. Conrad Jekyll (Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui) from his deathbed. Orloff passes on his knowledge of “creating a robot” to his student Dr. ORLOFF’S MONSTER (note the odd difference in spelling of Orlof from the first film to the second), Franco manages to offer up the filmmaker’s most genuinely fun monster movie magic.
ORLOF, which borrowed aspects of many mad science films, does the same with this one. Jess Franco’s loose follow up to THE AWFUL DR. Starring Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui, Luisa Sala, Hugo Blanco, Agnès Spaak, Perla Cristal, Magda Maldonado, Pepe Rubio, Pastor Serrador, Marta Reves, Daniel Blumer, Manuel Guitián, Mer Casas, Rafael Hernández, José Truchado, Juan Antonio Soler, Javier de Rivera, Julio Infiesta, Ramón Lillo, Julia Toboso, Maribel Hidalgo, Pedro Fenollar, Jesús Franco Written by Jesús Franco, Nicole Guettard, A. ORLOFF’S MONSTER (1964) aka THE MISTRESSES OF DR.
Retro-review: New this week on BluRay from Kino Lorber Redemption!ĭR. Retro-review: CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH PART 2: SUBHUMANOID MELTDOWN (1991)Īnd finally…Suspense: You Can’t Die Twice! Retro-review: POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (1986) Retro-review: THE GRUESOME TWOSOME (1967) Retro-review: THIS NIGHT I’LL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE (1967) (Click title to go directly to the feature) Along with the second outings, I tossed in some other films involving twos that seemed fitting as well. I’ve had sequel columns before, but this one really runs the gamut of what makes for a good and bad follow-up. Miller aka Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. Logo by Kristian Horn What the &#$% is ZOMBIES & SHARKS?
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