FACE
OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF (1959)
Directed by Jerry Warren
Gray Market VHS
Reviewed 01.03.04
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba
THE FILM
Jerry Warren films can sometimes
be a burden to get through. There’s
usually nothing cool or redeeming
about any of his pictures, save
for a good title (The Wild World
of Bat-Woman), and lots of
inane dialogue. This one’s
a bit different: it’s got
mummies, a werewolf, a wax museum,
and lots and lots of gratuitous
sacrificial indian ceremony footage!
Weird enough to be pretty good.
Hacked together from an earlier
Mexican horror film and new footage
featuring Mr. Lon Chaney Jr. as
a mummified-werewolf, this is one
confusing film. Things stop making
sense during the initial hypnotism
scene. Basically, it goes something
like this: our heroine, Ann Taylor,
spent another life as a Mayan. There
are two mummies -- one Lon Chaney
and one a skinny little monster
mummy. Ann and her friends visit
the Mayan temple and run away from
those two. During a public unveiling
of the mummies (?), the lights go
out and they disappear!! After this,
the “Ann” story line
is disposed of pretty quickly with
a sly transition featuring a newspaper
headline.
All you need to know is that Mr.
Lon turns into a werewolf (and so
does his stand-in), sweats a lot,
and spouts off amazing dialogue
like "Arrgh" and “NO!!”
AUDIO AND VIDEO
I think this tape I have is from
the gray market. I bought it at
a little store and its got homemade
labels. The picture looks like a
second generation (some ghosting
is present) and the sound was fair.
Definitely watchable.
EXTRAS
This is a gray market vhs tape.
No extras!
FINAL THOUGHTS
You could do worse, that’s
for sure. It’s neat to see
Lon Chaney Jr. made up as a werewolf
again, and I’d recommend this
film if you’d like to sample
the Jerry Warren magic. |
Very hypnotized
The lab
Hullo beautiful, I'm wax
Mr. Chaney
|
