Those of the scientific community(mainly three in particular, doctors Vicas, Moroni & Kallman)who berated Dr. Zimmer(Antonio Jiménez Escribano), whose experiments concerning mind control procedures which have the ability to cease the violent tendencies in the criminal element(for a while Z worked on monkeys amongst other animals before an exhausted escaped convict dumped right in his lap)they vehemently disagreed with, cause him to ultimately die of stress when they threaten to stop him from completing his work. Zimmer caused a major outburst at the conference where he proposed a chance to use a convict on death row(..a human being)as part of testing his theories before them proving that he could change human behavior. His daughter, Irma(Mabel Karr), goes mad from the loss of her father and hatefully vows revenge against the main three culprits she considers the cause of her father's death. Using a pretty actress who goes under the stage name "Mrs. Death", with these long fingernails, named Nadia(Estella Blain)as an instrument to possibly seduce the three doctors one at a time, Irma has a plan in place while adopting her father's controlled convict Hans Bergen(Guy Mairesse)as the muscle(..he is often used to kill when Nadia fails in her part of the scheme). Irma will fake her own death by running over a hitchhiker who resembles her, burning the body with a specific ring she's known for wearing, in her car driving into a pond. Meanwhile, an ally(..of sorts)of her father's work, Dr. Phillippe Brighthouse(whom Irma sleeps with)who attended the conference Dr. Z was ridiculed at, lends a hand to two Scotland Yard detectives working the case of Irma's supposed death and the sequential murders of the doctors who "killed Irma's father." Phillippe and Nadia had begun a love affair when Irma kidnapped her, using the experiments to control Mrs. Death's will. Will Phillippe find Nadia in time to save her before Irma decides to dispose of her? Can the detectives and Phillippe silence the blind rage of Irma before more people come to violent harm? Can Phillippe stand a chance against convict Bergen?
Fantastic mad Scientist/revenge thriller, beautifully photographed in moody B&W by Alejandro Ulloa. Thankfully, this is a focused, finely paced, well crafted thriller which doesn't wander from it's story staying on course delivering the goods. I particularly like how Franco shoots Mable Karr's face in angles which show hints of the dementia thriving behind her beautifully, sweaty reconstructed face(her face had been burnt during Irma's attempt to push the flaming car into the pond containing the look-a-like hitchhiker).
Fantastic mad Scientist/revenge thriller, beautifully photographed in moody B&W by Alejandro Ulloa. Thankfully, this is a focused, finely paced, well crafted thriller which doesn't wander from it's story staying on course delivering the goods. I particularly like how Franco shoots Mable Karr's face in angles which show hints of the dementia thriving behind her beautifully, sweaty reconstructed face(her face had been burnt during Irma's attempt to push the flaming car into the pond containing the look-a-like hitchhiker).