18 years after "The Day the Earth Stood Still", actor Michael Rennie again played a dignified alien. Except this time, his intentions are *definitely* malevolent - he's a scientist, a member of a species that intends to aggressively conquer the Earth by resurrecting various mythological monsters - a vampire (Manuel de Blas), a "Frankensteins' Monster" type-creature (Ferdinando Murolo), a mummy (Gene Reyes), and werewolf Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy, who also wrote the story & screenplay).
This did have some potential with its "everything but the kitchen sink" / "monster mash" mentality, but the production was a pretty troubled one, as the filmmakers had to deal with money issues, tensions between two of the actresses, and changes in directors. The end result is a film that can boast fairly colorful widescreen photography and sets, as well as groovy music and a bevy of attractive ladies (Karin Dor, Patty Shepard, Gela Geisler). The performances are basically adequate, with Craig Hill making for a fairly engaging hero, a guy who's refreshingly open-minded when it comes to the idea of monsters.
The ending features a few decent fights - Daninsky vs. Both the Monster and the mummy, and Inspector Tobermann vs. The vampire. But, in general, the film unfortunately is lacking when it comes to real style, just sort of plodding along for the most part and becoming overly talky. Which is too bad, as this is the kind of Euro-cult feature that certainly originally promised viewers a pretty good time. It was also going to include flying saucers and a Golem, but alas it was just not to be.
At least if you're a Naschy fan, he proves to be entertaining enough to watch, as usual.
Six out of 10.
This did have some potential with its "everything but the kitchen sink" / "monster mash" mentality, but the production was a pretty troubled one, as the filmmakers had to deal with money issues, tensions between two of the actresses, and changes in directors. The end result is a film that can boast fairly colorful widescreen photography and sets, as well as groovy music and a bevy of attractive ladies (Karin Dor, Patty Shepard, Gela Geisler). The performances are basically adequate, with Craig Hill making for a fairly engaging hero, a guy who's refreshingly open-minded when it comes to the idea of monsters.
The ending features a few decent fights - Daninsky vs. Both the Monster and the mummy, and Inspector Tobermann vs. The vampire. But, in general, the film unfortunately is lacking when it comes to real style, just sort of plodding along for the most part and becoming overly talky. Which is too bad, as this is the kind of Euro-cult feature that certainly originally promised viewers a pretty good time. It was also going to include flying saucers and a Golem, but alas it was just not to be.
At least if you're a Naschy fan, he proves to be entertaining enough to watch, as usual.
Six out of 10.