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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Manages to be reasonably entertaining despite its faults, January 12, 2006
There's something we need to clear up here at the very start. Despite the title, there are no vampires in this movie. No, the monster you'll find here (and I'm using the term monster rather loosely) is something else entirely, a sort of really ugly Mr. Hyde who is compared to "a vampire of the atomic age." Don't go in looking for a lot of atomic whatsits either, as you won't see anything much beyond the technology of the vaunted machine that goes ping - oh, and radiation is apparently just white smoke that can't harm you, by the way.
With the preliminaries out of the way, let's talk about the story. You've got this stripper named Jeanette (and, sadly, I only know she's a stripper because the film tells me so) who gets dumped by her boyfriend Pierre, reacts rather hysterically, and ends up driving her car over a cliff. She's left horribly disfigured (even though it's really not that bad at all), which really bums her out. That's when this stranger named Monique shows up in her room, telling Jeanette all about her colleague Professor Levin and the miraculous work he is doing with cell regeneration. It's all hush-hush, though, so Jeanette has to sort of sneak over there after she is released. Well, the doctor does his thing, and his super-duper Derma-28 works wonders. Naturally, Doc falls madly in love with the girl, which causes problems of its own sort. Even worse, the miracle cure doesn't seem to be permanent - and Doc is all out of Derma-28. He could get what he needs from a living specimen, of course, but the donor would probably not live to tell about it. Hmmm. You see where this is going, don't you? Doc will do anything to cure the woman he loves - anything. That's where your monster bit comes in. There hardly seems to be a point to the whole monster business, if you ask me, but what are you gonna do?
The main problem with this film is the fact that it seems to have passed through the hands of several snip-happy editors on its way from Italy to America. The Italian original (Seddok, l'erede di Satana) is some 18 minutes longer than the standard American print (although I think the version I saw was even shorter than that) - this is a good time for me to point out that I'm reviewing the movie, not the DVD (thus, I can't tell you for sure just how long the DVD print runs). However you slice it, though, this is just your basic 1960 sci-fi/horror film. There are a couple of nice transformation scenes, the first half of the film fares reasonably well, and Mario Bava had a hand in the production, but the bad pretty much balances out the good. The dubbing isn't all that great, the over-acting of several characters would be obvious in any language, and the whole story is a little less than original. Despite its faults, though, it's still entertaining enough to be worth a look. Just remember - it's not a vampire film at all, no matter what the title says.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Calling Doctor Levin..., March 6, 2004
A beautiful exotic dancer named Jeanette Moreneau (Susanne Loret) is disfigured in a car wreck after her boyfriend Pierre breaks up with her. Jeanette is later visited in the hospital by a mysterious woman named Monique, who tells her of a doctor who can repair her scarred face. Jeanette goes to the doctors home and is subjected to injections of his "Derma-28" serum (derived from human glands). Professor Levin (Albert Lupo), as he is called, is of course, a mad scientist experimenting with radiation and various chemical concoctions in his basement lab. He manages to cure Jeanette and fall deeply in lust with her, sending Monique into a jealous depression. Unfortunately, Derma-28's healing effects are only temporary, causing Prof. Levin to seek fresh glands from living (soon to be dead) female victims. Levin kills Monique and tells police she had a bad heart. Levin feels bad after his first murder, so he digs up an older serum called "Derma-25", which has the effect of turning him into a hideous beast, and injects himself with it. Now the killing can really get started! Meanwhile, Pierre realizes what a great thing he had going, and sets out to find Jeanette. Loaded with cheesy action and lots of mad science, ATOM AGE VAMPIRE is a masterpiece of schlocky horror! Check it out at once...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You say half BAD, I say half GOOD, June 28, 2001
By A Customer
For the record, this flick has a little of the visual flavor of a Twilight Zone episode, Way Out, or even Alfred Hitchcock Presents, if that turns you on. The sets are spare, and the photography intermittently "choice" & rather pedestrian black & white. All in all, it is about as atmospheric as the budget allowed. (It may help put you in the proper mood to imagine yourself making a horror feature in a few days, on sets you can only use at night, after the real owners have gone home. Under such circumstances, the fact that the makers had any kind of product at all to show is amazing.) Work with it.
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