Roger Corman was the best known producer for AIP in the 50s, but for a while Herman Cohen was just as important, as he’s the guy who made I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Cohen followed this up with I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and Blood of Dracula (posters for which appear in this) – then spun things on it’s head and sent it all up, with this film. Well it’s a kind of a send up – it’s set at American International Studios, a clear reference to AIP, but it actually seems more based on Universal – they used to make horror films but the studio’s moving in a new direction so they sack the make up man who swears revenge.
That’s a pretty good idea for a horror film – you have your crucial ingredient, a sympathetic villain/protagonist – but after that the ideas run out. There’s not enough satire of AIP, or horro movies, or teen films, or anything memorable really apart from the fact the last ten minutes are in colour.
It lacks interesting teenage characters (there are two young actors who are drawn in to kill on behalf of the make up man) and is really badly undercast. I kept wishing it was written by Chuck Griffith and starred someone like Vincent Price or Dick Miller – the lead guy is bland. John Ashley makes a cameo singing an Elvis-style number.
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