Seddok, l'erede di Satana (1960)

User Rating:

3.3/10   

Director:

Anton Giulio Majano

Writers:

Alberto Bevilacqua (writer)
Gino De Santis (writer)

Release Date:

19 August 1960 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

You'll gasp with Horror . . . a spine-tingling motion picture only the atom age could produce!

Plot:

A stripper is horribly disfigured in a car accident. A brilliant scientist develops a treatment that restores her beauty and falls in love with her...

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Transformation | Public Domain | Disfigurement

Cast

Alberto Lupo	...	Prof. Alberto Levin
Susanne Loret	...	Jeanette Moreneau
Sergio Fantoni	...	Pierre Mornet
Franca Parisi	...	Monique Riviere
Andrea Scotti
Rina Franchetti
Roberto Bertea	...	Sacha
Ivo Garrani
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Glamor Mora
Gianna Piaz		(as Giovanna Piaz)

Also Known As:

Atom Age Vampire (USA) (dubbed version)

Runtime:

105 min | USA:87 min | USA:72 min (video version) | USA:69 min (DVD version)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Leone Film

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Evil Dead (1981)

Gives Vampire's a Bad Name

With the silly title, losing everything in translation, and some terrible dubbing, we can write this off. Nevertheless, there is some intensity and commitment from the cast. The characters emote away, like they often do in bad horror movies, but we can't forget they are actually speaking French. The obsession of the doctor borders on lunacy. He has quite a good thing going for him and yet one look at this blonde and he blows a fuse. From the beginning, I wondered why he was so angry--if helping the world is important to him--why the immediate intensity? Well, just happening to have a serum that turns one into a vampire so he can kill is pretty convenient. Of course, even though he kills as a vampire (not a very strong or formidable one as we eventually see when he attacks a man) he still has the rationality to do whatever he wishes with the substances he steals from these young women. But, then, to over analyze this type of movie isn't worth the time.

There is one interesting character. This is Sacha, the depressed, Charlie Callas looking lackey, who drinks too much and is regularly beaten by the doctor. He is perpetually torn between his duty (for whatever reason) to the doctor and his awareness of the evil doings in the house. We know that at some point he is going to have to put it out there and be his own man. There is also a handsome male lead and some police officers who add a dull comic presence (even though they are supposed to be serious). There is a subplot about quitting smoking that is ultimately resolve. Remember "Airplane" Lloyd Bridges--"I picked a heck of time to quite sniffing glue."