Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)

best movie i've ever seen.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Rule of thumb in the 1960's in making a schlocky horror film: visit local pre-school's and kindergarten's, collect various art supplies (paper mache, styrofoam, large pieces of cardboard and colored construction paper, popsicle sticks, etc.), and hire a faded actor like John Carradine or Lon Chaney Jr.). Pull together bits and pieces of short stories and expand with as many idiotic small details that you can think of. Mix all of these together and stir. Bake for an hour, and then send to a drive-in theater, and there you have it: a schlocky horror film along the lines of "Face of the Screaming Werewolf".The faded star here is Chaney, running around, snarling, grabbing screaming women, then barely missing an elevator as a woman inside screams. Another ghoul throws a man off of the roof, but fortunately, there's an awning to catch him. The film starts off with a flashback to an Aztec temple sacrifice ceremony where one of the characters in the present day was once an Aztec princess. This sequence is where the paper mache and styrofoam come in handy, painted to look like bricks, and held together by jarred paste. The actors look nothing like what the Aztecs must have, and the sequence as a whole goes on far too long. Chaney is there for name only, and most of the intended frights only bring laughs. At only an hour, this won't make you feel that you've wasted too much time, and you'll find plenty to laugh at, not laugh with.

According to various sources, the hour long version of Face Of The Screaming Werewolf that I have just suffered through was cobbled together from two unrelated Mexican films, La Casa del Terror (1959) and La Momia Azteca (1957), with added footage from director Jerry Warren; this goes a long way to explain why it is a complete and utter mess from start to finish—although I have a sneaking suspicion that neither of the original Mexican films are all that great either (I'm sure I'll find out one day, being the movie masochist that I am).It's always a tough job to summarise any film that is such a complete dog's dinner, but here goes…Under hypnosis, Ann Taylor (Rosita Arenas) recalls a previous life where she took part in a ceremony in a pyramid in the Yucatan. Keen to investigate further, Ann accompanies a team of scientists to the ancient Mexican monument where they discover two mummies, one really old, the other more recent. Both are taken to the scientists' laboratory/wax museum (?!?!) for examination, where they come to life and wreak havoc, with the most recent specimen (played by Lon Chaney Jr.) also proving to be a werewolf. Ann is abducted by the ancient mummy and is killed, while the werewolf mummy goes on the rampage in the city before being cornered in the lab and set on fire.In addition to the terrible editing, nonsensical story and poor acting, Face Of The Screaming Werewolf also suffers from plenty of padding, most notably the native ritual at the beginning of the film that seems to go on forever. Just think how (mercifully) short the film would have been had the editors been a bit more judicious with the scissors for that scene.

Truly pathetic mess cobbled together by Jerry Warren of footage from a Mexican movie (La casa del terror) with scenes featuring Lon Chaney Jr. (who never speaks any dialogue; I'm not even sure he was the performer under the werewolf make-up in the many of the monster's attack scenes) into an incoherent narrative. Warren doesn't even try and I have contempt for him in this regard. We get the Chaney werewolf transformation and there are a few nasty attacks where the werewolf mauls victims, but that's it. There's something to do with a scientific expedition in The Great Pyramid at the North Yucatan Border (we are also assaulted—erm, I mean treated—to a tribal ceremony once performed by the civilization that once lived in this region of the world, and it goes on forever it seems). Two beings are discovered in the pyramid, a man (Chaney) who is afflicted with lycanthropy (he just turns whenever the film decides) and this zombie mummy from the past civilization I just mentioned. Both beings become associated with scientists who use a wax museum as a front, their laboratory hidden behind a wall that opens. There are two cops (Warren probably hired off the street for a few hours) on the lookout for dangerous fiends terrorizing whatever city this film is supposed to be set in. There are experiments using machinery with knobs and gyros that continue for minutes as the scientists look pleased at their progress (I'm not sure what they are doing exactly, but about five minutes in I gave up caring…) and one opening protracted sequence where a female test subject is put under hypnosis and recalls a past life as the Yucatan priestess, her story inspiring the pyramid expedition. I would like to see a dubbed or subtitled version of "La casa del terror" whose guts were extracted for this abomination just out of curiosity…maybe it might actually have a coherent storyline a bit easier to follow. Milking the iconic status of an actor who had fallen on such hard times he was stuck in low budget stinkers just to make ends meet and support his alcoholism, Warren knows no shame and can't even bother to honor Chaney with a decent use of the footage he took from elsewhere. This might be entertainment for those who cherish bad cinema, but I found this waste of time damn near impossible to get through without feeling pity for Chaney Jr. because you have to recognize a star's career was in the toilet. Thank goodness for Spider Baby, one last great movie for Chaney—I just wish this was his last film instead of that f'n Adamson picture.

Can a movie, that actually consists scenes from two mexican monsterthrillers plus additional scenes from US for commersial interests, be successful? - Yes! This is a dreamlike and incoherently edited oddity that tells a story of a centralamerican mummy found at the excur- sions of a pyramid. Also there is a mad scientist who in his experiments with revivification, succeeds in waking the mummy. And there´s a thunderstorm! The mummy is transformed into a werewolf played by Lon Chaney jnr! Its wild, suspenseful, trancendental, poetic in its "silents" looks and pace and there is a musical number of exotica style too, with an Yma Sumaclike vocalist in a "flashback" Aztec ritual scene! I was overwhelmed of the total impact of this movie as seen through the eyes of someone who value uniqueness and improvised quality in lowbudgetfantasy that really works as avantgarde poetry. The images and atmosphere of Ancient Civilisation, Pyramids, detectiveworks, a scary rotten walking mummy, a terrifying werewolf,terrified womens faces and all these mysterios cuts between scenes from one film to another creates a nightmare with no other logic than the dream´s own. I recommend this for all who has a vivid imagination and for all of you who believe that insanity can be genial!