Atom Age Vampire (AKA Seddok, L'erede di Satana) (1960)

Atom Age Vampire (AKA Seddok, L'erede di Satana) (1960)

The English translation of the title of this next film is quite misleading, Atom Age Vampire, because the film doesn't feature any vampires, just a mad scientist who kills people in the pursuit of research.  Though the scientist becomes a deformed monster, and he steals his victims glands through holes in their necks, he doesn't drain them of their blood, and the film really has nothing to do with vampires, or really the atom age at all.   The original Italian title Seddok, L'erede di Satana, which translates to Seddock, The Heir Of Satan, is a little closer, just because of how evil the mad scientist is, making him worthy of the throne of hell.   The film is about a sexy young performer (ok a polite way of saying stripper) named Jeannette is in a bad car accident which disfigures her face, after her and her boyfriend have a fight and he says he will leave her unless she stops dancing.   She is approached by Dr Levin's assistant who tells her that they can fix her face, and she is injected with this serum that he has created that regenerates the skin tissue of her face, however the effects are temporary, and the doctor must murder people to steal the glands needed to create the serum.  Meanwhile she has become a prisoner of the doctor, but can her boyfriend and the police rescue her and stop the mad doctor before more people end up dead?

The Atom Age Vampire is a low budget b-horror film from Italy, directed and co-written by Anton Giulio Majano.  The film is produced by Elio Ippolito Mellino under the alias Mario Fava, and the screenplay is by Gino De Santis, Alberto Bevilacqua, and Anton Giulio Majano, and is based on a story by Piero Monviso.  Seddok, L'erede di Satana was produced by Lion's Films in Italy in 1960, and was theatrically released in the USA as Atom Age Vampire in 1963 distributed by Manson Distributing.  The film was a modest success in Italy, though was met with a mediocre critical reception.   My thoughts on the film is that it is good, but it also has a very slow pace, and feels like it draws on forever, and I find myself getting bored with it. 

Atom Age Vampire stars Alberto Lupo as Professor Alberto Levin, Susanne Loret as Jeanette Moreneau, Sergio Fantoni as her boy friend Pierre Mornet, Franca Parisi as Levin's assistant Monique Riviere, Andrea Scotti as gardener, Ivo Garrani as commissioner, and Roberto Bertea as Sacha.  The film has a decent cast, especially with the absolutely breathtakingly beautiful Susanne Loret as Jeanette Moreneau.  Alberto Lupo plays the role of the mad scientist quite well.  But no one in the cast is really stand out as great, but they are all decent.  But then again, I have only watched the film with the English dubs that are on the US DVDs, and haven't seen it in its original Italian.  

Overall I must say that I found the film interesting, and with a good plot, but at the same time, I found nothing about it really standing out as original or new, and ultimately find the film slightly dull.  Some of the effects are well done, but nothing really new or cutting edge.   I can't say that it is a bad film by any means, but it does strike me as slightly mediocre, and the pacing feels agonizingly slow and greatly uneventful.   If you haven't seen this film, it is worth watching, but I wouldn't really go out of your way to find a copy of it, like if you find it on a collection of low budget public domain horror films, by all-means check it out, but it isn't really worth tracking down just for the film.   I have definitely seen better, but have also seen much worse.