Movie Review: Atom Age Vampire (1960)

Although American movie fans of today may find it hard to believe, up to about 40 years ago, many of the most popular films shown in American movie theaters were actually made in Italy by Italian film makers. These movie included "spaghetti westerns," gladiator flicks, ancient history flicks, Hercules movies and the like. They also included a fair number of science fiction, fantasy and horror motion pictures.

Just as Italian made Westerns are dubbed "spaghetti westerns" for their oftentimes schlockiness, Italian made horror flicks also inspire widespread derision among movie fans. These horror flicks often take basic horror movie characters such as mad scientists and then take them to absurd extremes while at the same time being played out in a serious manner. As a result, many of these Italian horrors are also unintentional comedies.

One such Italian made horror flick, aka unintentional comedy, is the 1960 cinematic effort Atom Age Vampire or as it is known in the country of its origin, "Seddok, l'erede di Satana." This is the story of a stripper named Jeannette Morineau (Suzanne Loret) who becomes horribly disfigured in a car accident. Naturally, instead of seeing a reputable physician to repair her injuries, she opts to see the maddest scientist around, Professor Albert Levin (Albert Lupo).

Of course, it turns out that Prof. Levin operates from a secret laboratory. Of course, Prof. Levin has a highly voluptuous assistant named Monique Riviere (Franca Parisi) who is never his love interest. Of course, Jeannette Morineau falls into Prof. Levin's clutches of diabolical plastic surgery at the exact same time that the bad professor and his beautiful assistant have perfected Serum 28 that regenerates skin cells to restore beauty. And yes, of course, Miss Morineau has a handsome boyfriend, Pierre Mornet (Sergio Fantoni), who is desperately seeking to find her despite police indifference.

At first, the treatments with Serum 28 work well. However, the treatments must be made to Miss Morineau on a regular basis and Prof. Levin's supply soon runs out. Like all mad scientists in the movies, Prof. Levin does not accept this setback laying down. True to insane doctor form, Levin decides that to restore Morineau's beauty, he must murder all sorts of beautiful women and harvest their bodies to gain the ingredients necessary to make more of Serum 28.

As you can tell from the above, Atom Age Vampire is basically just another schlocky mad scientist horror flick. This raises the question of just why it is so widely available on public domain DVD releases. The answer is that there are a great many horror flick fans who appreciate its earnest goofiness even if there is not anything original about it. The bottom line is that although there is some real entertainment here with its manifestly incompetent execution, if you want to see a movie with a strong plot, acting and cinematography to it, avoid this movie in favor of something else.