How sad is this?

good back-story, and good acting

A Disappointing Continuation

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Overcome by emotion, due to being dumped by her boyfriend, Pierre (Sergio Fantoni), beautiful model, Jeanette Moreneau (Susanne Loret) gets into a car accident. She scars her face in the process, looking like she fell asleep on a waffle iron. We know she was distraught at the time, because she kept screeching, "Pierre! Pierre!" a lot. Luckily, a certain Prof. Levin (Alberto Lupo) wants to use his latest formula on her, and dispatches his crony, Monique (Franca Parisi) to fetch Jeanette. Levin uses his serum on her, achieving amazing results. However, there is a cost. Levin will have to up the ante, and commit unspeakable crimes in order to keep Jeanette's face unscathed. He even decides to try a new formula -involving r-a-d-i-a-t-i-o-n- on himself, causing a fairly predictable outcome. Meanwhile, Pierre searches for Jeanette in every belly-dancing jazz club he can visit. Can he find her before Levin sinks even deeper into madness? ATOM AGE VAMPIRE is a nice slab of sci-fi hyper-schlock, culminating in a wonderful monster-runs-amok finale! EXTRA POINTS: For Levin's stop-motion transformation scene! "

This is a good example of how distributors can ruin a movie. I have watched the 103 min original Italian widescreen version on DVD, entitled "Seddok, l'erede di Satana" ("Seddok, the heir of Satan"), which is a nice old-fashioned b/w horror flick based on a Frankenstein variation, with dialogs explaining the characters very well. But the movie was cut by a quarter of an hour for the export cinema version, ridiculously retitled "Seddok, der Würger mit den Teufelskrallen" ("Seddok, the strangler with the devil's claws"), and then it was cut by another quarter of an hour for video release. The fragment of what is used to be ended up under the title "Atom Age Vampire", and everybody complains how poor it is - well, if you tried getting the complete picture (both referring to widescreen format and its running time), you probably would have a better impression, although it can't be denied it is rather slow moving, and they wouldn't get away with this 'scientific' explanation of skin restoration anymore.

This movie is a nice little twist to the classic vampire flicks. Its starts off from the get go into the action and the plot of the story. A very beautiful young women lands herself a nasty facial scar from a car accident. Devastated she contemplates suicide and then is mysteriously halted when a girl comes into the room to tell her that she knows of a way to fix her scar and make her beautiful again. Unknown to her the cure she receives may have possible side effects. This is the kinda Thriller/Sci-Fi kinda movie that is just really interesting to watch, the plot has a smooth foundation, and the actors are not bad either. If your a fan of vampires flicks, this movie may be a bit of an adjustment for you, but this is a more than decent flick that im sure many a person would enjoy.This is really a movie you have to have an acquired taste for. It is slow at times, but the plot remains at ease. I would recommend it.

On the strength of my theatrical viewing of THE WOLFMAN (2010), given that I am currently going through a "Euro-Cult" phase anyway, I opted to check out a handful of Gothic Horror efforts for the coming week. More by accident than design, I started things off with this one, involving as it does a man turning into a monster (though the change, in this case, is self-imposed in the "Jekyll & Hyde" manner). Actually, apart from the latter (much-abused) tradition, the film was obviously inspired by one of the more influential horror classics of the era – the sublime EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1959). In fact, here we have yet another girl whose face gets scarred (though the auto accident occurs so quickly that one can hardly even see what it was the driver had averted to end up off the road!) and cured (if only for a little while, causing periodical resort to murder) by an eminent but clearly deranged scientist (who has no qualms about sacrificing a devoted assistant to the cause on realizing he has fallen for his patient!). In spite (or because) of the poor-quality print I acquired, the Gothic atmosphere – though, like EYES WITHOUT A FACE (or, for that matter, a similar albeit vastly superior Italian offering i.e. I VAMPIRI [1956]), this actually retains a modern-day setting – is quite nicely done (with the laboratory scenes in particular exuding that recognizable Universal feel, even if the radioactive chamber in which the transformation occurs seems to derive more from the tele-portation machine of THE FLY [1958]) and we even get the obligatory hulking dumb servant. The make-up, by the way, is reasonably hideous but as for convincing (to say nothing of scary), that is another matter entirely: incidentally, I found it quite insensitive to suggest that radiation victims could go insane and embark on an apparently haphazard killing spree!; at one time, he even performs the gland extraction vital for his operations (off-screen) in a packed cinema and under the cops' very nose! For what it is worth, both the film's international and original titles are misleading – the monster is clearly not a vampire but, then, the Italian moniker translates to SEDDOK, THE HEIR OF Satan (though actually referred to by that name, it makes no sense and also seems to come out of nowhere!). Unfortunately, the English dubbing is atrocious and so harshly recorded as to make the dialogue unintelligible at times!; all things considered, however, I found the film – whose most recognizable cast members are Alberto Lupo's villain and heroic Sergio Fantoni – to be a pleasant surprise (especially in view of Leonard Maltin's unflattering BOMB rating). For the record, although the version I watched is 87 minutes long, apparently there are other prints in circulation running anywhere between 69 and 105!