O Herdeiro de Satanás

A crazed Professor Levin goes to rather bizarre and extreme lengths to ensure his formerly disfigured young girlfriend remains beautiful, desirable and under his control.

This Italian Science Fiction/Horror epic is really quite silly thanks in large part due to the English dubbing and likely editing. But the film does work somewhat on a soap opera level and has some better than average transformation sequences. Actually it's quite entertaining but not always for good reasons. Still it was better than I was expecting.

"An exotic dancer has a terrible automobile accident and, as a result, is horribly scarred, on her face. Hoping for a miracle treatment, the dancer visits a scientist who has had marvelous results in restoring patient's (sic) appearances, and is cured of her scars. Unfortunately, there are some terrible side-effects from the procedure … the scientist must use unethical methods to try and make the cure permanent. With suspicions (growing, and) the dancer's boyfriend and the authorities closing in…" according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Inappropriately re-produced as "Atom Age Vampire"; this is actually an adaptation of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", with some other horrific clichés, quite neatly layered into the mix. Mad scientist Alberto Lupo (as Alberto Levin), unappreciated Franca Parisi (as Monique), and lackey Roberto Bertea (as Sacha) are an intriguing set-up. Horribly dubbed (although, the voices are good), and painfully predictable; it very obviously wouldn't be a completely awful film, in its unaltered Italian version.

**** Atom Age Vampire (1960) Anton Giulio Majano ~ Alberto Lupo, Susanne Loret, Sergio Fantoni

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.

A young singer/dancer has a car accident and loses her good looks to several large scars on one side of her face. She is soon visited by a lady with a solution to her facial problem just as she contemplates suicide with a revolver. The lady takes her to a doctor working out of a lab in his basement that has come up with a drug/serum that will make her face all better and supposedly cause the young, beautiful girl to fall in love with him. Nothing real special here at all. The film is very Italian and cheaply-made, but it does have some nice camera work here and there. The acting leads are all hams(prosciutto)and way over the top in terms of believability. The fellow playing the policeman does do a fine job amidst the bacon around him! The film has a somewhat grainy quality and some poorly lit scenes, but atmosphere is created through the lens. Although the serum must have some component from a living-turned-recently-dead woman, the scientific premises used in the film are very big flights of fancy. I laughed quite a bit at the serious turn the film tries to make explaining that the doctor's work sprung from his experiences in Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The lines are uttered with little conviction and carry virtually no plausibility in them. Though a bad movie in many ways, one could do far worse as a means of entertaining oneself on a cold evening.

The stripper Jeanette Moreneau (Susanne Loret) is dumped by her boyfriend Pierre Mornet (Sergio Fantoni) and she drives her car to talk to him. However, she has a car accident and the left side of her face is completely disfigured by horrible scars. She is approached in the hospital by Monique Riviere (Franca Parisi), who is the assistant and lover of Professor Alberto Levin (Alberto Lupo), and she tells Jeanette that her face can be restored.

Jeanette secretly goes to the professor's house and is treated by him, using a process that depends on the cells that Prof. Levin, who is also a monster that strangles his victim, removes from the women that he kills. While treating Jeanette, Prof. Levin falls in an unrequited love for her and kills Monique. Meanwhile, the police inspector that is investigating the mysterious murders, suspects of Prof. Levin.

"Seddok, l'Erede di Satana" (meaning "Seddok, the Heir of Satan"), a.k.a. "Atom Age Vampire", is a trash Italian horror film that combines "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with Georges Franju's "Les Yeux Sans Visage" and the vampire of the messy American title. The result is a predictable film, with one actress that recalls Sophia Loren and the other that recalls Madonna. But anyway, it is entertaining and worths be watched. I saw the 87 minutes version and by the way, who is Seddok? My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available