Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls

Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls is pure '70s horror schlock - an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of hammy performances and cheezy clichés, all washed down with plenty of gaudy fashion, beautiful women-in-peril, and bright red gore.

Putting in a sinister, scene-stealing, somewhat Karloffian performance, John Considine camps it up as the titular villain, who revels in murderous mayhem with the help of his loyal, hulking, one-eyed assistant Thor (Leon Askin). Having mastered the art of soul transferrence during medieval times, Dr. Death has prolonged his life by swapping bodies whenever one wears out, and now makes a living by charging a hefty fee to perform the same procedure for others.

One such person is Fred Saunders (Barry Coe), who wishes to resurrect his late wife Laura (Jo Morrow). After witnessing a demonstration of Dr. Death's skills, Fred engages the man's diabolical services, coughing up $50K for the procedure, but is horrified to learn that in order for Laura's body to be revived, another woman must die to provide a soul. Even worse, Dr. Death isn't the type to accept defeat: when the first soul is rejected by Fred's dead wife, he continues to seek new unwilling donors.

Meanwhile, Fred changes his mind about bringing Laura back when he falls for his sexy secretary Sandy (Cheryl Miller): unfortunately for the new couple, determined Dr. Death decides that Sandy's soul is exactly what he has been looking for.

The film's trashy tongue-in-cheek nature makes this one highly entertaining from start to finish, the fun factor increased by some delightfully lurid violence, the gruesome highlights including a disfigured woman sawn in half, a man's face melting after he is drenched in Dr. Death's corrosive blood, the delivery of a blonde's severed head to Fred's office, and Sandy's wrist being slashed with a scalpel so that she can be slowly bled to death.

Do you have an appreciation for 70's occult horror movies? Do you like over-the-top performances by effeminate satanists? Do you like your horror movies to be more weird than frightening? .... If you answered "yes" to at least two of these questions, you will find Doctor Death: Seeker Of Souls more than worthy of an hour and a half of your time.

Doctor Death has spent the past several centuries hopping around from body to body and kissing dead women. So why should the 1970's be any different? Seriously, this movie belongs in the same category as "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" and "Dungeon Of Harrow" - all belonging to an ambitious class of horror movies that had dialogue, actors, and set designs that well superseded their meager budgets. You will definitely find much more to laugh at than to cover your eyes in fear from, namely the completely ridiculous performance by John Constadine who will keep your eyes and ears glued to the TV as inane words are spurted out of his hammy mouth.

The other thing to watch out for are some excellent character actors (some of whom were quite famous decades before this production began) scattered throughout the film. Yes, that is Moe from the 3 Stooges playing an extra as a volunteer in Doctor Death's audience. Florence Marly deserves a special mention for her alluring mysterious performance as Tana, the wife of Doctor Death.

This is one of those DVD's that should come with a pre-rolled joint included.

The above quote is not from the film but from Emil Sitka, a veteran Three Stooges supporting player who saw this at a drive-in and thought he looked "rather pathetic". In his final film appearance and one of the few he made without his fellow teammates, Moe Howard plays an audience member of the title character's demonstration of transferring an alive woman's soul to a dead woman's body bringing the latter back to life. His quip, "She's dead all right, I couldn't feel-uh, I couldn't hear a thing!" sounded like a blooper the producers decided to keep in. It was a funny enough line. The rest of the movie seems ridiculous especially when the title character keeps failing to bring certain souls to a certain dead body but it's entertainingly campy enough to keep one's attention. So I say give Doctor Death, Seeker of Souls a look. P. S. It's also amusing seeing Leon Askin-the former General Burkhalter of "Hogan's Heroes"-as mute assistant Thor!

This is the only feature directed by a man who otherwise worked primarily in TV (mostly as an assistant director), and despite some gore, it very much feels like an early 1970s television project, with the same kind of flat lighting, compositions, scoring and pacing. (It's exactly the aesthetic parodied by the recent "The Love Witch.") The script is a jumble of illogical nonsense even by horror standards-it's one of those stories that falls apart the second you ask "Why didn't our protagonist just call the police when he realized murders were being committed?"-and doesn't seem even halfway convinced by its own feeble reincarnation hocus-pocus.

John Considine does clearly enjoy camping it up as the villain, and Florence Marly behaves likewise in her briefer role. But the other cast members play it straight in a dull, square fashion, as if they were guesting on some routine network TV series. The movie seems to be halfway making fun of its own grisly silliness, but it's a testament to the pedestrian execution there's not much fun to be shared in watching it.

Soap actor John Considine is a bit too pretty and lightweight for the title role, and it's quite surreal to see Moe Howard appear in the first act of the movie, but DOCTOR DEATH is actually an interesting little movie that might have been better. It's very, very much of its time -- not just in terms of the production design but also its treatment of the occult and of horror stories -- but they really try to do a big story on a little budget. And that's nearly always a respectable thing.

For me, one of the highlights of the film is the brief (and silent) appearance of Larry "Seymour" Vincent, the premier Los Angeles horror host of the 1970s. He is part of an amusing movie-within-the-movie that actually makes you wish that you could see *that* movie instead of the one you're actually watching (DOCTOR DEATH)!