Blood Creature/Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory

Rating:
Summary: Great package offers loads of fun!!
Review: I've read the other reviews and am impressed with their background knowledge. I, too, am a fan of 60's trash horror films, and bought this DVD only because of the price. I am most entertained, and happy with this humble investment. "Blood Creature" was eerie & atmospheric, a little claustrophobic, with storms, etc., adding to the mood. It's silly and fun, and the beautiful Greta Thyssen is there to boot! (I remember her from a film called "Journey to the Seventh Planet", a Danish film that was released in America by American-International, the greatest studio ever to put out "the best of the worst", all the drive-in movies, and practically everything Roger Corman ever did. Richard Derr also appears, typically luggish and looking customarily concerned. I loved him in "When Worlds Collide", one of my favorites. "Werewolf..." is fun, too, with creepy atmosphere and a Peter Lorre look-alike who is sufficiently bizarre. The dubbing is really bad (every line sounds like it came out of a studio microphone...which it did), but there's a lot of homage to the films of James Whale & Val Lewton: suspense and dark intrigue. The song "Ghoul in the School" is an added treat. These two films, tacky as they are, would be OK for the price, but there are previews and even a Popeye cartoon (featuring Bluto & Wimpy, alas, no Olive Oyl). Whatever aesthetic elements may be lacking regarding the actual artistic worth of these 2 films, I wouldn't worry about it. My hat goes off in salute to Madacy Enterainment for putting out a very good package at an unbelievably good price. I hope they continue this trend, and maybe we'll see Corman's original "Not of This Earth" or maybe even "Journey to the 7th Planet". One can only hope.

Rating:
Summary: Ugh...
Review: Note: I only watched "Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory."
The print was perfectly dreadful and "Wereworlf in a Girl's Dormitory" was a disgraceful piece of junk. This (shudder) Madacy DVD has a Popeye cartoon plus theatrical trailers, which barely manages to give this lousy disc 2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Print Quality
Review: The drive-in double bill DVD concept is a good one, but the quality of the Blood Creature print is truly awful, with lots of jumps and scratches! Surely a better copy of this film could have been found.

Rating:
Summary: you get exactly what you pay for for less than $
Review: This Madacy DVD (part of their Drive-in features) double-bill has one terrible print and one Ok print:

Blood Creature (aka: Terror Is A Man)

The print quality of this film is awful. It's very dark, crackly and, worst of all, is missing footage due to damage at the reel changes. It runs only 82m compared with 89m for the version released by Image under the title Terror is a Man (don't believe the time quoted on the box). The scene in where the monster escapes at the end is missing vital footage due to damage at the reel change. A long used 16mm print looks to have been the source. The trailer contains a close-up of the monster's face which is obscured by the poor qulaity of the picture in the actual film. Pity as the film is quite atmospheric and moody if a little slow-moving with a plot inspired by Island of Dr Moreau about a mad scientist on a tropical island who, via 53 operations, is turning a panther into a man.

Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory

Italian/Austrian horror pic from 1962 with a dubbed cast in a film set in a nubile girl's reform school where a mysterious killer is bumping off the women. Who is the werewolf ? This is quite watchable, if uninspired and plays more like a mystery thriller (an Edgar Wallace Krimi) than a horror movie. The print quality is quite acceptable for a movie like this and is much better than the Blood Creature print.

Rating:
Summary: you get exactly what you pay for for less than $
Review: This Madacy DVD (part of their Drive-in features) double-bill has one terrible print and one Ok print:

Blood Creature (aka: Terror Is A Man)

The print quality of this film is awful. It's very dark, crackly and, worst of all, is missing footage due to damage at the reel changes. It runs only 82m compared with 89m for the version released by Image under the title Terror is a Man (don't believe the time quoted on the box). The scene in where the monster escapes at the end is missing vital footage due to damage at the reel change. A long used 16mm print looks to have been the source. The trailer contains a close-up of the monster's face which is obscured by the poor qulaity of the picture in the actual film. Pity as the film is quite atmospheric and moody if a little slow-moving with a plot inspired by Island of Dr Moreau about a mad scientist on a tropical island who, via 53 operations, is turning a panther into a man.

Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory

Italian/Austrian horror pic from 1962 with a dubbed cast in a film set in a nubile girl's reform school where a mysterious killer is bumping off the women. Who is the werewolf ? This is quite watchable, if uninspired and plays more like a mystery thriller (an Edgar Wallace Krimi) than a horror movie. The print quality is quite acceptable for a movie like this and is much better than the Blood Creature print.

Rating:
Summary: Friday night at the ol' drive-in!
Review: Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (AKA Lycanthropus, The Ghoul in School, and I Married a Werewolf) is one of those movies with a great title, like I Married a Monster from Outer Space and Slave of the Cannibal God, that grabs your attention with its lurid and even ludicrous premise, and makes you want to see the movie, if only to see if it lives up to the title. And like I Married a Monster and Cannibal God, which are pretty solid films, Werewolf just about makes it, too. The plot has a werewolf finishing off the girls at a "finishing school," which is actually an upper-class reformatory, and the attempt to catch the beast. The black and white image quality and the sound are good in this transfer. There's even a catchy little 2-line title song -- 'There Was A Ghoul In School!'

I first saw Blood Creature (AKA Terror Is a Man, Creature from Blood Island, and The Gory Creatures) on late night TV many years ago, and it was pretty scary even on the small screen and with commercial interruptions. There was just something uncanny and unnerving about those not-quite-human eyes staring out of those white bandages. This was the first entry in the Philippines/Eddie Romero Blood Island franchise. Richard Derr (When Worlds Collide) stars as a shipwreck survivor who washes up on an island inhabited by a mad scents (Francis Lederer) and his beautiful, lonely wife (Greta Thyssen--Miss Denmark 1952) and a bandage-swathed creature who threatens them all. Inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau and well worth watching. The black and white image quality and the sound are not too good, though. The image is sharp, but there are lines and streaks, and some dialog is lost on the soundtrack. Just passable.

This DVD offers few bonus features. Just the movie trailers, a preview of another movie (The Devil's Hand) and, of all things, a Popeye the Sailor Man cartoon, which is amusing. The stern FBI warning comes at the end of the movies here, and is a rather cute animated feature. All this disc needs to complete the Friday night drive-in experience is promo to visit the snackbar, a Movietone newsreel, and a warning about pay-TV! This double feature is a nice addition to the collection of any fan of the horror genre, and it's a bargain at this price.