Rating: 
Summary: A Bit More Than Meets the Eye
Review: There are serveral good reviews of this DVD and I'll not go over ground that's been extensively covered. However, there are a couple of things not mentioned that should be. First, Scream and Scream Again, when it appeared in theaters, was spooky as hell. At least I thought so as a 13 year old. Second, the thread mentioned by several reviews of the runner who wakes up missing parts actually is not a separate thread at all, but background to the main story. You see, Price is making people out of spare parts and well . . . you have to get them from somewhere, don't you? Third, the movie is an adaptation of a book by the same title, written by Peter Saxon--a well respected English writer of gothic horror and mysteries. The book's better, by the way. The Oblong Box is sloooooooow. Not terribly interesting and the end of the film is telegraphed well in advance. Price isn't at his best and I had the feeling this was one film he wasn't terribly interested in, himself. If you like Price, though, it's worth watching. Closed Captioning on the DVD is available, though the CC'ing on The Oblong Box is slightly late some of the time. You find yourself looking at someone talking, get about 2 seconds of CC'ing and then the scene will shift to another view, often of someone else and you're still reading the CC'ing. Annoying.
Rating: 
Summary: WORTH IT FOR PRICE LEE AND CUSHING
Review: This double feature consists of two of the less successful "horror" movies of the late 60s. After all the Poe hits American International had during the sixties, they must have been disappointed with these films' lack of audience approval. Although SCREAM is a cult favorite, it still suffers from many flaws.
In THE OBLONG BOX, Vincent Price is somewhat subtler in earlier roles, and his character who starts out sort of heroic is later seen as the real culprit of the film. The movie's snail pacing doesn't help, and Christopher Lee looks like he wishes he had done another Dracula movie. What hurts the film the most is its treatment of the "villain," Edward Markham. Supposedly horribly disfigured for killing a native in Africa, it takes the film forever to show us the man's face and when they do, it's about as frightening as a butterfly. Its ending is also wickedly tame, and it is not one of the better Poe adaptations.
In SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, screenwriter Christopher Wicking's plot is so disjointed, ineffectively tying the threads to all the different scenarios; the direction is uninspired and has one of the most boring car chases in cinema; and the pursuit of the Vampire Killer (horribly played by Michael Gothard) is so overdrawn, with countless scenes of inept police work, and scenes of Gothard running up hillsides and through valleys. The club band, Amen Corner, is absolutely atrocious, even singing a song called "Scream and Scream Again." Yipes.
Why bother? It's always good to see three masters of horror in any film, although Lee, Cushing and Price have very little screen time in SCREAM. Lee also has little screen time in BOX. But these gentlemen, only Lee still alive, were masters of the horror genre, and though this certainly doesn't represent their best work, if you are fans of theirs, you'll still have a good time.
Rating: 
Summary: late '60s Vincent
Review: this DVD combines two of Vincent's under-rated horror films from this era. "Scream and Scream Again" is a great movie...but the people at AIP ruined the film's legacy by giving Vincent top billing. the reason? Vincent is only in maybe 20 minutes of the movie...and this isn't an uninterrupted 20 minutes either. his big scene is in the lab at the end of the film as he kills one of his own robots that have gone corrupt, only to be confronted by Christopher Lee's character in an eerie scene. Peter Cushing's role is two scenes, and he's killed by the main robot or "composite" as Vincent calls them. However, these three horror legends have no scenes together and each one has nearly a minute or two of on-screen time sandwiched between other scenes with the London police and the scientist/coroner on the case. this is a good movie...but beware that the three horror legends that get top billing ARE NOT the stars of the film! the other film, "The Oblong Box", IS a Vincent Price starring film. He plays the brother of a man who was mutated in Africa by a bunch of witch-doctors for a crime he didn't do. Price's character {Julian Markham} had killed a child {the victim of a horse trampling} but the natives grabbed the brother by mistake! forced to wear a crimson mask because of his scars, the brother {named Edward Markham} plots revenge on everybody. Christopher Lee plays a doctor named Neuhart who can't help the brother but nevertheless the brother demands satisfaction. later, when the insecure Edward {played by Alister Williamson} feels that the doctor is double-crossing him, a swift slice of the neck with a blade does the trick and Lee meets his demise midway through the film. Lee is wearing a grey wig for some reason!? it's rather funny seeing him in it and deliver his lines in that voice we all know and love! "The Oblong Box" is a mixture of voo-doo, cult, and African cultures very different from typical Price horror movies of the previous years by Roger Corman and William Castle. "Scream and Scream Again" is a good movie for what it deals with {1970, release} and "The Oblong Box" is also good {1969, release}.
Rating:
Summary: late '60s Vincent
Review: this DVD combines two of Vincent's under-rated horror films from this era. "Scream and Scream Again" is a great movie...but the people at AIP ruined the film's legacy by giving Vincent top billing. the reason? Vincent is only in maybe 20 minutes of the movie...and this isn't an uninterrupted 20 minutes either. his big scene is in the lab at the end of the film as he kills one of his own robots that have gone corrupt, only to be confronted by Christopher Lee's character in an eerie scene. Peter Cushing's role is two scenes, and he's killed by the main robot or "composite" as Vincent calls them. However, these three horror legends have no scenes together and each one has nearly a minute or two of on-screen time sandwiched between other scenes with the London police and the scientist/coroner on the case. this is a good movie...but beware that the three horror legends that get top billing ARE NOT the stars of the film! the other film, "The Oblong Box", IS a Vincent Price starring film. He plays the brother of a man who was mutated in Africa by a bunch of witch-doctors for a crime he didn't do. Price's character {Julian Markham} had killed a child {the victim of a horse trampling} but the natives grabbed the brother by mistake! forced to wear a crimson mask because of his scars, the brother {named Edward Markham} plots revenge on everybody. Christopher Lee plays a doctor named Neuhart who can't help the brother but nevertheless the brother demands satisfaction. later, when the insecure Edward {played by Alister Williamson} feels that the doctor is double-crossing him, a swift slice of the neck with a blade does the trick and Lee meets his demise midway through the film. Lee is wearing a grey wig for some reason!? it's rather funny seeing him in it and deliver his lines in that voice we all know and love! "The Oblong Box" is a mixture of voo-doo, cult, and African cultures very different from typical Price horror movies of the previous years by Roger Corman and William Castle. "Scream and Scream Again" is a good movie for what it deals with {1970, release} and "The Oblong Box" is also good {1969, release}.
Rating:
Summary: Weak But Watchable Gruesome Twosome
Review: Vincent Price and American International Pictures were at a lull in their respective careers - the Dr. Phibes films and Theater of Blood, which revived them both, were just around the corner - when these two were churned out. Neither film is that good, though Scream and Scream Again was quite successful, both critically and commercially, at the time - which is ironic, since it's the weaker of the two. Scream and Scream Again is a weak updated Frankenstein ripoff, with Price - in virtually nothing more than a cameo role - utilizing a synthetic process to graft and reanimate dead tissues into superhuman pseudo-living "proto-people." The plot sounds better than the movie is. Director Gordon Hessler put plenty of gruesome gore effects and gallons of blood into the mix, but missed the boat (along with screenwriter Christopher Wicking) on plot development - the movie is disjointed and often incomprehensible. I've seen it a couple of times, once even not that long ago, and really couldn't tell you precisely what happens. Except for the occasional splashes of gore, it just isn't really that memorable. The Oblong Box, directed the preceding year by Hessler, is the better of the two, but still nothing worth writing home about. Price sells out his brother for fame and fortune while the two are on expedition in Africa, grotesquely disfiguring him and burying him alive. The brother manages to escape and pursue Price back to England, there to work out his own bit of personal revenge. The plot and makeup effects are pretty good, but the script is on the plodding side. Christopher Lee is on hand in both films - he and Price met, making them - but has little more to do than Price in the first. They both get more action in The Oblong Box. And Peter Cushing has a role as an ex-Nazi, in Scream and Scream Again. These films are for serious collectors who want a complete - or at least representative - collection of AIP's or Vincent Price's (or Christopher Lee's, for that matter) output. The idly curious will be disappointed.
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