BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

bkoganbing Three people whose careers saw better days star in Psycho A Go Go. John Carradine, Kent Taylor, and Tommy Kirk are the stars and the rest of the cast of this monstrosity are a bunch of never wases. Carradine plays a scientist who puts an electronic pulse in the brain of a wounded Vietnam vet who becomes a psychotic killer. Taylor is another scientist and Kirk the homicide cop assigned to catch this deranged killer.It's sad to see someone like Kent Taylor in this stuff, he had a respectable career in some decent roles in B pictures. Like so many when the studio system collapsed he took work where he found it. Carradine just didn't care, he would sign for anything at this point of his life. And we all know how Walt Disney had Tommy Kirk blackballed with the major studios because he discovered he was gay. This was all he could get.This one doesn't even have the saving grace of an overacted Carradine performance, no special moment like he had like in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with that spread eagle oratory. He just took the money and ran. Hopefully all their checks cleared. There ain't a spark of anything in the three dull faced stars.You name it, it's bad, acting, direction, camera work.Skip this one if at all possible.

Scott LeBrun A true mishmash of a movie, "Blood of Ghastly Horror" is an affair that was fudged with repeatedly over a period of several years. As its associate producer Sam Sherman says, you could fall asleep while watching, and wake up thinking that you're watching a different movie. It moves from sci-fi / "zombie" tale to serial killer feature to heist film to chase picture, and is just barely coherent.It deals with, more or less, a character named Joe Corey (Roy Morton), who was given a new lease on life by a typical Mad Scientist, Dr. Vanard (John Carradine), who implanted an electronic device in his brain. However, this turns Joe into a homicidal madman. Some time later, Joes' father, Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) seeks revenge with the help of his own special serum.Always reliable veterans Carradine and Taylor give the proceedings their best shot, but "Blood of Ghastly Horror" may be tough to stick with even for dedicated schlock lovers such as this viewer. Once Carradine is gone from the story, things degenerate into a not especially riveting pursuit through snowy mountains. Producer & director Al Adamson could usually give his low budget efforts some entertainment value, but this one is more along the lines of just plain bad, rather than so bad that it's funny.Among the illustrious thespians filling out the supporting cast are Tommy Kirk (who sure came a long way since his days at Disney) as a detective, and Adamsons' wife, actress & dancer Regina Carrol, as Carradines' inquisitive daughter.There are indications that the original heist film might have been okay. However, the end result is a mess that's only entertaining in spurts.Four out of 10.

kevin olzak "Blood of Ghastly Horror" first began life as an unreleased Al Adamson heist feature from 1964 titled "Echo of Terror," then with new footage of go-go dancers and a brutal stabbing slipped out from Hemisphere Pictures in 1965 as "Psycho A-Go-Go" (not to be confused with "Two Tickets to Terror," in reality a rerelease title for 1961's "Half Way to Hell"). Adamson shot new footage of John Carradine in 1966, resulting in a second release, as "Fiend with the Electronic Brain," playing in selected Southern states as early as Dec 1967, courtesy David L. Hewitt's American General Pictures. By 1969, still more footage was shot, with Kent Taylor and Regina Carrol (Mrs. Al Adamson), and still later Tommy Kirk, resulting in what producer Samuel M. Sherman accurately described as an 'interesting editing exercise.' The finished (?) product was issued in 1972 by Sherman's Independent-International Pictures Corporation, simultaneously playing on television under yet another new title, "Man with the Synthetic Brain." Only a devotee of outright schlock could really appreciate what remains, provided they possess the knowledge of its convoluted backstory. We begin with a zombie-like creature named Akro (Richard Smedley) committing several murders, switching gears to a police investigation conducted by Sgt. Cross (Tommy Kirk), relating the background on Dr. Howard Vanard (John Carradine, entering at the 17 minute mark), who had implanted an 'artificial brain component' into almost dead Vietnam veteran Joe Corey (Roy Morton). He succeeded in saving Corey's life, but turned him into a homicidal maniac, later avenging himself on the remorseful Vanard by strapping him into his own device and electrocuting him (at the 37 minutes mark). Sgt. Cross now follows the trail of Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor), father of the dead Joe Corey, who uses his voodoo powers to create the hideous Akro, seeking vengeance now against Dr. Vanard's daughter Susan (Regina Carrol), with most of the final half hour consisting of the original unissued heist footage, and Joe Corey's high altitude pursuit of stolen diamonds. As a director, Al Adamson displays a casual disregard for narrative competence, coupled with an inability to even focus the camera in the right direction, often leaving the performers off screen as they spoke. John Carradine is the biggest name in the cast, and is accorded top billing over Kent Taylor, who only enters at the halfway point, once Carradine's bespectacled scientist bites the dust. Tommy Kirk is the other veteran actor, not what one would expect for a solemn police sergeant, but as the only actor to work with both Al Adamson and Larry Buchanan ("Mars Needs Women," "It's Alive!"), deserves a measure of respect for surviving such highs and lows in a screen career soon to fade. "Blood of Ghastly Horror" is undeniably a bad film, but "Horror of the Blood Monsters" reached a new low even for Al Adamson. Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater aired this film once, July 23 1977, paired with second feature "The Black Cat" (1941).

dbborroughs Disjointed horror film that was made from a heist film that was cut apart and had new scenes added. It has something to do about a zombified people going around killing. The original film was a crime caper film about a jewel heist. Watching the film for the first time in years, and for the first time without commercials I found it to be an absolute disaster area of a film. Its awful. Its films like this that make me hate Al Adamson films because they are such patchwork messes with new and old footage mingling freely. After listening to the commentary on the DVD I have to temper my criticism of the film since its clear that the scenes from the original heist film were actually really good. Had that film been released (it couldn't get released because it had no stars) I'm pretty certain that it would have had a nice reputation and Adamson might have gone on not to be a hack. The trouble was that Adamson was willing to sell his film short and shoot and reshoot and cut apart the heist film. Producer Sam Sherman who does the commentary takes the blame for ruining the film with the re-cuts and rewrites. The film as it stands now seems to be about four films blended together, which is about right since the heist, the cops, the zombie and what ever else all seem to be in different films made at different times. Sherman in his commentary said the film plays better with commercials and he ain't kidding. Watching this on TV you can blame the station for hacking it up, however seeing it sans commercials you realize what a nightmare it is. Awful