Other Titles • Screams in the Night (1962) • Gritos en la noche • The Awful Dr. Orloff (1964) • Cries in the Night (1962) • The Demon Doctor (1961) • The Diabolical Dr. Satan (1962) • Der Schreckliche Dr. Orloff (1962) • The Awful Dr. Orlof (1961)
Synopses for Screams in the Night (1962)
1.
Jess Franco's first major film is an atmospheric, well-photographed, amazingly lurid little masterpiece that deserves serious attention from horror fans. The brilliant, cacophonic jazz score and unusual camera angles work to create a real feeling of menace, and there's rich attention paid to period detail, and eerie lighting. The English version is even well dubbed. This was a big hit for Franco, and he followed it with a sequel, DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER, in 1964.
(18 votes)
2.
Jesús Franco, Spain's crazed cult auteur, had made a couple of features before The Awful Dr. Orloff, but this infamous thriller (reportedly Spain's first horror film) gave birth to Franco's brand of erotic horror and surreal madness. The story of a mad surgeon who kidnaps and disfigures beautiful showgirls in an attempt to restore the face of his scarred daughter is right out of George Franju's Eyes Without a Face. The style, however, is a mix of foggy Universal monster movies and sexed-up Hammer horror, which Franco pushes to the limits of Spain's 1960s censorship restrictions (and beyond). Gaunt, hollowed Howard Vernon plays the sadistic surgeon Orloff (a role he revived in a number of sequels), and Ricardo Valle dons a phony but freaky mask to play his grunting, blind, bug-eyed henchman, Morpho, who has a savage habit of taking a big bite of the victims.
It's a smooth, elegantly orchestrated thriller with handsome sets and vivid locations, and the fogbound cobblestone streets, dark alleys, and eerily empty mansions create a genuinely spooky ambiance. He also tosses in a wild, creepy, thoroughly modern experimental score. Franco went on to direct more than 150 films under a dozen pseudonyms, most of which make the brief flashes of flesh and perversity here look tame, but this trendsetting landmark is still considered one of his greatest. Image's new widescreen edition, mastered from a gorgeous French print, is reportedly restored but contains some abrupt transitions and jump cuts. --Sean Axmaker
(17 votes)
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