A mad killer is sucking the blood out of young girls. Simultaneously, an officer in a fascist country is killing everyone in his way, even his superiors, and a jogger is having his limbs amputated in a strange hospital. Somehow, all of these events are connected to prestigious Dr. Browning (Vincent Price).
Playing like an unpleasant, and more than normally obtuse episode of the Avengers, Scream and Scream Again unfolds as a political espionage film, a crime thriller, and a distasteful vivisection piece, all to a mod, ’60s soundtrack. Things come close to fitting together at the end, but not in a way natural to the story.
There’s no real main character. More time is spent with the police superintendent than anyone else, but he’s gone for a substantial portion of the film. A fascist officer and a doctor get a fair amount of screen time, but neither are developed. Vincent Price plays another secondary character in search of a lead. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee pop in as well, but Cushing only as a cameo, and Lee has little more. Cars driving down twisting roads and shots of unknown bands playing failed pop tunes could be considered the real stars, but that might imply that those are exciting, which isn’t the case.
It is hard to believe that the film was planned like this. Maybe something went wrong during filming. Maybe the second unit got lost and ended up in Eastern Europe. Maybe the script was dropped on the floor with a pile of other scripts. Perhaps several films were being shot at the same location and everyone assumed they were working on the same movie. Perhaps the editor got really drunk. But none of those hypotheticals explain the groovy, swinging music.
I have heard speculation that Scream and Scream Again wasn’t supposed to make sense, but was supposed to shock the viewer. I can’t say what it was like first seeing it in 1969, but in 2005 (or 1985 for that matter), it is pretty humdrum.