Something is going on in a Cornish tin mine. Peter Blood (Keiron Moore) is experimenting with the dead, attempting to bring them back to life. He uses Curare (an african poison used on the tip of arrows) to remove the still beating hearts from people he feels are not fit to live in order to bring others back to the land of the living.
Directed by the same person that bought us the Incubus themed classic The Entity, Sidney J. Furie, this movie has a definite Frankenstein flavor about it. The experiments the young Doctor Blood mentions are only vaguely referred to through the first half of the movie, and it moves along at a rather slow pace, choosing more to concentrate on the relationship between Doctor Blood and his father's nurse, Linda Parker than on sinister experiments and the collection of body parts.
The performances make this move feel incredibly slow. There doesn't seem to be any feeling or passion from any of the actor persons involved, apart from Hazel Court who plays Linda Parker, in the final scenes of the movie, but that could be due to a lackluster script or half hearted direction. Nevertheless, it doesn't seem like any of the actor persons hearts are in this movie. No pun intended.
A couple of Medical operation scenes near the end of the movie, and the introduction of a monster do help the movie along, but in all honesty, it's too little too late. All in all it comes across as no more than a half hearted rehash of Frankenstein, albeit with more romance, and less monster.
One for genre completists only, and something that certainly doesn't warrant repeat viewings. Stick with Hammer. They do it so much better.
You can purchase the Region 1 DVD from Amazon by clicking here.
Darkest regards......Dani.
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