2
(nothing substantial)
6
(some violence and mildly disturbing images)
2
(see this one only if you have no more paint to watch dry)
"Atom Age Vampire" does not live up to its title. It revolves around a stripper who is disfigured in an accident. A scientist offers her a secret treatment to restore her beauty, but when the doctor becomes obsessed with the patient, so obsessed he’s even willing to kill for her, his lab assistant becomes dangerously jealous. To what lengths will she go in order to regain the doctor's attention?
As you can tell from the description the term vampire in the title does not refer to an undead blood-sucking monster such as Count Dracula. But while some storytellers might use such a title to add a figurative depth to the story, this movie seems to do it just because they couldn’t think of a better title. I, at least, see no correlation between the title and the story.
The unrelated title sets a precedent for the whole production. Much of the movie is disjointed with scenes that don’t make any sense. You might be able to figure some of them out later on by the context, but even when their meanings are revealed there is no strength given to the scenes.
For example, the doctor finds a weak spot in the wall, digs a hole, then later uses it for a secret escape from his house so he can murder without anyone seeing him leaving. Supposedly his discovery of the spot was a lucky accident, but the scene that introduces this has the doctor drop what he’s doing and start banging on a wall for no apparent reason. The only reason we know what he was doing and why is because we are told later on. The initial scene itself left me scratching my head and left the scenes following it similarly obscure as I tried to find significance in what I had just seen when there was none.
Other than that the acting is pretty bad. That is compounded by the words not matching the mouths being that this is a dubbed Italian movie. I can handle that as I'm used to watching Chinese Kung Fu movies which have the same issue, but it helps to know about it beforehand so that the mismatch doesn't come off as nothing more than bad syncing. Now that you know maybe it won't bother you as much as it did me.
The positive element of this movie is that the human "monster" means no goofy looking monster costumes which helps the realism of the story a little, but the disjointed narrative kills any of that benefit. Italians make some of the best food on the planet, but their old horror movies don't cut the pesto.
Morality
Despite involving a stripper there’s little sexuality. The worst it has is a scantily clad belly dancer, but despite not wearing much she doesn’t reveal anything more than the average non-g-string bikini.
I don’t recall any strong language at all.
There is some violence and mildly disturbing images particularly in the disfiguring of the stripper, but by modern crime show standards this is barely notable at all.
Spirituality
I didn't pick up on anything spiritually significant in "Atom Age Vampire" though admittedly I watched a good portion of it fighting just to stay awake.
Final Thoughts
Even though I don't think highly of this movie I've seen worse. Maybe not MUCH worse, mind you. You've really got to like old black-and-white era horror movies to care much about this one, and it will help if you are fond of Italian cinema. For anyone else, your time is better served elsewhere.
Buying Guide
Like many of these public domain classics "Atom Age Vampire" offers far too many releases for me to attempt to cover them in complete detail. You'll die of old age before you sort through them all.
There are numerous stand-alone DVD's and a variety of packs that combine it with other movies. I have searched for any that stand out among the others and have found none.
I didn't find a single release that mentioned anything about being restored or enhanced. None offered any indication that the presentation will differ from what I describe below, and none list any extras.
Final Recommendation:
It's hard to give a true recommendation on this one. Grab it up in the best deal you can find if you must have it for some reason. I see nothing to suggest that a better quality version than the 50 pack exists, so that is a good opportunity to get a lot of classic movies for a great price.
I got mine in a pack of 50 Horror Classics.
Video
1.33:
There is no widescreen version available. The video quality is not as bad as some old movies I've seen but still contains plenty of trash, lines, and other issues.
Audio
2.0 mono:
The quality is acceptable. It's dated but clear enough to be understandable, that's about all I've come to expect out of these old films.
Packaging
This particular disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve contained in a Velcro-fastened box. More recent editions are packaged in plastic.
Extras
There are no extras of any kind.