FRANKENSTEIN VS. THE CREATURE FROM BLOOD COVE (2005)

From big breasted super heroines to classic b-movie monsters, filmmaker William Winckler has come a long way in the last 4 years. After tongue in cheek tit-illation from his debut 2001 feature The Double-D Avenger featuring all manner of buxom Russ Meyer favorites, Winckler has refocused his attention on some of Universal Pictures classic black and white fright films from the 30’s and 50’s including Frankenstein and Creature from the Black Lagoon. But as you’ll read, despite capturing the over-egged theatricals of a cinematic age reliant on nothing more than camera trickery and larger than life performances, Winckler has still managed to crowbar in some modern day cinema clichés.
The story follows a group of renegade scientists whose dabbling with genetic engineering unleashes a half man, half fish creature onto the isolated beach off the California coastline. Spawned with the belief that this creature could be used to fight the war against terrorism, the tables are now turned and the creature threatens the life of all scantily clad females within stumbling distance of the beach. In an attempt to battle the beast, the scientists decide to travel to Shellvania to enlist the help of the greatest man-made monstrosity of them all, the indestructible Frankenstein’s monster. After the aquatic monstrosity attacks for the first time leaving a sexy glamour model dead, a magazine photographer and his two side kicks get held captive by the crazed scientists responsible for the monster match-up in a desperate attempt to keep the whole silly affair secret.

Winckler’s attempt to make a serious homage to the type of timeless horror films which made your grandparents wet their pants is a bit of a double edged sword. Many aspects work effectively towards creating the correct ambience expected of this type of endeavor including a preposterous story, terribly overstated drama where every spoken line is delivered like it has some world altering consequences and larger than life performances from the cast members, especially during the monster fighting scenes. Adding to these human elements are technical enrichments which include a wonderful black and white reproduction which captures that all important visual style and a suitably dramatic soundtrack to accompany the action. After talking up the positive aspects of the film, there is a down side to which most red blooded males probably won’t complain too much about. Nudity (yes that’s right, I’m saying it’s a bad thing for a change) is one thing I remember seeing little of in Universal’s early horror films and it’s something that’s so clearly at odds with the whole ‘serious homage’ objective that it’s a disappointment to see it thrown in here. Winckler’s use of this gratuitous tool cheapens his efforts of admiration for his source material and, although titillating, reminds everyone of his Double-D movie roots. I guess it depends on your preferences, but such a great effort has been made to capture the essence of 30’s horror cinema that flashing three pairs of boobs at the viewer, no matter how lovely, does nothing for his credibility.
Helping along the previously mentioned and deliberately over dramatic melodrama is a pretty descent cast. First honours have to go to the wonderful Larry Butler who portrays the maniacal Dr. Monroe Lazaroff with entertaining glee, slowly and subtly showing increasing signs of insanity as the films story comes to a climax. Alison Lees-Taylor plays Lazaroff’s right hand lady Dr. Ula Foranti who is equal to his madness but much more attractive. Rounding out the trio of crazed scientists is Salisbury played by Rich Knight, who is perhaps better know for his make-up work including the great facial scaring which his character displays through out this film. His make-up talents are much more evident than his acting ability and perhaps he should consider stay behind the camera in future. Writer/director William Winckler turns in the films main hero role as sleazy glamour photographer Bill Grant. Grant works for a sleazy magazine called Frisky Kitty-Cat who, ironically enough happen to have a poster for The Double-D Avenger on the wall of their offices. To round out the cast we get yet another cameo appearance from the ever annoying Lloyd Kaufman and dirty porn monster Ron Jeremy.

Whether this is a pure homage to a bygone era, or just a slightly classier wrapping for a silly b-movie is hard to tell. It’s a pretty unique mix of the likes you will rarely see, but what’s most important is its entertainment value which, for me was immense. Its not a parody or a smart arsed tongue in cheek piss take, but a clear attempt to bring something a little more unusual to the genre masses and in a market full of teen slashers and questionable remakes, this can be no bad thing.