“She’s been assembled piece by piece, organ by organ. She’s a composite.”
Plot One: A serial killer is draining the blood of women. One victim was strangled with her head bashed in and her throat cut. Detective Superintendent Bellaver (Alfred Marks) is hunting the “Vampire Killer”. He is investigating the deaths of several young women in the city. The women are being picked up at nightclubs. The police put decoys out at different clubs. Finally they have a suspect in custody. The young man fights off three cops and speeds away. The police give chase. It results in a never ending car and foot chase. At one point they have him handcuffed to the bumper of a car. The man either chews or rips off his own hand and runs off. When the police close in he seeks refuge at the estate of Dr. Browning. He then jumps into a tank of acid.
Plot Two: A jogger grabs his heart and falls to the ground. When he wakes up one of his legs is missing. The next time the jogger awakens his other leg has been cut off. By the time they are done both arms are also gone and the man has died of shock. Dr. Browning (Vincent Price) is a wacho who cuts body parts off of people. His clinic specializes in limb and organ transplants. One of his staff was a victim of the vampire killer. Dr. Sorel (Christopher Matthews) is one of the medical examiners that tried to autopsy the hand the Vampire Killer had chewed off of himself. He wants to get a sample of the acid. When he sneaks on to the doctor’s property he finds the acid is gone.
Plot Three: In a country run by an unknown military dictatorship, an intelligence operative, Konratz (Marshall Jones) returns to his home country. Upon being debriefed by a superior officer he steps around the table. He places his hand on the man’s shoulder and gives him some kind of Vulcan shoulder pinch. Only this technique kills the guy. Konratz is killing his way to the top. A man and a woman are running through a field. The man is shot the woman is taken and tortured by Konratz. Major Heinrich Benedek (Peter Cushing) reprimands Konratz. Konratz gives Benedek the old shoulder death pinch. Konratz contacts Fremont (Sir Christopher Lee). Fremont is a British secret government official. Konratz wants all the files and evidence on the Vampire Killer. Fremont arranges for Konratz to see Bellaver. Bellaver says he can look at the evidence but won’t let him leave with the evidence so Konratz Vulcan shoulder pinches Bellaver.
“Scream and Scream Again” was released in 1970. The title makes no sense and has nothing to do with the movie. It is a British-American sort of sci-fi/thriller/conspiracy movie and a hyperlink cinema style portmanteau that was directed by Gordon Hessler. Although the movie has Price, Lee and Cushing in it, none of them has a major part. Lee and Cushing are basically cameos. Price has more screen time but even his part is a second billing type part. The only reason these guys have top billing is because their names are Price, Lee and Cushing. The car/foot chase is longer then all of their screen times put together. The car/foot chase takes at least fifteen minutes. The movie is based on the book “The Disoriented Man” by Peter Saxon (which I heard is a pseudonym). In the book the military dictatorship turns out to be aliens. In the movie they are left ambiguous.
The movie flip-flops between all three stories. You no sooner figure out what is going on in one scene when it changes to a scene featuring one of the other plots. It’s a three way ping pong game for a good part of the movie. You will be confused for quite some time. Each stand alone plot eventually intertwines and things become more or less clear. But not until the end. Until then it’s a ball of confusion.