Paul Naschy is part of a monster rally in the confused and confusing ASSIGNMENT TERROR, on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing.

With their planet slowly dying, the population of planet Ummo have sent a trio of alien scientists to Earth which has a similar climate in order to discover how to dominate and destroy the human populace. Dr. Odo Warnoff (Michael Rennie, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL) and his assistants who have been incarnated into the bodies of recently dead scientists Maleva Kerstein (Karin Dor, THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM) and Kerian Werner (Angel del Pozzo, HORROR EXPRESS) hit upon the idea to resurrect and duplicate the famous monsters to play upon the superstitions of Earthlings whose emotions Warnoff sees as a fundamental weakness. Maleva seduces a carnival barker in order for the aliens to pull the stake out of the skeleton of Count Janos Mailoff (Manuel de Blas, THE GHOST GALLEON) and Warnoff surgically removes the silver bullet from the body of Waldemar Daninsky (Naschy). Both monsters have to be subdued because they too have hearts, although only Waldemar feels guilt when his hungers get the better of him – and when he terrifies his smitten keeper Ilona (Diana Sorel, CURSE OF THE VAMPYR) – while the Count exposes the vulnerability of the aliens' human forms to his supernatural powers. More suitable to Warnoff's plans are the resurrected mummy Tao-Tet (Gene Reyes, ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS) and the reanimated Farancksalan monster (Ferdinando Murolo, CONTRABAND) who follow orders without conscience or autonomy. Investigating the murders surrounding the thefts and resurrections of the monsters is Inspector Tobermann (Craig Hill, BLOODSTAINED SHADOW) who keeps finding links to the supernatural despite the warnings of his superior, and starts a romance with former classmate Ilsa (Patty Shepard, WEREWOLF SHADOW) whose father was the one who put the silver bullet in Daninsky the first time around. As Tobermann gets closer to the truth, Warnoff deploys his monsters to threaten those close to him.

Known in Spain as LOS MONSTRUOS DEL TERROR, Italy as OPERAZIONE TERROR, and West Germany as DRACULA JAGT FRANKENTEIN, the export version became DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN before American International Television retitled it ASSIGNMENT TERROR, the film was one of a handful of Universal monster rally homages made around the same period including Jess Franco's DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (released on VHS here as THE SCREAMING DEAD) and Al Adamson's DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN; indeed, Independent-International's Sam Sherman tried to pick up the Spanish/Italian/West German film when a legal issue with a lab meant the materials were being held hostage for his planned release of the latter film under the original title BLOOD OF FRANKENSTEIN. Upon discovering that American International had already picked the film up, Sherman found Naschy's earlier MARK OF THE WOLFMAN under its export title HELL'S CREATURES and retitled it FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR. While Naschy's earlier film was steeped in the gothic in homage to Universal, ASSIGNMENT TERROR's atmosphere of the gothic is blunted a bit not so much by the alien angle as the procedural aspect and the subplot romance between Tobermann and Ilsa which is lighter than the other subplot romances between Daninsky and Ilona and the two alien doctors which are destined for tragedy. However diluted the film feels as a debatable part of the Daninsky werewolf series, the screenplay by Naschy is quite sincere in relating the cliché sci-fi theme about whether human emotion is a weakness or strength. While not a success, one can see inklings of situations and themes Naschy would refine in the subsequent Daninsky films over which he would exercise increasing control. The film was photographed by Godofredo Pacheco who had previously lensed Jess Franco's atmospheric THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF and THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS.

Released direct to television by American International Television in a panned-and-scanned master, the film turned up on VHS in similarly compromised form under the export title DRACULA VERSUS FRANKENSTEIN. Various boots tried to improve by synchronizing the English track to a letterboxed French tape while the first English-friendly official version turned up on a subtitled limited edition German DVD (beware of other printings which were ports of an earlier unsubtitled release) while Artus Films' French DVD featured the same German-derived anamorphic transfer but only French, Spanish, and German tracks and extras that were not English-friendly. Scorpion Releasing's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray is derived from the Spanish version, restoring the original fairground title sequence (the export version and the French and German versions derived from it superimposed the credits over stills). The image is wonderfully crisp and colorful, giving the previously dingy-looking film a degree of style that puts it below Naschy's MARK OF THE WOLFMAN but above the more batshit FURY OF THE WOLFMAN. Shot in 4-perf anamorphic Totalvision, the image has a sense of depth and detail that represents a massive improvement over Scorpion's previous Naschy DVD of the Techniscope THE MUMMY'S REVENGE (it also helps that the elements were in better condition). The Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is listed on the menu as stereo but it is mono, however, very clean and vibrant next to the English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, and the English subtitles are without any obvious errors.