Adapting the 1966 pulp novel "The Disoriented Man," Christopher Wicking wrote the outrageous finished screenplay for SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, a British-made Amicus/American International Pictures (AIP) co-production which has underrated director Gordon Hessler masterfully giving us a fascinating and chaotic blend of science fiction and horror circling around an offbeat plot about a mad scientist creating synthetic beings. This second U.S. Blu-ray of the film not only includes a much improved presentation, but also the alternate UK cut of the film, the one that you likely first heard about here.

In England, a seemingly healthy man (Nigel Lambert) is out jogging and collapses, waking up in a hospital bed to find his leg amputated (and soon the other leg, as well as his arms). Nearby, a girl is found raped and murdered, with her body containing two puncture wounds on her wrist. In an unnamed European country, an official of a fascist militia (Peter Sallis, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA) is killed by a simple squeeze to the shoulder by Konratz (Marshall Jones, CRY OF THE BANSHEE) an enforcer with super strength who soon transmits the same fate to the organization’s leader (Peter Cushing, THE CREEPING FLESH) in order to gain more influence and power. Back in England, a young woman named Sylvia (Judy Huxtable, DIE SCREAMING MARIANNE) is picked up at a mod discotheque by Keith (Michael Gothard, THE DEVILS), a charmer in a convertible who ends up doing nasty things to her. In an attempt to catch the sex murderer, Inspector Bellaver (Alfred Marks, VALENTINO) sets up a sting at the discotheque with undercover policewoman Helen (Judy Bloom) as bate, as she takes a ride with Keith, with the police discovering him sucking the blood from her wrist in the parked car. A long chase ensues, with Keith finally captured, only two free himself by severing his hand from the cuffs that bind him. All evidence leads back to Dr. Browning (Vincent Price, THE TINGLER), a nearby government-endorsed scientist with a vat of acid in his shed, who happened to have the first murdered girl under his employment. Apparently, there is a widespread conspiracy of synthetic super humans placed in situations of power, with the British Intelligence head Fremont (Christopher Lee, CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD) also tied in. When the law gives up their investigation of the all-too-suspicious Dr. Browning and Helen goes missing, it’s up to a young police surgeon (Christopher Matthews, SCARS OF DRACULA) to take matters into his own hands.

At times during Vincent Price’s contract with AIP, it seemed as though they didn’t know what to do with the actor after the Edgar Allan Poe cycle had run its course. By this period, Price was making all his films for the company in England in productions headed by Louis M. “Deke” Heyward, who was running AIP’s London-based arm. Price, who is naturally given top billing, is given his most screen time here during the climax. This expected “mad scientist” casting displays a form of parody since, in an out of control fantasy world, we would most likely visualize Price as the perpetrator of these doings. With his limited screen time, Price is able to underplay it by showing the character to be intense, yet reserved. This is best depicted in the scene where the police arrive at his home with the news that his cleaning girl has been raped and mutilated. The sorrowful look on his face is brought upon from him actually knowing who did it: Keith, one of his creations gone berserk. His disappointment is invoked by the fact that his experiment failed – he has no remorse for the dead girl.

The film manages to explode with confusion by shifting to seemingly unrelated, albeit entertaining, events: the collapsed jogger who is periodically dismembered, a humanoid who viciously takes over a Gestapo, the stuffy police who endlessly chase the vampire-like machine Keith, and Price’s sinister Dr. Browning, who is questioned from time to time. These scenes all seem fragmented when first watching the film, but they make better sense when the central characters interact with one another during the latter part. The stirring climax entails a showdown in Dr. Browning's operating room, where various beings – both human and humanoid – either escape or are pushed into an acid vat. It’s no news to anyone reading this that the film gained some approval from director Fritz Lang, likely since in Germany it was passed off as a “Dr. Mabuse” entry (“Die lebenden Leichen des Dr. Mabuse”), a long-running crime film series the director was largely associated with. So with the similarities to that unique series somewhat apparent, SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN could be considered the closest that British filmmakers came to their own Mabuse thriller. Adding to this is John Coquillon’s innovative cinematography, which is at its exemplary best when the camera moves with the actors – documentary style – through the various rooms of the police station, some 20 years before numerous TV cop shows were doing the same for a similar effect.

Along with Price, the presence of Lee and Cushing were for marquee value more than anything else (and all three were of course given top billing). Lee's role is small, and Cushing's scene is nothing more than a cigarette break. Lee is a British intelligence head and has a memorable confrontation with Price’s Dr. Browning, and Cushing is ironically cast as the leader of the pseudo Nazis who commands Konratz (Jones) to lessen his torturous habits, only to be killed by him. Jones showed up in Hessler's next two films, but he was best put to use here. As Konratz, he pretty much holds things together as the crazed synthetic being who wipes out anyone who interferes with his politically tyrannical intentions. Gothard is also well cast (looking somewhat like the Mick Jagger of Altamont) as the humanoid "vampire killer" Keith, stalking and mutilating women in fashionable mod England. Best of all is Alfred Marks as Superintendent Bellaver in a scene-stealing performance full of choice dialog. The cast also includes Uta Levka (DE SADE) as a “composite” nurse, Kenneth Benda (HORROR HOSPITAL) as a veteran police surgeon, David Lodge (CORRUPTION), Clifford Earl (THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR) and Julian Holloway (CARRY ON CAMPING) as fellow police detectives, and Yutte Stensgaard (star of Hammer’s LUST FOR A VAMPIRE) as one of Konratz’ ill-fated victims. The Welsh pop group The Amen Corner perform two great tracks (“Scream and Scream Again” and “When We Make Love”) and appear as the house band in the discotheque scenes, and although they had a 1969 UK number 1 with “(If Paradise Is) Half as Nice”, they had already disbanded by the time the film was released. David Whitaker (VAMPIRE CIRCUS, OLD DRACULA) provides a jazzy score which couldn’t fit the film better.

Licensing the film from MGM, Twilight Time released SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN on Blu-ray in 2015. As TT’s rights have expired, Kino Lorber has picked up the title and have utilized the same MGM HD master for their Blu-ray. But there’s a considerable difference here, and many instances of dirt and debris which were present on the TT version have now been cleaned up, making for a far better visual appearance, the best it’s looked on home video to date. Presented here in 1080p in the film’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the high-def image has bright and stable colors, the grain structure looks perfect, and fleshtones look realistic. Detail is fine, especially in close-ups, and black levels look proper. Scenes that looked too dark in previous standard def transfers are far more impressive here, and the clarity also dazzles, especially in outdoor shots as well as in the nightclub and climatic laboratory scenarios. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track boasts clear dialogue and sound effects, and Whitaker’s score sounds terrific. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided. The 1080p HD presentation of the alternate UK theatrical version (described in the next paragraph) is culled from a 35mm print source with the expected muted colors (in some scenes they actually look impressive) with the usual blemishes, but it’s a revelation for those who have only seen the American cut (oh and don’t let that “MUSICALLY EDITED FOR HOME VIDEO VERSION” statement on the back cover upset you, as it’s there in error).

Kino Lorber has gone the extra mile by tracking down a rare 35mm British print to present the UK theatrical cut of the film. I described the differences before (from memory of screening the same print used for this as shown at one of my “Drive-In Monster-Rama” events), with someone posting my paragraph on the IMDb without crediting me. I have tweaked that information after scrutinizing the UK cut on this Blu-ray: The UK cut of SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN has slight differences than AIP’s American theatrical cut, with the American version removing a few bits for the better (including Bellaver throwing two rocks at the speedy cliff-climbing superhuman Keith, and a bottle-swigging old drunk peeping at Keith and Sylvia fooling around in the convertible). The final shot of the British cut is also different, with the single frame end credit (“An A.I.P Pictures) over a long shot of Dr. Browning’s lab heard over soundtrack music, rather than over a black screen while The Amen Corner’s “Scream and Scream Again” plays them off, which is what is offered in the American version (we also see a shot of Fremont’s car driving away which is not in the U.S. version). The most priceless bit exclusive to the UK cut is a brief but significant climatic dialogue exchange between Price and Lee (“But the dream?” asks Price’s Browning. “There is only time for nightmare” replies Lee’s Fremont). The British print begins with an “X Certificate” classification and a “Warner-Pathe” logo. AIP tampered with all four films that Hessler and Wicking collaborated on for them, with the minor changes here making more sense than usual.