The Manster Movie Review

Another masterpiece from the director who brought us Monster from Green Hell. An American journalist (Peter Dyneley) is sent to interview an eccentric scientist in Japan. Unfortunately, his host's work is not likely to receive the Nobel Peace Prize; his former wife is now a gibbering monster locked in a cage and he had to shoot a former patient after the poor guy went ape – literally. Undaunted by these past failures, the doc gives the journalist a mysterious potion that causes him to begin giving in to his animal desires – he neglects his wife, fools around with geisha after geisha, and begins drinking heavily. After a while it gets worse; he sprouts unsightly hair and an extra head that looks like a mutant coconut. Driven by his less-than-better half, he goes on a murderous rampage until, in a rather startling scene he literally splits in two and has to confront his savage alter ego. Fans of Japanese monster-films might be surprised to find the characters’ lips moving in synch with the dialogue in this under-rated specimen. AKA: The Manster – Half Man, Half Monster; The Split.

1959 72m/B JP Peter Dyneley, Jane Hylton, Satoshi Nakamura, Terri Zimmern; D: Kenneth Crane, George Breakston. VHS SNC, MRV