Conrad Brooks, who made a small name for himself over the years based on an association with well-known Z-movie maker Ed Wood, acted in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, GLEN AND GLENDA and other Wood movies from the 1950s. Brooks continued to work in Wood-like movies well into the new millennium as an actor and director, including this 45-minute zombie-vampire-voodoo flick, which he directed and is an easy target for ridicule.
Released from an insane asylum, Lucy Black (wearing a black wig) hopes to revive her vampire master Count Lugo with the help of Soko the voodoo priestess ("A vampire is very difficult to resurrect!"). She approaches Dr. Fregosi, a mad doctor who is in reality a retired Mafia hit man in possession of the rare "ninjan root" that would bring the vampire's skeleton to life. The hit man/Dr. Fregosi aids Max the Zombie, who plots a revenge against the vampire, by injecting him with a serum that turns him in an rotund opera singer ("Do you know any pirate songs?"). In return, Max murders a retired judge ("Time to kill!"). The serum wears off and Max is transformed into a monster in a Frank Zappa wig who strangles Lucy and steals the ninjan root ("Who is that weird looking thing running down the road there? It has no face!"). Max tosses the root into a river to thwart the vampire's rebirth. Alas, recalling the plot is more fun than watching the movie. As a director, Brooks has mined much deeper into the bad film-making vein than his mentor Ed Wood. In addition to the hilariously poor acting and pace-less storytelling, Brooks tries to make fun of his own creation with tongue-in-cheek dialogs that fall flat and by shooting lengthy conversations where characters recite dialog mostly off-screen.
One can praise Brooks for his persistence in making this and other micro-budget horrors over the years, even though taken as a whole their value as entertainment is negligible.
--Jeffrey Frentzen
Released from an insane asylum, Lucy Black (wearing a black wig) hopes to revive her vampire master Count Lugo with the help of Soko the voodoo priestess ("A vampire is very difficult to resurrect!"). She approaches Dr. Fregosi, a mad doctor who is in reality a retired Mafia hit man in possession of the rare "ninjan root" that would bring the vampire's skeleton to life. The hit man/Dr. Fregosi aids Max the Zombie, who plots a revenge against the vampire, by injecting him with a serum that turns him in an rotund opera singer ("Do you know any pirate songs?"). In return, Max murders a retired judge ("Time to kill!"). The serum wears off and Max is transformed into a monster in a Frank Zappa wig who strangles Lucy and steals the ninjan root ("Who is that weird looking thing running down the road there? It has no face!"). Max tosses the root into a river to thwart the vampire's rebirth. Alas, recalling the plot is more fun than watching the movie. As a director, Brooks has mined much deeper into the bad film-making vein than his mentor Ed Wood. In addition to the hilariously poor acting and pace-less storytelling, Brooks tries to make fun of his own creation with tongue-in-cheek dialogs that fall flat and by shooting lengthy conversations where characters recite dialog mostly off-screen.
One can praise Brooks for his persistence in making this and other micro-budget horrors over the years, even though taken as a whole their value as entertainment is negligible.
--Jeffrey Frentzen
