Manster

(1962)**1/2
American reporter Larry Stanford in on assignment in Tokyo. Before returning to the States his boss requests that he interview a reclusive scientist in his mountain laboratory. After allowing himself to be interviewed Dr. Suzuki determines that Larry would be a perfect test subject for his latest experiment and unbeknownst to Larry he slips him a mickey. Larry returns to the U.S., however over the next few weeks he occasionally meets up with Dr. Suzuki through business travels. Over time Larry starts becoming a jerk; he starts screwing a lot of whores, drinking, and getting into fights, and people are starting to notice. After returning to Japan and taking up with some chick Larry’s fiancé makes a surprise visit and confronts him. Larry basically tells her to F-off and continues down his dark path. After alienating everyone in his life Larry begins to notice some physical changes, first an increase in hair on his hands, and more alarmingly a fucking eyeball on his shoulder! Just what is going on here? I won’t spoil the rest because there’s not much less to spoil.

This was one of the better discoveries on one of my Mega Video 50 Pack horror sets. I have 6 of these sets and for the most part the films are unwatchable but every once in a while I find a fun one. Manster is just so ridiculous but what made it fun was watching Larry go from a decent guy to a hard-drinking, partier – I mean, he becomes such a colossal dick. It takes a long time before Dr. Suzuki’s experiment is fully realized, and when it is it’s just ridiculous. Yet there’s something a bit charming about this mad scientist caper.