Scream and Scream Again is a 1970 British-American science fiction conspiracy thriller film starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Alfred Marks, Michael Gothard, and Peter Cushing. It is based on the novel The Disorientated Man by 'Peter Saxon', a house pseudonym used by various authors in the 1960s and 1970s.
Strange and terrible things are afoot and the police are helpless to stop them. First a heart attack victim goes to the hospital and awakens to find limbs missing, and later, the body of a rape victim is found with two strange puncture wounds upon her wrist. Meanwhile in eastern Europe, a military officer is murdered by someone with inordinate strength. After another girl is murdered, Supt. Bellaver gets on the case. The trail of clues has many twists and turns and before he is led to the mysterious estate of Dr. Browning, another dies. There he discovers that the insane scientist has engineered a master race of emotionless, mindless beings as part of an international conspiracy. Now Bellaver and his cohorts must somehow stop the doctor and his friends from taking over the world.
Tropes in Scream and Scream Again:
- Acid Pool: Dr. Browning keeps a vat of extraordinarily powerful Hollywood Acid in a barn on his property that he uses to dispose of samples from his experiments. Keith commits suicide by jumping into it. Later, Dr. Browning kills Konratz by pushing him into it. Fremont then kills Browning the same way.
- Advertised Extra: Peter Cushing's role is little more than a cameo: appearing in one brief scene and dying at the end of it.
- An Arm and a Leg: At the start of the film, a jogger collapses from a heart attack. When he wakes at the hospital, he discovers his leg has been amputated. Every time the movie cuts back to him, another limb has been amputated.
- Auto Erotica: Keith picks up women in nightclubs and then drives to remote commons where they start making out in his sports car before he murders them.
- Bloodlust: Keith is obsessed with blood and completely drains all of his victims: seemingly drinking all of it.
- Damsel in Distress: WPC Helen Bradford keeps finding herself in this role. Sent undercover to act as bait for the Vampire Killer, she is overpowered by Keith and only saved by the arrival of her back-up. Later she helps Dr. Sorel break into Dr. Browning's facility, but is overpowered by Dr. Browning while keeping lookout. Dr. Sorel later finds her Strapped to an Operating Table, about to be used as an unwilling donor for one of Browning's transplant experiments. In her defense, none of the men in the movie have any success going one on one against Browning's enhanced humans (of which Keith is one) either.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Major Heinrich Benedek is a senior official in a totalitarian regime who acknowledges that torture is necessary in maintaining the regime's dominance, but even he is horrified by the excesses of Torture Technician Konratz.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Ludwig's car catches fire immediately upon being shot by the border guards; even before it collides with anything.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Browning is looking to create the race of perfect beings by removing limbs and organs from the undeserving and giving them to the worthy.
- Fair Cop: WPC Helen Bradford who is selected to go undercover in the nightclub to act as bait for the Vampire Killer.
- Fingore: Konratz uses a pair of bone shears to cut the finger off a young woman he is interrogating.
- Genre Mashup: Horror Film meets Conspiracy Thriller.
- Groin Attack: Despite being held by two other policemen, Keith manages to kick Griffin in the groin while Griffin is attempting to punch him in the face: hard enough to put Griffin in hospital.
- Hollywood Acid: Dr. Browning keeps a vat of extraordinarily powerful acid in a barn on his property that he uses to dispose of samples from his experiments. Keith commits suicide by jumping into it. Later, Dr. Browning kills Konratz by pushing him into it. Fremont then kills Browning the same way.
- Human Resources: Evilutionary Biologist and Mad Doctor Dr. Browning is bringing unwilling patients to his private hospital where he harvests limbs, organs and miscellaneous body parts to use in his transplant operations to create a physically superior master race of humans.
- Just Between You and Me: When Dr. Browning catches Dr. Sorel snooping around the facility, he immediately offers to explain everything to him; admitting that he cannot resist the opportunity to explain his scheme to someone who will actually understand. He then adds that afterwards that Dr. Sorel's life will have to take a very different turn.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: Keith is handcuffed to the bumper of a police car and escapes by tearing his hand off at the wrist.
- Mad Doctor: Dr. Browning is using transplant surgery to create a race of perfect humans.
- Mutilation Interrogation: Konratz uses a pair of bone shears to cut the finger off a young woman he is interrogating.
- Never Trust a Title: Scream and Scream Again has no bearing on the film at all (and makes it sound like a Slasher Movie rather than the science fiction conspiracy thriller it actually is).
- Ruritania: Parts of the film are set in an unnamed eastern European country that greatly resembles East Germany.
- Serial Killer Baiting: WPC Helen Bradford is sent undercover to act as bait for the Vampire Killer.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: Konratz is torturing a young woman captured attempting to escape the country, but is giving the drumstick he is eating more attention. He pauses eating long enough to cut through the bone with a pair of shears before using them on her finger.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Helen is strapped to an operating table when Dr. Browning is about to use her an unwilling donor for his next transplant operation.
- Technicolor Science: The Hollywood Acid in Dr. Browning's facility is a sickly yellow colour.
- Torture Technician: Konratz has the reputation of being able to extract information from anyone. The extent of his activities horrify even his superiors.
- Villainous Rescue: Konratz breaking into the clinic to kill Dr. Browning and his staff gives Dr. Sorel the opportunity the release Helen and allows the two of them to escape.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Keith's crimes attract the attention of the authorities, Konratz decides to shut down Dr. Browning's research by killing Dr. Browning and all of his staff.
