This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Monster makeup artist Pete Dumond (Robert H. Harris) will soon be out of a job when the new heads of the movie studio he works for tell him his services are no longer required as they tell him they plan to stop making horror films to concentrate on musicals. Since the studio depicted in this picture is actually American International Pictures, this seems to partly parallel this particular company's transition from horror movies like this one and subsequent ones starring Vincent Price to the singing "beach party" ones starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Anyway, this was quite an entertaining thriller whenever the makeup artist attempts to exact his revenge by having his latest actor subjects get hypnotized when putting his unique facial paint on them in order to get them to do his bidding. That's especially true when the scenes transition from black-and-white to color! So on that note, I highly recommend How to Make a Monster.

After a strange spate of murders, the investigation into the events leads the police to believe that a recently-fired special effects master his created a series of monsters from his past projects and is instructing them to carry out his vengeance on those who wronged him, leading them to stop his plans before they continue.For the most part this here was a fun enough effort. The main point of this one here is the fact that there's a lot of great work going behind the scenes of the movie-production system, creating a lot of studio in-jokes that are quite fun. This one has all the make-up and testing being done in their study, the near-constant talk about their slot of pictures and what it's going to mean to them in order to keep their projects going throughout the controversy the spree creates, which along with the shots actually filming work on other films there all makes for some nice times here giving this one quite a different overall feel. This is all helped by the fact that the rest of the film is pretty cheesy, especially in the monster make- up. The creations here have that low-budget charm to them which really captures the hand-crafted look that's perfectly telling which is the result of the film's other rather enjoyable element being feature here, and gives this plenty to like in a few creepy scenes here and there. The early attacks in the theater and the kitchen where the creations come out in some really thrilling encounters, and the later scenes of the Frankenstein stalking the last owner and then fleeing afterwards through the town which makes this quite fun as each creature gets a chance to shine here in a fine sequence while nicely setting the stage for the finale. Shot in color, this Gothic-flavored set-piece with the house-bound sculptures of the creatures settled around and his growing paranoia forcing along the outburst that brings about the big fire throughout the house that ends this on a really high-note. These here give this some positive elements here, though there's some detrimental issues found here. The main issue here is the film's rather bland and dragging pace, as the middle turns into a police investigation film rather than keeping the horror film segments in full segments, dropping the attacks to focus on the cops interviewing personnel or witnesses to them that shows them as completely incompetent since there's ample evidence to support the main characters as the villains. That is another factor here in that hi growing hysteria and paranoia does this no favors with the ludicrous ranting and motivations keeping this one quite goofy and silly while clearly showing his deteriorating state as being obvious to spot, and with the lack of attacks it's quite dull. Likewise, they may be fun, but the attacks are all the same and show the creatures popping up for a strangulation on each victim which is quite bland and really hurts the creativity of this one. The last flaw here is with the finale which is fun since it's shot in color, but looks more like a gimmick than anything else as it comes up out of nowhere and doesn't have anything to signal that's going to occur which really does stick out here. These here lower this one significantly, even though it does have some positives.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Herbert L. Strock once again directs a horror thriller for AIP, but this time with a twist: This story is about AIS studio make-up artist Pete Dumond(inspired by real-life Universal make-up artist Jack Pierce?) who turns homicidal after new owners fire him, intending to phase out horror pictures altogether! Enraged, he uses a combination of hypnosis and his own chemical compound to transform actors Gary Conway(Teenage Frankenstein) and Gary Clarke(Teenage Werewolf, in place of Michael Landon)into real monsters, who kill all those who would put Pete out of work. Local police are of course baffled. Despite a clever premise, this is otherwise uninspired, being just another standard revenge picture, leading to a silly and abrupt finale. Still, it is amusing to think of the unfinished "Teenage Werewolf Vs. Teenage Frankenstein" picture being made in the film!

deliciously fun revenge movie with lots of gay sub- and not so subtext a pair of lovers working in the makeup dept of AIP, one dominant the other submissive, are faced with the big faze out... well, one of them is not about to take it lying down so to speak! this is a richly observed little movie. lots of brilliant touches - for example the makeup job for the teen werewolf is as good or better than much of what we see today, while the teenage whatsits looks like some kind of paper mache effort attempted by a blind man. the effect is of something gone terribly wrong.the performances are more than adequate and the lead Robert H. Harris is nothing short of inspired.don't want to say anything to spoil or ruin, but if you have the least taste for camp, get busy and track down this amusement packed spectacular!