The 70's blaxploitation horror craze hits its entertainingly sleazy nadir with this supremely trashy flick that somehow manages to be oddly endearing in its very low-grade cheesiness. Noted scientist Dr. Stein (stolid John Hart) and perky assistant Dr. Winfred Walker (a winningly spunky portrayal by Ivory Stone) try to restore dismembered Vietnam veteran Eddie Turner (an engagingly earnest performance by the hulking John De Sue) to his former self. Alas, smitten and jealous servant Malcomb (deliciously overplayed with deep-voiced hammy brio by Roosevelt Jackson) tampers with the serum, which turns Eddie into a grunting grotesque monster who breaks out to embark on the expected murderous rampage. Director William A. Levey, working from a shamelessly trashy, albeit too talky script by Frank R. Saletri, manages to produce a reasonable amount of brooding gloom-doom atmosphere (the Gothic castle main location is an eerie beaut) and totally cuts loose with oodles of tacky excessive gore in the second half with Eddie killing various hapless folks. The scenes showing Eddie tearing apart people are simply hilarious; the definite sidesplitting highlight occurs when our hideously malformed maniac disembowels a shrieking topless woman in an alley way. The legendary Liz Renay has a funny bit as a shrewish victim with a horrendously humongous beehive hairdo. Robert Caramico's grainy, but fairly polished cinematography boasts a few neat fades and dissolves. The lively ooga-booga score by Cardella Di Milo and Lou Frohman and several get-down groovy R&B songs on the soundtrack both hit the right-on funky spot. A real schlocky hoot.

Eddie is a Vietnam veteran who loses his arms and legs when he steps on a land mine, but a brilliant surgeon is able to attach new limbs. Unfortunately an insanely jealous assistant (who has fallen in love with Eddie's fiancé) switches Eddie's DNA injections, transforming him into a gigantic killer.

The most interesting thing about this film is that Bud Costello is credited as the property master. Apparently at some point he came into possession of the original "Frankenstein" props. Who has them now is an even more interesting question...

Beyond that, it is just cheesy fun. This is not a great movie with great acting or plot. The scientist -- despite winning a Nobel prize -- says things that make no sense to people with a basic understanding of science...

The impressive use of music and some odd camera angles makes this a visual treat in spite of how hideous the film is structure wise. Joe De Sue is the hulk in monster, a Vietnam veteran badly injured with missing limbs, taken to a convalescent hospital where he is mistreated and later taken to the private hospital where veteran doctor and scientist Dr. Stein (John Hart) and young Dr. Walker (the very pretty Ivory Stone) provide him with new limbs.

But interference in his recovery sends him on a murderous rampage, starting with the intern who abused him, a memorable comeuppance from the viewer's point of view, having watches Hart be ridiculed and unable to defend himself. Filmed in shadows, this sequence is actually very funny. But other victims, innocent of any wrongdoing, are not so lucky, and their deaths are violent and gruesome. There's interruption in the action for a very funny black comic and a musical performance, leading to another gruesome discovery. Doctors Hart and Stone have to find De Sue before the entire population gets wacked or have a limb wacked off.

Even being cheaply made, this starts off on the right note but quickly moves onto a very lengthy violent sequence that lasts for nearly an hour before anything else happens. Still, I can't get over how good the sets were even if the filming itself was poor. This is perfect as a cult film mixed with the blaxploitation genre and of course humor. Stone may not be much of an actress, but she's so striking that it's difficult to take your eyes off of her. Mel Brooks' monster a year later looked similar to De Sue here, an influence that probably explains why Peter Boyle in "Young Frankenstein" did not look closer to Boris Karloff.