‘You’ll gasp with horror… A spine-tingling motion picture only the atom age could produce!’
Seddok is a 1960 sci-fi horror film in which an exotic dancer is disfigured in a car accident. A scientist develops a treatment that restores her beauty but to preserve her appearance the doctor must give her additional treatments using glands taken from women he murders.
Directed by Anton Giulio Majano the movie stars Susanne Loret and Alberto Lupo. It was produced by Mario Fava (i.e., Elio Ippolito Mellino, and not Mario Bava, as many sources have erroneously stated). The original Italian title is Seddok, “l’erede di Satana” which translates as “Seddok, the Heir of Satan”. The US title is Atom Age Vampire
Despite the implication of its American release title, courtesy of Topaz Film Corp., the film does not feature a vampire. The titular Seddok is the brilliant but deranged scientist Doctor Levin, mutated by a chemical formula created using radiation. The 1963 British release by D.U.K. Films Ltd was as Seddok.
The film’s score was composed by Armando Trovajoli (Frankenstein 90; Hercules in the Haunted World; Werewolf in a Girls’ Dormitory).
Plot:
When an exotic dancer (Susanne Loret) is horribly disfigured in a car accident, a scientist, Doctor Levin (Alberto Lupo), develops a treatment which can restore her beauty by injecting her with a special serum. While performing the procedure, however, he falls in love with her.
As the treatment begins to fail, he determines to save her appearance, regardless of how many women he must kill for her sake…
Reviews:
” …suffers from bad dubbing. Yet, Atom Age Vampire has some great scenes and moody cinematography. However, at 87 minutes, these scenes are too spaced apart to hold interest.” Cinema Dave
“it manages to get the plot moving with very few lines of dialogue, and you’re quite a ways into the story in just a few minutes. However, I’m less impressed with the story itself, which is a rehash of Eyes Without a Face without the style, and the dubbed American version is confusing, badly acted, and (I suspect) cut to ribbons…” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
“The compelling nature of its black-and-white images often makes the very weak story more bearable.” Lawrence McCallum, Italian Horror Films of the 1960s
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” …if you were expecting an actual fangs-and-cape vampire movie, you are going to be sorely disappointed. The English version title was surely an attempt to cash in on the vampire craze of the era, and it does disservice to what is a pretty entertaining movie. Million Monkey Theater
“It’s a talky, derivative Jekyll and Hyde knock-off that stars Alberto Lupo as a mad doctor who uses radiation treatments to treat scar tissue. His exposure to the radioactivity inevitably results in the man-to-monster transformation. Alas, dumb dialogue dominates and Lupo’s monster is all-too-rarely seen.” Monsters from the Vault
” …it’s not particularly good — even at full length, it seems choppy and antsy, always cutting from one location to another, but it is atmospherically photographed by Aldo Giordani, moodily scored by Armando Trovajoli, and sports some innovative work in the special makeup effects department.” Pause. Rewind. Obsess.
Whole film recap in five minutes:
Stop motion scene:
Free to watch online [1080p HD]:
Free to watch online [480p]:
Country of origin:
Italy
Filming locations:
Livorno, Italy
Technical specs:
1 hour 26 minutes
Black and white
Aspect ratio: 1.66: 1
