During the blaxploitation craze of the 1970s there was a sub-genre of blaxploitation horror films. Blacula kicked it off and was soon followed by Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, Voodoo Black Exorcist, Abby, Scream Blacula Scream, and Blackenstein. I remember hearing rumors they were making Black Creature from the White Lagoon, but apparently that was just a rumor. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about Blackenstein.
Blackenstein concerns a black man who has returned from Viet Nam after losing both arms and both legs. His girlfriend (Ivory Stone) studied under Dr. Stein (John Hart), who has done some remarkable work with limb replacement using a secret DNA formula. She asks the doctor to help her boyfriend, Eddie (Joe De Sue) and he agrees. Eddie begins receiving treatments and has new limbs attached. Everything appears to be going fine until the doctor’s servant Malcomb (Roosevelt Jackson) confesses his feelings for the girl and is spurned for Eddie. He switches the DNA serum and Eddie begins to change. He develops a high forehead and soon is reduced to grunting like the Frankenstein monster. His mind and head may have changed for the worse, but the new arms and legs work out nicely, allowing him to begin a killing spree that leaves three people and a dog murdered on the first night. Unlike Universal’s Frankenstein, Eddie doesn’t just stop with strangling his victims. He rips them open and plays with their intestines for some reason. As the body count rises, the doctor and the girlfriend remain clueless as to Eddie’s other activities. As the film gets closer to the end, the filmmakers decide to up the score by having the female victims get their blouses torn open to expose their bare breasts before Eddie kills them. Eventually the police track him down and attack him with Dobermans that tear him open, leaving him laying with his intestines hanging out and one of his new limbs ripped off.
This is not the film to watch if you want good acting (or even competent acting). This is not the film to watch if you want any sort of editing skill displayed or a semblance of intelligence in the script. This is the film that you pop in when your friends are over, they’re all half drunk (or further), and you want a good laugh. If Ed Wood had made this film, even he might have been ashamed of it. It is that bad.
As a movie, I give Blackenstein 1 1/2 stars. As trash cinema at its finest, this would rate a 9 1/2 on the Night Flight scale.
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