Terror Is a Man

If you're looking for the finest in horror flicks from the Philippines-- and who isn't?--start your search right here. A blatant low-budget rip-off of H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau, Terror Is a Man is nevertheless an unexpectedly evocative little creeper on its own terms. A shipwrecked American (Richard Derr) washes up on the shore of the alarmingly named Isla de Sangre (that would be "Blood Island"), where he meets a scientist (Francis Lederer) engaged in a cruel experiment: turning a panther into a human being. Why wait for evolution, the doctor reasons, to advance a whole new species? Lederer, who starred in Pandora's Box in the silent era, adds a touch of class to the proceedings, while his wife is played by the obligatory blond bombshell--this was 1959, remember--the hourglass-shaped Greta Thyssen. If the doctor really had had an eye for the development of the human species, he might've paid more attention to his neglected wife. Another signature of the era is the precredits note to the audience, warning that a bell will sound just before a particularly gruesome scene comes on the screen (it's a close-up of a surgical incision). While not without its schlock quotient, Terror Is a Man is generally moody and thoughtful; credit goes to two of the Philippines's most resourceful filmmakers, director Gerry De Leon and producer Eddie Romero. In the mid-'60s, this film was retitled Blood Creature and enjoyed a nice run in the U.S., which inspired Romero to churn out a series of Blood-related titles. --Robert Horton