Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Great Film overall

A Major Disappointment

Its central plot revolves an obnoxious American journalist Larry Stanford played by Peter Dyneley who travels to Japan to interview scientist Dr. Robert Suzuki played by Tetsu Nakamura. Dr. Suzuki is on the cusp of a great scientific breakthrough and would like to share his discovery, oh so the reporter thinks. I can't help but think the writers for 1986 remake of The Fly must have borrowed generously from this movie's premise. The reporter does not know he will be the subject of Dr. Suzuki's next experiment. He is unwittingly drugged by Dr. Suzuki and injected with a drug that begins a slow and gradual transformation of the reporter's mind and ultimately - his body. Shortly thereafter, his behavior changes, and he gives in to base animal urges like that of a sexual nature as he cheats on his wife Linda played by Jane Hylton with geisha's, known in America as highly trained prostitutes. He gradually becomes violent, killing in the night as he roams the darken alleys and streets of Tokyo Japan, his victims typically are women, but it is not a theme, maybe women in 1959 Japan worked late at night are the opportune prey. The story gets creepier as the transformation turns him more into a horrific beast. The authorities begin to search for a killer they have no clue is a real monster lurking about. The movie succeeds in achieving its goal by being a really creepy Sci Fi horror flick with a gloomy tone and eerie soundtrack. Manster is a Good Friday night entertainment experience for the sci-fi horror crowd. Central Plot: After being secretly given an injection by Dr. Suzuki Larry returns to Tokyo and plans on going back to New York City in a few days to be reunited with his wife Linda. However, Dr. Suzuki knows he cannot let him leave Japan as he must observe the effects of the transformation drug so he meets up with Larry suggesting they explore some of Japan's hidden pleasures, Larry is excited and lets the Dr. take him out at night; Dr. Suzuki starts pampering his test subject. The Dr. shows him the seedy red-light side of Japan he's never seen before. He takes Larry to a whorehouse where he gets drunk on sake and messes around with some of the geisha. The pampering continues with a trip to a hot springs hotel. Dr. Suzuki's personal assistant the sensual and sexy Tara - Terri Zimmerman is brought along for the occasion, it seems Dr. Suzuki has used her in this capacity before, and soon Larry finds himself falling in love with her. She begins to feel sorry for what will become of Larry and complains to Dr. Suzuki though he reminds her that she knows all about his experiments and is the sole reason he rescued her from the poverty stricken life she once knew. Unfortunately, the romantics that develop between Tara and Larry are not developed further in this movie. In addition, Terri Zimmerman who plays Tara has special charisma with the camera and it is a wonder her career never excelled after this performance. As the drug begins to take hold of Larry he seeps into a drunken, sex addicted craze and when his boss notices and tries to get him help he rejects the notion of going back to New York. With the help of his Boss Ian Matthews his wife arrives in Tokyo only to discover her husband is now a mean drunken verbally abusive scum. He gets busted by his wife and boss bringing Tara into his hotel room and exclaims to his wife he wants to be with Tara. Linda doesn't give up on her marriage and sticks around. The story intensifies as Larry starts to exhibit strange physical changes more interesting in the same or similar fashion in The Fly 1986 transformation occurs. He starts to lose the feeling in his hand, begins having black outs, starts having unexplained pains in his right shoulder, which soon begins to grow into some sort of bulge, lump. At night he roams the streets and alleyways. During one late night excursion he goes to a Buddhist temple and murders a priest. The following night several women turn up dead. Larry doesn't remember anything later. He continues to roam the streets murdering others. One of the creepiest scenes is when an eyeball forms on his shoulder, and then an entire head pops out! Dr. Suzuki is hoping he'll eventually split into two different beings. After Larry murders a psychiatrist his boss tried to hook him with, the police superintendent Jerry Ito organizes his forces and a city-wide manhunt ensues. Larry ends up heading back to Dr. Suzuki's lab for the big finale. Noteworthy Mentions Title Manster the title is stupid and immediately lessens the quality. In conclusion For the true SciFi Horror buff, this is a must see, I recommend watching it at least 3X, yes! Each time you will see something different that you may have not paid closer attention too. Sexuality is often woven into scenes cleverly and the Scientist female assistant Tara exudes a sexual tension without over acting; the drama is not Oscar worthy, but it doesn't need to be. The physical transformation looks like it was made in 1959, oh yea! There are references to alcohol, drug and sex addiction as a result of the reporter's unfortunate circumstances which gives some depth to the light weight story line and plot. There are similarities to the transformation occurrences of another erstwhile anti-hero played by Jeff Goldblum in 1986's The Fly. The movie is light but entertaining and on a scale of 1 to 10, I give this a 6.75!

So - Are two heads better than one? Well - I guess you'll just have to watch this truly zany, Sci-Fi flick called "The Manster" to find out the answer to that daunting question.Released in 1962 - The Manster is actually a kinda fun Mad Scientist/Horror movie to watch, providing, of course, that one doesn't take its goofy, far-fetched story at all seriously.I found The Manster to be one of those outrageously low-budget, fright flicks from that particular era that was so bad that, somehow, it was actually (almost) good.I think that it was a very wise move on the part of the director, George Breakston, to see to it that news-reporter Larry Stanford's hideous, two-headed transformation was kept partially concealed within the shadows of near-darkness - Otherwise the intended horror of Larry's horrific predicament would've, I'm sure, been completely lost by a string of unintentional laughs.All-in-all - Even though I would never, ever consider The Manster to be great horror, I still thought that it was a least well-worth one honest viewing.

"The Manster" is the sort of movie that only Elvira, Joe Bob Briggs, or the "MST3K" crew could present. I saw the Mistress of the Dark's presentation. While watching there were some things that I noticed:*There's a white person cast as a Japanese.*The discussions between the reporter and scientist border on a bromance.*The song played on the instrument in that one scene sounds like a blues song.And then of course the eye reminded me of "Army of Darkness". As for Elvira, she learns that her green card has expired - she apparently comes from Transylvania - and she's facing deportation. But of course she never stops offering pun-filled commentary on the movie. It's the average so-bad-it's-good flick featuring dated gender relations. Always fun to watch.Elvira should sing a blues song about B movies, complete with puns.

The Manster is set in Japan where an American named Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley) works as a foreign news correspondent, Stanford is invited to interview a Japanese scientist named Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura) in his mountain top laboratory. While there Suzuki drugs Stanford's drink & injects him with an experimental serum he has been working on, at first Larry seems fine but soon changes as he becomes aggressive, hateful & rather unpleasant. Stanford begins an affair with Suzuki's female assistant Tara (Terri Zimmern) but this part of Suzuki's plan to keep an eye on him, soon Stanford begins to change psychically as well as mentally with an eyeball appearing to grow out of his shoulder which eventually grow's into another full size head. As a two headed freak Stanford goes on a killing spree but realises that his only hope is to go back to Suzuki & try to get him to reverse the horrifying transformation...This American & Japanese co-production was directed by George P. Breakston (also credited as producer) & Kenneth C. Crane (also credited as editor) who manage to turn in a pretty decent little mad scientist monster film that is far better than many similar efforts from the same period. It has to be said that the two headed monster/man genre hasn't fared too well, the only two other examples I can think of are the much derided pair The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971) & The Thing with Two Heads (1972) both of which are extremely silly films so it's somewhat of a surprise that The Manster manages to pull off the two headed monster plot with a degree of respectability. For it relatively brief 72 minute duration (brief when compared to some of today's two & a half hour marathon's anyway) The Manster is pretty effective, it's a strange film for the period as although it deals with horrible experiments which lead to a monster that kills people the script has an entire cultural subtext as it follows an American in Japan & there are plenty of way the script can be interpreted with Japan & it's culture 'infecting' Stanford & the scene at the end in which the brutish part of him that is brought out by the serum detaches itself & is destroyed (along with his Japanese lover) after which Stanford returns to 'normal' could be considered a racist attempt at making a point that Japan is evil & the aspects of it & it's culture infected Stanford & his salvation at the end is when this Japanese part of him is weeded out & destroyed. Or then again maybe I am just thinking about it too much. It's just that the script tries to suggest that Stanford isn't himself & that there's something wrong with him for shunning his wife & traditional American values, well that's the feel I get from it rightly or wrongly.The Manster moves along at a decent pace, it takes itself pretty seriously & is fair entertainment. The Manster in feel & tone is closer to a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde split personality story rather than a two-headed monster film & you sort of sense the makers had lofty ambitions. There are some good scenes here with the infamous eyeball in the shoulder a particular stand-out & even the two-headed monster at the end looks alright although the hairy beast thing looks rubbish & there's also a disfigured woman that Suzuki keeps locked up. Talking of Suzuki it's never really explained what he hopes to achieve by the experiments he conducts or why Larry Stanford is such a perfect specimen, none of his experiments seem to mean anything. The opening titles feature a goof as the credits misspell the word original during the 'from an original story by' credit.Actually filmed in Japan which is unusual for an American production at the time, shot in black and white the film looks fine & while it has dated a bit it's still watchable enough. The acting is alright, no-one is terrible but no-one is brilliant either.The Manster is a pretty good late 50's black and white sci-fi horror film that tries to make a point about culture, adultery & controlling the evil inside us that is actually more fun when it's a straight monster film rather than a soap opera styled moral drama. Not bad at all & worth checking out.