The Thing with Two Heads

Director - Lee Frost (The Defilers)
Starring - Ray Milland (The Attic), Rosey Grier (The Seekers), and Don Marshall (The Incredible Hulk)
Release Date - 1972
Genre - Horror/Sci-Fi/Comedy
Tagline - "They share the same body...but hate each other's guts!"
Format - BluRay (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     The early 70s were a tremendous time here in the U.S.  Just 4 short years before the Civil Rights movement came to a close and soon films and television started tossing racism into their stories to spice it up for the times.  It was also during this time that blaxploitation became very popular with a mostly African American cast making racial slurs toward the caucasian cast members of the film.  The Thing with Two Heads was a film that was truly a product of it's time.  The film has at it's basis a story that follows the political turmoil of the time while colliding two mammoth movie trends when it combined the "science run amok" films with the newly forming blaxploitation cinema.  Olive Films recently released the film on blu and were kind enough to send me a review copy.  Thanks guys!

      The story follows a racist wealthy man who is dying and consults a doctor about an experimental procedure.  The doctor is attempting to replace the head of a man with another without killing the new body.  The doctor is able to successfully accomplish the procedure on a gorilla and now sets his sights on the wealthy bigot.  They then set out to have a convict on death row donate their body but no one agrees and with time running out they hope for the best.  However, before he is executed, Jack Moss (Grier), agrees to it.  This big African American holds on to his innocence and agrees to donate his body as a way to prologue his death in hopes his family on the outside will prove his innocence.  The rich man has succumb to his illness and they rush into the procedure where they remove his head from his body and place it beside Moss'.  Moss wakes up and finds the guy's head attached to his neck and flees from the surgery room.  With the police and doctors hot on his tail, Moss is hellbent on proving his freedom before they take him down.  

     This is yet another release from Olive Films that I have never seen but I had heard a great deal about this one.  The film has spawned several parodies, as well as, inspired several other films like Bruce Campbell's The Man with a Screaming Brain and an episode of The Simpson's Treehouse of Horrors.  The acting in this one is campy and definitely fits the style of the film.  There is just enough seriousness and humor to make the cast likable even the old bigot.  Ray Milland and Rosey Grier feed off each other very well and the film would not be able to make it as far as it does if it did not have these two men.  The remainder of the cast is solid but the obvious stars of the film is Milland and Grier with their performances stealing the show.  The story for this one is just another science runs amok film that has so much more going on.  The film relies heavily on the social commentaries of the time in order to move the story along and that is just fucking brilliant.  They are able to pull this off while dabbling into the blaxploitation movement that was in full swing by 1972.  This is a great story.  Sadly, the film does have several slow scenes that tries the viewer's patience.  Editing these scenes would help this film out tremendously.  Also, those of you looking for blood and gore are shit out of luck.  Instead, the film offers up some great story that is rich in it's time along with camp.  Finally, the film's quality is decent but nt the best I have seen from Olive Films.  The film quality is good but I expect so much more when I toss in a blu.  This is also another blu release from Olive with no special features.  This is a huge let down considering everything that this film represents.  I would love to see a retrospective or featurette for this one in a future release.  Overall, the Olive release of The Thing with Two Heads is a solid release for fans of camp and science run amok flicks reminiscent of those found in the 50s.  Check this one out.