GORDON HESSLER Autograh AND SCREAM AGAIN Pressbook 1970

Screenplay by Christopher Wicking

TRIPLE DISTILLED HORROR... as powerful as a vat of boiling ACID!

A serial killer, who drains his victims for blood is on the loose in London, the Police follow him to a house owned by an eccentric scientist. A London jogger suddenly collapses on the sidewalk and awakens in a hospital where he finds that his right leg has been amputated. Shortly thereafter, his left leg is amputed, followed by the amputation of both arms. He can get no information from his zombielike nurse. Meanwhile, somewhere in a Gestapo-like country in Eastern Europe, military agent Konratz [Marshall Jones] lets slip to his superior, Captain Salis [Peter Sallis], that he knows about the top-secret K-718. Because K-718 is classified information supposed to be known only to Salis and his superior, Major Benedek [Peter Cushing], Salis tries to contact Benedek, but Konratz kills Salis before the call goes through. With Salis dead, Konratz moves up into his position. When Benedek decides to dismiss Konratz from duty because his methods of interrogation are too extreme and will not reflect nicely upon their military regime, Konratz kills Benedek and moves into Benedek's position.

London Detective Superintendent Bellaver [Alfred Marks] also has his hands full with a series of killings that have been dubbed the "vampire murders." Girls are being found with their throats slashed, puncture wounds on their arms, and drained of blood. The first was Eileen Stevens, an employee of esteemed research scientist, Doctor Browning [Vincent Price], but Browning has no idea who would want to murder her. When another girl turns up dead and Bellaver realizes that they were both picked up at The Busted Pot (a disco club), policewoman Sylvia [Judy Huxtable] goes undercover (with a homing device planted in her shoe) to see if she can get picked up by the vampire. She is successful, and she and the vampire Keith [Michael Gothard] drive to a secluded field where he attempts to drink her blood. Keith is interrupted by the police but manages to best them all and get away. Fortunately, Sylvia's shoe is still in Keith's car, so the police tail him. Keith drives to a chalk quarry where the police are astounded to see him running up the almost sheer cliff face...until he slips and falls back down. Because he is only stunned, the police handcuff Keith to a car, but he tears off his hand and runs away...straight to Dr Browning's estate where he jumps into a vat of acid.

When questioned about the acid, Browning explains that his research involves investigating strains of bacteria on animal tissue, so he uses the acid to destroy the tissue and prevent the spread of disease. Why Keith would have made for this acid vat, Browning has no idea but assumes that Keith must have known Eileen Stevens and that she told him about it. Of course, this leaves no body to autopsy. Much to Browning's dismay, however, Bellaver still has Keith's hand. Bellaver asks the coroner, Doctor David Sorel, [Christopher Matthews] to perform an autopsy on it. It turns out to be made of a synthetic material with human tissue growing around it, cyborg style.

British Intelligence Minister Fremont [Christopher Lee] has problems of his own, too. One of Britain's military aircraft has been shot down while on a spy mission over the pseudoGestapo country. Konratz has taken the pilot prisoner and travels to London to meet with Fremont and suggest a trade...the pilot for all the investigation files compiled on the vampire murders. Fremont agrees, orders Bellaver to close the case, and arranges for Konratz, posing as a University professor doing research on the psychological aspects of crimes of violence, to view the files. Konratz has other ideas, however, and wants to take the files with him. When Bellaver refuses to release the files, Konratz puts the squeeze on Bellaver's shoulder, killing him.

Dr Sorel decides to continue the investigation on his own. Accompanied by policewoman Sylvia, Sorel drives to Browning's estate, intending to get a sample of the acid from the vat into which Keith jumped, but the vat has been emptied. Even worse, Sylvia (who was waiting in the car) also disappears, so Sorel goes snooping in Browning's house where he finds an operating room and some freezer boxes containing human body parts.

Suddenly, Sorel is interrupted by Browning who explains that his real research involves the creation of ubermenches...perfect humans. To accomplish this, Browning has developed a method whereby he forges together synthetic materials with human flesh into a "composite". At first, the composites were merely robots, like the nurse. Keith was the first autonomously-operating composite, but something went wrong and Keith ran amok as a vampire. As he is currently preparing to transplant the brain of a human into the cranium of a new composite, Browning invites Sorel to watch the operation. Sorel is intrigued, but when he finds out that Sylvia is to be the donor, he tries to stop Browning, only to find that Browning is a composite, too.

Luckily for Sorel, Konratz (who is also a composite) has picked just this moment to pay a visit to co-conspirator Browning in order to shut down his research, since news of the vampire murders has made headlines all over the world. As Konratz and Browning battle each other, Sorel releases Sylvia from the operating table. The two of them escape outside...where Fremont has just driven up. While Sylvia and Sorel wait in the car, Fremont goes into the operating room where Konratz has managed to shove the nurse into another vat of acid, and Browning has done the same to Konratz. Browning informs Fremont that they must round up the other composites before it's too late, but Fremont informs Browning that it's already too late and forces him into the vat of acid.

As Fremont, Sorel, and Sylvia drive away, Sorel asks Fremont if it's all over, and Fremont replies, "It's only just beginning."

The entire cast included: