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The Leech Woman

35 votes

Producing House

An endocrinologist in a dysfunctional marriage with an aging, alcoholic wife journeys to Africa seeking a drug that will restore youth.

movie

Status: Released

Released Date: 1960-05-01

Runtime: 77 mins

Director: Edward Dein

Spoken language: English

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

Original title: The Leech Woman

Production Companies: Universal International Pictures

Production Countries: United States of America

Reviews

J

John Chard
Old women always give me the creeps! What do you expect from a film called The Leech Woman? It is by definition one of those sci-fi "B" movies strung together as a support feature that played whilst theatre patrons were still necking, chatting and eating etc. Plot follows in the tradition of something like The Wasp Woman (1959), that plays on the theme of a woman striving to stay young as the advent of time catches up with her. Cue bonkers science, where here it involves a trek to the jungles of Africa to unearth the secret of eternal youth. Naturally things get very bent out of shape and pain and misery are sure to follow. Thematically it has mixed messages, on one hand it dares to say, unappealingly so, that a woman is only viable for love and happiness by being young and beautiful. On the other hand it is possibly having caustic observations on the dangers of vanity? The makers intentions are not clear so really the viewers are left to their own devices on that one. It's never scary and some of the latex effects work is poor and befitting the minuscule budget. While the first half hour feels awfully padded out. But all things considered it's not a bottom feeder of the genre, and actually would make a nice companion piece with The Wasp Woman. 5/10
2014-05-23

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