Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 6.0 | 10/32 | film whose year ends in ‘6’ 4/6 | decades 4/6 | 1950s
CW // Medical Gore, Ableism, Misogyny, Anti-Romani Sentiments, Murder
The ancients, who wrote in the Sanskrit tongue, gave first mention of the strange drug we call Nind Andhera. This drug was first introduced into the city of Lahore in the Punjab in the 703rd year after the death of the prophet, praise his memory. This drug has the power to place a man's body and limbs into helplessness. And his soul sleeps, nor does he feel pain. He is as a dead man, yet is not of the dead.
Newgate Prison, London ~ 1872
Dr. Cadman comes to visit Dr. Gordon Ramsay (seriously), a former student to be executed for murder. Cadman will take Ramsay’s body to his estate. Except Cadman offers a way past the “death” part. He opens the top of his cane and pours Nind Andhera into a cup for Ramsay. Cadman calls it The Black Sleep.
The following day, the guards find Ramsay, and his heart stopped. They prepare his body and send it to Cadman. Cadman, with the assistance of Odo, opens the coffin and administers a shot to Ramsay’s body. Ramsay startles back to life.
Ramsay becomes Cadman’s assistant, knowing little more than that Cadman is working to advance the field of brain surgery. They go to Cadman’s estate, where Ramsay learns the full extent of Ramsay’s research and the horrifying victims left in his wake.
The movie is quite dry, as it tries to present its ideas systematically. It gets more interesting as we learn the extent of Cadman’s experiments, including one of John Carradine’s most outrageous performances.
This movie won’t win over any new horror fans, but the formula hits a cozy medium that I found enjoyable.