House of Terror (1960 film)

Plot

Casimiro works the night shift at a wax museum filled with horrors, but he has been dozing off more than usual. His boss, Professor Sebastian, is the reason: while Casimiro sleeps, the professor drains his blood for secret experiments. Behind the museum, in a hidden lab, Sebastian tries to resurrect the dead. None of his attempts have worked, so he hides the failed bodies by covering them in wax and displaying them in the museum.

When the professor hears about a mummified man found in an Egyptian sarcophagus, he and two henchmen steal the body. Back in the lab, they unwrap the mummy but cannot revive it. That night, after the men leave, lightning strikes the equipment, providing the jolt needed to bring the dead man back. As he stirs, moonlight hits his face through a window, and the revived corpse turns into a werewolf.

Casimiro spots the creature wandering the museum, but no one believes him, not even his girlfriend, Paquita. The werewolf kills one of the henchmen and is locked in a cage, but escapes. It runs to a park, where it strangles and bites several people. The creature then goes to Paquita's apartment.

Casimiro arrives to see her taken and follows back to the museum. There, he watches the werewolf kill Professor Sebastian. Casimiro grabs a burning torch and beats the werewolf to death. The museum and lab catch fire, and the werewolf's body is consumed in the flames.

Production

Shot in Mexico during 1959, this horror comedy starring Lon Chaney Jr. was directed by Gilberto Martínez Solares, who also devised the story. Solares co-wrote the final screenplay with Juan García and Fernando de Fuentes. Chaney traveled to Mexico for the project, which featured comedian Tin-Tan. Producer Jerry Warren later recalled that Chaney disliked werewolf roles and being typecast as a monster, but felt Hollywood forced such work on actors.

The werewolf transformation effects, handled by Jorge Benavides, closely mirrored those in Universal's Wolf Man films, requiring Chaney to keep his face motionless as slow dissolves shifted his appearance. Warren acquired the film and spliced footage from La Casa del Terror with material from another 1950s Mexican movie, La Momia Azteca, to create a hybrid released in 1965 as Face of the Screaming Werewolf. He removed nearly all of Tin-Tan's comedic scenes, retaining mostly Chaney's horror sequences, then added clips from La Momia Azteca and some newly shot footage of his own.