Venus Flytrap (film)
Venus Flytrap is a 1970 American horror film shot partly in Japan. The plot features a mad scientist who uses lightning to turn carnivorous plants into man-eating creatures. The film is also known in reference books as Body of the Prey, and The Revenge of Doctor X (the American video box title). Although the film is based on a 1950s screenplay by Ed Wood, he remained uncredited.
| Venus Flytrap | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Norman Earl Thomson |
| Produced by | Norman Earl Thomson |
| Written by | Ed Wood |
| Starring | James Craig, James Yagi, Atsuko Rome |
| Cinematography | Arnold Dibble |
| Edited by | Kenneth G. Crane |
| Distributed by | Toei Company |
Release date | 1970[1] |
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States Japan |
| Language | English |
The film was directed, scripted and produced in 1967 by Norman Earl Thomson, a pulp fiction writer known for his "Kill Me In" series of paperback novels, published under his pen name Earl Norman. The film is often credited to the film's editor Kenneth G. Crane, who had directed the 1961 Japanese horror film, The Manster. The American video release box erroneously featured the credits for a 1969 Philippines production, The Mad Doctor of Blood Island.[2][3]
The syndicated series Cinema Insomnia mocked this film in an episode that premiered on October 31, 2011.[4]
Plot summary
Dr. Bragan (James Craig) is a workaholic rocket scientist at NASA working on a mission to outer space. The stress of the mission causes him to have a mental breakdown, so his assistant, Dr. Paul Nakamura (Yagi), suggests he takes a vacation in Japan at his abandoned luxury resort to recuperate. Dr. Bragan accepts his offer and flies to Japan.
In Japan, Dr. Bragan stays at the defunct hotel of Nakamura with Dr. Noriko Hanamura (Kami), the lovely daughter of his coworker who takes on the role of his assistant. Bragan begins a bizarre experiment in botany in the hotel's secluded greenhouse to prove his theory that humans evolved from plants. With a potted Venus flytrap he brought from America, the scientist grafts it to a Japanese carnivorous oceanic plant to create a hybrid creature that becomes humanoid and requires the blood of mammals to flourish. But Bragan is just as obsessive and moody as he was in America, and his behavior causes Noroko to suspect he is going mad, especially when he secretly takes a victim's "heart blood" to feed it. When his creation, "Sectovorus" uproots and begins moving around on its own, it becomes dangerous and it's not long before the creature begins seeking human victims from a nearby village. The villagers riot and Dr. Bragan must decide between protecting his creation or killing it in order to save mankind. He opts to lure it into a nearby volcano.
Cast
- James Craig as Dr. Bragan
- Tota Kondo as Customs officer
- Lawrence O'Neill as American at airport
- Al Ricketts as Gas station owner
- Atsuko Rome as Noriko Hanamura (billed as Ako Kami)
- Edward M. Shannon as Dr. Shannon
- John Stanley as Dr. Stanley
- James Yagi as Dr. Paul Nakamura