German director Frank Wisbar was a rising star in his own country before he was forced to flee the Nazis and emigrated to the U.S. Whatever talent he had apparently disappeared on the way over here. Most of the films he made in the U.S. were cheapo horror junk for PRC Pictures, which was pretty much at the bottom end of the Hollywood food chain. The only good thing that can be said for this picture is that it’s not as lousy as the film it is a sequel to, 1940’s “The Devil Bat”–and, since that was one of the absolute worst films ever made, is not saying much. The story is about a woman (former Miss America Rosemary LaPlanche, who is basically the only good thing in the movie) who believes herself to be possessed by the spirit of her dead father. The film is treated more like a mystery than as a horror film, but what “mystery” there is is painfully obvious. The film didn’t do much for the career of Rosemary La Planche, Frank Wisbar or anybody else who had anything to do with it, and for good reason–it stinks.
