Horror Classics Vol. 2: Indestructible Man/The Amazing Transparent Man 1999 Horror Movie Review

The Indestructible Man stars bearish horror movie icon Lon Chaney Jr. as the vicious “Butcher” Benton, a notorious killer and bank robber on death row who swears to take revenge on his backstabbing lawyer and double-crossing partners. When his corpse is brought back to life in a secret experiment, mute but monstrously strong and impervious to bullets, he’s suddenly in a position to carry out his threat and scoop up the loot he hid from his last job. Meanwhile, investigating cop Robert Shayne, who dryly narrates Dragnet style, leads the hunt to catch him before he kills again. The Los Angeles location shooting, including scenes in the underground sewer system and a climactic showdown at a power plant, and Chaney’s lumbering, lurching performance (a kind of urban Frankenstein’s monster) bring a little character to an otherwise drab thriller.

  B movie auteur Edgar G. Ulmer directs The Amazing Transparent Man, another science-fiction-tinged crime thriller. In the film’s handsomely shot introduction, Douglas Kennedy is sprung from prison to help an ambitious crime lord (James Griffith) with his master plan to take over the world with his new invisibility formula. But tough-talking thug Kennedy is no man’s patsy, and the two double-cross each other. The slim 60-minute feature is stuck with a leaden script and silly twists, but the film looks better than it has any right to and Ulmer directs with a brisk pace, ending the picture (thanks to the wonders of stock footage) with an apocalyptic bang! —Sean Axmaker