marymorrissey deliciously fun revenge movie with lots of gay sub- and not so subtext a pair of lovers working in the makeup dept of AIP, one dominant the other submissive, are faced with the big faze out... well, one of them is not about to take it lying down so to speak! this is a richly observed little movie. lots of brilliant touches - for example the makeup job for the teen werewolf is as good or better than much of what we see today, while the teenage whatsits looks like some kind of paper mache effort attempted by a blind man. the effect is of something gone terribly wrong.the performances are more than adequate and the lead Robert H. Harris is nothing short of inspired.don't want to say anything to spoil or ruin, but if you have the least taste for camp, get busy and track down this amusement packed spectacular!

MartinHafer Everyone knows that makeup artists are expert hypnotists and can make people do things no other hypnotist can do. You must believe this or HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER might make very little sense--as this IS the premise for the film! Let me back up a bit. A long-time studio makeup man who specializes in monsters is fired when his studio is sold. The big-wigs insist that monster films are a dying breed and so his services are no longer needed. So, to get revenge, the makeup man hypnotizes two young men who are in his makeup chair for one final monster film. Made up (very poorly) like Frankenstein and the Wolf Man, they kill studio execs yet have no recollection of it afterwords. That's because as they sit their getting the prosthetics applied, the makeup artist talks to them--hypnotizing them very subtly and giving them the command to forget.By the way, I really, really wish that hypnosis DID work that way--I'd use it for evil and global domination myself...or at least to get out of traffic tickets and get free stuff. I have a decent amount of graduate training in clinical hypnosis and believe me, if you could do this sort of brainwashing, someone would have done it a long time ago! This is the sort of silly drive-in movie that American-International excelled at in the 50s. None of these films were brilliant or had great production values, but they were entertaining on a simple level. And, despite the silly premise and bad makeup I mentioned above, you can't help but like HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. It's a nice behind the scenes look at the studio and it is a pleasant little diversion.By the way, for a long-time makeup man, you sure think the guy would have done a better job with his Frankenstein. It just looked like some guy who was standing too close to an A-bomb blast and not the famous monster!Also, interestingly the film changes from black & white to color towards the end. At this point, the makeup man shows the actors his little home gallery of masks--it's really actually very cool, as many of the American-International monsters and aliens are there in this room. Cool stuff.

Space_Mafune A make-up man named Pete Dumond(well-played by Robert H. Harris) seeks revenge on a group of new studio executives who fired him by unleashing his Frankenstein and Werewolf creations upon them! He controls the young actors in the costumes via a special make-up which turns the actors into Pete's zombies.This film is a little bit more serious than most of Herman Cohen's productions and a such just a little bit less fun. Still you can tell the actors/actresses involved here are enjoying themselves and their roles and this spirit does manage to come across to the audience. The color climax is wonderfully achieved and features some of Paul Blasidell's finest creations in a surprisingly intense sequence. Good solid B-entertainment.

moonspinner55 Pseudo "behind-the-scenes" look at Hollywood from American International Pictures, filmed (naturally) on the cheap though still retaining a certain cheesy style that is both commendable and entertaining to watch. A nefarious make-up man for a movie-studio is up to no good, turning the actors he's working on into killers. Has some movie-monster camp appeal, and A.I.P. stable-hunk John Ashley has a fabulous scene midway through (singing "You Gotta Have That Eee-Uuu!" while surrounded by a bevy of fishnet-clad chorus girls!). It's a great bit, with Ashley snarling and snapping his fingers like a post-pubescent Elvis, but the rest of this horror outing is a bit too tame and talky. ** from ****