Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

dbborroughs Proof Jess Franco can make a movie.I shouldn't say it like that since I'm a fan, of sorts, and Franco can make a good film usually after a long run of ones that make you scream otherwise (One need look at most of his recent shot on video stuff to wonder how he keeps getting money to make movies).Beautifully shot in black and white this is the story of a woman who wants to get revenge for the death of her father, a doctor involved with mind control experiments. Filled with odd images that never seem distracting or out of place this is a film that drifts through the surreal and has it make perfect sense. (The spider motifs). Its an odd mad scientist revenge thriller that is somehow hypnotic as the twists and turns of the plot walk the fine line between real and unreal (killer nails?). Its a very good euro-horror of the type that was being cranked out during the mid 1960's. Its also a film that perfectly fits the over used slogan "if you see one movie..." which in this case would be "If you see one movie by Jess Franco see this one." Between 6 and 7 out of 10

Scarecrow-88 Those of the scientific community(mainly three in particular, doctors Vicas, Moroni & Kallman)who berated Dr. Zimmer(Antonio Jiménez Escribano), whose experiments concerning mind control procedures which have the ability to cease the violent tendencies in the criminal element(for a while Z worked on monkeys amongst other animals before an exhausted escaped convict dumped right in his lap)they vehemently disagreed with, cause him to ultimately die of stress when they threaten to stop him from completing his work. Zimmer caused a major outburst at the conference where he proposed a chance to use a convict on death row(..a human being)as part of testing his theories before them proving that he could change human behavior. His daughter, Irma(Mabel Karr), goes mad from the loss of her father and hatefully vows revenge against the main three culprits she considers the cause of her father's death. Using a pretty actress who goes under the stage name "Mrs. Death", with these long fingernails, named Nadia(Estella Blain)as an instrument to possibly seduce the three doctors one at a time, Irma has a plan in place while adopting her father's controlled convict Hans Bergen(Guy Mairesse)as the muscle(..he is often used to kill when Nadia fails in her part of the scheme). Irma will fake her own death by running over a hitchhiker who resembles her, burning the body with a specific ring she's known for wearing, in her car driving into a pond. Meanwhile, an ally(..of sorts)of her father's work, Dr. Phillippe Brighthouse(whom Irma sleeps with)who attended the conference Dr. Z was ridiculed at, lends a hand to two Scotland Yard detectives working the case of Irma's supposed death and the sequential murders of the doctors who "killed Irma's father." Phillippe and Nadia had begun a love affair when Irma kidnapped her, using the experiments to control Mrs. Death's will. Will Phillippe find Nadia in time to save her before Irma decides to dispose of her? Can the detectives and Phillippe silence the blind rage of Irma before more people come to violent harm? Can Phillippe stand a chance against convict Bergen? Fantastic mad Scientist/revenge thriller, beautifully photographed in moody B&W by Alejandro Ulloa. Thankfully, this is a focused, finely paced, well crafted thriller which doesn't wander from it's story staying on course delivering the goods. I particularly like how Franco shoots Mable Karr's face in angles which show hints of the dementia thriving behind her beautifully, sweaty reconstructed face(her face had been burnt during Irma's attempt to push the flaming car into the pond containing the look-a-like hitchhiker).

Mart Sander Probably a good starting point to explore your Franco. This is a well written and smoothly running yarn of obsession and revenge, with handsome and solid cast, hypnotic soundtrack and first class camera work. There's the ethereal Estella Blain, a beauty who is changed into a killing machine, with powers to mesmerize men. Knowing that in real life she ended her life with a shotgun adds to the morbid fascination of seeing her. The scene of her seducing one of her victims on a train, in sudden silence and almost complete darkness as the train enters a tunnel, is so weirdly beautiful that one is compelled to watch it several times. My second viewing of this film was in a rather tired company, and I witnessed a drunkard - well, an intoxicated young gentlemen - wake up from his slumber just because of the dreamlike soundtrack and becoming glued to the screen. These are the moments that make film the greatest of art forms. Otherwise I'm not a great fan of Mr Franco. A man who directs about 200 films can't hit a bullseye every time. But this time he really has. A piece de resistance for every eurotrash lover. How lucky you are if you haven't seen this film yet and are planning a viewing!

The_Void It has to be said that The Diabolical Dr Z is a lot like Jess Franco's most famous film, The Awful Dr Orlof (in fact, said doctor even gets a mention here); but if you ask me, the superior film is this one. This time, rather than deal with facial reconstruction as Orlof did; sleaze master Franco deals with mind control. The plot, unlike many of Franco's films, is straight forward and here Franco proves that he can actually be quite a good story teller, when he doesn't get bogged down by too many sub plots and things that don't make sense. The film takes obvious influence from George Franju's masterpiece, Eyes without a Face (as many Euro horror films at the time this was made did), but Franco injects a lot more of his own stuff here than he did with Orlof. The doctor of the title doesn't appear for long, but before his death; he does provide the film with its main plot point - that being a mind control machine. When he suffers a heart attack, his daughter takes it upon herself to gain revenge - and so she takes control of the mind of a beautiful dancer calling herself 'Miss Death', who dispatches the doctors who caused Dr Z to suffer a heart attack by way of her long, poisoned, finger nails! The main talking point where this film is concerned is, of course, the style! Franco has shot the film in beautiful black and white, which, along with the excellent use of shadows, locations and cast members ensure that the film has both a dark, gloomy atmosphere and a real sense of beauty. Jess Franco's name has become synonymous with trashy Eurocult rubbish - but if you'd only ever seen this film from him, I wager that you wouldn't know why! The Diabolical Dr Z is art, pure and simple. The locations shot are one thing - but by far my favourite aesthetic element of the film is amazingly beautiful Miss Death, played by Estella Blain. The exotic dancer enters the film in a great sequence that sees her performing her nightclub act, in which she travels across a spider's web to seduce and kill her victims. From then on, she lights up every scene she's in - especially the ones that see her wearing the suit from her act! The film isn't very gory, but the horror appears from the ideas behind the plot, and scenes such as the one that see Dr Z's daughter hideously burned are definitely very gruesome. I've got to say that I'm surprised at how great this film is - and I'll finish off this review by giving The Diabolical Dr Z the highest of recommendations!