Bloody Dead, The / Creature With The Blue Hand (1971) Rating: Starring: Ilse Page, Diana Korner, Klaus Kinski, Harald Leipnitz Director: Alfred Vohrer Category: Studio: Image Ent. Subtitles: Length: 154 mins     They live in a Castle of Cruelty and Human Torment The weird stories written by Edgar Wallace, author of King Kong, enjoyed a big revival of interest in Germany WHERE a large series of films based on his works were produced. This is one of the best, originally produced as The Blue Hand and released to U.S. theatres by Roger Corman as Creature With the Blue Hand. To enhance this film for U.S. home video release, the film's owners, Independent-International Pictures Corp., produced this version of the film as The Bloody Dead, with additional blood and gore scenes. Director-writer Sam Sherman (uncredited) secured the services of famous makeup/special effects artists Ed French (also uncredited) to design the special appliances and bloody effects the original film needed. French agreed, based on his playing one of the main acting roles. He can be seen in a rare screen appearance as the main lunatic in the opening asylum scenes. Playing the captured nurse, Sherman was fortunate to get skilled Australian actress Denise Coward (uncredited), and the star of the rape/revenge movie Sudden Death, for that role. In addition to the new asylum scenes, filmed to exactly match the original German sets, the Ed French "blood effects" were doubled into the existing murders the hooded killer performed with his knife-fingered hand, way before Freddy Krueger tried the same trick. In the story Klaus Kinski plays twins, one an insane killer, and one an innocent victim. Cruel tortures in the asylum are matched by creepy doings in the dark old castle where the "hooded maniac" prowls.