(imdb)VENUS FLYTRAP (aka BODY OF THE PREY)-1967/1970-Dr. Bragan (James Craig) an overworked NASA scientist with an interest in botany is convinced by his Japanese colleague to take a vacation in Japan. While driving in the back woods he has car trouble. A greasy snake handler offers to fix his car. Looking at the handler's snake collection he notices a Venus flytrap and goes into the surrounding swamp to get one of his own. Later he goes to Japan and meets his assistant's friend, Atsuko Rome (Noriko Hanamura) who takes him to her father's remote resort near an active volcano. There he experiments with the flytrap and Atsuko assists him. He's kind of grouchy and doesn't like the feeble caretaker and his dog. He wants to cross a Venus flytrap with a local Japanese plant, trying to prove man is decedent from plants. Like Dr. Frankenstein he uses lightening to achieve this. He's very rude to his assistant. He creates a plant thing with flytrap hands that needs blood instead of water to live. Eventually it grows bigger and starts walking around terrorizing the local village. When he sees that it's killed he decides to destroy it. He lures it to the volcano with the promise of a baby goat. They both fall into the active lava but the goat survives.
Many stories abound about the creation of this movie. It's based on a screenplay Ed Wood Jr. wrote in the 1950's but director Norman Earl Thomson heavily re-wrote it. It's director's credit is sometimes even given to VENUS FLYTRAP's editor Kenneth G. Crane who directed the slightly similar Japan-US co-production THE MANSTER in 1960. Also known as THE REVENGE OF DR. X, some prints list the credits for the Philippines lensed horror film THE MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND!
Quotes from the doctor:
"I refuse the word impossible".
"A plant as human as the human element itself".
"I will destroy my creation. My work of genius".
Thanks for reading!
(flashbak.com)
