Monster makeup artist Pete Dumond (Robert H. Harris) will soon be out of a job when the new heads of the movie studio he works for tell him his services are no longer required as they tell him they plan to stop making horror films to concentrate on musicals. Since the studio depicted in this picture is actually American International Pictures, this seems to partly parallel this particular company's transition from horror movies like this one and subsequent ones starring Vincent Price to the singing "beach party" ones starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Anyway, this was quite an entertaining thriller whenever the makeup artist attempts to exact his revenge by having his latest actor subjects get hypnotized when putting his unique facial paint on them in order to get them to do his bidding. That's especially true when the scenes transition from black-and-white to color! So on that note, I highly recommend How to Make a Monster.

If you have seen I Was a 'Teenage Werewolf (1957)' & 'I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)' first then you will recognize the Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster in this film. You do not have to see the first two films to watch 'How To Make A Monster' because the story has nothing to do the first two films directly - each film is a story all on it's own."How to Make a Monster' is a fairly interesting, campy and a fun flick. It's a B film but one of the better B horror films from the 1950s. I think it took the idea of putting the Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster from the Universal classic 'Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man' but this film is totally different - only the idea of the two monsters in the film together is the same. This movie is actually more of a crime film with the use of 'monsters' to help commit the crimes. As I said earlier this film is fun to watch but it's nothing spectacular either.7/10

Herbert L. Strock once again directs a horror thriller for AIP, but this time with a twist: This story is about AIS studio make-up artist Pete Dumond(inspired by real-life Universal make-up artist Jack Pierce?) who turns homicidal after new owners fire him, intending to phase out horror pictures altogether! Enraged, he uses a combination of hypnosis and his own chemical compound to transform actors Gary Conway(Teenage Frankenstein) and Gary Clarke(Teenage Werewolf, in place of Michael Landon)into real monsters, who kill all those who would put Pete out of work. Local police are of course baffled. Despite a clever premise, this is otherwise uninspired, being just another standard revenge picture, leading to a silly and abrupt finale. Still, it is amusing to think of the unfinished "Teenage Werewolf Vs. Teenage Frankenstein" picture being made in the film!

Amusing third sequel to "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" combines the Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein. Under fear of termination, a film studio makeup wizard (possibly modelled on one of the family Westmore?) applies "a special fixing agent" to his teenage actor's monster makeup that turns them into real monsters. Given such an unusual, original premise, the results of the film are not too disappointing: several brutal killings, lots of monsters, and even John Ashley's B-grade Elvis impersonation (surely done for laughs, let's hope). the film supposes the existence of "American International Studios" -- a nice thought, but filmmaking had already changed a lot, and AIP was never able to rent a steady digs, so this one just has to stay a fantasy. Did anyone else notice how heavily homoerotic the makeup guy's relationship to the boys was? He always called them "my boys" and talked at one point about having them "in his hands". Plus, note their uncomfortable reaction when he wants them to come to his house for some drinks. Funny stuff, certainly holding up to Herman Cohen's other AIP productions, which were among their best early efforts.