Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Horrorfest 2021: Bloodsucking Freaks

Bloodsucking Freaks (1976)
Written and Directed by Joel M. Reed
Starring Seamus O’Brien, Luis De Jesus, Viju Krem, Niles McMaster, Dan Fauci, Alan Dellay and Ernie Pysher
USA

My first reaction here was to say the title says it all. But I guess it doesn’t. Are the main characters of this movie freaks? Yes. Do they suck blood? Well, technically, no, I guess not. There’s all manner of torture here. But not really any bloodsucking. So, while the title does not say it all, it sorta feels like it does.

But I’ll keep going anyway! This is the tale of a pretentious artist who wants to make it in the realm of Broadway theater, spending his time and energy on off, off Broadway productions in which he tortures and murders real victims in front of live audiences who assume everything’s an elaborate put on. His ambitions: move this shit to Broadway.

To that end, he captures a critic who doesn’t like his work and kidnaps a ballerina for the dancing portion of his show – a name that will light up the marquee! She happens to be dating a football star, who hooks up with a cop to look into what exactly is going on here.

What exactly IS going on here? You’ve got a sadistic guy kidnapping and torturing these people, with the help of a couple assistants. Plus, he keeps a dungeon full of naked cannibal women in his basement. Oh wait… cannibals. I take it back, I guess maybe this movie has bloodsucking in it after all.

Well, whatever, this is ultra z-grade low budget stuff the likes of which only Troma would release – and they did! If you can make it through the endless torture scenes (with creative but bargain basement special effects) without falling asleep, you might be able to enjoy what I consider the only redeemable part of the movie, which is the oddly funny domestic relationship between the haughty dungeon master and his eager diminutive assistant. To the movie’s credit, this stuff is played for laughs on purpose, and ultimately the whole thing is supposed to be a satire of pretentious artists. Just, not a very good satire. 

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