Of all the lurid titles vying with each other for attention in the golden days of exploitation film none had quite the compelling call of Bloodsucking Freaks. Just one mention of the film was enough to have gore fans literally giving their right arm for the chance to see it. If that title didn’t quite have the desired effect then the fact it was also known as ‘The Incredible Torture Show’ among others should have done. Unfortunately this was not at all possible for those of us hearing about it in fanzines around the video age as it never got a UK release and at best you were only going to get the chance to just about be able to catch it through nth generation fuzzy bootleg copies. I’m not 100% sure whether any enterprising company at the time attempted to put it through the auspices of the BBFC but it would have been laughed out the viewing room if they had. The fact is the film is a depraved exercise in sadism and is an incredibly unpolitically correct viewing pleasure that still has the power to shock despite its highly comedic and high camp approach. Thankfully thanks to film festivals at private clubs such as The Scala the film did make the odd appearance and the ever reliable Lloyd Kaufmann picked it up and delivered it in all its gory glory on the other side of the pond under his Troma banner.
Amazingly it is only just getting its first release here courtesy of 88 Films who are presenting it completely uncut in the UK on Blu Ray and about time too. Joel M Reed only made a handful of movies and this was very much his coup de grace. Others such as anthology horror movie Blood Bath (1976) and Night Of The Zombies (1981) his last film are from shady memory watchable but nothing had the impact of this extravaganza. I say last film although the IMDB shows that currently in pre-production is his first film since 81 entitled ‘The Renegade Ghouls of Kaplan’s Swamp’ touted for a late 2014 release, call me excited!
The originally entitled ‘Sardu’s House Of Screaming Virgins’ cropped up on the Grindhouse circuit in 1976 and plot wise Blood Sucking Freaks owes a huge debt to the work of H.G. Lewis whose 1970 film The Wizard Of Gore it resembles closely, although having said that it completely trumps it in every way. Sardu (Seamus O’ Brien) is an entertainer reeling in hip beatnik crowds with his show of grand-guignol excess and depravity, torturing young, pretty but seemingly willing young ladies. Most of the torture is actually done by his assistant Ralphus an eccentrically hamming up his part dwarf played by Luis De Jesus. You can see already that political correctness has gone straight out the door. A sceptical famous football star along with his equally famous ballerina girlfriend are watching the show along with a critic who is so appalled by the play acting he is not even going to review the show in case it encourages anyone to go and see it. Naturally they all become embroiled in developments and some may unwittingly become key players in future shows.
Everything about this screams mid 70’s from the clothing (for the few cast members actually wearing any) to the camp music and portrayal of Sardu who must have had a certain church of Satan up in arms due to his LaVeyan demeanour. Fingers are crushed, limbs lopped off and Rufus enthusiastically cuts out an eyeball and slurps it down and this is just in the first few minutes. When the pair relax at home they are surrounded by naked women pandering to their needs (I would not be at all surprised if some of them were actually local hookers cast in their roles) and there are a load locked in a cage feasting on human flesh too! One young lady is led in on a leash to which Sardu decrees “put her to work in the toilet, her mouth will make an interesting urinal.” Depravity after depravity follows in quick succession. A naked girl’s back is used as Sardu’s dinner table complete with burning candle. Rufus and Sardu enjoy a game of darts using a pert behind as the board, they also like backgammon where a finger is used for the pot. In one of the most jaw dropping scenes a doctor employed to look after the health of the ladies (yeah right) is given his reward for payment in the form of a girl to experiment on. After unnecessary dentistry he performs a craniotomy and sucks her brain out with a straw! Despite all this, the over the top way everything is done cannot be taken seriously in the slightest, it’s as much a comedy as anything and despite the fact the film is still banned in certain places. This no doubt led to the censors allowing it to finally be seen in the UK without chopping it up. Some of the one-liners are delirious as the devilish duo come up with puns that even had me cringing and as a friend mentioned it would indeed make an excellent double bill with Carry On Screaming.
This release is pretty much the same as the Troma one. There is a bit of grain to the image but then again this adds to the sleazy, grimy grindhouse vibe of the film, so it should not put you off picking it up if you have not got a copy. Extras are the normal much seen Troma bits and bobs, trailers, The Radiation Dance and an introduction by Lloyd Kaufman. One thing I had not seen before is an all too short interview segment with one of the caged woman reflecting on the dick sandwich she had to eat (best not to ask), Ernie Pysher the doctor also has some amusing anecdotes but this is only a few minutes long. Naturally the main players are unfortunately no longer with us. O’ Brien was killed by a burglar in 1977 after making just this and another film and De Jesus died of a heart attack in 1988. Neither probably had any idea what a cult movie Bloodsucking Freaks would be even 38 years after it was made. It’s an endearing legacy to be remembered for that’s for sure!
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