Blood Sucking Freaks
You'll scream your head off!
Bloodsucking Freaks has a reputation for being a film to be watched only by those with the strongest stomachs and one which, even the most hardened horror movie fan will watch for completeness rather than entertainment. And it is a very nasty film.
It is also one of the most boring pieces of tosh to be committed to celluloid.
A quick disclaimer before I get going: There are two versions of this film, cut and uncut. From the run-time I’m assuming that this was the cut version. I’m also assuming that most - if not all - of the cuts were made to the more explicit scenes of violence. If this assumption is right, then the cuts have made this film even nastier since, once you are aware of what is going on, what you can conjure up in your mind’s eye is far worse than anything shown on screen.
And this takes us neatly to the ‘boring’ remark. There is a lot of violence in this film, both explicit and implicit and it is all so dull. If ever there was a case of confusing quantity and quality, this is it. It feels like watching an exercise in shock film-making by numbers. This can be easily done by anyone who is willing to simply follow the steps below (imagination not required)
1. Pick up a few popular tabloids and draw up a list of films that are causing an outcry this month.
2. Next, count up the specific objections about each of these films (nudity, mysoginistic violence, cannibalism, etc)
3. Then simply insert these scenes into your film, starting with the scenes most objected to, until you run out of screen time.
The setting is Sardu’s ‘Theatre of the Macabre’, an attempt to bring the French Grand-Guignol style of theatre to American audiences with the twist that the ‘performers’ really are victims and the deaths and mutilations staged for a cynical audience are all being done for real. This is largely played for laughs - badly.
There are jokes aplenty, all of which fall flat because of over-long set-ups followed by punch lines that are either painfully predictable or simply not shocking - The scene in which Ralphus (Luis De Jesus) is shown tasting his cooking is memorable simply because it falls into every one of these categories.
The intention with Sardu (Seamus O’Brien) appears to be to create the type of libertine that populated the writings of the Marquis De Sade and then use him to parody the hypocrisy of his audience and, by implication, the audience of the film in their willingness to accept any level of violence as long as there is someone there to reassure us that it really is all make-believe.
Had Reed been willing or able to go ahead and present a truly Sadean character, this approach could have been very effective. Unfortunately, Sardu is not the amoral libertine depicted in De Sade’s writing and, when he is confronted with someone whose imagination is more depraved than is own he is disgusted rather than excited. This putting a limit on how far Sardu is willing to go means that he has a sense of morality - however perverse - and a line he can’t cross. As such the character, and therefore the film, is unable to push any further against the boundaries of what is acceptable and, from this point on, we the audience can all sit back safe in the knowledge that this really is just another badly made shocker - albeit one with pretensions beyond it’s means.
Saturday 31 Mar 2001 | Paul Pritchard | Comedy, Horror
[…] und it surprisingly unmoving. Films such as The Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Blood Sucking Freaks are all far more painful to watch that The Passion. And the reason f […]
They have recently re released blood sucking freaks on DVD in Australia. So a friend of mine who works in a video store picked it up to watch on a movie night.
Hmm and I thought A Clockwork Orange was somewhat disturbing. Bloodsucking Freaks Takes the cake it the filthiest more gruesome film I think I will ever witness… Although disgusting- its somewhat interesting to see the cheesy 70’s effects. But with this said- I can see why this film was banned… I cannot understand why it is re released to the public for anyone to view though. I think if it got into the wrong hands who knows what it could influence.
Myself how ever being a cult movie fanatic… somewhat enjoyed this film… bout doubts will ever watch again. The constant degration of women though sorta put me off.
If you have the stomach watch… not for the faint hearted though. Don’t watch with your grandmother.
Blimey Paul… who actually says ‘tosh’? BSF is basically a pulp horror film (strangely enough, this being a site about pulp films) and so it’s going to be of a certain shabby pedigree/possibly made for grindhouse/drive-in culture… so all that undergraduate stuff you’re on about is sort of irrelevant.
Hey, the blonde lead’s a fox and there’s no CGI or teen-marketing-driven irony, huh?
ps I love Richard.
Damian,
It’s always a bit embarassing when people remind me what I wrote five years ago, and I have to admit that this is one film that I keep meaning to take another look at.
You are right to say that it’s a pulp horror film and, had I watched it as such, I probably would have been a lot more tolerant towards it. And, had I first seen it within the last couple of years, I would certainly have appreciated the lack of shiny special effects.
The problem I had with it is that the film is often hyped as being some sort of clever social satire. It’s a film that wants to be ironic, but isn’t.
Then again, even the cheapest film can hold my interest if it has either a plot or a character worth caring about. And on that count, BSF completely failed for me - while watching it I simply couldn’t bring myself to care what was going to happen next.
PS. I’ll say ‘Tosh’ if I want to ;o)
Is this movie worth seeing? I like twisted movies…clockwork orange is one of my favorites….
I heard its messed up but is it something that goes too far?….well I dotn think thats possible if you’ve seen alotta faces of death videos….which really warped my mind and i found disturbing….cuzz i was 13 but yeah…someone reply to this.
The only thing I liked in this film was the young girl getting spanked while in the guillotine. I just love watching a girl’s naked boohind getting spanked. But that’s about it, the rest was just gross and sick with a few laughs.