The incredible torture show (Blood Sucking Freaks (DVD))

Member Name: Beggar James

Product:	Blood Sucking Freaks (DVD)
Date:	17/05/01 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: In the style of H.G. Lewis, Plenty of gore, Quite amusing, if this is your type of film

Disadvantages: A distasteful film, Offensive for some, Lacks the charm of H.G. Lewis

This is definitely not a film for all viewers. As you can tell from the title, it's a crude, questionable exploitation flick, whose alternate title. 'The Incredible Torture Show' pretty much tells you all you need to know.

The plot concerns a sadistic madman, who runs a grand guignol type show, which is basically a front for a white slavery racket. Behind the scenes of this circus of horrors, the female performers are 'trained' by being tortured, killed and abused. Eventually, the unwilling women revolt, adn turn on their captors, turning their new skills to more deadly purposes....

Sounds unpleasant, right ? Well, it pretty much is, and if you find the concept of the film offensive, then there's not much point in expending the effort required to search this obscurity out. However, although there is a lot of nastiness, due to the execution of the film (pun intended), the events are pretty far from being harrowing.

Basically, this is a film in the style of the ol' guru of splatter, Herschel Gordon Lewis, whose 'Blood Feast' and 'Colour me Blood Red' are classics of the genre. This means atrocious acting, dreadful scripting and wildly over the top gore sequences. Director Joel M. Reed duly delivers in all of these areas, and the film has the same theatrical, almost surreal feel of H.G.'s shock flicks.

As a result of this, depending on your point of view, the film is quite amusing, though it is debatable whether or not this was the intended effect. The film does deliver in terms of gore, and there is a sleaze-soaked atmosphere if that's your thing. There are some scenes which would be pretty extreme if they weren't performed so amateurishly, such a a girl's brains being sucked out with a straw. The fact that most of the violence is directed against women does make the film somewhat more distasteful than Lewis' howlers, and I guess it's kind of questionable whether
this could be called entertainment. The direction is slow and clumsy, and without the charm to carry it off, 'Bloodsucking Freaks' is at best an average film, even for enthusiasts.

Overall, this is a curiousity piece for gore hounds. It's not easy to find, so you'd have to be pretty sure it's your type of thing before bothering to quest for it. If it is your bag, then you'll probably enjoy it, although it's not as good, and lacks the charm of the H.G Lewis classics.

Summary: