Life at 100mph

I Drink Your Blood…Director's Cut [review]

PLOT SUMMARY: Unrated – 1hr 20min – 1970

Some grimy hippies (who happen to be dedicated to devil worship) take over a rat-infested, abandoned farmhouse after their van breaks down. An old man tries to intervene but gets manhandled by the squatters. In retribution; one of the old man’s grandkids kills a rabid dog, drains it’s blood and injects it into a batch of meat pies that he sells to the Satanists. It isn’t long before the infection spreads — zombies ahoy!

REVIEW: ***SPOILER WARNING*** [this review contains some information that may/or may not ruin your viewing experience]

This film has all the qualities of a drive-in, grindhouse, B-movie, cult classic from the gritty cinematography, bad lighting, ‘bad’ acting and special effects. In some ways “I Drink Your Blood’ is everthing you could ask for from a 70’s horror film. Unfortunately there are certain elements that detract from what could be an amazing film. Though it holds a firm place in my heart for its strong will attempt to push the envelope for horror movies of it’s time. Watching some fo the DVD’s bonus features put some much needed perspective on the limits of a movie production of this sort.

THE BAD: Lenght of the film. It was just too long. I feel like the first half of the film (about 45 minutes) was really dragged out. There was just too much time spent explaining who everyone was. Really, there was a bunch of dialogue based around who people were instead of showing me what was going on. Seriously, it’s a movie, I knew it was a bakery when you panned across and I could read the sign, not to mention the woman carrying a bunch of baked goods to the trunk of her car. But I digress. I guess what I’m most upset about is the LACK of bloody gore. It’s not until somewhere in the last 3/8th’s of the movie that there is any real bloody moments. [**warning spoiler**] Yeah the boy shoots a dog, not bloody. The first person to goet infected, not that creepy. The first real blood came from a severed leg and not due to posthumus cannibalism but an axe, boring. Aside from that it’s simply not a zombie movie as most of us are led to believe by it’s name and original movie posters.

The GOOD: This movie is HILARIOUS! It is so cliche in every extreme. The child actor is ridiculous and obviously being coached at times. The “special effects” are superb and over-the-top cheesey. The satan worshiping group of teens add a wonderful mix into this movie creating an initial suspense.

I think my favorite character besides Grandpa and the little boy has got to be the mute girl (played by the now famous Lynn Lowry) - YES, I said mute. haha. After watching some of the Bonus features on the DVD the director admitted he only added the actress because she was so beautiful and made her character mute so he wouldn’t have to write her into the script. I think she is my favorite character because throughout the whole move she never says a word and almost seems afraid of everything around her until [spoiler warning] she cuts off an innocent woman’s hand with an electric carving knife. (LOL) Absolutely awesome and super creepy.

With a limited budget and for the limits of technology at the time this is a pretty darn good movie. The director and cast really worked at making this a really easy movie to watch. They actors & actress’ really made their characters ‘human’ and believeable.

I give this movie a rating of 3 out of 5. What really hurt it’s score was the amount of describing the action versus doing as well as it’s drawn out introductions. Other than that it is a great suspense thriller. And if you are really into cheesey-grindhouse movies than this is one to put on your shortlist.

_aaron

In Rome, there were people who specialized in armpit plucking. Somewhere around 1 AD, Roman aristocrats interested in fashion, removed all of their body hair. Requirements for the profession were tweezers, a strong arm and the ability to deal with their customer’s pain.

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