Exploitation December - I Drink Your Blood (1970)

I read about this movie - often mentioned with its long-time double feature I Eat Your Flesh (1964) - for years before seeing it. It sounded bad-ass: cannibal hippies; rabid construction workers; Lynn Lowry (both cute and odd looking...my favorite combination). Some of the photos promised sweet ass gore; decapitated heads, hacked off hands, lots of heavily armed people foaming at the mouth. It appeared to be great; but, could any movie live up to the image the theater in my brain had been playing for years?

When I finally saw I Drink Your Blood a few years ago, I had my answer. Yep, it was as great as I thought it would be. Great, of course, in the sense that it is a fun, bloody romp. Throw in some nudity and a lot of bizarrely humorous touches and you have the recipe for an awesome viewing experience.

I Drink Your Blood follows the wacky exploits of Horace Bones (Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury, who gives a fun, energetic performance) and his merry band of acid-head Satanists. The film starts with Horace leading a Satanic ritual in the middle of the woods. This involves nudity (Ms. Lowry has a pretty nice butt), chicken sacrifices, dropping acid ("Satan was an acid head," proclaims Horace) and, when the group notices a local girl that had tagged along with a cult member Andy (Tyde Kierney), sexual assault. Everything that goes into making a great party, right?

Lynn Lowry; looks good even after chopping off someone's hand. Hey, she still has both of her hands.

The gang winds up in Valley Mills, a mostly abandoned town, on the verge of being flooded when a local dam is completed. It is also the home of Sylvia (Iris Brooks), the young woman who was attacked, and her family. We are introduced to family friend Mildred (Elizabeth Marner-Brooks) runs the local bakery, which specializes in meat pies, the only food in town, apparently. This becomes important as the film progresses. The cultists take up residence in a run-down, abandoned hotel, have a rat hunt, drop acid and torture one of their compatriots for fun. When Sylvia's grandfather, Doc Banner (Richard Bowler and I will refrain from making Hulk jokes; just too easy) confronts the group, he is fed acid and brutalized. Sylvia's brother Pete, shoots a handy rabid dog and decides to get some pay-back by serving the cultists meat pies injected with infected blood.

The group goes nuts, the disease spreads to the construction workers and mayhem ensues. Who lives? Who dies? Watch it and find out. I will say that the body count is high and includes people you might not think would die.

Kids, this is not the way to get a head in life.

The acting ranges from bad but energetic (Bashkar) to bad but...well, bad. Everyone either chews the scenery or seems to be reading off of cue cards. The cinematography is serviceable. You always know what is going on, night scenes are well lit, and there are a few inventive camera shots. The effects are pretty good, although the more ambitious effects (e.g., a decapitated head) betray the low budget nature of the film.

There are some scenes that stretch the bounds of credulity, even in a movie about rabid hippy Satanists. For example, in one scene, Sylvia and Andy go for roll in the hey (literally and figuratively). This is only a day or two after Sylvia has been raped by Andy's friends (we don't know if he participated, but it is pretty clear he knew what was going on). Why would any writer think this is a good thing to do with a character? And the literal interpretation of rabies leading to hydrophobia results in a great scene with Mildred holding off a pack of rabid construction workers with a garden house!

Actually, most of the movie is pretty funny. Rabid construction workers wear hard hats (safety first). A snake farm owner (who has a "Boah Konstrictor") is killed by a piggy back ride and neck massage. Lynn Lowry's lack of manners is explained with this line: "She don't know better, she's a mute." Little Peter is diabolical, but practices safe field medicine, snapping on latex gloves and using a cap on his syringe when he draws the rabid dog's blood. It goes on like this. The film has a sense of humor about it that helps offset some of the distasteful moments.

So, is I Drink Your Blood worth seeing? Yes it is. This is film s goofy and gory. See it with friends and beer; you will not be disappointed.