Bloodsucking Freaks

Bloodsucking Freaks (AKA The Incredible Torture Show)
1976
Directed By Joel M. Reed



SYNOPSIS

The sadistic Sardu (Seamus O'Brien) operates a 'theater of the macabre' in the SoHo section of New York. His shows feature nude women being tortured in front of an audience who believes these are an act. Sardu gets ambitious and decides to kidnap a famous ballerina, brainwash her, and add her to his show. Her football-playing boyfriend and a crooked cop find a lot more than they were bargaining for when they try and locate her.



MY THOUGHTS

When you decide to watch a film called 'Bloodsucking Freaks' you should immediately know what you are getting into, but this film surprised me with its sheer level of smuttiness.

The violence is extreme. You see limbs cut into and chopped off. Heads are chopped off or drilled into. Various people meet various Medieval torture devices. And a few people even get ripped to shreds.
The extreme violence keeps you watching, oddly intoxicated, not knowing how they are going to show next, somehow to top the depraved images you just saw.

The film contains some hilarious imagery among the horror. Sardu's dinner table is a nude woman crouched down on all fours and his dart board is a woman's bare butt. Then there's the group of feral nude women kept locked up in the basement... and I'm going to try and explain that one (because I can't.) And don't forget the brain-sucking scene!

These along with some witty, dark and sadistic one-liners keep the film from being too heavy-handed (or severed-handed.) The film is essentially the blackest of black comedies... and high camp as well.

The film's extremely low budget affected the casting. Despite the film near constant cacophonous screaming, none of them ever sound authentic. Sardu's sidekick, the evil midget named Ralphus, is so over the top you wind up laughing at him even when he's serious. When the famed ballerina takes the stage, it's quite obvious the actress has never ever danced in her life! Her boyfriend could have been played by a tree and no one would have noticed.
The makeup/ gore scenes never look like the real thing thanks to the budget... yet are still effective.
The low budget also affected the costuming (for the men anyway) and the sets and just about every other aspect of the film, but all of it ads to the sleazy filthy quality of the film's atmosphere.

This is probably the most misogynistic film I've ever seen. Every woman is treated like dirt. Only a few of them are even allowed to wear clothes (briefly.) In fact I've seen porn with women with more clothes on than this! (though the nudity is not there for titillation)
But then again I don't believe this film is intended to make any statements on the treatment of women. The film clearly only has one intent, that to shock.

So if horror films make you the least bit squeamish, avoid this like the plague. Otherwise, this could be an interesting and eye-opening trip into the macabre for those who could handle it. Bloodsucking Freaks remains a shocking piece of cinema, even with its shortcomings, in the 30+ years since it was unleashed on an unsuspecting public and is worth a view (though you'd probably not want to go back for seconds.)