Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson

Easily one of the best documentaries of a life I have ever seen. The interviews were incredibly well done, honest and loving portrayals of their friend. Even folks that are not horror fans will enjoy this great piece of work. I have seen several of his movies, but I will definitely go back with my new knowledge of how they were made and enjoy them a second time.

Really good documentary. I saw this on Shudder not knowing who he was, but I'm really glad I watched it. The ending was really sad and tragic. I liked the behind the scenes look at the b movie genre from back then.

This was a documentary that I got turned on to thanks to podcasts. Al Adamson was a director that I had seen a couple of his films without realizing who he was at the time. One of them my father picked up on DVD, Horror of the Blood Monsters. He thought it was a movie that he saw growing up. The other was Blood of Dracula's Castle. That was one that I saw thanks to the Horror Show Guide Encyclopedia. This is one that I watched while at work as I treated it like a podcast.

This does a good job at detailing the life of Adamson. We learn about his start in film thanks to his father and how he didn't necessarily want to be an actor. He realized that he could be in the industry and make money. His low budget approach didn't always work, but it did eventually allow him to continue making films. It also allowed him to work with the likes of John Carradine, Russ Tamblyn and Lon Chaney Jr., amongst others. I did like to see actors who worked with Adamson recounting, both positive and negative, their experiences.

Going along with this, we also get similar filmmakers like Fred Olen Ray or from people who worked behind the camera like Vilmos Zsigmond. It is crazy to see people working with Adamson, then them go on to do bigger things as their career develops. It is fun to see how people got their start and then where it went, especially if they had mainstream success.

This unfortunately ends in tragedy as well. It is heartbreaking to hear, especially since everyone seems to mostly remember him in a positive light. Not that if he was a scoundrel that he deserves to be murdered. This does make a comment about the movies he made that it did only seem fitting he would meet his end in a similar fashion. It is truly sad. I did think that this would do well in moving through the different phases of his career and to where things ended up. It was interesting and I enjoyed my time here. I know that Adamson wasn't a great filmmaker, but I do have his filmography on my list. Would recommend it if you're a fan of him or just intrigued to learn more.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

What do Orson Welles, Academy Award-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, Lon Chaney, Jr., Colonel Sanders, The Three Stooges, Charles Manson, an international UFO conspiracy, and a wrecked hot tub deep in the California desert all have in common?

Cinema schlock-meister Al Adamson, that's what. The creative force behind such drive-in classics as "Satan's Sadists", "Blazing Stewardesses" and "Dracula vs. Frankenstein", Adamson's oeuvre rivals Ed Wood in the pantheon of bad films. Like Wood, his life didn't end particularly well. As a matter of fact, it matches the title of one of his films - "Blood of Ghastly Horror".

This doc gives him his due. Unlike Wood, he had no delusions of grandeur. It's a very entertaining look at independent/exploitation filmmaking in the '60's and '70's.

Streaming on Tubi TV.

I knew nothing about Adamson before watching the film, but found this documentary highly entertaining. From Al Adamson's outlandish exploitation films to the mystery surrounding his grizzly end, his unique character is lovingly portrayed in this well constructed documentary.