Blood Sabbath

Delirious mess of a witchcraft tale is watchable mainly as a showcase for the female bust. 'Nam vet drifter David(Anthony Geary, "Luke Spencer" of GENERAL HOSPITAL fame) is nettled by a group of reckless hippies who are having some sort of baby-oil orgy in the wilderness. By and by, he falls in love with a foxy water nymph named Yyalah, but she can't requite his affections "because he has a soul". The inimitable Dyanne Thorne(of the amazing ILSA films) turns up as a witch named Alotta (hmmmm...now there's a name you can have all sorts of fun with), who has plans of her own for David. This very druggie deep-woods tale of love, lust, and the supernatural culminates in a satisfactory bittersweet finale(and a closing credits crawl with that distinctly MARY-TYLER-MOORE lettering font), but getting that far along is a challenge and a chore.

An occasionally interesting, but mostly tiresome affair from the post-psychedelic burnout years(a place in time which I personally refer to as "the rattan zone"). If you're not a dedicated completest of 70s horror trash, you might opt to give this one a wide berth. I'm pretty sure it's inspired by, or very loosely based on Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's 19th century romantic fantasy novella UNDINE.

4/10

Boob Sa-butt, more like! If you like nudity, naked girls, and women with no clothes on then this film is right up your street. Our hero, David, is a Vietnam vet wandering the land with a guitar and not much else when he's set upon by naked, annoying hippy girls and before you know it he's being rescued by a water nymph and falling in love. Trouble is, the water nymph can't totally fall in love with him until he loses his soul. Why? I've no idea, but luckily there's a coven of witches nearby who just happen to be on the lookout for a soul. Makes sense to whomever wrote the screenplay, I guess.

You've also got the local fisherman guy, and the local priest who is now having an attack of the guilt after filling his boots with naked witch acolytes for years. What price will David pay for the witches services? How will his water nymph missus react? Does anyone come out unscathed from making pacts with witches? And will Dyanne whatshername get out her knockers and boogie for the lads? The answer to that last one is indeed a 'yes' and it's enough to make a bald man cry, if you know what I mean.

Look, Blood Sabbath is a strange, strange film. It should be kind of boring, but the frequent nudity and all round surreal nature of thing keep you going. David's a Vietnam vet, and I get the feeling that all this film takes place in some kind of purgatory or something, which would explain the annoying hippy people and the flashbacks to him accidentally shooting children. Either that, or I've watched far too many weird films and something bust up there in my brain, there.

The world's least convincing Vietnam Vet (Tony Geary) finds himself in the middle of a conflict involving a coven of hot naked chicks. Oh, and they all want to have sex with him/rape him (Oh no!)

Yes, that's the premise. Done while Vietnam was still in our psyche (and the hippie movement was dying, thank God), "Blood Sabbath" is one of those sleazy, strange horror/exploitation flicks that played in drive in theaters. As you can see from the premise, the movie is as dumb as it sounds. Nudity is abundant (not that there's anything wrong with that), dialog is stilted, Vietnam flashbacks are poorly done and have little to do with the ridiculous plot, and the movie in itself is a totally surreal experience.

Honestly, how do you rate a movie like this? It's bad, but it's so strange and stupid that it defies description. I honestly can't see an oddity like this being made today. See it if you want to see what independent horror was like before "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and after "Night of the Living Dead."

Awesome score by Les Baxter BTW.

A passable load of nonsense lent a certain charm by the utter soppiness of the two main characters - a young man and his water nymph girl friend.

They are kept from getting together because he has a soul and so he seeks out an evil witch to take his soul away so that he can be with his water nymph forever. This seemed to involve a lot of topless jiggling by said evil witch.

The same weekend I bought this DVD I also bought Octopus II, She Lives by Night, and Boogeyman 2, and compared to them this was a masterpiece! Still I was glad I'd only paid £2.97 for it.

I voted "excellent" because I have not seen the movie since 1972. I was involved with its production and, quite honestly, had no idea that there was a print out there, anywhere in the world. Thought for sure it had been lost and destroyed. lol I have ordered the film so that I can view it, and it will be fun trying to remember what was what. Tony Geary was an unknown at the time that this was made. Once he made it big on "General Hospital," he would have taken it all back. Again I am laughing because it is a part of my life that I find myself reviewing these days as I approach 71 years old as a little old grandmother. It will be fun to share this with my daughter who had not been born at the time. Bri was a lovely film photographer, a very nice lady, and did some directorial work. Her passing was mentioned a few years ago on the Oscar show. Took me back some. But then many of the people involved with that production have passed. Bill Bairn the producer is gone, Sam Gilman (usually associated as best friend of Marlon Brando's) is gone, Bri is gone, and god knows who else. It was an interesting experiment for everybody. There was an actors strike at the time and it was a bunch of pick up people who did it for fun on less than a shoestring. It was shot in 16mm and transferred to 35mm. Les Baxter took it on as a lark, but his music was hauntingly beautiful. Most of the film was shot on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley, and the Gower Street Studio's back lot. Can't wait to see it! P.S. I intend to go through my closet of slides to see if I still have the slides from the movie. I took hundreds. What fun this is going to be. If this is such a cult movie (?) maybne I can get some prints made and sell on e-bay. hahahahaha