Buveurs de sang

A group of Satanist hippies roll into a small quiet town and ruffle a few feathers of the locals, since they attacked one of their girls. So the girl's grandfather tries to set things straight with them, but they forcefully make him swallow a LSD cocktail. Wanting revenge for what they had done to his grandfather, a young boy feeds them pies, which have been injected with rabies from a dead dog. Slowly they start to feel the effects and they turn into homicidal maniacs hell-bent on destroying or contaminating anything that crosses their path.

Rabies and hippies, who show their faith in the dark lord. What a freak out! Now, there's no doubts this cheesy delight is wild 'n' wacky fun for the undemanding and was one of the first films to be influenced by Romero's "Night of Living Dead". This memorably sleazy and in bad-taste drive-in, exploitation flick scrapes the bottom of the barrel in the budget restraints, but despite that, it's surprisingly competent. It doesn't stop the sheer flow of comic entertainment, and might I add, this foaming madness is damn hilarious. After eating the very yummy looking pies that the smart little fella messed around with, you'll get a kick out of how the eccentric bunch transform into feral beings and basically going spas, leaving some very nasty splatter behind. The scenes involving water being splashed about is incredibly rib tickling. The acting is extremely fruity, but I thought that it was more than acceptable for this sort of film. George Patterson and Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury were a riot as some of the hippies. Also Lynn Lowry appears in the group. Jack Damon and Elizabeth Marner-Brooks play the more steady heads of the town and they're fine in their roles. While, it might be funny, it still does offer up some nail-biting tension, flash pacing and one or two decent surprises amongst this enjoyably (and sometimes quite) original idea. But oh my, wait to you get your head around the spotty experimental score with its array of funky and otherworldly sounds. The story and fluffy script might leave some loose ends left untied, but the score definitely doesn't.

Simply put, this hocus-pocus was compellingly dumb and scummy fun that has one real cruel edge to it! Well-deserving of its cult status.

"I Drink Your Blood" (1970) is a film that I'd been wanting to see for a very long time. By now, what horror-film fan worth his Judith O'Dea Fan Club membership card has not heard of the movie in which a band of hippies dose Grandpa with LSD, and grandson Petey gives them rabies-infected meat pies in revenge? Only these aren't your typical peace, love and groovy button type of hippies, but rather Satan-worshiping, sadistic thugs, whose violent tendencies only get worse when they start to foam at the mouth... A film that is consistently suspenseful and that keeps the viewer riveted, this is actually a very well-done horror shlocker. The use of bizarro freakout music really helps to punch across the frequent scenes of carnage, and the picture grows increasingly wild as it proceeds. In one scene, a rabid hippy girl practices "free love" with a construction crew, infecting the entire bunch with the disease; a sadly resonant scene in today's AIDS reality. This film's debt to George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," made two years earlier, becomes fairly obvious in the final third, when some defenders cower in a cellar to escape the crazed mob. And speaking of debts, could David Cronenberg have borrowed from this picture, when he was busy putting together 1977's "Rabid"? In any event, "I Drink Your Blood," while never overly gross, is surely not a movie for the faint of heart. It's no "Old Yeller" (1957), that's for sure! And wait till you see all the extras on this deluxe DVD. Fifty chapters for an 80-minute movie! Now that IS crazy!

A band of devil-worshipping hippies take root in a small town that has been evacuated save a group of construction workers, a baker, and a family led by Grandpa the veterinarian. While holing themselves up in a rat-infested hotel(where the hippies actually play a game of who can kill the most rats for the rat barbecue), they are confronted by an irate Grandpa the vet. They force him to take some lsd and beat him up. Grandpa's grandson gets back by injecting a dozen meat pies with rabies from a dog he shot later that evening. The hippies go mad and all those people they infect do likewise. This film is rather distasteful, yet strangely interesting. It is definitely a low-budget affair as no one in it has a name and the special effects are extremely poor. The film is markedly gruesome as you see a man stabbed repeatedly, a leg, hand, head chopped off, and crazed hippies with bloody hands wielding axes, a sword, even an electric carving knife! The producer's name does his film great honor...his name is Jerry Gross.

I saw this as a pre-teen in 1970 at the drive in, my father was very hip for letting us see this. The acting is a little over the top and the script needs a little tlc but this movie left a lasting impression on me. Charles Manson turned a lot of people against hippies so this movie capitalized on that fact by making hippies murder the local townspeople after they are infected with rabies. It was quite an idea to infect them by injecting rabies into meat pies! I'm sure Banquet and Swanson were horrified! And even better to have a kid think of doing this. The violence is also a bit over the top but quite effective. One scene that sticks out is a housewife being a good samaritan and taking in a hungry hippie-chick and using an electric knife to slice her a piece of meat for a sandwich. Well, the close-up on the knife is a give-away as to what is going to happen to the housewife. Next thing we know she is staggering out the back door with a stump where her hand should be.

I love campy schlock and if you do then this movie satisfies. I would love to see a clear DVD version and not the crappy tape I rented a few years back.

I saw this film a while ago when I was on a big Z-grade zombie movie kick. I was not disappointed by this little number. Naturally, there were some problems with the film. The biggest one I can think of is the soundtrack. It sounds like some kids decided to have fun with a synthesizer and the film makers wanted to put it in for kicks. The acting wasn't too good either, but it's obviously on a low budget, so I can forgive that.

The plot is that a group of Satan worshiping hippies come to a small town to wreak havoc on the local population. The hippie bunch end up molesting a local girl and then shacking up in an abandoned hotel. They run afoul of a local brat after feeding his grandfather acid (oh, it was his sister that they molested earlier by the by). So little lord Fauntleroy decides to get even with that counterculture bunch by feeding them rabies laced meat pies (trust me, I'm not making this up). The traveling satanists become blood thirsty cannibals and terrorize the town.

Overall, the film is pretty much a blood and sex packed piece of celluloid, but it's not without its charm. If you're into graphic, low budget violence and shock, this is a film for you. "Citizen Kane" it obviously isn't, but it still manages to retain its overall fun and shock value.

Happy viewings B movie fans.