Bloodsucking Freaks (1976)

Bloodsucking Freaks (1976)

Where better to start a film review series than with the movie from which my blog’s name is derived thanks to an oh-so-clever friend.  Originally titled The Incredible Torture Show during it’s theatrical release in 1976, the film was acquired by Troma and released as Bloodsucking Freaks.

The plot is lacking, as with many 70s horror/exploitation films, but it is unlikely that fans of the genre watch it for a plot.  The lack-of-story revolves around Sardu, the operator of a horror-theatre.  A direct reverse of similar historical theatres like Grand Guignol, Sardu’s show consists of actually dismembering, torturing, and killing victims on stage and making the audience believe it is faked.  When a theatre critic disapproves of Sardu’s performance, he is captured and tortured in hopes of forcefully acquiring a positive review.

Filled with various methods of torture and cruel-humored antics, the film is overall extremely mean-spirited.  Though his use of his own name is certainly amusing, Sardu is a sick dude, as is his sidekick Ralphus.  As is common among stand-up comedian duos, their stage props include bone saws, meat cleavers, thumb screws, a guillotine, and an electric drill.  All of the proceeding tools are used, in various ways, to demonstrate the frailty of the human anatomy.  So in a purely sarcastic analysis, the film truly is a study of the human body.  But seriously, there is nothing more to say than that Sardu and Ralphus are two sick bastards that enjoy torturing and killing their victims in front of an audience that enjoys the display, so long as they still believe it’s fake (after all, what sick individuals would enjoy watching real torture if they were privy to the fact that it was, in fact, real…the only good torture is fake torture).

Bloodsucking Freaks is truly only a film enjoyed by fans of the extreme horror/exploitation genre, and is recognized as one of the “most controversial films of all time”.  Don’t go anywhere near this film if you are not a fan of the genre. Otherwise, it’s an amusing little exploitation flick.