Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Bloodsucking Freaks Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf August 19, 2014

With a title such as “Bloodsucking Freaks,” there’s not much left to the imagination. Refusing such a pesky limitation, writer/director Joel M. Reed attempts to give the audience their money’s worth with this twisted splatter effort from 1976, which also stomped through cinemas as “Sardu: Master of the Screaming Virgins.” Pick any label you like, as Reed stages a perverse and bloody extravaganza that defies description, hoping to take a style of shock value pioneered by Herschell Gordon Lewis to fresh heights of repulsion. “Bloodsucking Freaks” isn’t much of a movie, but it does retain an eye-popping sense of violence, brazen in its contempt for women and disregard for human life. It’s best to treat it all as an extended joke, which helps to digest the intentionally sickening display of pain Reed is a little too eager to share with the audience.

In a tiny NYC theater, master of ceremonies Sardu (Seamus O’Brien) welcomes sparse crowds into his realm of misery. With the help of his little person assistant, Ralphus (Louie de Jesus), Sardu tortures and murders frightened women to delight the audience, challenging onlookers to accept the violence as reality. For theater critic Creasy Silo (Allan Dellay), Sardu’s antics are absurd, labeling the monster a fraud. Sardu, refusing to allow such treatment, manages to kidnap Creasy, chaining him up in his dank basement fortress, where he oversees a human trafficking business, caging victims until they accept him as their master. Also making off with ballerina Natasha (Viju Krem), Sardu has special plans for his latest victims. Worried about Natasha, boyfriend Tom (Niles McMaster) and corrupt cop Tucci (Dan Fauci) team up to search for the missing performer, piecing together clues that lead them to the theater, just in time for Sardu’s most personal performance.

“Bloodsucking Freaks” doesn’t waste time getting to the gruesome details. Within the first five minutes of the movie, we’re in Sardu’s theater, a Grand Guignol-style home for butchery, watching one of his victims clamped into a chair onstage, subjected to finger and cranial torture before death. It’s a potent opener, but valuable in gauging what Reed is prepared to deliver, making sure Sardu’s design for pain, his “pure theater,” is carefully introduced, with the master of ceremonies himself pushing the audience to label the evening’s performance as fakery to help soothe themselves. It’s a provocative sequence, and perhaps the last time “Bloodsucking Freaks” tries to make a point beyond displays of gore and agony, as Reed doesn’t show much patience for puzzling, quickly establishing that Sardu is in fact a ghoul with a raging S&M fetish, out to rip a portion of his stable of feral women to shreds, selling the rest to fund his artistic interests.

Reed comes across as an angry man in “Bloodsucking Freaks,” laboring to lend the feature a gore factor that leaves the audience rattled. There’s illness all over the effort, which features a sadistic dentist (Ernie Pysher) who drills a hole into a woman’s skull, slurping brain and blood out with a straw, and there’s the ongoing fire within Sardu, who loves pain almost as much as he loves Ralphus. The kidnapped are electrocuted, dismembered, and turned into furniture, with Sardu showing little interest in mercy when it comes to his broken females. Sardu and Ralphus even play a game of backgammon in their basement lounge, betting with freshly severed fingers. It’s sick and twisted, but it’s a bit of a stretch to label any of this amusing, though a case could be made for satire, with Creasy perhaps standing in for a powerfully critical figure of the day, as Reed seems too fixated on Sardu’s plan of humiliation to dismiss it as simple plotting. However, it’s a thin argument, with most of “Bloodsucking Freaks” reveling in anguish without the benefit of humor. It’s stark stuff, leaving levity to the viewer if they choose to view the picture as a mirthful massacre.

Troma has included two slightly different versions of “Bloodsucking Freaks” on the Blu-ray: a Theatrical Cut (89:11) and a “Sardu: Master of the Screaming Virgins” Cut (89:54), with the latter including a newly discovered scene where Sardu begs to fellate Ralphus, altering their once vaguely defined sexual dynamic. Both versions feature the “Sardu” title card, while quality on the new footage is noticeably rougher.

Bloodsucking Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation brings "Bloodsucking Freaks" to HD with a recent scan of 35mm elements, but a full restoration wasn't included. Never a pretty picture to begin with, this refreshed look at a grimy horror effort provides pleasing primaries, with emphasis on bright reds during scene of bloodshed, while skintones keep to their natural appeal as the director explores all types of nudity. Low-budget and softly shot, crispness isn't available, but clarity is passable here, permitting some sense of detail, especially with make-up achievements, which showcase limitations in many pauseable moments. Grain is heavy but never problematic. Black levels are on par for this type of grungy cinematography. While the film probably looks better than ever before, damage is steady throughout the viewing experience, with debris, breaks, scratches, and flicker making their presence known. For some, this might add to the disc's appeal, but it's disappointing to see such little interest in even a halfhearted clean-up job.

Bloodsucking Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 Dolby Digital sound mix is quite basic, befitting a movie that doesn't contain a dynamic aural presence to begin with. Hiss and pops are erratic, with some scenes swallowed by damage, while others are perfectly calm, though little interferes with dialogue exchanges, which are preserved with a touch of crispiness in the high end. Violence is loud and intentionally punishing, with screams kept in check. Music is supportive and managed, with some heavy synth throbs to define the pulse of certain scenes.

Bloodsucking Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction with Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman celebrates the HD debut of "Bloodsucking Freaks," with the salesman trying to drum up interest in the movie by lambasting it.

• Commentary with "blood and guts expert" Eli Roth in included, ported over from the 1998 DVD release.

• Interviews (3:48, SD) with actors Ernie Pysher and Arlana Blue and editor Victor Kanefksy are also carried over from the previous DVD release, showcasing a young and unknown Eli Roth discussing "Bloodsucking Freaks" with production participants. Everyone appears to have a great sense of humor about the film.

• Interview (20:07, HD) with Eli Roth catches up with the horror filmmaker in his home, where he reflects on his initial participation with the 1998 DVD (being a 25-year-old film school graduate), shares his massive appreciation for "Bloodsucking Freaks," and explores how the feature influenced his work. The conversation eventually slides into self-promotion, with Roth selling his latest movie and website.

• Interview (14:32, HD) with Chris Jericho permits the wrestler an opportunity to share his adoration for "Bloodsucking Freaks," which he discovered as part of his "Cheap Ass Movie Club" back in the 1990s. His fandom was so strong that he named his sidekick Ralphus as a tribute to the effort. The chat also touches on Jericho's love of gore zone entertainment.

• "Radiation March" (:55, SD) is some type of pollution PSA. Unexplained.

• "Tromaloha!" (8:11, HD) follows Kaufman to Hawaii to check out a "Toxic Avenger" musical put on by a handful of locals in a theater located inside a cemetery.

• "Sell Your Own Damn Spider" (11:57, HD) shadows Kaufman as he films a cameo death for "Big Ass Spider," chatting up its director, crew, and set visitor James Wan.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (1:47, SD), which is out of sync, is also included.

Bloodsucking Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Helping to dilute the gratuitous evil of "Bloodsucking Freaks" is its budgetary limitations, with iffy special effects, lack of extras (a whopping ten people attend Sardu's opening performance), and Krem's inability to nail a line-reading triggering a few unintentional laughs. Reed's obsession with nudity is also amusing, keeping exploitative interests alert with close-ups of jiggling bare breasts. Adding a touch of authenticity to the picture is O'Brien, who's legitimately sinister as Sardu, acting circles around the rest of the cast -- perhaps a bit too credible in scenes where the blissed-out villain is being whipped by his topless lackeys. "Bloodsucking Freaks" is nuts, even for 1976, with a Corman-esque atmosphere (sprinkled with a hint of "Manos: The Hands of Fate") that permits some comprehension of its beloved cult movie status, but doesn't excuse its insistence on excess, which tends to wear down the viewer long before the effort ends.