Rating summary
| Movie |  | 2.5 |
| Video |  | 3.5 |
| Audio |  | 3.0 |
| Extras |  | 2.0 |
| Overall | | 2.5 |
Horror of the Blood Monsters Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 20, 2020
Note: This film is available as part of
Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection.
Disc Four of The Masterpiece Collection aggregates three titles that have at least a tangential connection to each other. Blood of
Dracula's Castle and Dracula's Castle are basically two versions of the same film, while Horror of the Blood Monsters offers
vampires again, albeit this time interpolated from a Filipino film that Adamson decided to appropriate.
No matter what one might think of their ultimate output, Al Adamson and Samuel Sherman were most definitely and without doubt one undeniable
thing:
resourceful. In
Horror of the Blood Monsters, they aggregated clips from other films, including a Filipino monster movie
called
Tagani, then invented a supposed “new, improved” color system called Spectrum X, which was in fact simply tints of black and white
material, in order to cobble together this film. The result is delightfully wacky, if often nonsensical and never even in the slightest scary.
With a vampiric plague assaulting planet Earth, scientist Dr. Rynning (John Carradine) is in charge of leading a bunch of astronauts to a far off planet
where hopefully a cure can be found. Suffice it to say that the astronauts find themselves jumping out of the fire and into the frying pan as they
encounter all sorts of nasty beings.
Horror of the Blood Monsters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Horror of the Blood Monsters is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. There are
some rough moments interspersed with better looking material, as is perhaps unavoidable considering how cobbled together this effort is. The opening
credits are pretty ragged, but a lot of the "new" color footage actually looks pretty decent for the most part, with a nicely suffused palette and generally
good detail levels. There's still prevalent damage in the way of flecks and speckling, along with other blemishes. The Filipino material that has been
interpolated here can be somewhat softer looking at times, and some of the tinting employed doesn't really support fine detail that well.
Horror of the Blood Monsters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Horror of the Blood Monsters features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that capably supports the film's overheated dialogue and
equally overheated score. There are still signs of age related wear and tear, with background hiss and other noise noticeable, and occasional pops and
crackles along the way.
Horror of the Blood Monsters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Partial Audio Commentary with Producer/ Distributor Samuel M. Sherman
- Alternate Title Sequences (1080p; 1:31)
- Trailers (1080p; 6:09)
- TV Spots (1080p; 1:14)
- Radio Spot (1:01)
Horror of the Blood Monsters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Considering how patently ridiculous it is, Horror of the Blood Monsters is actually a lot of fun quite a bit of the time, even though its low rent
"special effects" may provoke more guffaws than wonders. The interpolated footage just gives this film a completely weird, hallucinogenic feeling which
the Spectrum X tinting probably only increases. Technical merits are above average within the context of what's offered overall in this set, and once
again Samuel Sherman's commentary is a lot of fun to listen to.
