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The Blood Drinkers

The Blood Drinkers

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $17.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: BLOOD DRINKERS EDITED?????
Review: I saw this movie as a child at the drive-in theater with my parents. The scenes of gore as necks were hacked by the sharp gleaming fangs of the undead left an indeleble mark upon me as a child. I recently purchased a copy of the DVD and was shocked to find out that all of the gorey scenes were edited out!!! Why??? This was what made this vampire flick far ahead of it's time. If anyone knows why this is so, please e-mail me. I'd love to get a copy that hasn't been "cut up" so to speak!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: BLOOD DRINKERS EDITED?????
Review: I saw this movie as a child at the drive-in theater with my parents. The scenes of gore as necks were hacked by the sharp gleaming fangs of the undead left an indeleble mark upon me as a child. I recently purchased a copy of the DVD and was shocked to find out that all of the gorey scenes were edited out!!! Why??? This was what made this vampire flick far ahead of it's time. If anyone knows why this is so, please e-mail me. I'd love to get a copy that hasn't been "cut up" so to speak!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: At Last!
Review: Others may swoon over the release of middlebrow slop like "ET- the special edition" or the director's cut of bloated hogwash like "Titanic," but me, I'm thrilled that finally, thanks to this swell new technology, I can get pristine versions of Jean Rollin films, uncut prints of European faves like "Castle of Blood" and now, a beautiful print of "Blood Drinkers," a film that used to play, chopped-up, on tv bc (before cable).

Those who might scoff at a Philippino horror film should give this item a spin. Filled with gorgeous monochrome color photography (blue for night, red for vampire attacks), this film features a lead vampire who wouldn't look out of place in an s/m club (hey, he even drinks from wounds he makes with a whip), and a plot that is a mixture of Christian iconography and native superstitions (linking it to Mexican horror, another unfairly maligned genre). There's also some suprising imagery; eg, a female vampire who wanders around in a very translucent nightgown, for those who notice such things.

The scene where our vampire "hero" and his lost love romp around a technicolor heaven is worth any number of bad Wes Craven movies, and the film even has a slight suggestion of incest, a theme the director further explores in his "Curse of the Vampires" which should be the next film to get a good DVD release.

So, what more do you want?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: could be crazier
Review: The first few minutes of this flick give you an idea of where you're headed. Some great mist-enshrouded tombs, a great gang of villains (a bald vampire and his slinky bride, both wearing dark glasses, a dwarf, a hunchback and an old lady) and some startling monochrome cinematography are on the plus side. On the minus is some really dopey dialogue, lots of wasted shots of people staring at each other, and clumsy editing that leaves you totally confused as to who is who and what the heck is going on. There's a bizarre music interlude as a gang of guys serenade a woman who we think is the main actress, only she gets bumped off in an unexpolained attack a couple of minutes later. After all of this confusion, we move into the story proper, that has the feeling that they made stuff up as they went along, as nothing seems to flow narratively. OK. I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane here. But I think the big flaw in this film is that it takes itself too seriously. It needed to have the same crazy drive that was shown in the Movie Trailers in the DVD's extras section (these are great). But instead, it kind of plods along from one killing to the next. To make matters worse, the scenes of violence seem to be cut - just as someone's about the get their throat ruptured or a vampire is about to get staked with a giant wooden cross, the camera cuts away to an onlooker gasping in horror. This film could have done with more doses of blood as a way of diverting your attention from the heaps of illogical goings-on. It's an okay piece - but more of a curiosity than a camp classic.


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