Horror of the Blood Monsters

Dir. Al Adamson

85 Minutes

USA

1970

Starring: John Carradine, Robert Dix, Vicki Volante

*1/2/*****

Horror of the Blood Monsters is an often intolerable Al Adamson watch, but the story of its assembly (the perfect word for how this picture was made) really gets to the core of what makes some of these films charming in their ways. After purchasing the rights to the Filipino horror film Tagani, Adamson took several of its action sequences (fwith the trailer advertising the muscled men of Filipino bodybuilding contests!), combined them with special effects sequences from 40s science fiction films One Million B.C. and Unknown Island, and filmed a wraparound with regulars Robert Dix, John Carradine, and Vicki Volante as a group of space explorers looking for the source of a vampire plague on Earth (with a wonderful opening narration by Theodore Gottlieb explaining the plague with a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo by Adamson with some fake vampire teeth!). 

However, exhibitors were not particularly thrilled with the notion of releasing a film with so much black and white footage. So Adamson and company took the footage, gave it various color tints, and worked in a narrative device where the planet frequently alters its color shades (with red being the absolute worst) to give the illusion of a new color film (interestingly, the original idea was to tint all of the black and white footage in red, but production discovers that the red tint created too much of a lulling effect and strain on the human eye and so rotating colors became introduced to avoid problems). The result is a patchwork of four different movies, none of which have been competently filmed or is even remotely interesting beyond its production story. There are a few amusing ideas, such as Dix and Volante having sex through some kind of machine and series of wires and electricity, but plenty of examples of the narrative being shaped by the limitations of budget and cast (such as. John Carradine remaining in the spacecraft set instead of exploring the planet because of "health reasons"). 

Much of the film involves the characters exploring the planet and watching mostly static footage from the other films (in blue, yellow, green, and, of course for the climax, red). It basically lumbers along til its conclusion, becoming a bit of a rough watch even at eighty minutes. However its methods of exploitation are notable enough as a curiosity, a piece of DIY filmmaking that is well-intentioned in its primary goal to make as much money as possible through spending as little as they can.

Viewed on July 22nd, 2020

Part of the ongoing Al Adamson Project.