Blood Mania

This film is best described as an early fore-runner for the glut of erotic thrillers choking the video store shelves today. In this one, a woman kills her father in order to get his inheritance to help a blackmailed doctor, but much to everyone's surprise, the inheritance goes to her sister instead! Nope, not making this up, folks. Worth a look to see the attractive DeAragon in the flesh, however, as well as the comical blackmailer who apes Clint Eastwood to the nth degree.

Blood Mania: A scumbag doctor is blackmailed by a former associate to fork over $50,000 in hush-money for performing illegal abortions. To make matters worse, one of his despicable bed-ridden patients has a slutty daughter that won't take "no" for an answer-- she just wants some scumbag doctor sex! It doesn't take long for the daughter to realize the doctor needs a lot of cash--stat. Finally, she has the opportunity to make the doc her personal sex-slave boy-toy: murder dad! This movie seizes every opportunity to take the low road: it has a great deal of nudity, perhaps to distract the audience from the fact that the characters are all generally nasty and repulsive. It's more of a sleazy, soft-core porn/soap opera than it is the horror film it bills itself as. Pay no attention to the opening credit sequence, as it has nothing to do with the rest of the film. For cartoon fans, there is a wickedly cool animated title card at the film's opening.

Whenever I think of legendary grade z studio Crown International, the first movie that pops in my head is BLOOD MANIA. I love Crown International's movies. There something about movies from that "studio" that I just can't help but love or appreciate. And BLOOD MANIA is probably its crowning (pun intended) achievement. Sleazy, cheap, obscure, with dream-like pacing and direction, BLOOD MANIA is almost one of kind in its wonky way of telling a story about sex, greed and murder. BLOOD MANIA is a soap opera but with a sleazy and lurid twist. BM is low key from beginning to end and never goes overboard with the sex, gore or violence, which is why maybe some don't like it. It's lurid enough to turn off the casual viewers but it's not lurid enough for fans of exploitation or gory enough for gorehounds. But I like this approach. The way I see it, the makers of this movie were probably inspired by the soap operas made in those days (EDGE OF NIGHT, for example) but wanted the film to be a notch higher on the sex and violent factors (but it's not high enough to what we've become accustomed to these days on TV or films).

The film spends a bit too much time on the plain looking nurse, mainly because her character doesn't go anywhere, but I like the mostly good looking cast. The scene where the blackmailer talks endlessly to the nurse is one weird moment captured on film. The way he talks and the dialogue he says, and they way the scene is shot, is oddly fascinating. And the ending is effective, even if it might be a little too late for most viewers.

I like BLOOD MANIA. I'll always look at it as one of Crown International's "best" films.

PS, make sure to check out POINT OF TERROR, another trash classic from Crown International Pictures and Peter Carpenter.

Blood Mania (1970)

* (out of 4)

Victoria (Maria DeAragon), the slut daughter of a rich old man, gets the bright idea to impress the doctor (Peter Carpenter) she likes by killing her father so that she can give the doctor his inheritance money. The sex maniac daughter eventually kills her old man and this here gets the doctor interested because the money can keep his good name from being ruined by a blackmailer. However, the good doctor has around five other women on the side and this isn't going to sit well with Victoria.

That's basically what happens in this film but once again, I haven't the slightest clue what this film is about. If you're looking for any blood then you might as well skip to the final five minutes where we get one good kill scenes but don't fear, the movie makes up in other ways. I'll state the obviously bad stuff first however. Everything from the acting to the directing is lower than what you'd expect from an Ed Wood film and especially any scene where one of the characters has to be emotional. Another incredibly silly thing is Peter Carpenter and his playboy act. The actor also served as producer and I can't help think he used this ability to be in sex scenes with beautiful women. His macho act never works but it does bring several laughs to the film.

Is Blood Mania a complete bus then? Nope and I'll tell you why. Outside an interesting animated sequence to start the film, this movie, like no other I've seen, has an outrageously good amount of nudity. You've heard people say a horror film needs at least one murder every ten minutes well this film has a nude scene at least every three minutes. All of the doctor's lovers are happy to get naked and they do so throughout. Even though the story and actors were bugging me to death, I could never call this a complete disaster since the director was smart enough to throw in plenty of good looking women.

The Plot.

A sex-crazed nympho helps speed along her father's death so she can use the inheritance to help out her depraved boyfriend.

Firstly the movie sucks. It's one of the weirdest films you'll ever see, and not in a good way.

It's really horribly tedious to watch.

On the plus side the technicolor rendering is great.

But to be perfectly frank, all three stars I am giving this movie are because of the female lead who had the hottest body I have ever seen.

Coupled with this is her complete willingness to strip down every 5 seconds. It's an amazing body to observe. Not an ounce of fat and the longest, flattest torso you will ever see.

Get out the Vaseline.