Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David F. Friedman ditched softcorn porn in the early 60's to create a series of gory horror films designed specifically to cater to the increasing demands of the Southern drive-in movie market. The first three of their horror ventures, BLOOD FEAST (1963), 2000 MANIACS (1964) and this feature from 1965 made up what was later to be called their "Blood Trilogy." COLOR ME BLOOD RED is easily the least shocking, least entertaining and least memorable of the bunch, but it does have it's moments...
Adam Sorg (Don Joseph) is a Florida based struggling artist living in a beach house who has not yet been able to break through on the snobbish local art scene. That is, until he stabs his bickering girlfriend and discovers that all his paintings needed were a touch of red...blood red. His new morbid creations suddenly become the craze on the art scene, so he must kill more people for more blood to make more paintings.
Lewis must have really liked "aquacycles," some incredibly slow-moving bikes with floating tires, cause he puts these hilariously dated things in every possible scene. Adam and his girlfriend take a ride on them before he kills her, then a young couple steals them ("Oh, come on! He won't notice!"), prompting Sorg to impale the guy, then kidnap the girl, tie her up in his house, cut open her stomach and squeeze blood out of her guts directly onto a palette!
This film (briefly known as MODEL KILLER) is now noteworthy mainly as a vintage curio, complete with primitive gore FX, dated fashions faux pas and colorful lines of dialogue like "Come out to the patio, daddy-o!"
All in all, a decent watch.
