Bloodbath

A decrepit little Spanish village is the setting for this terribly overlooked artsploitation gem, wherein a diverse grouping of screwball characters begin to serially meet mysterious and violent ends...among them, a faded Old-Hollywood bombshell, a poetry spouting drug fiend, a stuffy WWll vet and his unstable wife, a couple of muscular gigolos, a bitter, mincing queen, and two waifish young girls.

Prepare yourself for mind bending surrealism, gore murders, cryptoglyphic metaphors, and a standout scene which may be the most politically incorrect in any film made after the Great Depression. Stir in some gay sex and dead animals for good measure, and voilà...an indescribable head-trip that fans of freak cinema won't want to miss. It's surprisingly well mechanized in most technical aspects, and the off-kilter characters are aptly effectuated by an appropriately eccentric cast(Baker, de Santis, and Hopper, most notably).

6/10...recommended.

This flick is for the Hopper obsessive fan. When you have seen all his other work, then you have no choice but to see this. I agree with the other reviewer, much of what you see him "acting" like, is probably close to the real Hopper. This was done right after Apocalypse Now, he went from that film to do this one. The movie itself is horrible. No real story. Bad sound and picture. Even some really horrible dubbing of Hopper's voice which leaves me scratching my head because the dubbed voice matches exactly to what Hopper is saying, but it clearly is not him speaking. It is not all dubbed, but a few parts are and it was a disappointment because I happen to be one of those obsessed fans who not only loves his eyes and smile, but loves his voice. LOL So, if you have seen all of his work, then watch this (if you can find a copy of it). My fave movie of his is Kid Blue, good luck finding a copy of that too, however it was on TV not long ago. I being the obsessed person I am, have a copy of ALL his movies, even the really really bad ones. :)

I was in Spain when this was filmed with my family. The film was shot in the town of Mojacar in the early 1970's. I met most of the actors and knew Silvio Narizzano and his partner Winn Wells personally since they lived down the street from our home. My parents owned a bar/restaurant called El Saloon and all the actors spent a great deal of time in their establishment during filming. My brother was cast as the mentally challenged child who was stomped to death in the plaza as a woman looked on from a balcony.

I clearly remember the shot, however I have never seen the movie as I was quite young at the time. I would like to obtain the movie (dvd, video). If anyway can tell me where to purchase that would be great.

Thank you.

A bunch of burned-out, washed-up ex-pats live out their existence in a Spanish Coastal town, ignoring the natives and bitterly waiting for better days that never come. The locals practise weird rites and old crones walk the streets. Kids are found drowned or worse. Strange hippies descend on the town to seduce the ex-pats. There's barely and plot and the ending just raises more questions.

Dennis Hopper plays Chicken, a burned out drug addict with the manic personality of Dennis Hopper. Chicken keeps seeing his mother everywhere and has all sorts of crazy crap going on in his head. Carroll Baker plays a washed-up actress whom we first see having a pee into the sea after a drunken night out. She keeps waiting for a call to go back to Hollywood. Some other guy plays an ex-RAF officer waiting out his days getting drunk with his wife. Oh, and then there's the middle-aged gay guy firing out snide remarks left right and centre.

We get to see this lot living some sort of budget-level Fellini type lifestyle almost independent of the locals. The hippies seems to spark of some sort of killing spree by someone, but don't be fooled into thinking you're going to get any resolution from this one because while there are a few bloody murders, we never really get to find out who did them. Or why, for that matter. It's all very arty and surreal.

What makes it watchable is Dennis Hopper being insane and Carroll Baker trying to outdo him by being the same. In fact, I've never seen Baker more animated. She even lets out a blood curdling scream at a dinner table when she isn't the centre of attention. Her character is continually on the move while reminiscing about past times (she even relates an encounter which sounds exactly like something Harvey Weinstein would do!) while getting progressively more drunk and depressed.

What's it all about though? No idea. There's some gory deaths here (including a kid being crushed and a nasty impalement up the jacksy for one character) but...can't help with any explanations.

BLOODBATH opens with a woman walking the world's ugliest pig. No, really, you've got to see this thing! Next, a woman pulls the head off of a chicken. We get the immediate impression that something wonky is going on here, since none of the locals seem to have been born with the ability to smile. That is, unless they happen to be leering maniacally.

In total contrast to this, a very non-twelfth century-looking woman appears, dressed in groovy threads. She enters a building where western music plays. Her name is Susanna (Alibe Parsons), and she's met by the heroin-filled, racial slur-spouting, Chicken (Dennis Hopper). They're part of a misfit group of expatriates, living together in this tiny, ultra-religious village in Spain, and they stick out like ballerinas in a bowling alley.

These two groups are set against each other, as scenes of a religious festival is intercut with the hedonistic frivolity of the foreigners. Does anyone see a catastrophic culture clash coming?

Enter the fun-loving ex-movie star, Treasure Evans (Caroll Baker). She's sort of a younger version of Nora Desmond, and another part of this oddball bunch of bananas, that includes an aging WWII General and a mega-flamboyant gay man. They're a family, clinging together in order to be themselves, in spite of their increasingly oppressive surroundings. We get the impression that none of them could survive alone.

When these exiles gather for a Good Friday celebration, their drunken revelry flies in the face of the solemn procession going on beside them. Things have been tense and creepy all along, and the atmosphere gets really thick from here on out!

Soon, the darkness, religious insanity, and death take over completely.

This is one of those wonderfully weird, disturbing films that could only have come out in the 1970's. Filled with bizarre situations and an overhanging sense of gathering, unstoppable doom, the horror bubbles up like a corpse in a bog!

Mr. Hopper is as good or better here than in many of his outings, playing it natural, and letting it fly! For those who've never seen him go absolutely berserk, well, he certainly does that here!

SOME NICE TOUCHES: Watch for the red telephone! And, what's up with the pregnant woman with the umbrella?...