INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 2/21/19

 

Bad movie fans love to wander through that magical, dreamlike territory created when a low-budget, made-on-a-shoestring horror movie transcends its badness to become an almost blissfully immersive experience in "so bad it's good"-ness.

One movie that easily transports willing viewers to that wacky wonderland of the twisted mind is INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS (Severin Films, 1972).  This makeshift affair was filmed on three weekends with actors paid mostly with six packs of beer (the highest-paid thespian in the cast received a whopping $25) on rural locations in upstate New York.

Director and co-writer (with Ed Kelleher) Ed Adlum, who also produced and co-wrote SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED, planned for this to be an alien invasion movie, but economy forced him to make it about druids who are kidnapping people and draining them of their blood in an isolated farmhouse, hoping to find the right blood type that will reanimate their sleeping Queen Onhorrid and please the underworld gods that they worship.

It's an uneasy juxtaposition of MOTEL HELL (these druid-drones are some real backwood hick-types), complete with a torture barn where screaming victims are chained up and horrifically power-drained of their blood with what appears to be a cow-milking machine, and some diabolical Gothic-tinged scenes with an effeminate cult leader, Creton (Paul Craig Jennings), and his capo who both appear to have studied at the Bunny Breckinridge School of Acting.

Meanwhile, blissfully square med student Don Tucker (Bruce Detrick) is engaged to waiflike Jenny (Tanna Hunter) while assisting her scientist father Dr. Anderson (Norman Kelley) in studying a sample of druid-victim blood that is constantly increasing in volume.

Little do they realize that Dr. Anderson's friend and consultant on the case is Creton's right-hand man, who conspires to sabotage his research and kidnap Jenny as a potential blood donor for the druids' slumbering queen.

Add to that a gang of comical ne'er-do-wells down at the local bar, including a drunken police deputy who refers to the bar as a "police annex", and we have a cast of characters whose Ed Wood-level acting and dialogue are a constant delight, especially during the more dramatic scenes which just can't help but turn out delightfully funny.

Writer-director Adlum himself confirms that there was no intentional humor in the film (save for one reference to Bloody Marys) and that things just sort of turned out that way while they were earnestly trying to get the film done with the rushed schedule and meager resources available.  As it is, the film's technical qualities vary wildly with different people behind the camera and some occasionally rough editing, among other things.

Yet it all comes together to create a strangely satisfying and pleasingly odd horror film experience that reminded me somewhat of EQUINOX (without the SPFX) by way of TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and garnished with the sort of florid Goth touches found in old horror comics.  All of which is juxtaposed with that hokey Hicksville ambience that seems rife for an invasion by evil blood farming druids.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films features a very nice-looking print taken from the original negative.  English subtitles are available.  The bonus menu includes a commentary track with Ed Adlum and actress Ortrum Tippel, moderated by Kier-La Janisse (author of "House of Psychotic Women"). There's also a very interesting and engaging interview with Adlum, an interview with actor Jack Neubeck (who played druid-drone Egon), an interview with cinematographer Frederick Elmes, and the film's trailer.

INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS is one of those delightful bad-movie romps that just can't help being consistently entertaining in one way or another. The big finale, shot mostly in one take, is just too oddly off-kilter for words.  And even the happy ending left me agog.  It's the sort of blandly bizarre narrative one might dream after being hit over the head with a blunt instrument. 


Buy it from Severin Films

Release date: 2/26/19

Special Features:
Audio Commentary with Director Ed Adlum and Actress Ortrum Tippel, Moderated by Kier-La Janisse, Author of House of Psychotic Women
Nothing You’d Show Your Mom: Eddie Adlum’s Journey through Exploitation, Coin-Op & Rock n’ Roll
Harvesting the Dead: Interview with Actor Jack Neubeck
Painful Memories: An Interview with Cinematographer Frederick Elmes
Trailer