Blood Bath (1975)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: C+

 

 

Amicus was the lower-budget version of Hammer in England and both studios turned out their share of anthology feature films.  There were also a few one-shot films and independent productions there and in the U.S., with Joel M. Reed’s 1975 film Blood Bath being an American indie entry.  Later-known actors like Doris Roberts, P.J. Soles, Harve Presnell and Jerry Lacy show up in various segments as a group of people sit around telling their scary stories and we see each of them as a separate segment.

 

This is not the best of such films and part of the interest here is the Americanization of the British approach, knowingly or not.  Each segment varies in quality and effectiveness, with little being very effective, but all of them are interesting in one way or another.  The actors are really trying to make this work and the make-up effects have dated somewhat, but the ambition is one of the reasons this is still watchable.  Reed is celebrated by exploitation Horror fans for his overrated Bloodsucking Freaks, but this film shows he had more to offer and almost got to show it more often.  It is worth a look for the curious.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is poor, from an analog videotape source, apparent from the beginning when the white/blue theatrical rating indicator band has its whites turning yellow.  From there, Robert M. Baldwin’s interesting cinematography suffers from plugged-up color, as Movielab color looks better than this.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and Stereo versions are about even here, though I liked the Stereo a tad more.  Extras include trailers for six other Subversive Cinema DVD releases, text on the cast and crew, commentary with the director and a making of featurette with the usual interviews.  The DVD case also contained reproductions of lobby cards and the poster.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo