BLOODSUCKING FREAKS

This review is primarily concerned with highlighting the differences between this Troma blu-ray release and the UK blu-ray release from 88 Films, which has already been reviewed on this site.

As for the film:

A van drives through New York at night. Its driver occasionally turns to smirk at the gurning lackey beside him. When they finally reach their destination, they struggle with carrying a crate from the back of the van and into a dingy backstreet building.

Inside, well-groomed Sardu (Seamus O'Brien) and his midget sidekick Ralphus (Luis De Jesus) excitedly open up the crate and hoist its contents out with a chain crane: a naked woman.

We're in New York's seedy Soho district. In particular, a back alley fleapit known as Sardu's Theatre of the Macabre. Sardu holds court centre-stage for a small audience who've gathered to watch his latest show, which involves dragging nude females onto the stage and mutilating them before their very eyes.

Celebrity footballer and hairspray endorser Tom (Niles McMaster) is in the audience with his ballet dancing partner Natasha (Viju Krem). He's sceptical about what he's witnessing, putting its realism down to nothing more than some fine acting on the actresses' parts. Also there is "eminent critic" Creasy Silo (Alan Dellay). He's decidedly unimpressed by Sardu's efforts, claiming to have seen much better examples of macabre showmanship at the infamous Theatre du Grand Guignol.

Sardu is incensed. What he's providing is true art - unsimulated at that - which he hopes will one day win him a position on Broadway, and then Hollywood. But first he needs a star performer, and a glowing review for the show he has in mind.

And so it is that he orchestrates the kidnaps of Natasha and Creasy.

Shackled in Sardu's basement, Creasy is starved and beaten while being forced to observe how the maniacal showman trains his captives into performing for him. Natasha is also subjected to watching as women are stretched on racks or whipped and beheaded. All this, in the hope of conditioning her into being Sardu's willing slave and lead actress.

In the meantime, Tom enlists the help of corrupt cop Tucci (Dan Fauci) in a bid to recover his missing girlfriend. That's the plot, for what it is. Throw in a basement full of caged cannibalistic women, a mob heavy (Alphonso De Noble) who buys white slaves from Sardu on occasion, and a whole host of deliciously depraved extra-curricular activities enjoyed by Sardu and Ralphus (a woman's buttocks are transformed into a dartboard; a board game is enlivened by the use of victims' severed fingers as playing pieces; Ralphus receives fellatio from a freshly decapitated noggin; Sardu indulges in an act of homosexual necrophilia etc), and you have one of the craziest films of the 1970s.

I'm not ashamed to say it: I love BLOODSUCKING FREAKS.

Luridly colourful, gloriously camp, outlandishly grisly - writer/director Joel M Reed's 1976 grindhouse classic may possess all the bargain basement crudeness of a Herschell Gordon Lewis gore film but emerges as far more entertaining due to its unflagging pace and staggering sense of perverse enjoyment experienced by O'Brien and De Jesus.

One of the finest villainous pairings in the annals of horror cinema, these two trade off each other with genuine, infectious glee. De Jesus is rarely without a smile during the entire film, even dancing frantically at times. O'Brien rubs his hands, widens his eyes and grins from ear to ear while purring dementedly saucy dialogue like "Her mouth will make an interesting urinal". Their energy is boundless and true; it serves to deliver the gleefully cheesy script with a perfectly appropriate aroma of the theatrical.

Crude torture set-pieces pop up with alarming regularity. The most famous of these is perhaps the scene in which a doctor (Ernie Pysher) is called in to tend to Natasha's needs, and gets rewarded by being given the chance to suck the brains from another victim's cranium - but not before he's torn out each of her teeth with pliers.

Michael Sahl's score is playful and mischievous, as if almost mocking the violence unfolding on screen. Is it all misogynistic? I doubt it - there's an air of naivety to proceedings that prevents FREAKS from ever being so offensive. Instead you're left with the impression that the shoot must've been an absolute hoot for all involved. Minimalistic set design, amazing 70s fashions and a real sense of cocaine-fuelled abandon further add to the insanity: check out the scene where a topless Natasha ballet dances in front of a shackled Creasy, for instance, turning sporadically to kick him in the face. Mental. Brilliant.

In the disc's commentary track (more on which later), Eli Roth suggests that the film has serious comments to make on white slave trading and the Universal pursuit of money. These factors are easy to latch on to if you're so inclined. There's no doubt in my mind that Reed intends the film as savage satire. But it's just as simple to enjoy the film on face value, if all you need to take from it is a crazily violent black comedy trip.

And now, on to Troma's blu-ray....

The film is presented in its original aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. Given the full 1080p HD treatment as an MPEG4-AVC file, this presentation exhibits a degree of debris and softness throughout, but not to the extent of their 88 Films counterpart. The difference here is that blacks are generally more solid and colours appear brighter. Some scenes do look undoubtedly sharper too. Fine grain looks natural throughout - in fact, I'd say this is a very good transfer for the most part. If you're a fan of Vinegar Syndrome's blu-ray transfers, this is very similar.

When you reach the main menu, you're given a choice of two versions of the film. The version you know and love, or a composite version incorporating the alternate title sequence SARDU MASTER OF THE VIRGINS and a short deleted scene which appears about 15 minutes into proceedings.

The 43-second scene in question suggests Sardu giving Ralphus a blowjob and is quite worn in comparison to the remainder of the feature. A text disclaimer at the start of the show warns of this. Even so, it's rather special to have it included here.

I should point out though, a branching option has clearly been employed, as the scene prior to this deleted footage in the regular BLOODSUCKING FREAKS cut freezes for a split-second. It's not a problem for me personally, but would be remiss of me not to mention it...

English 2.0 audio sounds fine for the duration of playback: no noise, no drop-out.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. Pop-up menus include a scene selection menu allowing access to the film via 20 chapters.

The first extra is a new HD introduction to the film from Lloyd Kaufman. In it, the Troma head behaves a little more serious than usual, reasoning that FREAKS belongs next to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE as one of the few films just as shocking today as it was 40 years ago. He reintroduces Roth to the fold, while cheekily 'forgetting' the title of the Quentin Tarantino film that the HOSTEL director starred in...

Roth's original commentary track from the original Troma DVD of many years ago is present once again here. It remains a mix of interesting facts (TV backgrounds of the actors; unsociable filming hours, Oliver Stone visiting the set etc), witty observations and gross misinformation (incorrectly identifying Alphonso DeNoble as Creasy Silo).

This faux pas is overlooked by an affable Roth in a new 20-minute interview. He discusses being a 25-year-old film school graduate back in 1997 who, due to a monetary dispute between Kaufman and Reed, was offered - and accepted - $30.00 to record an audio commentary for the DVD. He genuinely did a lot a research for this gig and got in touch with a surprising number of the film's participants, which leads to some fascinating stories. I share Roth's disappointment in him not being able to track down Luis De Jesus. Roth's enthusiasm hasn't diminished any, and so his recollections are vivid and engaging. This makes for a great, warming HD extra.

Also new is a HD interview with WWE wrestler Chris Jericho, who takes us back to the days when he and his buddies started a weekly love-in called "The Cheap-Ass Movie Club" - which is where they discovered Reed's marvellous movie. The significance here is that Jericho had an assistant who'd join him in the ring in the guise of "security", and who was based on the wrestler's adoration of Ralphus...

The film's original theatrical trailers runs for 107 seconds, is pillar-boxed and presented with quite a shoddy VHS quality to it. The title here is BLOODSUCKING FREAKS.

A 4-minute featurette wherein Roth, complete with amusingly floppy hairdo, meets a couple of the film's participants follows. Cannibal woman Arlana Blue has little to say; Pysher has fond memories of his two days on the shoot. Co-editor Victor Kanefsky also gets some brief screen time. As with the commentary track, this was available on Troma's US DVD (and the German release, I believe) but it's still nice to have it included here.

"Tromatic Extras" include the usual Radiation March, Tromaloha (don't ask) and the tutorial 'Sell Your Own Damn Spider'.

A selection of trailers round off proceedings: RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH VOLUME 1 (in HD), THE TOXIC AVENGER, POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD and THE TAINT.

This 2-disc set also includes a DVD with the same content, in standard definition, and a strikingly green blu-ray keepcase.

Reed's film stands up to repeated viewings as a comical, timelessly trashy favourite. Troma's blu-ray and DVD combo pack is easily the best release of BLOODSUCKING FREAKS out there.

Review by Stuart Willis