I Drink Your Blood
| I Drink Your Blood | |
|---|---|
 Poster advertising a double feature of I Drink Your Blood and I Eat Your Skin. |
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| Directed by | David E. Durston |
| Produced by | Jerry Gross |
| Written by | David E. Durston |
| Starring | Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury Lynn Lowry Jack Damon Tyde Kierney |
| Music by | Clay Pitts |
| Cinematography | Jacques Demarecaux Joseph Mangine (uncredited) |
| Editing by | Lyman Hallowell |
| Distributed by | Grindhouse Releasing / Box Office Spectaculars |
| Release date(s) |  December 1970 July 1, 1978 DVD released 2000 (Grindhouse Releasing) |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
I Drink Your Blood is a cult horror film originally released in 1970. The film was written and directed by David E. Durston, produced by Jerry Gross, and starred Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury and Lynn Lowry (who is uncredited in the film).[1]
Like many B-movies of its time, I Drink Your Blood was a Times Square exploitation film and drive-in theater staple.
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[edit] Plot
Loosely inspired by Charles Manson's "family", the film follows a group of nomadic Satanist hippies when they ride into a small town and terrorize the inhabitants. The town has largely become a ghost town thanks to a large mining project nearby, and all but a couple of houses are abandoned.
A young local girl is badly beaten. Her grandfather confronts the group but is attacked and dosed with LSD. The girl's young brother is threatened while rescuing his grandfather, before they both escape. The boy decides to exact revenge and put a stop to the rampage. Working at the local bakery the next day he injects meat pies with blood from a rabid dog, and sells the pies to the hungry hippies. Rabid, hydrophobic and frothing at the mouth, the hippies go berserk and wreak homicidal havoc upon the unwitting town. They end up infecting a group of construction workers, who attempt to kill the girl and her family until shot down by special forces.[2]
[edit] Censorship
The film was one of the first movies to receive an X-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America based on violence rather than nudity.[3] Several scenes needed to be altered to qualify the film for an "R" so the producer distributed the original film asking that each projectionist censor the film as seen fit for their market. There were 280 prints made and countless differently censored versions were in circulation. The prints for the Los Angeles and New York City runs were censored by the film's director.
The Encyclopedia of Horror said that "as the film now stands what looks like it might have been a raw, ferocious thriller has become a frustrating exercise in splicing, incessantly building up to scenes of bone-crushing horror and violence which never actually happen." [4]
A 2002 DVD release presented the original uncensored version along with numerous extras.
[edit] Location
Much of the movie was filmed in Sharon Springs, NY, a small village once famous as a summer spa town. By the time of the production Sharon Springs had largely become a ghost town, and the producers were allowed to use the abandoned hotels as locations. The town has since been revitalized and is a center for tourism in upstate New York.[5]
[edit] Remake
On 17 September 2009, it was announced David E. Durston planned a remake of his film that will star Sybil Danning.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ 10 Strange Things You'd Better Not Eat or Drink!
- ^ Motion Picture Purgatory: I drink your Blood
- ^ Milne, Tom. Willemin, Paul. Hardy, Phil. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Horror, Octopus Books, 1986. ISBN 0-7064-2771-8 p 235
- ^ Milne, Tom. Willemin, Paul. Hardy, Phil. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Horror, Octopus Books, 1986. ISBN 0-7064-2771-8 p 235
- ^ New York Times article about Sharon Springs
- ^ Original director talks I DRINK YOUR BLOOD remake
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- I Drink Your Blood at the Internet Movie Database
- I Drink Your Blood is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- I Drink Your Blood at AllRovi
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