Customer Reviews

Horror of the Blood Monsters

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This film atrocity must be seen to be believed. By comparison Plan 9 looks like Citizen Kane. Any movie that can combine vampires, space travel, lobster-men, bat-pygmies, snake-men, & cavemen into one utterly illogical, incomprehensible "plot" gets a special place in my bad movie lovin' heart to begin with. When compounded by adding tinted black & white stock footage as a plot device, a 50-cent plastic toy spaceship with a bic lighter for propulsion(I swear I'm not making this up), and a "Spectum Analyzer" that is clearly a caulk gun, it transcends the normally accepted standard of "so-bad-it's-good". The WORST of the worst.

Before cable, UPN, the WB and FOX there was only UHF. Local stations braodcasting their mix of repeats and all night movies, where at any given point you could find fare like HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS. A collision of sci-fi/horror spliced together by two different ideas and two different movies. In the first, the all color wrap around scenes that set up our adventure, our heros are looking for the original source that created vampires on Earth. They find it in the galaxy of Spectrum X - place where radiation causes black and white movies, in this case the film TAGANI, to be tinted several different colors. There they encounter a race of vampires, run around, die off, and then make their last second escape back into space and towards home. The plot is short and to the point, the film is a muddled mess of explanation, more explanation, and more on top of that. Goofy, odd, dumb, and yet so very entertaining. HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS is the late night fare they just don't make any more. And with its release on DVD, it's a must for any collector. Specials include several trailers, and a very solid and entertaining commentary from Sam Sherman, producer. His memory of the events leading to the creation of H.O.T.B.M. is sharp, keen and often witty. The only complaint I have against this release is the lack of the original source material that makes up the bulk of this movie - the film TAGANI, a Philippine produced adventure story, which even Sherman admits was a fun picture. He moans that no one has released it yet, and then informs us in the next breath that he holds the rights to the film... so why not release it along with H.O.T.B.M? Perhaps we'll never know. For fans of comic artists, Neal Adams created the original poster art you see on the cover of this DVD. Overall H.O.T.B.M. is not for everyone, fans should have this in their collection, as for the casual buyer you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Now's your chance to find out.

Ever heard the expression, "It's so bad that it's good"? Well, this movie is SO "so bad that it's good" that it is once again bad! I can't insult it enough to do it justice. Get it, and see WHY it doesn't even make it onto lists of the worst movies of all time--it's a curve buster that's in a class of its own.

Al Adamson is one of the all time greats in the ridiculously bad horror movie genre. "Horror of the Blood Monsters" is basically a movie from the Philippines called "Tagani", with a whole additional plot wrapped around it featuring a scenery-chewing performance by John Carradine in a space ship.

In the beginning of the film you will be led to believe that the movie is about vampirism, but it is actually more of a journey into space so realistic you'll swear you are watching the NASA channel. OK, seriously, the scientific expedition which may remind you of the much earlier "Rocketship X-M", is so outrageously hokey that you will not be able to stop rolling around on the floor laughing. The expedition is led by John Carradine and two other guys named Willy and Bob. They have some sort of accident which forces them to land on this planet (which looks suspiciously like a globe of the Earth) filled with every sci-fi cliche known to man: beautiful cave women in bathing suits, cavemen with big teeth (the alleged connection to the vampire introduction), flying monkey (bat?) creatures on visible wires, lobstermen vulnerable to primitive wrestling holds, shots of two pet store size lizards wrestling as if they were dinosaurs, etc. None of that is that remarkable, but it was filmed in "Demonic Color" according to the box, which symbolizes the deadly 'chromic radiation' that endangers them all. Actually it is a filter making entire scenes look red, yellow, green, or blue. You will just love the 'special effects'.

The cast is perfect for the film and all engage in their individual pieces of rank melodrama with gusto, led of course, by the all time champion grumpy-old-man, John Carradine. This would have made an excellent MST3K. They just don't make movies like this anymore, which is a shame. This is one of Al Adamson's best (by which I actually mean worst), and I highly recommend it to bad movie buffs anywhere!

I first watched HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS at the age of 9. I thought it was awful, but fondly remembered the lobster-men and bat-men. Now, several decades later, I have watched it again. In the history of hyper-schlock, HOTBM stands among the few examples of perfect "films" w/ the likes of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE, CREEPING TERROR, and THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN. Yes, this is one of those outstanding, brain-mulching accomplishments that only ooze forth once in a great while. If you enjoy fanged cavemen, wobbling spaceships, staggering dinosaurs, nonsensical editing, or total lack of direction, then add this baby to your cosmic crap collection today...

Laughingly billed as "the most gruesome + ghastly movie experience of the year," Horror of the Blood Monsters has the dubious distinction of being both one of the worst horror movies and one of the worst science fiction movies ever made. By my definition, this isn't even a movie because infamous director Al Adamson cobbled this schlock together from several other movies and then slapped on a few scenes of his own to try and hold it all together. A major part of this film actually comes from a horrid Filipino caveman film called Tagani, and there is a smorgasbord of standard stock footage inserted willy-nilly throughout (including a lizard fight we've all seen dozens of times in other bad movies of this era).

The film opens with five minutes of footage featuring vampires attacking innocent people, while a horrible narrator vampire describes how his all-powerful brethren trace their origins back to some gobbledygook planet millions of miles from earth. According to him, you would have to see the original vampires (dubbed the Tubaton) back in action on their own planet in order to figure out any way of stopping them here - and he seems a little concerned that a spaceship is currently on its way to that very solar system. With that, we're instantly transported (never to return) into a science fiction movie, with an unusually grouchy John Carradine leading a team of astronauts on a mission to explore a solar system that Dr. Rynning (Carradine) discovered himself. Everyone in Mission Control (which consists of two people) grow concerned when communication with the ship is lost, but the ship manages to make an emergency landing on an alien planet that is remarkably earth-like - except for its high levels of chromatic radiation, that is. What is chromatic radiation, you ask? Basically, it's just an excuse for showing the planet-based action through a series of different color filters (thus allowing infamous bad movie producer/director Al Adamson to market this as a full-color movie). Each scene looks ghastly on the screen, but Adamson apparently decided that this was the only way he knew to cover up the fact that all of the primitive caveman action on the planet was originally filmed in black and white. I have to say that all of the seemingly endless fight scenes between warring tribes, shown in a medley of monochromatic filters, make Horror of the Blood Monsters an almost insufferable viewing experience. The horror and science fiction scenes, especially those featuring John Carradine in all of his "I'm washed up as an actor and I know it" glory may qualify as "so bad it's good," but all of the borrowed scenes from Tagani push well past the "so bad it's good" envelope. For all of these reasons and more, this film scores a perfect five stars on the bad movie meter. Don't be fooled by my rating, though (especially if you're not a connoisseur of cinematic disasters) - Horror of the Blood Monsters is an atrociously ill-conceived and painfully horrible film.

You'll either laugh your head off or sit there stunned by the depth of this film's immense badness if you take on the challenge of suffering through this film yourself. I haven't even talked about the claw-men and batboys, but I simply must mention what may be one of the most bizarre scenes I've ever seen in my life. In the midst of all of the unbridled and boring caveman warrior action, you suddenly find yourself watching the guy and girl from Mission Control having some kind of futuristic sex, which involves a lot of blinking lights and a large collection of machines that go ping - that's all I know about, and that's all I want to know about it. This singularly weird scene provides for what just may be the ultimate WTF moment.

If you claim to be a lover of bad movies, you're pretty much going to have to watch this film at some point. After the fact, you may very well consider designing your very own "I survived Horror of the Blood Monsters" t-shirt.

oh my, where do you begin with a movie like this? The old black and white science fiction horror movies had a certain charm, the dated cars and the kids' slang as they make out in the woods while the flying saucer lands....some of them were quite good, actually, with sensible plots and characters you could empathize with and care about.....this film has none of these attributes. Not only is the nostalgic charm nonexistent, but the scenery is choppy, erratic, very annoying.....high school kids could put together a better movie....and the characters are such non-descript, pointless people, you just don't care. you have to see it to believe it....but this concoction of drunken editing is fun to watch. It makes no sense. It is so bad it has to be one of the worst films ever made. I recommend it. I can't wait to watch it again.

I was hoping for "so bad it's good," but instead got "so bad it's bad." Looked like an assignment for high school film class, with long sequences of people chasing each other through the park behind someone's house. It was quite similar to the scenes in the original Star Trek that take place on the surface of a "strange" planet, located somewhere outside Los Angeles. And adding colored filters to the camera lens somehow makes this a horror film?

Like most of Al Adamson's films, Horror of the Blood Monsters appeals to that small group of weirdos who seem to be gluttons for punishment. It might make for a good debate who was schlockier and cheaper, Ed Wood or Al Adamson. Well, for us weirdos, this movie is fun. As you may already know, it's a stitching together of two different films. The bulk of it is a Filipino caveman movie. What Adamson did was tack on a few bits to change the story a bit. It starts off with people around town being attacked by vampires(with a goofy narration that never returns again). Next we're in a NASA type control room where we spend 20 or so minutes of screen time farting around trying to get in contact with a distressed spaceship. John Carradine leads the scientific expedition aboard the ship. The ship manages to land on a radioactive planet where our heroes discover(except Carradine who must remain aboard the ship. The translation of this means that Adamson probably only had one day of shooting with Carradine on one set) a prehistoric planet where there's a war between two caveman tribes. Plus there are numerous terrifying beasties roaming around. This is where are second movie source comes into play, intercut with scenes of the astronauts. Oh, it's dumber than it sounds, my friends. Scenes are shot through different color filters or lenses, making an entire scene green or red or even both. This is explained as happening because of the radiation, but I believe it's an attempt to cover up the difference in film stock between the two movies used. Like I said before, this really isn't gonna appeal to many people, even folks who normally like cheapo movies. It's just too darn goofy! Taking pot shots at this movie is way too easy. In fact, critics shouldn't even review the film coz it's just too easy to condemn it. The movie is so bad that it almost borders on genius. It's a bizarre unique kind of insanity we don't see in films anymore. I do feel however, that this film should have it's own place in film schools. Film students should have to write an essay defending the artistic merit of Horror of the Blood Monsters. Now that would be an assignment.