- Directors: Brad F. Grinter, Steve Hawkes
- Writers: Brad F. Grinter, Steve Hawkes
- Stars: Steve Hawkes, Dana Cullivan, Randy Grinter
- 1 Hour, 26 Minutes
- Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/33e3JzC
Blood Freak (1972) Review
“We live in a world of invisible changes,” says the man who introduces the film. He’s apparently reading his introductory speech from lines printed on a page on the desk in front of him, and he repeatedly looks down to read his lines. He concludes with “A pretty girl with a probem. Who could resist? Certainly not Herschel.”
During the credits, we see that a girl’s car breaks down on the highway and she follows a guy on a motorcycle. She brings him along to a party at her sister Ann’s house, and there’s a lot of drug activity going on.
Both Ann and Herschel refuse the drugs and the sex. Apparently, they’re very godly young people. He snubs a woman who was comnig on to him, and the her boyfriend decides to teach Herschel a lesson. “This Bible stuff is really a drag,” says Angel’s sister, but Angel and Herschel talk about Bible verses for a while. There’s like nine people sitting around sniffing coke, while Herschel and Angel sit in the corner with another girl and have a Bible study lesson.
Ann talks to her dealer friend, who gives her something to blow Herschel away.
The narrator comes back on screen to tell us what we just saw. He’s smoking in his robe, and he looks high as anything as he continues to read his lines to us.
Angel introduces Herschel to an older guy who offers Herschel a job at his turkey farm. The next thing we see is Herschel cleaning the pool while Ann works hard to seduce him. She finally talks him into taking a drag or two from her joint. The next thing we see are the two of them in bed.
Herschel heads to work at the turkey farm. We get many gratuiutous turkey shots before the old man shows Herschel to the turkey lab. The scientists want to give him some extra money if hell take some experimental drugs, and Herschel agrees. Almost immediatey after he goes home, he gets the shakes and needs to smoke more marijuana to calm down.
The next day at work, he eats a whole turkey laced with the turkey drug. You could even say that he “gobbles” it right up. The pot and the turkey drugs react… badly. He then passes out and has seizures. The scientists didn’t think it would have any effect on a human, so they take him somewhere and dump his body somewhere.
That night, Herschel wakes up and goes back to see Ann, only now he has the head of a turkey. She screams and faints. Ann wakes up and has a long monologue about the turkey-faced Herschel. “What would the children look like?” she whines. Herschel climbs on top of her, eager to find out.
The next day, Ann calls Angel and insists she come over. Ann shows Herschel to a couple of her friends.
We cut away to Herschelturkey walking though the woods at night. He kidnaps a girl from the drug dealer’s house, and then another from down the street. A third girl wanders by just in time to see Herschel cutting their throats. He captures quite a few more as he washes his hands in their blood and drinks as much of it as he can.
One of the drug dealers attacks Ann, and Herschel intervenes. Herschel chases the drug dealer into a warehouse and cuts his leg off with a table saw. Ann’s friends catch up to Herschel, cut his head off with a machete, and serve him for Thanksgiving dinner.
Then Herschel wakes up out in the field. He hallucinated thw whole thing aftre eating the drugged turkey. The boss finds him and helps him home. Herschel and Ann pray for help, and everything starts gettig better for the two of them.
The narrator comes bck on screen and warns us about the dangers of drugs, but he still looks high himself and coughs in the middle of his speech.
Commentary
This is about as seventies as seventies moviews can get. It’s both pro-Christianity and anti-drug, and it’s extremely hokey in both regards.
The narrator popping up every few minutes is just so totally unnecessary, it’s obvious that they were just filming filler material for some unknown reason. The full extent of the creature is Herschel wearing a mask, which looks more like an owl than a turkey. The leg-cutting-off scene was very realistic-lloking because the actor was an amputee in real life.