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Released by: Cheezy Flicks
Released on: July 26, 2011.
Director: Ed Adlum
Cast: Bruce Detrick, Norman Kelley, Tanna Hunter, Jack Neubeck, Cynthia Fleming
Year: 1972
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The Movie:
Directed by Ed Adlum, the man who brought us the equally wacky Shriek Of The Mutilated, 1972's Invasion Of The Blood Farmers begins with an almost surreal prologue sequence in which some stoic and serious narration brings us up to date on those Druids that have come to Earth from somewhere presumably out in space. See, they're actually a cult of alien Sangroid Blood Eaters - and evidently they've been pretty busy with some strange covert operations all these centuries.
Cut to the present day where an unfortunate dude named Jim Carrey stumbles into a local watering hole somewhere in upstate New York, gurgling blood and falling dead on the floor. The men at the bar, who are enjoying the Champagne of Beers, don't seem to upset by this and continue to sip at their Miller High Life but local pathologist Dr. Roy Anderson (Norman Kelley) decides to check out poor dead Jim's blood to see what's up. Anderson's daughter, Jenny (Tanna Hunter), meanwhile, makes out with his assistant, Don (Bruce Detrick), who looks dapper in his blue sweater and cream colored pants. As Anderson and his pals try to figure out what happened to Jim, bodies start piling up around town - a woman is assaulted in the shower, a dog gets hung on a porch, a woman has her blood drained in one of the gurgliest sounding scenes you've ever sat through and much more mayhem ensues. Evidently the leader of the Sangroids, Creeton (Paul Craig Jennings), and his creepy cronies are out to resurrect their dead Sangroid queen (Cynthia Fleming) who is entombed in a fancy glass coffin which doesn't do a very good job of hiding the fact that this dead woman is clearly breathing.
The imdb states that, according to Adlum, the cast and crew were paid with a six pack for their participation on this one, and there's nothing here on screen to really dispute that - in fact, you have to wonder if they waited until the movie was over to cash in. Shot and edited by Roberta and Michael Findlay (who would also work with the director on the aforementioned Shriek Of The Mutilated), this movie is ninety blissful minutes of complete nonsense. The film rarely makes a lick of sense nor is it ever well acted or well put together (Findlay had proven he could put together interesting looking movies with the Flesh Trilogy - this lacks all of the bizarre style those three films showed) but it's always entertaining.
Full of bizarre and completely random cuts to reactions that aren't there on the part of the cast and close ups that aren't ever necessary, the movie looks as erratically as it plays - at least the filmmakers were consistent in their ineptitude.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Invasion Of The Blood Farmers is presented in 1.85.1 letterboxed widescreen, non-anamorphic love here, kids. The image quality won't blow you away but it doesn't look bad and is quite watchable. Colors fare rather well and while print damage is present throughout, it's minor. Some compression artifacts can be spotted but otherwise, yeah, non-anamorphic but it'll do until something better comes along.
The only audio option is a Dolby Digital Mono track, in English, with no alternate language options or subtitles provided. Sometimes there's a bit of minor echo here and there but the audio is generally pretty clean and the soundtrack sounds pretty decent. Not a particularly amazing track by any stretch but serviceable enough and completely fitting of the film's low budget roots.
Extras are slim, limited to a couple of intermission spots and an eight minute preview reel featuring clips from other Cheezy Flicks DVD releases. Menus and chapter stops are also provided.
The Final Word:
If the presentation isn't going to win any awards it's at least serviceable enough, despite the lack of any substantial extras. As to the movie itself? Invasion Of The Blood Farmers is a complete whack-job of a film, a mind numbingly bizarre and (unintentionally?) hilarious attempt at low budget horror moviemaking with plenty of local flavor and headscratchingly obtuse moments. As such, it's absolutely worth seeing.
