8mm Forum: Blood Devils aka Beast of Blood

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Posted by Trevor Collett (Member # 5465) on December 06, 2016, 12:04 AM:

BLOOD DEVILS (1970) 4 x 400' Mountain Films black and white print (of a color film). Approx 72 minutes (original uncut running time approx 91 minutes). Also released as BEAST OF BLOOD but not on super 8 as far as I know. BLOOD DEVILS is the UK release title.

A direct sequel to MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND (which I've never seen or heard of on super 8). BLOOD DEVILS follows on directly from the ending of the previous film, although you wouldn't know it on this edited version since the opening continuity has been removed.

This is really a guilty pleasure. The acting is stilted, the action scenes rudimentary although OK, but the gore is excellent. I also like that all the actors are speaking in English complete with Philippine accents where English is clearly a second language. And yet it works for me - far preferable than dubbing.

It's also corny as hell. Mad doctor Lorca experiments with 'green men' by removing their heads to transplant to the body of Ramone - once human, turned into a monster whose head is kept alive in a glass container and whose body is strapped to a surgical table. Foster (who survived the first film) tracks down Lorca to rid the island of 'The Evil One'.

On the way to Lorca's outpost, his minions meet grisly ends - impaling in a pit of bamboo stakes with copious spuring blood, a shooting with copious spurting blood. And eventually there is a confrontation - but between mad Dr Lorca and the headless body of Ramone! While Ramone's head laughs insanely in his glass container, his monstrous body slashes Lorca's face before crushing his head with some medical equipment. Sadly the actual crushing is off-screen, but this was 1970 after all.

This is an uncensored print with all the gore and violence intact (apart from the opening scene continuing from the previous film, which is completely missing). But for some reason the brief nudity has been removed. But this is definitely not the PG version - the surgical head removal is intact (close-up of throat being sliced open in a surgical way, although it's clearly not human meat it still gets the message across). The impaling in the bamboo stake pit is exceptionally well done.

If you're still with me, this print is really good. Sharp and bright. The editing is good, although the first reel is really too heavily edited to make much sense, but this is the sort of film where that doesn't matter a whole lot.

The flaws (apart from the flaws of the movie itself) is that the box art shows a scene from the film that isn't in this edited version. And in color the blood is a light spurting red, but in black and white looks like muddy water.

I used to have the highlights 400' version in the mid 1970s, but sold it some years later. The highlights edition is superb - all the gore condensed to some 18 minutes. But this 4 x 400' will do nicely.

In summary a cult title that will only appeal to some (probably why not too many prints may exist). A deranged film for some fun deranged viewing.

Note that the Image Entertainment DVD is the uncensored version despite the PG on the sleeve. But uncut today would only be R (15 in the UK in bw, but almost certainly still 18 in color).

Movie (as edited in bw) **1/2 (unedited color ***1/2)
Print ****
Sound ****

Note my ratings are out of 5 stars not 4. You will either like BLOOD DEVILS/BEAST OF BLOOD or hate it. I've always liked it.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on December 06, 2016, 10:53 AM:

Trevor,

Thank you for the great review. I've always had a fondness for this film, dating back to when I saw it on a double bill with Curse of the Vampires. For a while I had both features on Super 8, so I could relive that double feature! If only it had that pre-title sequence....

Doug

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on December 06, 2016, 03:41 PM:

I think some companies edited out the sex scenes when they wanted to shorten the film saying that the horror fans that bought them wanted the blood & gore not nudity.

Posted by Trevor Collett (Member # 5465) on December 06, 2016, 11:12 PM:

The second picture from Douglas is the box cover art for the feature as well. The photo is from the scene that was at the beginning of the full feature (probably never released on super 8), but not included in the edited version.

I should point out I used to have the 400' black and white edition, never had it in color on super 8. I always thought the reason was that it was too gory to be uncut in color - but looks like it was really to produce a budget version.

And as far as the nudity, yes absolutely - if the nudity was retained at the expense of the horror then I would be annoyed. Would prefer to have both, but the nudity was so fleeting that it's not really missed. But still important to note since this is exploitation that usually mixes sex and horror. Not that you'd have had that much sex and horror in the PG version.

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