Bloodsuckers (1970)

   

Directed by: Robert Hartford-Davis

Written by: Julian More
Simon Raven (Novel)

Starring:

Patrick Macnee .... Derek Longbow
Johnny Sekka .... Bob Kirby
Alexander Davion .... Tony Seymore
Peter Cushing .... Dr. Walter Goodrich
Edward Woodward .... Dr. Holstrom
Madeleine Hinde .... Penelope
Patrick Mower .... Richard Fountain
Imogen Hassall .... Chriseis

Release Date:
Theatrical: December, 1970 (UK)

 

 

 

Rating:

 

A group of friends go on a search for their friend named Richard Fountain (Patrick Mower) who has been missing and is an English Oxford student and travel to Greece where he is last seen.
They find shocking results on their search for him as some murders have been committed with their necks bloodily bitten and not believing that Richard would be responsible for this they keep searching for him until they catch
under the spell of a beautiful vampiress named Chriseis (Imogen Hassall), whose blood-sucking methods include the use of sado-masochism and others residing their hideout which involves drugs and orgiastic rituals.
Everyone thought that they killed her and that Richard was safe but he is not the same anymore aware that he is a vampire and behaves very strangely and is hungry for blood.

 

There's a good artsy sex scenes with many cast members making out and showing 3D type effects which psychs you out a bit.
We spot a good shot with a corpse lying on the ground with a woman screaming after spotting this corpse which looked fairly impressive.
We spot many pointless moments with the main character's having discussions and arguments about situations and the trip up to their destination which seemed very roughly done.
We do spot a good hallucination shot on the character Richard Fountain standing near an area with boulder crashing over him and Penelope screaming frightened.
There's some good fighting sequences with Derek Longbow and Bob Kirby against a cult of people in a cave along with a good shot on Richard sitting in a trance.
There's a good shot on Derek trying to dodge some boulders but the boulders look totally fake along with a good struggling moment on him hanging from a cliff.
There's a good disturbing moment with Penelope trying to cuddle up with Richard and he brushes her off while he's busy typing up something which seemed like a pre-direction to The Shining.
There's a good make out scene between Richard and Penelope on a bed and then him getting vicious by biting her neck with her screaming in pain.
There's many good shots with both Richard and Bob chasing after one another on top of a school building trying to keep balance while doing so which looked believeably struggling too.
I was thinking to myself is this actually a horror film? well it is with a bad story as it takes forever to get to the horror parts as there's not many scene's with the vampires and done very amateurishly too.
A nice shot on Dr. Walter Goodrich almost breaking out in tears about what has happened and what should be done about the madness that went on.
We get a good performance but the story is extremely lacking and slow too which doesn't make up for it giving this one a total bomb and it ends just when you think something exciting is going to happen. There are better vampire flicks than this folks as it doesn't look like a vampire story at all.

The acting is not too bad for the most part like Patrick Macnee (Derek Longbow) who was always a very good character actor with his charming attitude and outgoing behavior too knowing his craft with what he had to do. He is impressive in his role thank god compared to a bad story like this and never fails to show his stuff.
Johnny Sekka
(Bob Kirby) pulls it off well knowing how to do battling moments with his foes and brings alot of energy with his whole performance trying everything he had to do and not disappointing the viewers with his talented skills. He was good when he had to be aggressive when necessary.
Peter Cushing
(Dr. Walter Goodrich) stood out the most with his part in the film but again he always had plus had a creepy appeal to his role even if he was playing a sane character. He brought his words out very clearly too.
Madeleine Hinde
(Penelope) does an impressive job with her bitchy attitude and was great being argumentive along showing the odd intensity too.
Patrick Mower
(Richard Fountain) studied his role well and knew how to act still and expressionless for his first scene while being in a trance and then knew how to act disturbing too when he is hungry for blood. We do spot a good moment with him lying down trying to force out his words acting out of it along with a later scene raising his hands in the air trying to summon something up outside. He also does a good job losing control in another situation and falling to the ground. Does a good job by acting ina rage towards others which was tensely performed.
Imogen Hassall
(Chriseis) showed a nice evil attitude to her part in the film and had the perfect looks for her character as a vampiress. A shame we didn't see too much of it. But she does well with her evil eye looks.

There's many full body shots on some women making out with close to male body shots too for the story to start which looked very exploitive.

There's a bloody neck bite but it looks very phony.

We have some good funky music with the guitar strumming, trumpet music and the odd violin playing too as well as hearing the odd chiming sounds too. All of this was done in a sort of 007 type of fashion which was put together by Bobby Richards