Blood Freak (1972)

Blood Freak (USA, 1972) 86 min color DIR: Brad F. Grinter. SCR-PROD: Brad F. Grinter, Steve Hawkes. DOP: Ron N. Sill. MUSIC-EDITOR: Gil Ward. CAST: Steve Hawkes, Dana Cullivan, Heather Hughes, Bob Currier. (Sampson Motion Picture Production Company)

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If you see only one movie this year about a human-sized turkey on the rampage, well, your only option may be this baffling regional production: the most diverting piece of Christploitation, this side of Ron Ormond. It’s Thanksgiving week here in Canada, so what better way to honour Something Weird Wednesdays than with a turkey in form and content?

Nice biker Herschell (a nod to H.G. Lewis?) helps a young religious girl named Angel (wow, symbolism) when her car breaks down on the road. She invites him back to her home, where her sister Anne and her hippy friends are all smoking pot. Angel helps Herschell (a Vietnam vet) get back on his feet by finding a job, and warns him to stay away from Anne and her pot-smoking friends. However, before long Herschell can no longer resist the temptation. After one poolside puff of the wacky tabacky, he is hooked! Soon, Herschell gets a job at a local turkey farm, and agrees to be the human guinea pig to eat some turkey meat that these two scientists are testing with chemicals. The chemicals, coupled with the pot, cause Herschell to have a seizure. The scientists dump his body, thinking he is dead. However, our hero wakes up with a giant turkey’s head instead of his own, and has a new craving: the blood of all the neighbourhood drug addicts!

In addition to the unusual premise of a killer turkey, the film is also memorable for the appearance of producer-writer-director Brad Grinter, who also appears on camera in his paisley shirt, talking to the viewer about life, the universe and everything in between cigarette puffs and bouts of smoker’s cough! One assumes that by casting himself as the muse of this piece, he is going for some personal, though misguided, statement about redemption.

This may sound like a fun night at the drive-in, but this is really a sordid, depressing affair. Because of the content, it is diverting enough for cult movie fans to watch at least once. And chances are, if you’re reading this, you probably already have. This flick received a lot of mileage, thanks to the Something Weird DVD release, and its airing on the much-missed TCM Underground! However, like the other works of Florida-based exploitation auteur Brad F. Grinter (the biker epic Devil Rider, and the infamous Veronica Lake production Flesh Feast), this is an ugly movie. Granted, the depiction of people shooting up the hard stuff in the back seats of cars shouldn’t be glamourized, but did we really need to see real footage of a decapitated fowl (symbolic though it may be)? 

Many low-budget horror movies, despite the bad acting or special effects, have a sincerity that however makes them endearing. In this case, Grinter was unaware of, or unconcerned with, how ridiculous a guy with a big turkey head looks on camera. Like his other films that I’ve so far been able to see, this film is so humourless. It is more up to the audience to have fun with this absurd premise. Ironically, one would need some of the wacky tabacky to have a good time with this “anti-drug” parable.

However, if there is any bright spot in this movie, it is in the casting of knockout Heather Hughes (aka- Heather Grinter, the director’s wife) as Angel. She is enough to make any man want to clean up his act. Sadly, her character isn’t in the film as much, as the narrative spends more time with Anne and her mopey hippy friends. The dynamic with Herschell and Angel is much more interesting.

Spoilers in this paragraph! But does it really matter? Eventually, Angel (who works at a rehab centre) comes to Herschell’s rescue. Through her guidance, he accepts Christ as his saviour. And then, whew! We see Herschell with his human head, waking up again on the ground. The killer turkey was just a dream! This scene is also memorable for its blurring of reel life and real life, as Herschell comments on the burns on his body that he received from Vietnam. In real life, Steve Hawkes the actor playing Herschell, received those burns while working on a renegade Spanish Tarzan film. 

The brawny yet personable Hawkes, was a Croatian actor (real name Stjepan Šipek) whose idol, fittingly enough was Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller. In addition to Blood Freak, he is also remembered today for those unofficial Spanish Tarzan productions Tarzan in the Golden Grotto, and Tarzan and the Brown Prince. While working on the latter film, Hawkes received burns on 90% of his body, after some spilled fuel ignited during a scene where he and his co-star Kitty Swan were tied up! A trained lion saved their lives by freeing their bonds. As “payback”, Hawkes was inspired to open a Florida sanctuary for big cats. (He later made headlines when a Bengal tiger got loose.)

Someone should do a book on Florida exploitation filmmakers. William Grefe, Robert J. Emery and Doris Wishman are just a few who have made careers from the rich five-decades-plus history of production in the vacation state. The late Brad Grinter concluded his career with a couple of nudie pictures (Barely Proper; Never the Twain) that have seemed to drop out of sight: just the kind of things that Something Weird would have dug up and re-released. And all things considered, I’d be curious enough to check out the rest of the “Brad Grinter Pantheon”! As always, the Something Weird DVD release is crammed with extras, including horror trailers, short subjects Narcotics: Pit of Despair, A Day of Thanksgiving, and even a featurette with Steve Hawkes: The Walls Have Eyes. No one gave you a better deal for $12.95 than the DVDs that Something Weird founder Mike Vraney released through Image Entertainment.