Representing a brainless union of horror and
melodrama, this interminable flick depicts the nasty exploits of a young woman
who uses deceit, extortion, seduction, and murder while trying to seize control
of her ailing father’s fortune. Despite the lurid title, Blood Mania only occasionally lapses into plasma-splattered excess,
because most of the screen time is devoted to lifeless dialogue scenes and to
sexual interludes that feel quasi-pornographic even though they’re not the
least bit explicit. Director Robert Vincent O’Neill has a pervy tendency to
linger on breasts, so whenever he gets a woman naked, he contrives myriad
angles and lighting schemes to showcase the anatomical features with which he’s
clearly preoccupied. The only name-brand actor in Blood Mania is Alex Rocco, a fine character actor who appears
briefly in an inconsequential role as a lawyer. Excepting Rocco, however, the
performances in Blood Mania are
laughably bad. For instance, stars Peter Carpenter and Maria De Aragon have
such difficulty forming facial expressions that it seems as if they shot most
of their scenes while heavily medicated. The drab story concerns Victoria (De
Aragon), a twisted rich bitch who can’t wait for her loaded dad, Ridgley (Eric
Allison), to croak. Victoria’s also a tramp who strips every time she sees a
muscular dude, whether it’s the pool boy or Ridgley’s doctor, Craig (Carpenter).
Speaking of Craig, he’s got bad money troubles, which makes him susceptible to
Victoria’s overtures. Meanwhile, Craig’s dim-bulb girlfriend, Cheryl (Reegan
Wilson), tries to save her man’s hide by sleeping with a lowlife (Arell Blanton)
who’s blackmailing the doctor. Director O’Neill and his writers (including
leading man Carpenter, who penned the story with as little skill as he brought
to his acting) consider every narrative thread a mere prelude to a topless
scene or a violent murder, if not both. Accordingly, Blood Mania is the kind of boring and misogynistic sludge that
gives drive-in cinema a bad name, although the production values and technical
execution are slightly above average for a grade-Z movie.
Blood
Mania: LAME
1 comment:
I knew I had this somewhere, found it last night as part of a Drive-In Movie compilation I have, pulled it off the shelf and lasted about 7 minutes with it, the coolest thing being the title sequence, so that gives you an idea...yep there's far better exploitation/grindhouse stuff out there.
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