A group of artists marvel at the work of a couple of local wizards who ply their wares, showing off their fancy paintings to the praise and applause of the local art community. One is a regular, if eccentric sort of fellow, who has a devoted gaggle of groupies who all hang on his every word. The other is a man who plays it pretty straight-laced, but who is also carrying a giant secret: he believes he is the reincarnation of a local vampire named Sordi, and he is using his skills to lure attractive young women to their death. Not only to their death, but to be dipped in hot wax! He plies his wares in the haunted, abandoned castle where Sordi supposedly used to live, according to legend. The hipster artist gets wise to the strange disappearances, and him and his zany gang try to put a stop to the madness. Is the madman a true, reincarnated vampire, or is he just a lunatic?
This is a very strange little movie. Written and directed by the combo of Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman, it was released in the late 60s and plays like a remake of Roger Corman’s Bucket of Blood, with its themes, its snooty characters, and its beatnik, bohemian characters. It feel like a movie made in the late 50s rather than one made right before the Summer of Love. Despite this, it’s a fun flick, with a super-short running time, and some legitimately unsettling moments. The ending is surreal and weird and worth sticking around for. The comedy works and it’s always great to see a young Sid Haig in action (he plays one of the beatniks). The film itself has a tortured history, Corman producing it as something else entirely, and not happy with the results, eventually turned it over to Hill and then Rothman to turn it into something new. Hill worked for Corman on The Terror and would later go on to make such cult classics as Spider Baby, Coffy, and Foxy Brown. Rothman would go on to write and/or direct cult classics herself, including The Velvet Vampire and The Working Girls. Here you get to see how they got started, and the budding talent that was waiting to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting Exploitation world.
While nothing here will blow you away, Blood Bath sort of does live up to its title. There is blood and there is a bath, but there’s certainly not wanton slaughter. If you’re in the mood for a black and white flick that harkens back to the early days of Roger Corman, coupled with its own weird imagination and bits of unsettling moments, Blood Bath is a movie that will show you a good time. It’s also worth a look if you want to explore the beginning careers of two talented, underground filmmakers. And at an hour running time, you’ll never get bored.
★★☆☆