Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Mark Turner If you read what I write on a regular basis then you already know that I have a love for all things Arrow Video. It's one of those companies determined to resurrect movies from the past that are overlooked, forgotten or tossed aside by their home studios and then offer them in pristine condition with enough extras to entertain but not overshadow the movie in question. That being said their offering of BLOOD BATH is the most comprehensive and exhausting endeavor I've seen from them and I mean that in a good way.Before delving deeper into the set be aware you're getting 4 movies here made up of one movie. I'm not talking about sequels, extended editions or director's cuts. I'm talking 4 different movies…all from the same original movie. To understand you have to realize that when it was made there was a drive-in circuit that movies played in with films that catered to those clients, more often than not teens looking for cheap and easy action, horror and racy flicks. Director Roger Corman made his career on these types of films and began producing as well. He produced a film in Europe that was called OPERATION TITIAN, a film about stolen art with cops and robbers involved. He decided the movie wasn't quite what he wanted so had it recut and changed into the film PORTRAIT OF TERROR. Still not quite what he wanted he handed it over to director Jack Hill and it became BLOOD BATH. Stephanie Rothman had helped with that version but before selling it to TV it was recut again with new scenes added and became TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE (the version I was aware of from horror hosts screenings years ago). What Arrow has done is bring all four version together in one package which makes for fascinating viewing for film fans.OPERATION TITIAN is actually a well-made robbery film with some amazing shots reminiscent of the Carol Reed film THE THIRD MAN. The presentation here in black and white is amazing to see with a crisp, clear image that shows work was put into this presentation. PORTRAIT OF TERROR and BLOOD BATH offer the same footage in some places combined with a new story to offer a different tale, switching things from a robbery film to the story of an artist who thinks he's a vampire and boils his models in wax. Definitely different right? And yet both use some of the same footage. By the time you get to TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE a part of you wonders what in the world was going on. But the fact is that the movie made money in all four versions, a definite return on investment that many film makers would love to see.As I said the quality of the movies as presented here is better than you would expect when you consider the fact that it was chopped up so many times, played the drive-in circuit and was never a movie a studio would consider preserving if they even kept it on hand to begin with. But Arrow has come through offering the most complete presentation of the film in all of its incarnations here.In addition to that the extras should satisfy fans as well. They include high definition transfers of the films in 1080p, "The Trouble With Titian" a documentary featuring Tim Lucas that describes the long and twisted path the films took, an interview with Sid Haig who starred the later versions, an archive interview with director Jack Hill, a stills gallery, a fold out double sided poster featuring old and newly commissioned artwork, a reversible cover sleeve and a booklet about the films. The price is higher than most Arrow releases but again you're getting four complete films here folks.Fans of Corman will find this a must have in their collection as will die-hard Jack Hill fans whose numbers seem to be growing with each Arrow release that he is responsible for. Horror fans will want to add it to their collection as a reminder of those days when horror host ruled the airwaves. Movie lovers will want to have it because of the historical value on display. In short it is an interesting development to watch from one film to the next and a nice addition to any collection.

MartinHafer This film seems like it has the scripts of several movies all shoved together--and although there are some eerie moments, the overall effort is rather poor. William Campbell (the actor who starred in the classic "Star Trek" episode "The Squire of Gothos") plays a bizarre artist. He specializes in paintings of women being murdered and people love them. However, you learn to make these paintings he actually kills people. Sounds familiar? It is if you've seen an earlier American-International film called "Bucket of Blood"--it's pretty much the same script. However, on top of this decent story, there are several other story elements--ones that make the film confusing and silly. You see, Campbell is actually VERY old and retains his youth through these killings--and vampire fangs appear when he kills. But, you never see him drinking blood nor is it even implied--and he walks around a lot during the daytime. What gives?! None of this makes a lot of sense. Even with a creepy ending, the film just never pays off and is silly and forgettable.

GroovyDoom Unbelievable and nearly incomprehensible mashup of a movie scores anyway due to its wild ride all over the map, constantly changing genres and tone. If you take a step back from it, it's a very unique experience.An artist named Antonio Sordi makes his living painting images of nude young women in the throes of death. He periodically transforms into the vampiric image of his ancestor, a similar artist who was burned at the stake--the dialogue suggests that his art was just too good, he had to have been in league with the devil. His main accuser in his trial was a beautiful woman who was also his muse, and she too has been reincarnated as a blissfully unaware dancer who thinks she's having a romance with Sordi. Sordi himself seems to only be peripherally aware that he transforms into a vampire and goes out to stalk beautiful women, bringing them back to his spooky studio in a belltower to paint their dead bodies and then boil them in wax.The movie has an elliptical feel to it, this story has been pieced together from three different films. But somehow there's something here that actually works. The atmospheric scenes of Sordi's vampire doppelgänger stalking his victims are often very scary. The vampire seems to be able to corner his victims no matter where they are, even in broad daylight. There's a doomy, relentless aspect to these scenes, as nearly 100 percent of the stalking victims end up dead. The schizophrenic remainder of the film veers from boring to rapturous-- the scenes of Sordi's ancestral counterpart being tormented by his muse in a wide open space are absolutely stunning. One thing that makes this movie notable is that the actresses involved are all very beautiful and, even more odd, their styles and mannerisms seem strangely contemporary.The more serious elements of the movie are intercut with bizarre scenes of crazy beatnik art fans (one of them being Sid Haig), a brief and totally unrelated husband-wife soap opera moment, and more than a few of the costumes are silly. Depending on which cut of the film you view, you also might get stuck with a scene where one of the main starlets performs a ballet dance on the beach--for five minutes straight. I recommend the fast forward button for that. Plot threads this drastically different can never be tied together without some serious lapses in logic and a near total absence of motivation for any of the characters. But fans of the offbeat should take note of this film, as it manages to be utterly bizarre without becoming unwatchably bad.

reptilicus This is complicated so pay attention. Roger Corman bought an unfinished film shot in Europe called OPERATION TITIAN concerning the hunt by both cops and crooks for a stolen Titian painting. Patrick Magee was the star. At the same time Jack Hill was shooting a movie in Venice, CA about an artist (biker film alumnus William Campbell) who kills his models and dips them in boiling wax (where have we heard THAT before?). By combining the footage, a trick he was to do many times in the 60's Corman created a film that essentially made no sense at all. Now that has never stopped our Roger so he brought in new director Stephanie Rothman who added an effect new to American movies, an oil dissolve, and shot even more footage to create a film about an artist who sometimes transforms into his remote ancestor who was falsely accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake only to return as a vengeance seeking vampire. Got all that? The stolen Titian painting was lost in the shuffle and Patrick Magee shows up only briefly as a jealous husband who gets dumped alive into the boiling wax.Meanwhile watch for Corman regulars Jonathan Haze, Sid Haig and Carl Schanzer turn up as Beatniks (leftover characters from BUCKET OF BLOOD perhaps?) who hang out in a coffee house, argue about art and use the word "quantum" a little too frequently. Also in the cast is Lori Saunders (billed here as "Linda") who went on the play the airhead, would-be journalist Bobbie Jo Bradley on "Petticoat Junction". This time she plays a dancer who is in love with Campbell never suspecting what he does with his models. She has a lengthy (8 minutes by my stopwatch!) scene where she does an interpretive dance on the beach and models 3 bikinis, each one smaller than the one before it, during the film.I do believe Joe Spinell saw this movie since the ending of his film MANIAC borrows liberally from the climax of BLOOD BATH.PS: This was not Lori Saunders only encounter with a mad killer. She would be chased by an axe wielding psychopath in a Tor Johnson mask (!) in SO SAD ABOUT GLORIA (1972).