It’s hard to doubt the lasting effects of Joel M. Reed’s Blood Sucking Freaks, otherwise known as Sardu, Master of the Screaming Virgins. The film’s splatterific debut in 1976 cemented Troma as a horror film studio, and certainly there’s a case to be made that at least some of the elements contained in the film influenced other torture porn creators and made their way into transgressive genres like ero-guro; it’s widely known that Eli Roth, for example, is a huge fan. But does that make it a good movie, or just a cinematically relevant one?
The answer is probably both in some ways. Reed’s Blood Sucking Freaks is limited in the scope of its plot, and for those not already warned about the nastiness of its portrayal of captured naked women being put through a number of excruciating tortures and demeaning activities, it will obviously be quite shocking. And rightfully so: even now, a number of the scenes in Blood Sucking Freaks are effective not because of the visceral realism of the gore but simply because they exist in a never-ending parade of continuous debasement, gleefully performed by theater actor Seamus O’Brien as the infamous Sardu. When the viewer isn’t being subjected to the actual violence, the rest of the film finds Sardu using his captive women for tableware or the casually mentioned urinal.
It would be easy to simply charge Blood Sucking Freaks with severe misogyny and be done with it, but it’s not that simple. Women aren’t the only tortured, for example; Sardu also keeps his worst critic Creasy Silo (Alan Dellay) chained up in the dungeon as well, subjected to force-feeding. And therein lies the film’s admittedly thin meta-commentary about theater and Grand Guignol-style films just like Blood Sucking Freaks: there’s an audience for it. Much like Sardu’s live shows – where to the audience, it’s not clear whether everything is real or fabricated like a magic show – the thrill is in the subversion of reality. In art, where is the boundary, especially when audiences are clearly clamoring for it? The allure and interest in Reed’s film is a perfect representation of that theme; despite a lack of plot, a filthy reprehensible “story,” and a warning from others that you probably shouldn’t watch it, here we all are celebrating its release on UHD thanks to Vinegar Syndrome.
Overall, Blood Sucking Freaks isn’t really a great film in the normal sense; despite its variety of tortures and tons of on-screen nudity, it somehow also manages to be a little boring much of the time due to the drawn-out theatrics. But its importance to cinema history is clear, and it’s probably the source of a few BDSM fantasies too. Do with that what you will.
4K UHD
Vinegar Syndrome has released Blood Sucking Freaks on 4K with a scan of the best surviving film elements, which happens to be the 35mm internegative. The film obviously is intended to have quite the dingy pallor to it, and the UHD surprisingly upholds the grindhouse aesthetic while providing a nice amount of detail. The internegative does show some wear, and those accustomed to overtly pristine transfers from Vinegar Syndrome will find that this release doesn’t showcase the superiority of 4K as much as other releases with the occasional softness and wear. But this is still a huge step up from the previous Blu-ray release from Troma in 2014, improving on the strength of the image quality as well as maintaining the film’s 1.37:1 aspect ratio (it was later blown up to 35mm at 1.85:1). The UHD also employs HDR 10 which does well to help with the film’s darker sequences and delineation, as well as the extremely bright blood effects used. Overall, Blood Sucking Freaks looks about as good as one can imagine with this new 4K release.
Audio is a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, which sounds good despite some slight muffling here and there which may have been native to the film. Mostly the film utilizes a lot of female screaming and moaning, all captured well here. English subtitles are also included.
For extra features, both the UHD and Blu-ray have two audio commentaries; one is an older release featuring filmmaker and fan Eli Roth, while the other is a new commentary from author John Szpunar who wrote a book about the films of Joel M. Reed. Szpunar gives a great overview of the film through the lens of the the deceased Reed, sharing a lot of details and stories gleaned from speaking with the director throughout the years. The Blu-ray contains the rest of the new and old extras. A new featurette on the film’s screening at the Mahoning Drive-In theater in 2023 includes interviews with fans and Lloyd Kaufman. Other than that, the rest of the extras are ported over from previous releases, including a live commentary with Red, Art Ettinger, and Ken Kish from 2009 that runs feature-length; there’s an hour-long older interview with Reed, as well as an archival introduction by Lloyd Kaufman and various interviews with cast, crew, and superfans Eli Roth and Chris Jericho. Also included is the alternate title sequence featuring the Blood Sucking Freaks title card. The packaging also comes with new cover artwork.
Extra Features
- 2-disc Region Free Set: 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in High-Dynamic-Range
- NEW scanned and restored in 4K from its 35mm internegative
- NEW commentary track with John Szpunar, author of Blood Sucking Freak: The Life and Films of the Incredible Joel M. Reed
- Archival commentary track with Eli Roth, filmmaker and fan of BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS
- NEW “Freaks Come Out at the Drive-In” – a featurette about the TROMA-THON 2023 screening of BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in Lehighton, PA – including an interview with Troma president Lloyd Kaufman (1080p; 14:31)
- Live commentary from a 2009 screening with director Joel M. Reed, Art Ettinger and Ken Kish (1080p; 1:33:37)
- Q&A with Joel M. Reed (1080p; 55:09)
- Cinema Wasteland hotel room interview with Joel M. Reed (1080p; 24:39)
- Archival introduction by Lloyd Kaufman (1080p; 2:36)
- Archival cast & crew interviews (1080p; 3:52)
- Archival interview with Eli Roth, BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS fan & filmmaker (1080p; 20:11)
- Archival interview with Chris Jericho, BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS fan & professional wrestler (1080p; 14:36)
- Alternate title sequence (1080p; 1:02)
- NEW Reversible cover artwork
- English SDH subtitles
Verdict
Blood Sucking Freaks will likely only appeal to a certain type of viewer due to its transgressive subject matter and questionable theme resonance; but for those that have the stomach for it, there are some meta elements at play that elevate the film above simple schlocky misogyny. Vinegar Syndrome’s new transfer from the internegative makes this a worthwhile pickup since it vastly improves on previously available quality, though a lack of new extras may make give some fans pause for upgrading.
