Psychotronic Movie of the Week: THE THING WITH TWO HEADS (1972)

THE THING WITH TWO HEADS
1972
American International Pictures

Produced by Wes Bishop
Directed by Lee Frost

Michael J. Weldon writes, in The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film:

The ultimate blaxploition horror movie, not to be confused with the previous year's all-white The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant. Both are from AIP. This, believe it or not, features Ray Milland as a racist brain surgeon with terminal cancer. Milland first creates a two-headed gorilla (designed by Rick Baker). Then he arranges to have his head transplanted onto the healthy body of a volunteer convict from death row. When he awakens from his operation he finds his head on Rosey Greer's body. You've got to see him (them) running around, riding a motorcycle, yelling at each other, and Chelsea Brown is the convict's surprised girlfriend. With Roger Perry, who is also in both Count Yorga movies, and William Smith. Music by Jerry Butler. Director Frost worked on lots of 60s "adults only" films.

Psychotronic Movie of the Week: Home For The Holidays (1972)

When the topic of holiday horrors comes up, most people mention Black Christmas (1974), Christmas Evil (1980), and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), but Home For The Holidays (1972) seems to have been largely forgotten. A made for TV thriller from back when made for TV movies could really pack a punch, Home For The Holidays is a taut, pre-slasher gem with Sally Field just fresh out of her role in The Flying Nun. She plays the youngest of four sisters (her siblings are played by Elanor Parker, Jessica Walter, and Jill Hayworth) who come home to visit their dying father (Walter Brennan) on Christmas. He gathers them together, tells them that his second wife (Julie Harris) is slowly poisoning him, and that he wants them to murder her. Tensions and suspicions are high in the large home as a torrential rainstorm comes down outside with large crashes of thunder every few minutes. A killer in a yellow raincoat starts taking people out one at a time. Is wife #2 the one wearing it? You'll have to watch to find out. 

Psychotronic Movie of the Week Returns! Spend your Thanksgiving with BLOOD FREAK!

I'm bringing the PSYCHOTRONIC MOVIE OF THE WEEK back to the Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban blog and I'm kicking off version 2.0 with my own favorite Thanksgiving cinematic tradition, Brad F. Ginter's BLOOD FREAK.

Ginter's filmography as a director includes just five titles, and it's three that he's primarily remembered for today - the awful biker flick DEVIL RIDER (1970), the bizarre Veronica Lake swan song FLESH FEAST (1970), and today's feature, BLOOD FREAK (1972).

Steve Hawkes, whose previous acting resume was highlighted by two low-budget, shot in Florida Tarzan movies, co-wrote the screenplay with Ginter and stars as Herschell, a Nam vet biker who gets invited to a party by a beautiful young lady and well, one thing leads to another and before we know it, Herschell is addicted to the pot! He ends up eating some chemically altered turkey and when he wakes up he's become a monster with a giant turkey head who needs to feast on the blood of drug addicts to satisfy his cravings. In the end, the only thing that can save him is turning to God - the film was described by Shock Cinema's Steven Puchalski as "the world's first Christian, anti-drug splatter movie!" And if that plot wasn't enough of a trainwreck, wait until you get a load of Ginter himself as the narrator, sitting at a desk in front of faux wooden paneling, talking about "the human body as a mixing bowl," spewing Reefer Madness-style anti-drug rhetoric while smoking a cigarette. At one point he breaks into a coughing fit that only adds to the delicious (unintentional?) irony. You would think they would have done another take, but I guess it wasn't in the budget.

BLOOD FREAK was released on VHS in the 80s by Video Treasures, which promised "A Dracula on Drugs!" Something Weird Video released the ultimate special edition DVD in the early 2000's which is now out of print but can be found on Amazon and eBay. I highly recommend seeking it out, but in the meantime, here's the entire movie as posted on YouTube, DIG! 

EDIT: YouTube has already removed the video I originally posted, but you can still watch it broken down into six parts.