Blood Freak

Plot synopsis:
Narrator [Brad Grinter], puffing on a cigarette: The one constant in this world is that things change.
There is order in change in that one thing leads to the next thing, and
one seemingly random event can affect the course of the future.Herschel [Steve Hawkes], an out-of-work and homeless Vietnam vet, meets and
befriends Jesus freak Angel [Heather Hughes] when her car breaks down on the Florida
turnpike. Angel takes Herschel home where her hot-to-trot sister Ann [Dana Cullivan] is
smoking marijuana and doing drugs with a bunch of her friends.Narrator: *puff* Angel and Ann are both truth-seekers, although each goes
at it from a different angle.Herschel accompanies Angel to a meeting with her Jesus freak friend
Tom Nolan [?], who offers Herschel a job on his poultry ranch. Angel invites
Herschel to stay with her and Ann until he can get on his feet. The next
day, as Herschel cleans their swimming pool, Ann dons her bikini and tries
to get Herschel to notice her. When that doesn't work, she gets Herschel
to take a drag on a joint laced with something that Ann's friend Guy [Larry Wright]
guarantees will hook him after only a few tokes. Into the bedroom they go,
and off comes Ann's bikini.Narrator: *puff* Because Herschel is a real man, he couldn't refuse Ann's
attentions. But the paths of life are predicatable, and we choose them
over and over again.The next morning, Herschel heads over to the Midway Turkey Farm &
Hatchery. Tom introduces Herschel to Lenny and Gene, who work in the
farm's laboratory. They are currently researching the chemical
"caponization" of poultry. Needing a human to eat the meat in order to see
if there are any side-effects, they rope Herschel into it by offering him
some recreational drugs for his personal use. Later that evening, Herschel
begins to withdraw from that incredibly-addicting grass and is in dire
need of a fix. Ann calls Guy, who brings over some more weed.The next day at work, Lenny presents Herschel with a whole roasted
turkey, which Herschel proceeds to gobble down. After finishing off the
turkey, Herschel isn't feeling so good, so he goes for a stroll in the
yard and passes out in the bushes. Lenny finds Herschel suffering from
convulsions in the grass and he and Gene cart him off and dump his body
elsewhere. Sure that they are going to be caught for killing Herschel,
Lenny and Gene split. Later that evening, the drugs appear to have run
their course, and Herschel wakes up and goes home to Ann. Unfortunately,
Herschel has turned into a were-turkey and can only communicate with Ann
by writing; when he tries to speak, all that comes out is a gobble.
[Herein is one of the most bizarre seduction scenes I've ever seen.] Ann
feels awful, because she thinks it is all her fault, so she calls her
sister Angel.Narrator: *puff* Interesting how, in times of trouble but not before, we
turn to God. Be careful what you pray for.Herschel has learned that he can get his drug fix by hanging users by
their feet, slitting their necks, and drinking their blood. While Herschel
goes around drinking the blood of various drug-abusing girls, Ann talks
turkey with two of her friends, trying to get them to help her find and
take care of Herschel until he reverts back to normal. When Herschel is
spotted by a non-druggie man, he is forced to kill the man. The man's wife
or son (it's hard to tell) attacks Herschel and stabs him in the eye.
Bleeding all over his turkey feathers, Herschel stumbles home to Ann.Meanwhile, Guy is trying to buy more drugs, but his pusher refuses to
deliver unless Guy pays what he already owes. Guy offers him $175 and a
chance to make it with Ann, who is taking a nap in the bedroom. The pusher
agrees. As he fondles Ann's breasts, she wakes up and sees that it isn't
Herschel. The pusher sees Herschel out the window and runs out of Ann's
bedroom. He tries to hide in a garage, but Herschel finds him and cuts off
his leg with a tablesaw. Herschel isn't feeling too steady and falls to
his knees in the grass. As Herschel folds his hands in prayer, Ann's two
friends find him. They cut off the head of a turkey. The final scene shows
people's hands tearing the meat from a roasted turkey. Next to the turkey
is Herschel's turkey head.But wait a minute. Back up a few paragraphs and pick up where
Herschel goes for a walk and passes out in the bushes. Tom finds Herschel.
It was all a hallucination. Turns out that Herschel was badly burned in
Vietnam and became addicted to pain killers. The combination of smoking
marijuana and eating drugged turkey brought on hallucinations. Tom calls
Angel who works at the Drug Center. Angel calls Ann and offers to bring
her to pick up Herschel at the turkey farm, but Ann feels too guilty to
face Herschel right now. Angel explains everything to Herschel, tells him
how much Ann loves him, and they pray together to increase Herschel's
faith.Narrator: *puff* This movie has been a story about the horrors that can
occur when we use the human body as a mixing bowl for drugs. *cough*
*puff* *cough* *hack*Epilogue: Herschel finds Ann walking alone on a pier near the ocean. They
smile at each other, kiss, and walk away in each other's arms. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl]

Tags: cult, psychedelic, violence

Review:
"The natives call it - Tabanga!" in from Hell It Came.Yes, it's about mutant turkeys, good Bible preaching, a hair farm named Herschell, and balding cracker dopers, but Blood Freak goes so much further.
Incredible twisted Christian-Drug-Gore-Turkey Monster film.
Hershel smokes some kind of super addicting pot which causes him to sc**w Ann. He then goes to work for a man who appears to be their father who owns a poultry farm with a built in laboratory run by some dim witted scientists.
When Herschell ignores the advances of a woman, she informs him, "You' re nothing but a dumb b***ard who doesn't know where it's at, anyway!"Herschell ends up getting a job at the father's turkey farm, Anne gets him "hooked" on pot and scientists in lab jackets trick him into eating chemicals that transform him into a turkey headed monster that gobbles, hangs people upside down, slits their throats and drinks the blood, all while dressed in flared bell-bottom pants!One very blood, standout murder scene has a guy getting his leg cut off with a table saw.
But the action stops cold when the on-screen, chain-smoking narrator (played by director Grinter) reads preachy, pro-Christian commentary off of cue cards on a desk!The big, muscular Hawkes sports Elvis hair, thick sideburns and weird, blotchy skin, and is one of the worst actors I can think of.
No one is credited with writing it on the version I have (the original VHS copy), but with lines directed toward Hawkes like, "He's strong, he's handsome and he enjoys being attractive to the opposite sex," I strongly suspect he had his hand in there somewhere.Do NOT miss this movie!Score: (technically speaking) 1 out of 10 / (for laughs) 10 out of 10!.
What can one say about a movie in which a beefy Vietnam vet (resembling a late-60's Conway Twitty) follows a nice Christian young lady home, only to fall for her sister, get hooked on some bizarre strain of pot, eat an entire "experimental" turkey cooked up by some mad poultry scientists (who themselves are hooked on the wacky weed), turn into the ugly cousin of the San Diego Chicken, and become driven to feed on the blood of addicts?
will come up  in the process, but I think the word that best sums it up is "amazing".If taken at face value this would appear to be an over-the-top, ridiculous anti-drug christian scare film, but it seems to me like it's more likely a wierd joke by a sadist with a bizarre sense of humor.
My favorite element personally is the crusty narrator who occasionally interrupts the movie from what appears to be a suburban family rec room(?) and gives cryptic warnings about the harm of putting chemicals in one's body, all the while puffing away on cigarettes (at one point the guy even breaks out into a heavy coughing fit!).
Their complete lack of emotion and their stumbling over their own lines (among other things) make me suspect that this movie only filmed ONE TAKE of each scene, regardless of mistakes.I simply LOVE "Blood Freak" and never get tired of it.
For example, look at what happens to poor Herschell, a musclebound Vietnam vet, in the 1972 film "Blood Freak." When we first meet him, Herschell is hooked on painkillers and soon--shades of "Reefer Madness" (1936)--becomes PHYSICALLY addicted to some kind of superpot (patent BS, to be sure).
The "good" characters are annoying and the "bad" ones are obnoxious; actually, the only character I felt anything for was the real-life turkey who gets his head chopped off in one scene.
As far as I know, it's the only Christian/Anti-Drug/Gore/Turkey film ever made, obviously those who came after realized trying to outdo "BF" would be an impossible feat.Highlights include the coughing fit of the on screen narrator, the retina destroying fashions and two of the coolest lab workers.
The plot is so asinine that I really don't want to get very far into it.Hershel eats some drug laced turkey meat and turns into a turkey-man who craves the blood of drug addicts; all narrated by a "cool" smoking guy.
Picture it--a chain-smoking narrator who portrays a god-like role in the film, a killer turkey man, LOTS of late-sixties/early-seventies clothing, and a renegade biker named Herschel.
Before you know it, this guy turns into a turkey-headed monster that kills people and drinks their blood!
All the time while preaching about the evils of doing drugs and putting chemicals in your body, he's chain-smoking cigarettes!This was made in the early 70's and on a very small budget with probably not a real actor in the whole film.
On one hand "Blood Freak" has some of the worst "acting" I have ever witnessed on film including a chain smoking narrator that constantly looks down at his script who at one point goes into a serious coughing spell that is not edited out at all.
On the other hand this is a one-of-a-kind insane combination of drug propaganda, slasher films, monster movies and Christian evangelism that has never been repeated to this day.
With his addiction growing and the need to satisfy his fix overpowering Herschell agrees to an absurd experiment where he eats turkey meat that has been tampered with by two scientists that are probably the worst of the so-called actors in this movie.
Sure enough the infected meat turns Herschell into a turkey-headed beast that must feed on blood.
The plot itself of a man turning into a chicken in some bizarre drugs gone wrong scenario and then killing people is absurd enough as it is, but the outfit worn is what makes it truly laugh-out-loud funny.How bad and hilarious is it?
Studly, hog-riding Herschell gets reeled into the dope scene by a seductive ravenhaired trollop...a free-spirited hottie who loves the party life, and ignores the cautionary advice of her mousy, churchgoing sister.Before long, Herschell finds employment at a turkey farm, which also happens to be the locus of some dodgy scientific quackery conducted by a couple of goofy whitecoats.
Canadian body builder Steve Hawkes plays Vietnam vet named Herschell who smokes a lot of weed and turns into vampiric were-turkey after eating a scientifically-altered turkey prepared by two scientists in their laboratory.He quickly begins to stalk and kill young female junkies and drink their blood."Blood Freak" by Brad F.Grinter and Steve Hawkes has to be seen to be believed.There is even uplifting pro-Christian message at the end.The film is gleefully bizarre and has some amateurish gore scenes including table saw leg cutting.The acting is hilariously bad,the editing is awful and Grinter's speeches are utterly stupid.6 cold turkeys out of 10."How can such a big hunk of man be such a damn coward?".
As it's been said many times before, it can boast the distinction of mixing a pro-Christianity, anti-drug message with a tried and true horror movie premise of a monster on the loose and a generous dose of very tacky gore.
And throughout this things' 80 minute run time, the co-director Brad Grinter (who'd directed Veronica Lake in her final film, "Flesh Feast") pops up on screen, cigarette in hand, to wax philosophical on the nature of fate and the importance of catalysts.Beefy non-actor Steve Hawkes - who was the other director of this epic - stars as Herschell, a Vietnam veteran / biker who makes the acquaintance of "good girl" Angel (Heather Hughes), a sexy but deeply religious gal.
Meanwhile, he gets a job at a poultry farm where, among other things, he agrees to function as test subject and eat turkey that's been treated with an experimental drug.
On top of that, he now drinks blood, which he obtains from the necks of various unlucky junkies.A deadly slow pace prevents this from being completely effective, but overall "Blood Freak" is the kind of thing a cult movie lover will want to have the experience of viewing.
Peoples' reactions to Turkey Man are pretty priceless, and Anns' dialogue is delicious, especially when she wonders what the children of her and Herschell would look like.
What would I tell them about you?" I don't know, but you could start by saying that their dad is a TURKEY.Like any rambling man who dresses like Elvis in the 70's, Herschell is looking for a job.
The scientists are incredible, the turkey head costume amazing as the story unrolls like old fruit leather.Then we come to the narrator, chain smoking and obviously read from cue cards, he coughs and clears his throat.If you enjoy bad movies, steer clear.
Really Bad. Blood Freak (1972) BOMB (out of 4) An incredibly bizarre Christian/Drug/Horror/Moral film, which is quite possibly the worst film I've ever seen.
Blood Freak is so insanely awful on every level that one can easily be forgiven for questioning its authenticity as a genuinely bad film; throughout, I kept asking myself the question 'Is this for real?'.
As such, it must surely stand as one of the most entertaining turkeys of all time (a most-fitting description, as you will discover).Muscle-bound Croatian-born actor Steve Hawkes plays Herschell, a kind-hearted 'easy-rider' type who pulls over on the freeway to help the aptly named Angel (Heather Hughes), a pretty but pious damsel-in-distress experiencing a spot of car trouble.
Anne's next move is to try and weaken Herschell's resolve by getting him high, an approach which proves far more successful than simply flaunting her flawless body: before long Herschell is boffing the brazen brunette, but has also developed a severe addiction for hard drugs (a small price to pay, IMO, given how smoking hot she is).The very next day, Herschell begins his new job as handyman at a nearby poultry farm, working under a pair of dodgy looking scientists conducting biological experiments on turkeys.
Offered extra cash if he takes part in a turkey meat taste test, Herschell is only too keen to get stuck in, but the chemicals used on the big bird react with the strong illegal narcotics coursing through his body, causing him to turn into a turkey-headed monster with an insatiable lust for blood.Possibly the only pro-Christian, anti-drug, mutant turkey film ever made, Blood Freak is mind-bogglingly craptastic from start to finish, its cast lacking even the most basic acting skills (several appear to be reading their lines from cue cards), director Brad F.
Grinter displaying all the visual acuity of a blind person in a very dark cave, the script providing some wonderfully outmoded dialogue ("He sees a chick he digs and he swings, man"), and its 'creature'—Hawkes sporting a papier-mâché turkey head—being one of the most pathetic monsters ever to be captured on film.In addition to all this, viewers are also treated to sporadic appearances from Grinter as the film's narrator, who spouts dull philosophical and theological clap-trap and whose chain-smoking leads to a coughing fit whilst he is delivering a diatribe about poisoning the body with unnatural substances (some have taken this to be a wry clue that director Brad Grinter was well aware of how daft his film was all along; if so, then I guess the guy must have been some kind of genius to have successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of bad-film fans for nigh on 40 years).Blood Freak is one of those films that is extremely hard for me to rate, because it is an enjoyable mess, but for being so completely gonzo and utterly hilarious, I'll give it a 7.5, plus a bonus half point for the unexpectedly gory 'leg onto the rotary saw blade' scene, and for introducing me to the delights of Heather Hughes and Dana Cullivan, both of whom look great in their revealing 70s get-ups (hot-pants and mini-skirts, I salute you!)..
So when I saw the listing for "Blood Freak" on TCM's schedule ("Derelict biker goes on drug trip and transforms into killer turkey") I thought - what a hoot this is gonna be!
This has moments of spontaneous hilarity in the worst possible way, but it's undermined by any and all attempts by its creators (and future role model for Larry Bishop's Hell Ride, Steve Hawkes as writer/director/ego-maniac/turkey) in making it a Reefer Madness style message movie about drugs and, eventually, God itself.
And by the time the filmmakers get to the turkey headed creature-man-thing, looking like a cross between a discarded Skesis from the Dark Crystal and a Docor Who villain, one can join in the fun with the repetitive screaming sound effect and awkward edits.But really, it's just so poorly made- this kind of movie will make cinematographers' heads spin perennially over how absolutely God-awful some of the shots are as being pseudo-documentary and pseudo-horror (or, better yet, pseudo-suck)- and acted (everyone, from Hawkes to every single player, including two actors who look like they wandered off from the Allman Brothers band) and plotted (the ending, which provides a whole "It was all a dream" twist may be the most offensive thing of all), that you'll groan and feel completely sickened with yourself for watching what one hoped to be a ridiculous tongue-in-cheek turkey-killer flick.My advice, and I can't believe I'm saying this, go back and re-watch Eli Roth's Thanksgiving trailer.
SPOILERS INCLUDED What were they thinking; more specifically how does a pro-christian, anti drug film double as a bloody horror movie about a vampire turkey monster?
Ann tells the turkey she still loves him despite the obvious problems what would the children think of their father looking like that.my god what would the children look like?'  Discovering he can only live off the blood of drug addicts the BloodFreak stalks Ann's dopy friends- dragging them into the bushes and drinking their blood.
Things start with a burly biker named Herschell (who looks like the love child of Elvis Presley and Conway Twitty) riding down the highway and happening upon a girl (named Angel...
which is, the best Anti-Drug/Pro-Religion/Turkey-Monster movie ever made!
If your in the mood, you'll probably laugh your ass off during this flick.The Not So Good: If your not in the mood for it, this movie will probably seem like the worst thing ever caught on film.
And second, a warning to those who don't like real on-screen violence inflicted on animals.Okay, first: I bought the BLOOD FREAK DVD mainly because I love SOMETHING WEIRD DVDs, which are full of extras, and also because I love really bad movies.
The thing that everyone has failed to mention is the "twist" ending: that the whole idea of the guy (played by beefy Elvis-look-a-like Steve Hawkes) turning into a monster with a head of a turkey and feeding on addicts' blood is nothing but a DREAM or a HALLUCINATION.
After the guy takes the drug from the turkey farm, the man has this really bad trip and dreams he's turned into the turkey monster.
BLOOD FREAK is still bad but it's not as bad as if the character had actually changed into that turkey monster.
Some moments are truly weird, like when Steve Hawkes's girlfriend sees him for the first time as the turkey monster and starts talking about how the people will perceive them as a couple or how their children will turn out is, for a split second, unbelievably brilliant in its total ineptitude.
It's obvious the actor has an amputated leg in reality and they simply hired him just so the scene when the turkey monster cuts off his foot looks very convincing.And speaking of violence, here's my second point: I also have to warn people who don't like to see animals killed on screen.
LOL!In the end, BLOOD FREAK is a must see for all aficionados of bad films.
We made a movie like Blood Freak and called it entertainment.
They Don't Make Turkey-Headed Killer Films Like They Used To....
Looking for work, Angel hooks him up with a friend of hers for some farm-work - and all is looking well for Hersch, until...Anne tricks Herschell into smoking some drug-laced pot, making him an instant addict, and some scientists at the farm trick Herschell into eating some drug-laced turkey, turning Herschell into a gobbling, blood-thirsty, turkey-headed freak!
Two scientists at the farm give Herschell a turkey stuffed with experimental drugs to eat.
After eating a bad batch of bird, Herschell's head turns into a giant turkey head, and he goes on a killing spree, murdering the local druggies and drinking their blood.
Seeing this guy run about for the next 20 minutes wearing a very cheesy turkey head as he rips open women's throats in order to drink their blood is something I'll never forget and might just be one of the silliest things in film history.So, from the plot, it's pretty easy to see how this could all be rather funny.
Florida has a strange, tacky tradition of horror film-making, from Herschell Gordon Lewis's gore epics to "Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things" (a forgotten masterpiece of the '60s/'70s exploitation boom) to this movie, which manages to cram an anti-drug message, Christian proselytization, and the surreal story of a homicidal turkey monster into eighty-six short minutes.
There's some truly hilarious dialogue here, the scene in which Ann sees Herschell as the Turkey monster for the first time & says 'Gosh Herschell, you sure are ugly' just demonstrates a lack of compassion & then Ann goes on to discuss whether their children would look like him!
The whole film is quite lifeless & dull, it plods along & even at 80 minutes it drags, it takes what seems like ages for the Turkey monster to show & there's a really bad cop-out ending that just reinforces that drugs are bad, very bad.
There's one memorable moment in which a drug dealing rapist has his leg cut off with an electric band saw but otherwise Blood Freak is quite lethargic but it's just so unintentionally funny with hilarious dialogue, bad acting to make you cringe, awful production values & one of the worst monster masks in film history.