Difference between revisions of "Blood Mania/Review"

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Blood Mania
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Its bloodthirsty title aside there isn’t much blood in [[Blood Mania]]. In fact, the only on-screen murder occurs more than sixty minutes into this ninety-minute slow-burn thriller with a twist.  
Its bloodthirsty title aside there isn’t much blood in [[Blood Mania]]. In fact, the only on-screen murder occurs more than sixty minutes into this ninety-minute slow-burn thriller with a twist.  



Revision as of 14:38, 6 July 2020

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Its bloodthirsty title aside there isn’t much blood in Blood Mania. In fact, the only on-screen murder occurs more than sixty minutes into this ninety-minute slow-burn thriller with a twist.

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Victoria (Maria De Aragon) is waiting for her bedridden father Ridgely (Eric Allison) to die: he’s sitting, or shall we say laying, on a fortune. Victoria’s wants to give her expected inheritance to a doctor named Craig (Peter Carpenter). Although Craig doesn’t appear to be interested in her, Victoria has fallen in love with him and she wants to help: he’s being blackmailed for performing illegal abortions—a little fact that would surely bring his esteemed tenure at the local hospital to an end.

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But Ridgely doesn’t leave his fortune to Victoria, he leaves it to her long-lost sister Gail (Vicki Peters), someone who skipped out years ago but has showed up for the reading of the will. Some think Victoria played a role in her father’s death. If so, will her sister Gail meet a similar fate? And what about that blackmailer (Arell Blanton)? He knows about the illegal abortions that Craig used to perform but does he know something even more sinister?

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Director Robert Vincent O’Neil and cinematographers Gary Graven and Robert Maxwell imbue Blood Mania with shining attention to detail and a love of cinema. Every frame in this film is perfectly composed, arty, and dramatically lit. The effect is that the actors—with their picture-perfect faces and bodies—seem like living dolls on a giant baroque stage.

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Disregard the poor title and misleading poster art, Blood Mania is a well done suspenser. Low angels, shadows, great music and clever use of textures and colors make it an hallucinating experience, one that brings to mind the equally better-than-it-needs-to-be Alice, Sweet Alice. Underrated and under-seen.


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Josiah Howard is the author of four books including Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide (now in a fourth printing). His writing credits include articles for the American Library of Congress, The New York Times and Readers Digest. A veteran of more than one hundred radio broadcasts, Howard also lectures on cinema and is a frequent guest on entertainment news television. Visit his Official Website.
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