Blood Freak

The Story: A drug addict turns into a half man/half turkey and has to kill other drug addicts to survive.

We start our film with Herschell (Hawkes) riding his chopper down the freeway. After making eye contact with a lovely young woman in a car, the two pull over to talk. Next thing you know, the bible-thumping girl invites Herschell to her home. Upon their arrival, we see that the whole household is partying and doing drugs. Herschell is then introduced to Ann, the younger, better looking sister of the bible-thumper. Anne tries to get Herschell to smoke a joint with her, but he turns her down telling her, "I don't do that kind of stuff".

The next day while Herschell is cleaning the family pool, Anne pressures him into smoking a joint. After doing so, the two run off and have sex. The following morning Herschell is late for a job interview at a turkey farm. Regardless of his tardiness, he still gets the job as the farm's errand boy. He also agrees to be the farm's guinea pig as the scientists working there are experimenting on a hybrid bird, and they want Herschell to test it by eating the meat. Scientists on a turkey farm? Umm, ok...

Later that night when Herschell is back home, he goes into withdrawals as the joint he smoked earlier has a negative effect on him. Anne calls the drug supplier to get Herschell another fix. Once calmed down, Herschell tells the man, "You got me hooked, so you keep me supplied, got it!".

The following day at work, Herschell sits down and gobbles up a whole genetically engineered turkey. Seconds later, while attending some of his errands, he falls over and goes into convulsions. When he wakes, he's shocked at his appearance, as he now has a turkey head, and lusts after the blood of drug addicts.

Well folks, there you have it. A half man/half turkey serial killer. Blood Freak is a horrible film. From a filmmaking standpoint, there are no redeeming qualities to be found. Many, if not all the close up shots are out of focus. This is especially the case with murder victims. The film was obviously shot without sound, with voice-overs and sound effects added at a later time. Most, if not all of the voices are out of sync, and many of the sound effects come at inopportune times. Acting is another atrocity here, there's not one talented individual to be found in the cast in front of or behind the camera.

Funny thing about bad movies, you love to hate them. This couldn't be further from the truth with Blood Freak. I mean this guy has a turkey head and there's a reason he moves so slow throughout the film, they didn't want his head to fall off. There's a reason they don't show him attacking his victims, they didn't want his head to fall off. There's a reason they don't show him leaning over to drink the blood of his victims, they didn't want his head to fall off.

Ok, so they didn't want Hawkes' turkey head to fall off. Understandable, right? What about the horrible dubbing and sound effects? In particular, the screaming victims and witnesses. First case in point: the first murder is seen by a woman passing by. She slowly walks up to the scene and begins screaming after seeing the turkey attack. No ordinary scream either, a loud annoying scream that loops about a dozen times before it ends. Second case in point: a man is thrown onto a bandsaw and his leg is sawed off. What happens? He screams like there's no tomorrow, but again this scream is looped around a dozen times or so.

Last but not least, and I do need to wrap up this review, there's one scene with the turkey scientists, and this one's golden. After hearing what Herschell has done, the two scientists talk about quitting their jobs to avoid the cops. In doing so, the fat fellow begins talking gibberish and shows his IQ to be about 40 or so. Besides the bad dialogue here, the guy pauses and can barely remember any of his lines. It's at the end of this scene the other scientist says, "You know Gene, there are times I suspect that you're the brains of this outfit". Classic, considering the fat fellow just proved to be as dumb as an Ox.

Blood Freak falls into the same category as Doris Wishman's A Night To Dismember. A movie so bad, it's good. A movie you have to watch to believe. It's for this reason you must own it, especially if you're a fan of truly bad cinema.