Cracked Jade Glasses

Slave to the Grind:

Blood Sucking Freaks (1976)

 

What a movie to start doing this on. The film is not for the easily offended even to this day. This film is about a sadistic show put on by an Anton Lavey body double a perpetually smiling dwarf, and a slew of assistants that never speak. the body double known as Sardu is truly convinced his work is art. What his work is is torturing nude women on stage under the guise of an act. he even invites the crowd to believe it is real if they want and will take offense to anyone suggesting it's a trick, to me this is the crux of the film. Sardu's desire to be acknowledged as an artist particularly a critic named Creasy Silo who despises Sadru and company's shows but still attends them to heckle. after the show consisting of tightening an "Iron Tourniquet" around a woman's skull and killing her. Sardu orders his dwarf assistant Ralphus to kidnap Creasy and imprisons him saying if he acknowledges his art he will be let go. he adamantly refuses so Sardu takes this as challenge to put on his best show yet a ballet. Another one of the audience members of this show were a famous Quarterback and his ballerina girlfriend. So Sardu kidnaps the ballerina and imprisons her in hopes she will acquiesce to preforming in this ballet of his. In order to convince her to preform he and Ralphus preform acts of torment upon several, and again nude, women that he keeps in his basement. this brings us to our subplot Sardu is in the white slavery trade and trains women to be sold on the black market as well as to be used in his shows giving him a near endless supply of victims. The QB as he is referred to in the film hires a crooked cop in hopes of finding his girlfriend. This cop mentions that Sardu does have a rap sheet a mile long and has been under suspicion for a long time the cops, including him, are just so crooked they don't care. Even to the point the cops gets Sardu to confess to him only to blackmail him collect the money and then notify QB. Back to the theater Sardu and Ralphus tortures are wide, varied, and, often nonsensical. The don't just torture in front of their captive to motivate them they do it at random even while alone. though one could argue they save the more sadistic ones for infront of the ballerina, such as stretching to death on a St. Andrews cross, having a girl hold the rope of her own guillotine in her mouth while being caned, and chainsawing the feet off of her rival. The ones they do in private are more whimsical, in dark dark way, nature such as using a woman's ass as a dart board with her anus being the bulls-eye, a game of backgammon with severed body parts as the currency, and using his slaves as a dining table. it should be mentioned Sardu also enjoys when people torture him as well. this trip down inquisition style lane also includes minor character who is the only true blood sucking freak. When the ballerina nearly dies they surprisingly call the doctor who treats her and brings her back to health when asking about payment is offered an alternative compensation to do what he will with one of the slaves an offer that creepily excites him. he has a women tied to a chair and asks for oral satisfaction so to speak. She says she will and won't bite but the doctor decides to remove her teeth anyway. after a cut and what I'm assuming getting what he asked for he decides on brain surgery for his "patient" inserting a power drill into her skull until all the brain matter is destroyed and sucking up through a straw like a milkshake. After this for some reason Sardu sends Ralphus to dispose of him, my guess is he didn't like the doctor's performance or he was jealous of his creativity either way he's dead. Sardu finally breaks the ballerina and gets her to agree to his show. Meanwhile the critic Creasy goes on a hunger strike and QB and the cop stop in to see the ballerina after reading in the paper that she will be performing. Sardu reluctantly agrees to letting her see him but she's has been entirely brainwashed and doesn't tell him a thing. The cop however beats the truth about the slavery out of Sardu when the QB isn't around and does the aforementioned blackmailing. He reveals the truth to QB after he is paid and while he is watching the show. she dances then strips while the critic is tied to a column and supposedly beat him to death while dancing. QB and the cop break in afterwards discover all the slaves among other things, rescue the ballerina and incapacitates both the assistant and Ralphus. They walk in on Sardu having sex with the corpse of Creasy are obviously disgusted and tie him to the St. Andrews cross. The cop discovers that all of Sardu's money is kept in the cage with the slaves who are basically feral at this point and foolishly tries to get it releasing all of the slaves and gets himself eaten by them. They then turn their attention to Sardu and his cohorts devouring and decapitating them during which Sardu laughs and acts kinda like he wanted this all along. Meanwhile the QB and ballerina start leaving when QB says that Sardu is dead she bludgeons him to death with a maul and runs off screaming "I'm coming master". the film ends with shots of Sardu and companies heads and giant psychedelic dance with the cannibalistic slaves while one of them eats a sandwich with what appears to be a penis as the meat.

This film is just fucked in so many ways its impossible to describe thoroughly but I will try. It was intended to be a comedy which you can see with the over the top gore that looks like red paint, the sense of humor with the games Sardu and Ralphus play, The crooked cops extreme greed, and the dick sandwich ending. So I can see that and some of those are pretty funny in concept. but the way the film is shot so straight, overexposure to nudity, the use of S&M incorrectly, kinda makes you so uncomfortable you can't even see any humor until you think about it later. This is a film that if someone walked in on you watching they might think differently about you in the future. There was this whole thing with Women Against Pornography and yes this film feels very very misogynist but the captors do suffer at the women's hands at the end and I swear you can see some of them laughing while they rattle against the cage. So I don't think the filmmakers were trying to be anti-women but it does come off that way. Also of note the actor that played Sardu (Seamus O'brien) was stabbed to death by a burglar and the actress that played the ballerina (Viju Krem) was shot on a hunting trip.

Should you see the film?: depend on what you can handle if you were fine with "I Spit On Your Grave" or "Ichi The Killer" or some other amazingly violent and dark film you will be fine and might even like it, as for everyone else stay far away or start developing a tolerance with less screwed up films.

Did I like the film: As a whole no it's put together badly and every time I felt I possibly wasn't corrupting my soul with the vileness of whats on screen something else happened to destroy that possibility. That being said I do have a soft spot for over the top filth and this has its moments of pure that was insane in a good way. If this was released as short segments of Sardu and Ralphus scenes I would probably see more humor in it and might be on board waiting to see what these guys would play next in their sick games.

Conclusion: This film is pretty interesting in its controversy both in the real world and inside your own head. So if you watch it prepare to be conflicted and confused.