INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS (1972)
Directed by Ed Adlum
Retromedia DVD
Reviewed 01.17.04
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba

THE FILM
What?! From the makers of Shriek Of The Mutilated? I’m totally sold.

Filmed two years prior to Shriek and employing the same crew (and some familiar cast faces), Invasion Of The Blood Farmers is a deliriously insane and fun film. I don’t even completely understand what’s going on in the plot, but you do get this: lots of neon colored fake blood killings, a cashmere pillow standing in for the death scene of a sheepdog, a professor character that seems to be performing Shakespeare, and loads of hilarious happenings that make no sense at all.

A cult of druids somewhere in upstate New York are capturing and killing local folks. They dress like farmers, which is hilarious in itself, and sometimes wear black hoods. Why? Well that’s obvious...the cult needs to drain everyone’s blood with a sump pump hose and bring their dead queen back to life. At the same time, a professor and his assistant are trying to stop a blood sample they found from regenerating. This seems to have nothing to do with the plot. As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of blood, all of which is of the neon-red variety. The “acting” is top notch b-movie ham and I laughed heartily throughout.

This is Shriek Of The Mutilated, just bigger and better. They even use the same library orchestra music, straight from the needle of a turntable. Imagine an Ed Wood-type of monster movie, but with lots of really fake blood. You’ll never get bored.

AUDIO AND VIDEO
Very nice. The film is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and looks pretty excellent for the most part. Scratches are minimal. The colors are over saturated and bright, which looks great for this type of film. There are a couple of instances where the print takes on a monochromatic green appearance, but I can’t tell if that’s intentional or just a print problem. No compression was evident and the mono sound was fine.

EXTRAS
There’s a still gallery, a trailer, and brief notes on Ed Adlum, the genius behind this magnificent opus. There are also a few trailers for some REALLY bad looking 80s t & a/action films. Weird.

FINAL THOUGHTS
If you like good old 70s drive-in trash, you can’t go without picking this one up. It’s a lot of fun.

Dear lord, it's Buster


Actual Invasion


"Let the feast begin..."


Why, hello dere!