The Bottom Line: BLOODLUST might not necessarily be a classic (considering it's plot comes from a story published over 30 years earlier), but it's definitely horror.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie''s plot.
It’s 1959 and Mike Brady (Robert Reed) and 3 of his mid-20s friends are on a boat in the middle of the ocean. His friend Pete is fishing while Mike’s girlfriend Betty tosses bottles into the air for Mike to shoot at. Pete’s girlfriend Jeanne stands idly by because it’s 1959 and that’s what good girlfriends do. Their captain Tony is passed out drunk so when the four spot an island they hadn’t seen before and decide to take the dinghy to it, he’s unable to warn them against it.
Mike (obviously on a vacation the first Mrs. Brady wasn’t privy to and going by the name of Johnny Randall) and his friends fall into the clutches of the island’s master Dr. Albert Balleau, a nut job who likes to ship escaped convicts to his island so he can drive them crazy and then hunt them down. But Balleau doesn’t realize yet he’s got an American icon on his island now and the fates have a few surprises in store for the good doctor.
Written, produced and directed by Ralph Brooke (who went on to do not much else of note), BLOODLUST isn’t the least bit original (connections to the 1924 story “The Most Dangerous Game” are obvious from the get-go), but it is fun to watch. This story survives and is so often copied because it IS a very intriguing idea. And Brooke makes the most of it with Balleau’s treasure room and a series of traps about the island, as well as some very stilted acting from the stars. In all his time on THE BRADY BUNCH, I don’t believe anyone ever accused Robert Reed of being a great actor. And the same could be said of the rest of the gang, June Kenney, Joan Lora, and Gene Persson, who recite Brooke’s dialogue with all the conviction of a 4th grader forced to take the lead in the Christmas play. It doesn’t help that most of Brooke’s dialogue is all exposition, explaining every point of the plot as it happens. You don’t think I’d give you a gun without first removing the firing pin, or The slightest noise will give you away . . . Not there . . . Not there, either, that means-- or Help, I’m in quicksand. At the very least, if anyone were blind but still wanted to enjoy the grandeur that is BLOODLUST, they’d have no problem following the plot.
For all it’s faults, however, BLOODLUST isn’t a bad movie (not a good one, either, but considering some of the crap we’ve suffered for this series, “not bad” will suffice). It’s definitely a horror movie as evidenced when Pete and Jeanne happen upon the workroom where Balleau’s henchmen bring the body parts and one of them is cleaning and stuffing a dead man’s face, which has been stripped from its skull. There’s also a huge trough of acid here that gets use later on while the girls try to escape Balleau’s mansion.
The outline used in this movie is timeless in the genre and rarely fails to deliver when it counts. BLOODLUST is no exception. The set-up is in place, the plot unfolds by the numbers. The ending, I admit, took me by surprise. It’s silly, granted, but unexpected. I can’t recommend this movie based on the performances or the direction, but for what I believe it was meant to be--a short escape from day to day life (68 minutes’ worth anyway)--it’s certainly more deserving of consideration than at least half of the other movies reviewed on this list. Worth grabbing out of the bargain bin, at least.
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