The Film (1.5/5)

Invasion of The Blood Farmers is one of those early 1970s, (1972 to be exact) obscure exploitation horror movies which became a cult favorite over the years. The film was co-written, produced, and directed by Ed Adlum, with the low, low budget of $24,000 and it shows.

The plot of Invasion of the Blood Farmers isn’t complex. Taking place in a small town in upstate New York, a group of rural farmers are suddenly brutally killing the local townspeople, taking their dead bodies away to a secret hideout and draining their blood. The blood is used by the farmers, who are part of a druid cult, that are planning to bring their dead queen, Onhorrid (Cynthia Fleming) back to life. The purpose of the blood is to harvest it and resurrect her; hence, they are ‘blood farmers’. Pathologist Roy Anderson (Norman Kelley) and his assistant Don Tucker (Bruce Detrick) are investigating the ghastly murders and taking blood samples, leading them to believe something sinister is going on in the town. It’s up to them and the authorities to put a stop to it before it’s too late.

Invasion of the Blood Farmers, despite the catchy title which has a great poster as well, is a pretty dreary viewing, in the bottom of the barrel league of Manos, the Hands of Fate and Dungeon of Harrow. The high points in this oddity are the bloody murders and the ending, otherwise it’s a pretty wretched horror film, and difficult to sit through despite the short, under 80 minute running time. I could have done without the character Egon (Jack Neubeck) beating a dog to a bloody pulp. Director Adlum’s film is a sincere effort but it was a poorly made picture with bad pacing, bad effects and the lack of a decent budget. Adlum himself does the opening narration for this picture, and sounds amazingly like James Mason. The acting by the cast is also just terrible, stilted and unconvincing, another reason why the movie is lousy. Lead cast members Norman Kelley, Tanna Hunter, Jack Neubeck and Bruce Detrick remained relatively unknown. Norman Kelley was the only one with some acting experience in the film having done some work in the theater. Bruce Detrick later went on to be a composer, musician and teacher. I’m sure this movie isn’t on his resume. Another oddity was that the color of the blood was more of a magenta color as opposed to actual crimson ‘blood’ red.

Audio/Video (4.75/5)

According to Severin films’ website, they stated that Invasion of the Blood Farmers was given an HD scan from the original negative. The result is the video quality for this release is downright astonishing. The film has never looked any cleaner, any crisper than this Blu-ray release. The image is just sensational with rich, deep robust colors, especially reds and greens. Outdoor scenes look vivid and cheerful with deep textures, with a polished look to them. Skin tones look accurate with close-ups of the actors’ faces showing a wealth of detail. Black levels look balanced with excellent shadowing; now you can see what is happening during the evening scenes. Yes, this is a HUGE upgrade over the previous DVD releases from Retromedia and Code Red. 

The English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 track is strong and balanced overall, with dialog and action noises coming in clear, although a few scenes sounded like there was a bit of static. Otherwise the audio came in crisp without any serious audio issues to distract.

Extras (3.75/5)

Severin Films release has a few quality extras. There is an audio commentary with director Ed Adlum and his wife, actress Ortrum Tippel. This commentary is moderated by Kier-La Janisse, author of House of Psychotic Women. The commentary is a great listen as they talk about the film, obviously, with some great, fun stories about it and those who were involved in putting this picture together. They have no problem laughing about it and seemed to have fun talking about the film.

There are a few informative featurettes for this offering. The first one, “Nothing You’d Show Your Mom: Eddie Adlum’s Journey through Exploitation, Coin-Op & Rock n’ Roll” is a look at his musical history including jukeboxes (remember those?) Up next “Harvesting the Dead: Interview with actor Jack Neubeck”, is a feature where he talks his work on Invasion of the blood Farmers and also Shriek of the Mutilated, both of which were written by Ed Kelleher. The third featurette, “Painful Memories: An Interview with cinematographer Frederick Elmes” focuses on his experiences, both positive and negative, working on this film. A theatrical trailer, which is now in 1080p, rounds out the extras.

Overall (4.25/5)

For all the reasons that I feel Invasion of the Blood Farmers is terrible are the same exact reasons why those who love grade Z schlock should grab this one, of which I’m sure die-hard fans of this film already have. A junk film that no longer looks like junk; this crazy cult movie can now be seen looking and sounding the best it ever has along with some great bonus materials makes this a no-brainer to pick up. Very highly recommended!