Adam Sorg (Gordon Oas-Heim) is a painter who is in a bit of a slump. He lives near the beach with his girlfriend Gigi (Elyn Warner). Adam is a moody and frustrated guy. Gigi is a nag. His art is scheduled to be on display in a show at the Farnsworth gallery. Mr. Farnsworth (Scott H. Hall) has a critic, Gregorovich (William Harris) on hand to view the exhibits. Gregorovich is not kind in his criticism of Adam’s work. He is especially critical of Adams lack color in his paintings. Adam himself has been searching for the perfect shade of red, but so far has had no luck in finding it.
Back at his studio Adam and Gigi argue. Farnsworth shows up to pick up some more of Adam’s paintings for the studio. Farnsworth echoes Gregorovich’s criticism that Adam’s paintings lack color. In frustration Adam damages a painting and throws it on the floor.
Later, Gigi cuts her hand on a nail sticking out from the discarded canvas. When Adam sees the blood on Gigi’s hand, he divines inspiration from it. The red of her blood is the exact color he is looking for. Adam talks Gigi into letting him paint with her blood. Eventually she gets tired of Adam cutting her and tells him to use his own blood. He does, until he becomes exhausted and a bit anemic.
The next day Gigi criticizes Adam for using blood to paint with. Adam kills Gigi and uses her blood to finish his painting. When Gregorovich sees the new artwork, he praises the painting. He then takes it back by stating that Adam could be a one masterpiece painter. Adam leaves, determined to create another painting to prove him wrong. To create another work of art, Adam needs fresh blood.
“Color Me Blood Red” was released in 1965 and was written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It is a horror movie with camp and unintentional comedy elements as well as being a splatter film.
The movie was rather boring and slow moving. The acting was awful, and the plot was thin. Much of the film was teenagers running around the beach. It is not exactly Lewis’ best worst film. Someone should have told him that dried blood is brown and not red.
It is one in a series of films produced by Lewis and David F. Friedman with a “blood” theme. The others were “Two Thousand Maniacs” 1964, and “Blood Feast” 1963. The duo had planned on doing more “blood” films, but they stopped working together. Lewis got the idea for the film from Roger Corman’s cult classic, “A Bucket of Blood” 1959.
Special effects included raw meat and worms garnered from a local worm farm. Problems arose when seagulls kept stealing the meat.