Herschell (Steve Hawkes) is riding his chopper down the highway when he sees a girl whose car is broken down by the side of the road. Her name is Angel (Heather Hughes). Angel is a religious nut. She takes Herschel home where he meets her sister Anne (Danan Cullivan). Anne is having a pot party. She is attracted to Herschell and tries to get him to smoke a joint. He refuses. Anne keeps tempting him and eventually gets him to smoke a joint out by the pool. Herschell is immediately addicted.
Angel and Anne’s father gives Herschell a job at his turkey farm. Their father employs two scientists that do experiments on the turkeys to improve the herd. The two scientists use Herschell as a guinea pig for some of their experiments. The next day they give him a meal of a turkey that has been subjected to some experimental drugs. Herschell has a severe reaction to the drugs. He has a massive seizure from the drug laced turkey and passes out. When he finally comes to his head has turned into a giant turkey head. Herschell, still addicted, finds himself craving the blood of other addicts. He goes into a downward spiral and embarks on a vicious killing spree to get the blood he craves.
“Blood Freak” AKA “Blood Freaks” was released in 1972 and was written, produced and directed by Brad F. Grinter and Steve Hawkes. It is an American extremely low budget science fiction horror film. The film also stars Steve Hawkes as Herschell. Brand Grinter gives commentary throughout the film. Like most horrible movies it has a cult fan base, especially on Thanksgiving.
The editing is horrendous, the music is canned, the acting sucks. The film is often dark and sometimes out of focus so figuring out what is going on is sometimes difficult. In general the camera directing is awful. It’s sort of a 70’s slasher movie without a lot of slash. There is blood but there are so many cut-aways that it loses its punch. There is one quick scene of an actual turkey flopping around after being beheaded. That appears to be real.
The movie is basically an anti-drug message with religious power points and a giant paper mache turkey head. It was rated X in 1972 but R in 1976. The guy that gets his leg cut off by a table saw was an actual amputee. If you look at it, the leg is actually hollow. Steve Hawke’s character Herschell is named after “B” movie director Herschell Gordon Lewis. The cast was mostly made up of acting students that Ginter knew.