‘See natives eaten alive by giant vultures!’
Beast of Blood – aka Blood Devils – is a 1970 Filipino horror film written and directed by Eddie Romero (Twilight People; Beast of the Yellow Night; Brides of Blood) from a story by Beverly Miller. It is a sequel to The Mad Doctor of Blood Island.
The movie stars John Ashley (Frankenstein’s Daughter, The Eye Creatures; Beast of the Yellow Night), Celeste Yarnall (The Velvet Vampire) and Eddie Garcia.
Plot [spoilers]:
A ship carrying Doctor Bill Foster (John Ashley), Sheila Willard, her father and Carlos Lopez explodes and sinks after Don Ramon is found on board and goes on a rampage. Don Ramon washes up on Blood Island and heads to the jungle.
Doctor Foster was the only other survivor and after a few months heads back to the island on another ship. On board is reporter Myra Russell (Celeste Yarnall) who is looking for the story about the explosion.
When Foster and Russell arrive on the island they find the natives in a state of fear saying the old Lopez mansion is cursed. With the village head man Ramu (Alfonso Carvajal) and the ship’s Captain (Beverly Miller), they search the house and find Razak (Bruno Punzalan) alive. The green men return and after a fight, Myra is captured and taken to Doctor Lorca (Eddie Garcia) who is alive but horribly scarred.
Doctor Foster and Laida (Liza Belmonte) search the mountains and find Doctor Lorca’s headquarters. Laida goes back to the village for help and Lorca shows Foster his latest experiments. He has removed Don Ramon’s head and has attached it to machines while the body remains strapped to a table. Lorca knows the head can speak but it won’t.
The Captain, Laida and Ramu lead an attack on Lorca’s headquarters and fight his men. Laida finds her father who shows signs of the chlorophyll effects and rescues him. Foster shoots Razak and Don Ramon’s head controls his body and has it attack Doctor Lorca and apparently Lorca is killed by the monster. Lorca’s lab explodes killing all inside and Foster and the group leave with a box of Lorca’s papers…
Reviews:
“The film does eventually develop an entertaining level of gore-letting – seeing various members of the party gorily impaled in spiked ambush pits or bullet wounds gushing great jets of blood. The makeup on the disembodied head also looks particularly gruesome. The film climaxes on the good old Filipino exploitation movie action standard of the armed insurgency…” Moria
“Despite some memorable horror moments, most of this movie is a tedious jungle adventure consisting of good guys and bad guys walking around in a jungle and shooting at each other. It is effective enough dishing out the grue, with the mad doctor keeping the monster’s head alive and separated from his body (why? It’s never explained), and some nasty operation scenes.” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
“The first and last five minutes of the movie are easily the best, but everything in the middle is pretty much a mess. Garcia must have been so busy in front of the camera that he forgot about what worked in Mad Doctor of Blood Island. While he handles the horror scenes nicely, anything that doesn’t revolve around the decaying headless zombie is S-L-O-O-O-W.” The Video Vacuum
“The situations and the dialogue feel routine and the pace is slow. Eddie Romero was only going through the motions. Some interest comes from our heroines, including a native girl who fights with knives and a blonde reporter played by Celeste Yarnall who shows more skin than I expected.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers book
Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca
Cast and characters:
- John Ashley as Doctor Bill Foster
- Celeste Yarnall as Myra J. Russell
- Eddie Garcia as Doctor Lorca
- Liza Belmonte as Laida
- Alfonso Carvajal as Ramu
- Bruno Punzalan as Razak
- Angel Buenaventura
- Beverly Miller as The Captain
- Johnny Long
Buy DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
