User Reviews

After an opening red tinged sequence in which a monologue (performed by Joel Vance apparently, uncredited) informs us of an ancient group of secret people known as the Sangroid Druids, and they were evil blood drinkers who sacrificed people under the full-moon. Hey, this is scary stuff right? Somewhere in upstate New York called Jefferson Valley. A blood-soaked man staggers along a road towards the 'Huddle II' bar. Inside the bar a regular named Clint talks about his missing wife Helen, but seems generally unconcerned. He leaves. The rest of the regulars begin to discuss other various missing people including Jim Carey (no, not that one!). Then suddenly they notice the blood-soaked man heading for the pub, they recognise him as Jim Carey. Jim stumbles into the pub, coughs up some blood and falls flat on his face dead. Jim's autopsy is performed by Dr. Roy Anderson (Norman Kelley) who discusses the strange results with his student Don Tucker (Bruce Detrick) who also happens to be going out with his daughter Jenny (Tanna Hunter). In Roy's basement laboratory which consists of a wooden table and a few glass/plastic beakers & test tubes he says that Jim's blood must have come into contact with a foreign agent that accelerates standard growth patterns at an astounding rate. Basically Jim's blood reproduces itself at a rapid rate. Back at the local pub and the regulars are again having a good gossip. Deputy Shirley "Shorty" Koppel discusses the Jim Carey case and says that Dr. Anderson is on the case. Two Druid blood harvesting farmers hear the conversation and decide to see what Roy knows. Since Police Chief Frank Spano (Frank Iovieno) is out of town and the Deputy is more interested in drinking at the local pub, Roy and Don feel it's up to them to try and solve the mystery. A few bit part characters are kidnapped and drained of blood in the Druids hideout which appears to be a wooden shed that would probably fall down if someone leaned on it too hard. The main Druid bad guy named Creton (Paul Craig Jennings) intends to resurrect Queen Onhorrid (Cynthia Flemming) of the Sangroid Druids who is currently lying in a clear coffin, or a large fish tank you can take your pick. I don't really want to talk about Invasion of the Blood Farmers anymore, so if you want to know how the gripping storyline (Ha!) pans out then you'll have to sit through the thing yourself, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

Co-written, produced and directed by the untalented Ed Adlum this is quite simply a terrible film. Although it's the only blood draining, psycho Druid farmer horror film that I can think of, it's just a shame Adlum didn't have the budget or talent to turn the outlandish over-the-top premise into something memorable and entertaining. Forget all this 'so bad it's good' nonsense as this is extremely painful to watch, even at a relatively short running time of 70 odd minutes. Everything about this wretched attempt at film-making is awful. The photography by Roberta Findlay as Frederick Douglass is point and hope for the best. The locations consist of the pub, Roy's house and lab, some local woods and the bad guys run down shed. There are no special effects to talk of, there is no blood, gore or violence either to alleviate the tedium. According to the IMDb's 'trivia' section the actors involved in Invasion of the Blood Farmers were paid with a six-pack of beer, well I can tell you now they were overpaid and then some! The performances are uniformly bad, especially the gay Druid cult leader Creton, Roy, Don, & the guy who plays Egon (Jack Neubek) in fact everyone stands out as being awful and don't get me started on the idiot who plays Chief Spano. None of these people should give up their day jobs if you know what I mean. And what's all this 'Invasion' stuff? I wouldn't exactly call one guy named Creton, three psycho farmer henchmen and a university professor as an invasion, would you? The music, credited to Beau Eurell and the fantastically named A.J. Smut is awful and there is music that Adlum probably stole and wasn't intended for Invasion of the Blood Farmers, which isn't a surprise. Most of the stupid dialogue is poorly recorded and sounded muffled on my copy. The film as a whole is also incredibly boring as nothing exciting, scary or gory happens. Just boring scene after boring scene of bad actors delivering badly written dialogue. In the right hands this could have been a decent little exploitation/gore film, unfortunately in the hands of Ed Adlum it turned into a complete disaster. The rubbishy script was co-written by Ed Kelleher, sorry but I just wanted to name and shame him. The best thing about Invasion of the Blood farmers is the cool artwork on the video/DVD box and the wonderfully over-the-top title. I hate this film, and you will too if you spend your hard earned money on it. I can't think of a single aspect of Invasion of the Blood Farmers (I love saying that!) that I can praise, avoid at all costs!

How could a movie with a title like this be anything but fun for any gore loving horror fan? And that cover/poster artwork for the film? It has to be great, right? Well yes and no. The movie is a lot of fun and it does show tremendous potential. But to be honest the end result isn't that fantastic. Which is what makes this movie so much fun. This is one of those movies you put on during a party so people will stand around and think what the heck are we watching.

The story for the most part is fairly simple. Centuries ago druids known as the Sangroids were driven underground and not allowed to worship with their blood cult ceremonies. Now they've shown up again in upstate New York in a small rural community with plans to resume their practices and take over the world.

To do so they need blood and their henchmen are bib overall wearing hicks, or at least what New Yorkers would assume are hicks, who fumble the simple jobs they're assigned. These ghoulish goofs kidnap victims and take them to a shack where they hook them up to a pump and drain the blood from them, replacing it with a substance that causes the blood output to increase.

When the first victim shows up at the local morgue the man in charge, Dr. Anderson, notices what is going on. It wasn't the wounds that cause the person to die but they seemed to be exploding from within due to the increase in blood. Putting a sample in a jar he watches as it grows overnight and shows it to his assistant Don Tucker (who happens to also be his daughter's boyfriend).

Bodies go missing, blood continues to grow, the locals hang out in what appears to be the only bar in town and with the sheriff away his deputy spends more time keeping a watch on a bar stool than he does the town. It's all done in the goofiest yet loving way possible, a movie made by people who wanted to make movies but who had no money to do so let alone vast amounts of talent. But in spite of that there are some decent performances among the many bad ones.

The effects are pretty much high school play quality. The sets are people's home. And the leader of the Sangroids presents one of the hammiest performances that will have you laughing like crazy. But these things combine to form the charm of the movie. There is no way you can take it seriously and that's the point. It's no wonder that the film found a fan base that became a cult of their own, seeking out the movie at midnight shows and drive-ins.

Severin has done an amazing job with this film presenting it in the best possible edition to date with plenty of extras on hand. My first viewing of the film was years ago with a low rent copy that made the film almost unbearable to watch. Severin's version, scanned from the original negative for the first time ever, makes this film look better than I've ever seen it. The extras include an audio commentary track with director Ed Adlum and actress Ortrum Tippel moderated by Kier-La Janisse (author of HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN), "Nothing You'd Show You Mom" a featurette about Ed Adlum and his life, "Harvesting the Dead" an interview with actor Jack Neubeck, "Painful Memories" an interview with cinematographer Frederick Elmes and the original trailer for the film.

For a movie made for just $24,000 where actors were reportedly paid with six packs of beer the odds are that Severin spent more to present the film as it is seen here as well as the extras. They're offering it in such great condition that it makes it watchable. For horror fans this is a must have. For everyone else it's worth it just to have a good laugh.

INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS is another slice of grindhouse exploitation, shot in upstate New York and released back in 1972. It has something of a Romero vibe going on, but the story is pure schlock and the awful quality of the acting has to be seen to be believed; when Romero got fine performances from most of the cast in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, you can't really cut these guys too much slack. The story, about reviving an ancient queen through blood harvesting, is slow and unfocused, and the cheesy gore and exploitation scenes a hoot. The best part is the druidic ritual of the climax, but for the most part this one's a bore.

I've heard of this film for years now, and that's because when I was a pre-teen like 10 years ago I'd always watch random YouTube videos of creepy low-budget 60's and 70's horror film trailers. This film in particular stood out as so weird yet somehow intriguing. It's rated PG (PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED) for crying out loud.

As it turns out, Invasion of the Blood Farmers was made on a bubblegum budget of $24,000 and directed by someone named Ed Adlum. He paid his actors in 6 packs of beer for the most part, and shot the film over the course of three weekends primarily at his own home.

The movie's uncanny premise centers around a bunch of Druids (Aliens in the original script, but axed for budgetary reasons) who disguise themselves as farmers in upstate New York who maim and kidnap people for the purposes of draining every last drop of blood from their bodies so they can resurrect their queen. Other than that, the film just sucks, and for all the right reasons.

The script was shoddily written, and several actors having to read off cue cards didn't help things very much. The characters aren't well thought out, as most of who we see onscreen is killed in a fairly disturbing yet goofy way. Night and day shots are mixed THROUGHOUT the entire film, and none of the actors bother to add-lib exactly what time of day it really is for consistency purposes. Oh, and the ending SUCKS. It feels pissed away and seems to present the possibility of loose ends, not to mention the Druid Blood Farmers are defeated by an object a character pulls out that you can't even SEE. The film is devoid of logic.

Overall, Invasion of the Blood Farmers is a bad film. If you like bad films, check this one out!