BLOODLUST (1977)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Duration: 92 Minutes
Region Code: Region-FREE
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English & German Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Marijan Vajda
Cast: Werner Pochath, Ellen Umlauf, Birgit Zamulo, Gerhard Ruhnke, Peter Hamm, Charly Hiltl, Hary Olsbauer, Marion Messner
Bloodlust (a.k.a. Mosquito) is a strange sort of macabre thriller, based on the true-crime case of the “Vampire of Nuremberg”, Kuno Hofmann. Here we have the story of a nameless deaf-mute man (Werner Pochath, The Cat O' Nine Tails) who works in an office with co-workers who regularly taunt his lack of a sex-life and strange behaviors. The doll he keeps in the drawer of his office desk makes him an easy target for ridicule, but even that doesn't even begin to hint at the dark depth of his bizarre oddness.
As a young boy the man was stricken deaf-mute following years of physical abuse by his horrible father, having also witnessed the sexual abuse of his sister by the same man. All of this physical and mental scarring has left him a few psychological quirks in his adult life, such as his predilection dolls, some sexual dysfunction, and the development a blood fetish, turned on by the sight of blood, a fetish he feeds by smearing red ink and ketchup on his skin. Eventually this particular kink manifests itself with the man entering a funeral home and desecrating the most attractive of the dead offerings,
drinking blood from their corpses with a strange, two-pronged glass straw.
The film is a sad character study of a damaged man who because of his traumatic childhood has grown into a psychopath. I like that the film does not paint him as a straight-up monster from the beginning, taking care to remind us that he's a victim as well, a sad sort of man whom I didn't find it hard to pity to a degree. He's largely anti-social but manages to attempt some contact with the living, these endeavors include visiting the local prostitutes who mock him for his kinky proclivities, and befriending a young woman (Birgit Zamulo, Bibi) who lives in his apartment building. She's a bit of an oddball herself, lost in a fantasy world, consumed by daydreaming and dancing, which leads to her falling from the rooftop, with our lead visiting her grave afterward.
There's a surreal quality about the film, when the man sneaks into a funeral home to mutilate the corpses and drink their blood, it feels like a nightmare, there's a dreaminess to it that I found very cool aesthetically. Pocath's wordless portrayal of the demented blood-drinker is well done, he expresses a lot of subtlety with absolutely no words, giving an evocative performance through facial expressions, actions and animalistic sounds.
The special effects in this one do not hold up as well as the story and performance unfortunately, there are gruesome scenes of decapitation and eyeball trauma that are laughable when you look at them as just an images separate from the film, but while taking in the film and being caught up in the morbid atmosphere I thought they played just fine.
Audio/Video: Bloodlust (1972) arrives on region-free Blu-ray with a brand new 2K transfer from the original camera negative, framed in 1.78:1 widescreen with the alternate "Mosquito" title card. This is a reasonably sharp looking image, there's some scratches here and there but they're very minor. The grain levels look solid, colors are nicely saturated, and the blacks are generally strong with only some occasional murkiness during the darker scenes.
Strangely we only get lossy English and German Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 with optional English subtitles for this release. They're not the most dynamic of tracks but the levels are well-balanced, dialogue is clean, and the David Llewellyn score sounds very good in the mix.
Extras on this release begin with an interview with assistant director Martijan David Vajda, who is the son of director Marijan Vajda. He speaks about working on three films with his father, including this one, going into his father's career as well as his own. He doesn't speak too much about the true story the film was based on, but agrees that it has a Cronenberg quality, talking about the score and making mention of the poetic nature of the film. This interview is in English.
We also get a 20-min interview with actress Birgit Zamulo who played the daydreaming dancer girl next door, she recalls her career being hampered by some early sex films, nearly falling off the roof while filming her death scene, and her thoughts on the film. The interview is in German with English subtitles.
The disc is finished up with a trailer for the film plus a selection of MM trailers. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, the disc is the usual artlesss MM red with the logo of the film.
Special Features:
- Brand new 2k transfer from the film negative.
- Exclusive interview with the assistant director Martijan David Vajda (11 min)
- Exclusive interview with actress Birgit Zamulo (20 min)
- Original UK Trailer (3 min)
- Mondo Macabro Previews (13 min)
Bloodlust (1977) is a chilling and creepy character study anchored by Pochath's strong performance and bizarre true-crime bloodsucking premise. It sort of comes across as a mix of George A. Romero's non-traditional bloodsucker story Martin (1978) by way of William Lustig's demented character study Maniac (1980), but pre-dating both, and not as visceral as either, but still a very twisted and bizarre piece of work, well worth checking out, and for under $20 on Amazon it's easy to roll the dice on this one, and I don't think you'll be disappointed.
