Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Director Herschell Gordon Lewis's concluding film in his "Blood Trilogy" (and final film with producer David F. Friedman) unfortunately just isn't as enjoyable as its predecessors. It's not as delightfully nutty as "Blood Feast" or as much fun as "Two Thousand Maniacs!". In fact, it's downright tedious at times. That's not to say that there aren't good moments - there just aren't enough of them.Gordon Oas-Heim, definitely one of the better actors to be found in an HGL gore epic, plays the highly unlikable, mentally unstable painter Adam Sorg, who's impatient waiting for inspiration to strike. It finally comes when he realizes that human blood provides the perfect shade of crimson for his works of art. He realizes that using his own blood is a very wearying process, so he has to obtain blood from other unwilling donors.Overall "Color Me Blood Red" is fairly amusing cheesy nonsense with the gleefully squishy splatter and inept acting that we come to expect from HGL's films. It has its delightful parts whenever Sorg is busy doing his thing. It doesn't help him that "hip", goofy young folk keep hanging around his beachfront property. It's also cool to see Scott H. Hall, the police captain from "Blood Feast", here playing Farnsworth the art gallery owner. The young gals are all nice looking even if their acting chops aren't up to snuff. The beautiful beach scenery is another plus. And the movie does end on a very funny note with its final line.If you're new to the works of HGL and want to do the completist thing, then "Color Me Blood Red" is definitely worth seeing. Just don't expect the same level of entertainment if you've already seen and enjoyed "Blood Feast" and "Two Thousand Maniacs!".Six out of 10.

Macabre black comedy from schlock gore director Herschell Gordon Lewis has a very disturbed painter killing innocent people for their blood supply which lends to creative masterworks on canvas. He sets his eyes on a cute blond teenage girl as his next victim with complicated results.As you'd expect from an HGL picture, there's rather painful(..but often hilarious) dialogue, tedious filler(..featuring a goofy teenage foursome playing in the water near a beach), embarrassing performances, ugly photography(..there are these awkward camera shots which linger endlessly away from a particular scene slowly but surely moving to the actions in progress), and blunt, rather oddly orchestrated gore.The boy-girl couple with beatnik dialogue and "hip" behavior produce plenty of cringe-worthy chuckles and contribute some memorable zingers. The violence exhibited thanks to the deranged attacks by Adam Sorg(Gordon Oas-Heim)is what remains the vital ingredient that will appeal to HGL's cult audience. There's a scalpel stabbed into Sorg's demanding fiancé's throat, a couple are attacked while driving their bicycle water boats(..a water exercise vehicle used throughout)with the man getting speared and his girl's intestine squeezed of blood into a bowl! Candi Conder is April Carter, Sorg's chosen victim for his supposed supreme masterpiece, with Jerome Eden as Rolf her beau, matinée idol handsome, eventually coming to her rescue when he finds her tied up, the maniac holding an ax in one hand, a bloody bowl in the other. The discovery of the buried dead body is priceless(..the ridiculously corny dialogue which accompanies it cinches the scene as forever memorable within the HGL canon). Elyn Warner is Gigi, Sorg's always-complaining, very opinionated girlfriend. The color red is vibrantly used with lots of fake blood contributing to the plot(..what little there is). Oas-Heim as the lunatic painter doesn't hold back, letting it all hang out..quite a face which successfully conveys just how nuts the character of Sorg really is. The paintings are impressively grotesque. Again, this is not a work of art, and director Lewis understood this, so COLOR ME BLOOD RED might entertain less discriminating viewers who are accustomed to how his movies are made. I personally never expected anything other than a wacky graphic violent affair with bizarre flourishes and a sick premise, and COLOR ME BLOOD RED didn't disappoint in that regard..not exactly a ringing endorsement for the film, but I think some will find it amusing.Then again, HGL has become a guilty pleasure director of mine, so perhaps I find value in his movies many others with better sound minds do not.

Colour Me Blood Red is pretty much the typical Herschell Gordon Lewis film. In Blood Feast, a man killed people to create a feast; in The Wizard of Gore, a man killed people for his magic show; in The Gruesome Twosome, a young retard killed people to make wigs out of their scalps; and here we've got a deranged painter who discovers that blood is exactly the right shade of red to colour his paintings with. This film is the third and final entry in Herschell Gordon Lewis' "Blood Trilogy", and while it is perhaps not as gory as the other two; Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs, if you enjoy Lewis' style, you're bound to like this one! As mentioned, the plot revolves around a painter. He discovers that blood is the paint he needs when he cuts his girlfriend's finger and begins smearing her blood on his canvas. After attempting to 'paint' the picture himself, he soon realises that he doesn't have enough blood - so naturally, he kills his girlfriend. As you might expect, her blood doesn't go too far, and the only way to get more blood is the to kill more women...Obviously, this plot has been lifted straight from Roger Corman's B-movie classic 'A Bucket of Blood', but Herschell's style is all over it, and he succeeds in making the plot his own...although 'succeeds' might not be the right word. The movie is trash in every sense of the word, as the acting is as rubbish as it gets, and the film has a distinctly cheap and nasty feel running throughout it. The director's use of music is good, however, as while it does nothing to increase the film's credibility; it does give the movie a hilarious sense of humour, and it works really well with the plot. As I said, this isn't as gory as some of Herschell's earlier stuff, but it's still got plenty of blood and gore; although as anyone that has seen one of these movies before will know; it's absolutely impossible to take seriously. It's clear that Herschell was more interested in the red stuff than anything else, as there are a number of obvious plot devices on display and the artist's descent into insanity is a joke. But even so, this makes for a very fun viewing, and I wouldn't hesitate to name it as one of my favourite of Lewis' movies.

I tried hard to think of a reason to recommend this, but the best I can do is say it was ahead of it's time in terms of subject matter. The script is appalling, the acting wooden, and the gore non-existent. Yes it's from a bygone era, and from a historical point it may be of interest to some dedicated film buffs. But as a piece of entertainment or art, it fails miserably.There is one 'lol' moment - well documented here - and a few unintentional laughs at the expense of the players. Gordon Oas-Heim is to be credited for making an effort, and with a better script and cast maybe he could've made a decent movie out of it, but the material just isn't there. I actually felt sorry for him both as an actor and as a character, for getting involved in something so dire! It's best viewed as a 'so bad it's good' exercise, maybe with some buddies after a few pints of strong ale. Or am I missing something?!