Sadly Over-hyped

How sad is this?

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Blood Suckers (1970) * (out of 4) When a friend of theirs goes missing, a group travels to Greece to look for him. They are being led by Derek (Patrick Macnee) but soon they realize that they're up against something much bigger than him. It appears the friend got involved with a beautiful woman who may be part of a vampire cult.BLOOD SUCKERS is known under several different titles including INCENSE OF THE DAMNED and FREEDOM SEEKERS. No matter what you call this film the only thing that remains true is the fact that it's a major disappointment and it should have been much better. With that said, the film set unreleased a couple years before it was eventually given an American drive-in release with BLOOD THIRST but there's no question that the shelf is where it belongs.I will at least give the film credit for trying to be something more than a low-rent horror picture as there's a lot of discussions about various subjects. The idea that vampires are connected to some sort of sexual disorder is an interesting idea but there's just not much done with it. The film is poorly put together and it just has a very cheap look and feel to it. The film is ugly to look at and there's just nothing here that makes for a good picture.What's worse is that there's a pretty good cast wasted here including Macnee who is giving it his all but there's just not much here. Peter Cushing appears at the start and the end of the film and is good too but it have very little impact on the final film. BLOOD SUCKERS is pretty much dead on arrival and what little horror there is doesn't make up for all the bad stuff.

The picture concerns about a bunch of friends ( Patrick Mcnee , Johnny Sekka..) , as they are looking for a English young student (Patrick Mower) who is seduced into an old cult carried out by a beautiful vampire (Imogen Stubbs) and being disappeared while was researching in a Greek island . There happens various unsolved killings and the police blame him as perpetrator of the creepy murders but his friends and the fiancée whose daddy is the University Principal (Peter Cushing) no believing his culpability but is spelled by a blood-sucking vampire .It's a mediocre British terror film with suspense , action and vampires but a little bit boring and slow-moving . However , it contains some spectacular and glimmer Greeks outdoors , besides set on Oxford University . Patrick McNee ( Avengers) interprets smartly , as always . The great Peter Cushing plays correctly the starring's dad but his acting is secondary , also Edward Woodward (The wicker man) acts in a minimum role . Patrick Mower (Devil rides out)as charmed young is good and Johnny Sekka (Naked prey) in a quite secondary role is nice . The movie is regularly directed by Robert Hatford Davies , author of some other Horror film as ¨Corruption¨ (with Peter Cushing) , ¨The Fiend¨ (with Patrick McNee) and Blaxploitation movies as ¨Black Gunn¨ (Jim Brown) and ¨ The Take¨ (Billy Dee Williams) . This director due to disagreements with producers signed the film as Michael Burrows and the motion picture was shelved during years until its cinematic exhibition.

Got to say I agree with much of Wayne's comments on this film and the note that the director refused to be associated with the screened version doesn't surprise me. This film was shown on TV in the UK in 2004 and I have to say it has to be the worst quality film I have seen on the box. It seems to be made up of the film shot by the director covering the story, inter-cut with stock travelogue shots of Greece. The lighting is such that the black character's facial features are lost in a lot of scenes. The acting from the supporting cast is wooden and even the stars are on the verge of rabbit-in-headlights unease. Not a pleasant evening's viewing!

"Oh, this looks good" I thought scanning the DVD slick of 'Bloodsuckers'. Horror legend Peter Cushing, 'The Avengers' Patrick Macnee, Edward Woodward just before 'The Wicker Man', plus Patrick Mower, who was in 'The Devil Rides Out' and Alex Davion from 'The Plague Of The Zombies', two of the best and most underrated Hammer movies. Well nothing could prepare me for how poor it turned out to be! Even the worst Hammer movie I've seen is ten times better than this. It's confusing AND boring, with way too much narration and production values that make it look like an episode of 'The Champions' or some other half forgotten 60s/70s TV show. Cushing is hardly in it, Woodward even less (one scene), and the highlight is a donkey chase! I'm not kidding! The disc I watched included a 6 minutes deleted scene of a psychedelic drug orgy which wasn't used in the final cut. Too bad because it's better than anything that was used. Director Robert Hartford-Davies ('The Yellow Teddybears') apparently disowned this movie and I don't blame him one bit!