I Drink Your Blood
Encyclopedia
I Drink Your Blood is a cult
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

 horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 originally released in 1970. The film was written and directed by David E. Durston
David E. Durston
David E. Durston is an American screenwriter and film director best known for directing the Charles Manson-inspired cult classic drive-in horror exploitation film, I Drink Your Blood, which was released in 1970....

, produced by Jerry Gross, and starred Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury and Lynn Lowry
Lynn Lowry
-Early life:Lowry was born in East St. Louis, Illinois and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.-Movie career:Her first film appearance was I Drink Your Blood in 1970. She appeared in two key 1970s horror films, George A...

 (who is uncredited in the film).

Like many B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....

s of its time, I Drink Your Blood was a Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...

 exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...

 film and drive-in theater
Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.The screen can be as simple as a...

 staple.

Plot

Loosely inspired by Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

's "family", the film follows a group of nomadic Satanist hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...

s when they ride into a small town and terrorize the inhabitants. The town has largely become a ghost town thanks to a large mining project nearby, and all but a couple of houses are abandoned.

A young local girl is badly beaten. Her grandfather confronts the group but is attacked and dosed with LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

. The girl's young brother is threatened while rescuing his grandfather, before they both escape. The boy decides to exact revenge and put a stop to the rampage. Working at the local bakery the next day he injects meat pies with blood from a rabid
Rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...

 dog, and sells the pies to the hungry hippies. Rabid, hydrophobic and frothing at the mouth, the hippies go berserk and wreak homicidal havoc upon the unwitting town. They end up infecting a group of construction workers, who attempt to kill the girl and her family until shot down by special forces.

Censorship

The film was one of the first movies to receive an X-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...

 based on violence rather than nudity. Several scenes needed to be altered to qualify the film for an "R" so the producer distributed the original film asking that each projectionist censor the film as seen fit for their market. There were 280 prints made and countless differently censored versions were in circulation. The prints for the Los Angeles and New York City runs were censored by the film's director.

The Encyclopedia of Horror said that "as the film now stands what looks like it might have been a raw, ferocious thriller has become a frustrating excercise in splicing, incessantly building up to scenes of bone-crushing horror and violence which never actually happen."

A 2002 DVD release presented the original uncensored version along with numerous extras.

Location

Much of the movie was filmed in Sharon Springs
Sharon Springs, New York
Sharon Springs is a village in Schoharie County, New York, United States. The population was 547 at the 2000 census. Its name derives from the hometown of the first Colonial settlers, Sharon, Connecticut, and the important springs in the village...

, NY, a small village once famous as a summer spa town. By the time of the production Sharon Springs had largely become a ghost town, and the producers were allowed to use the abandoned hotels as locations. The town has since been revitalized and is a center for tourism in upstate New York.

Remake

On 17 September 2009, it was announced David E. Durston
David E. Durston
David E. Durston is an American screenwriter and film director best known for directing the Charles Manson-inspired cult classic drive-in horror exploitation film, I Drink Your Blood, which was released in 1970....

 planned a remake of his film that will star Sybil Danning
Sybil Danning
Sybil Danning is an Austrian actress known for her many roles in B movies, science fiction films, and action films.-Early life:Danning was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria as Sybille Johanna Danninger...

.
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