Bloodsucking Freaks

Joel M. Reed directed this notorious cult-horror comedy, which was the center of impassioned protests by Women Against Pornography. Seamus O'Brien stars as the epicene Sardu, who stages Grand Guignol torture performances at a downtown New York club. What the amazed audiences don't know is that the performances are real, using kidnapped victims who are kept in cages, mutilated, and later sold into white slavery by Sardu and his cackling dwarf assistant, Ralphus (Luis De Jesus). Sardu finally goes too far when he kidnaps a famous ballerina (Viju Krim) and a noted critic (Niles McMaster) for his demented shows, resulting in a revolt by the "Caged Sexoids." Reed pours on the gore by the bucket, as a nude victim is turned into a human dartboard, Ralphus gets oral sex from a severed head, Sardu uses human fingers to play backgammon, and a sadistic dentist sucks out a woman's brain through a straw. The fact that the film is intended as a comedy will relieve some and disgust others. Krim and De Jesus co-starred in Gerard Damiano's Let My Puppets Come the following year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide