Forgotten Hippie Exploitation Slasher You Can Stream Right Now
The splatter films that began to gain cult popularity in the late 1960s were a dominating force at the drive-in movie circuit by the early 1970s. The films focused on graphic deaths and unnecessary explicitness a lot more than they did solid story lines, helping make them as laughable as they are scary. The 1971 movie I Drink Your Blood is one of the best ones from this period, a branded “hippie exploitation” flick that delivers an intriguing story line along with nasty on screen kills.
Satanic Rituals Beget Possessed Pies
I Drink Your Blood is the story of a teen girl named Sylvia who witnesses a hippie cult conducting a Satanic ritual in the woods near her home. After being chased down and assaulted, she stumbles home and is found near death by her family members. When the cult’s van breaks down in town and they seek refuge in an abandoned building, Sylvia’s friends and family members vow revenge.
Sylvia’s younger brother Pete is nearly attacked by a rabid dog but is able to shoot it before it lunges at him. He uses the dog’s blood to taint fresh pies he makes at his job at a local bakery, then gives the treats to the stranded hippie cult members. After consuming the tainted pies, the cult members become rabid themselves and I Drink Your Blood turns into a cinematic bloodbath.
Inspired By True Events
Oddly enough, I Drink Your Blood was inspired by true events that stemmed from a horrific news story out of an Iranian village. Screenwriter and director David Durston read about a pack of rabies-infected wolves that burst into a local schoolhouse and bit its poor occupants, passing on the dreaded disease to them. But the real gore from the film was influenced by tragic and brutal events that happened 18 months prior to the film’s release in 1971.
Also Took Inspiration From The Manson Murders
In August of 1969, Charles Manson ordered a handful of his followers to torture and kill the occupants of two different Los Angeles area homes. The media frenzy that followed the slayings and the equally disturbing trial, served as part of the feel that Durston wanted to accomplish with I Drink Your Blood.
Had To Be Censored For Wide Distribution
I Drink Your Blood is a splatter film in the earliest years of the genre but helped to set the standard for many subsequent movies that dripped blood down drive-in screens throughout the 1970s. Though there is gratuitous nudity throughout the feature, the MPAA chose to give it an “X” rating based on the level of graphic violence depicted on screen. Like with many splatter films that followed in the United States and Italy, censored versions that met the criteria for an “R” rating were released so that distribution could be furthered.
Stream I Drink Your Blood On Tubi
GFR SCORE
For anyone who loves a great gore film, I Drink Your Blood has it all. The long, drawn-out death scenes, the creative killing techniques, and the revenge-style murders that take place are jarring, grotesque, and sometimes even laughable. The film was certainly one for the era, helping to inspire the movies Rabid and The Crazies.
You can stream I Drink Your Blood for free with Tubi.
