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A Taste Of Blood
[Something Weird]
1967; color
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring: Bill Rogers, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Thomas Wood & Lawrence Tobin
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To my knowledge today's subject, A Taste Of Blood, is Herschell Gordon Lewis' only vampire related film. While it's true that this is quite a bit removed (subject-wise at least) from what you may expect from the "godfather of gore", I think if you look at his filmography as a whole this fits in rather nicely. I mean, he tried his hand at many other subjects only once (ill-behaved teen rock bands; ill-behaved teen girls; ill-behaved teen gangs; ill-behaved all-girl motorcycle gangs) why shouldn't he try his hand at creating a film built around an ill-behaved vampire with a weird accent? Wait - don't answer that. As usual, I'm getting ahead of myself; because, as is the case with oh-so-many a vampire film, at the start of this particular vampire film our leading man, John Stone, isn't a vampire at all. Oh no. He's a regular ol' middle class business man with a bad attitude, a badly acted blond wife and a badly dressed über sarcastic secretary. One day, as he's happily (or maybe unhappily; this guy's about as animated as the animated Al Gore on the Simpsons) living out his version of the American dream he receives a package in the mail. Or rather the aforementioned secretary does. And this is no regular ol' business related mail correspondence mind you, this is an unexpected package. From London! Wrapped in non-descript brown wrapping, natch. Hmmm, I wonder what this plainly outfitted box could contain? British porn? A limited edition boxed copy of Judas Priest's British Steel? Nope, inside this plain paper makeshift envelope is a black box. Not the kind of black box you find in a modern day airplane though, the kind of retro style black box you sometimes see in a thrift store. The kind that once contained bottles of liquor. Except this one still contains bottles of liquor and, as we're about to find out, these are no ordinary bottles of liquor. Oh no. These spirits come with a story about an unknown relative, an unexpected inheritance and all sorts of other unknown, unexpected, unexplainable stuff all having to do with Stone being the lucky recipient of these bottles of "brandy" and all the unknown, unexpected, unexplainable related perks that come along with it. As is the way with many a less famous Lewis film goes, this is just the tippy tip of the iceberg as far as John's tale of wow, woe and what-the-fuck. Before the end of the film our "hero" will transform from a not exactly mild mannered business man into an even less mild mannered bloodthirsty man (and woman) slaughtering maniac who ultimately comes face to face with an equally testy descendent of the ultimate vampire foe (yep, some modern day Dr. Van Helsing) for an ultimate good versus evil showdown. Who will "win" and who will "lose" is not for me to divulge - but rest assured ultimately the film does end and the ending almost makes sense.
—Bunny
(More HG Lewis madness can be found here, here, here & here.
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