Bloodlust! (1961)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Warning: there may be spoilers in this review.The story, it is easy to follow. I would classify this movie as being an action suspense thriller; rather than being classical horror. The background music is suggestive of journey to the center of the earth, or of the mysterious island; and works well with the film. The team up of the main characters suggests in possibility of character models for Mystery Incorporated. You have two guys and two girls; one jock and one nerd (no offense to Velma).I feel that there is a decent amount of talent that was gathered for this film, and all though the story was not the best to follow it was a good movie.For originality, for talent, and for acting; I would give the film at least three stars out of five. Though, a hunter hunting the rarest of game does not stand against the horror films of today, there is one scene in the film that will get the heart pumping three times as fast.If you are a fan of slash films, and of classical horror; this is a good movie for you to enjoy, home alone; on a dark and scary night.

Taking a look at a Mill Creek box set that a fellow IMDber has very kindly sent me,I spotted a title that appeared to be inspired by The Most Dangerous Game",which led to me getting ready for the bloodlust to be unleashed.The plot:Travelling round in the tropics,a group of teens spot a deserted island.Stepping on the island,the teens find it to be filled with exotic wild life.Finding a strange large pit on the island,the gang are suddenly knocked out.Waking up the gang meet Dr. Albert Balleau,who is a reclusive millionaire.Giving them a warm welcome,Balleau soon reveals that along with being a millionaire,he is also a big game hunter.View on the film:Chewing the entire island, Wilton Graff gives a delicious performance as Balleau,with Graff curling his wide grin at every big game target,as writer/director Ralph Brooke bases Balleau in a spooky cave mansion.Sending a bunch of teens to a dangerous game,the screenplay by Brooke has fun poking at teen movie traditions,from the sassy girl to the glasses-wearing geek.Whilst the title offers some surprisingly blunt kills,Brooke sadly fails to give any of the teens "their" moment,and also takes a restrained approach in building up anticipation for the final game between Balleau,which leads to this bloodlust not being as thirsty as it should have been.

Bloodlust! (1961) * 1/2 (out of 4) Yet another take off on The Most Dangerous Game but here's a case where you should stick with the original. Four friends go to what they think is a deserted island to have some fun but they are taken hostage by a deranged hunter (Wilton Graff) who plans on stalking them as prey. It's strange but I find the source material to be one of the greatest stories out there and I think it would be very hard to not be able to make a good film out of it. However, that's exactly what's done here as the screenwriter obviously sucked every bit of life out of the story and left us with a dull mess of a film. The most interesting aspect of the story is the hunt between the two sides but that's not the case here as the hunt doesn't happen until the film is pretty much over and even then that so called hunt doesn't go anywhere. It also doesn't help matters that one never fears for any of the main characters as they aren't ever put into any real danger. Graff doesn't make for the best bad guy but while watching the film I couldn't help but wonder what Vincent Price would have been like in the role. Robert Reed from The Brady Bunch plays the main guy and is okay in the film but the rest of the teens are just boring.

This film isn't really as despicable as it's been described. For those who haven't seen "The Most Dangerous Game" it has a charm of its own. The jungle scenes, so remarkable in the source film are so much better - breath-taking at times - and the actors don't begin to touch the original ones, granted. The budget must have been incredibly small. Nevertheless the film gets by rather well given the meager resources. It's amusing but sometimes irritating to watch people in their twenties acting like and calling themselves teenagers, though. I didn't mind watching this film. It came in a box with many other horror films I'll probably never see but it was a pleasant surprise.Curtis Stotlar