"The public cannot handle
sadism alone but add a little
story and it becomes easily
digestable"- Master Sardu
This film was purchased by Troma in 1982, previously titled "The Incredible Torture Show" (Which is an arguably far more accurate title, seeing as there is only one visible incident of bloodsucking in the movie) and saddled with an X rating. The Troma version was released with a slightly toned-down R rating, but up until this time the film was unavailable on home video anyway.
Written and directed by Joel Reed, the cast includes:
Louis DeJesus
Seamus O'Brian
Viju Krem
Alan Dellay
Niles McMaster
Dan Fauci
A host of disposable female bodies
Master Sardu (O'Brian) runs a DeSade-esque "Theater of the Macabre" in which very naked women are "tortured" and "murdered" to the perverse delight of theatergoers. Of course the acting is impeccable- there are no special effects. Sardu's piece de'resistance is a ballet entitled The Seduction and Death of a Critic, featuring prima ballerina Natasha DiNatelli and New York Times theater critic Creasy Silo (Dellay), both captured and bound in Sardu's basement dungeon while he (thus far unsuccessfully) attempts to brainwash them into submitting to his will. DiNatelli's football-star boyfriend, Ace Maverick (McMaster) and Sargeant Tucci, the crooked cop he enlists to help him (Fauci), find themselves on Sardu's trail, and the plot thickens, so to speak.
In the interim, the viewer watches as Sardu and Ralphus, his midget retainer (DeJesus), run their slave trade and engage in all sorts of sado-masochistic fun.
When one sees through the repulsive female sexploitation, the movie actually has something to say- there is a fine between art and, well, bullshit. One can't help but wonder exactly how self-aware this film actually is. Oh well, take that, you pretensious hipster art fags.