Back in 1970 I Drink Your Blood was the first movie given an X rating solely because of violence. This created a huge market for the movie and it became an underground hit and it still plays horror festivals all over the world. But on November 9th it will hit DVD for the first time UNCUT. In fact director David Durston handed over his personal print of the movie for the DVD transfer.
I Drink Your Blood is about a group of homeless devil-worshipping longhairs, infiltrate an abandoned mining town and take over a rat-infested farmhouse for the night after their van breaks down a few miles outside of town. Their partying gets out of hand, causing an old man to go to the house and try to calm the commotion down. They throw him around a little, stuff LSD down his throat, and send him back home to his grandchildren. His vengeful grade-school grandson kills a rabid dog, drains its blood and injects it into a batch of meat pies that are sold to the starving devil worshippers who are sick of eating meat pies. Everyone that eats the meat pies gets rabies and goes crazy. A power struggle ensues between the leader of the Satanists and one of the other members of the group. A couple of horny construction workers jump one of the hippie chicks and end up getting rabies too. Soon half the abandoned town is infected.
I got a chance to talk with Durston about his very unique film.
Buy I Drink Your Blood here
Daniel Robert Epstein: The star of I Drink Your Blood, Bhaskar, seemed like a very unique person. How did you find him?
David Durston: I havent talked about what happened to him to anybody recently. He died last year. He was from India, the son of a famous sculptor and a world famous interpreter of East Indian dancing. He was known all over the world. I met him because he worked for me on another picture where he played himself called The Blue Sextet. He did his well known flame dance with torches in the picture. We became very good friends because we had a lot of things in common. Then I Drink Your Blood came along and I asked him if he would be interested in the head villain, Horace. He said that he would really like to do it. It worked out fine and he was great. After the picture was done he was very pleased with it. The picture went on to become notorious because the MPAA wanted to get back at Jerry Gross who was releasing the picture so they slapped an X rating on I Drink Your Blood. It ended up becoming a landmark film because it was the first film ever to get an X rating because of violence and not pornography.
With all the publicity around it Bhaskar went back to dancing around the country. I believe he was in Michigan, he was rehearsing onstage and he had a scene where he did this cobra dance which is actually one of the extras on the DVD. Its this complete spin around the stage over and over again. When he was rehearsing this number the electrician backstage pulled the wrong switch and threw the whole theatre into darkness. Bhaskar could not stop and fell right off the stage into the orchestra pit. His spine hit one of the stands and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He thought his whole life was over with except that they kept telling him there was a possibility he would walk again. I talked to him almost every week. He took up art and he started painting. They were wonderful and he had showings all over the world. Then when he heard that 30 years later I Drink Your Blood was going to come out on DVD he was delighted. He had to go back to the hospital but I was able to show him the DVD and he was able to contribute some commentary. Then two days after he saw I Drink Your Blood DVD and told me how much he liked it the doctor told him that he would never ever be able to walk again. Then two days later he died because he just gave up.
DRE: How did the title I Drink Your Blood come about?
DD: They changed it! I thought it was terribly misleading. This isnt a vampire movie and there is no blood drinking in the movie. It was originally called Phobia but they said it wasnt sensational enough so I suggested Blood Phobia. They changed it to I Drink Your Blood and there isnt even a Bloody Mary in the picture. That title is so stupid they might as well have called it I Shit in Your Saddlebag.
DRE: How long have you worked on this DVD?
DD: I didnt do much of anything. The way it happened is that this guy called me up on the telephone about three years ago and asked if I was David Durston. He said his name was Bob Murawski [editor of the first Spider-Man movie]. I asked him why he wanted to know because I was embarrassed over how the film had been desecrated and mutilated in America. Murawski had seen the picture five or six times when he was a kid and he wanted to come meet me. He wanted to restore I Drink Your Blood and re-release it. He did everything with it, put in stereo sound, designed it, color corrected it and did some other digital things. All I did was that I gave him a 35mm uncut print of the picture.
DRE: Was the Charles Manson gang the inspiration for the movie?
DD: Yes, I went up to Cinemation Industries to meet with Jerry Gross and he said to me that he wanted me to top Night of the Living Dead but he didnt want any aliens or monsters in it. I think thats why I Drink Your Blood is so scary. It may be improbable but it is plausible. He gave me carte blanche on directing this picture. All he wanted to do was see the dailies and he left me totally alone.
DRE: How did you meet Jerry Gross?
DD: I was pretty well known in the industry for directing television, one of the first science fiction series called Tales of Tomorrow. Jerry Gross really wanted to top Night of the Living Dead because it made so much money. He said to me Go for the jugular! I had read something in the paper about this village in Iran that was attacked by a pack of rabid wolves and thought that was an interesting concept for a movie.
DRE: I read that you have some new movies coming out as well.
DD: Now that I Drink Your Blood is going to be released on DVD other things can get rolling. I had also written two scripts called Leech and Inflamed. Bob Murawski didnt like Leech because he thought it was too funny but he liked Inflamed so that may still happen.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
I Drink Your Blood is about a group of homeless devil-worshipping longhairs, infiltrate an abandoned mining town and take over a rat-infested farmhouse for the night after their van breaks down a few miles outside of town. Their partying gets out of hand, causing an old man to go to the house and try to calm the commotion down. They throw him around a little, stuff LSD down his throat, and send him back home to his grandchildren. His vengeful grade-school grandson kills a rabid dog, drains its blood and injects it into a batch of meat pies that are sold to the starving devil worshippers who are sick of eating meat pies. Everyone that eats the meat pies gets rabies and goes crazy. A power struggle ensues between the leader of the Satanists and one of the other members of the group. A couple of horny construction workers jump one of the hippie chicks and end up getting rabies too. Soon half the abandoned town is infected.
I got a chance to talk with Durston about his very unique film.
Buy I Drink Your Blood here
Daniel Robert Epstein: The star of I Drink Your Blood, Bhaskar, seemed like a very unique person. How did you find him?
David Durston: I havent talked about what happened to him to anybody recently. He died last year. He was from India, the son of a famous sculptor and a world famous interpreter of East Indian dancing. He was known all over the world. I met him because he worked for me on another picture where he played himself called The Blue Sextet. He did his well known flame dance with torches in the picture. We became very good friends because we had a lot of things in common. Then I Drink Your Blood came along and I asked him if he would be interested in the head villain, Horace. He said that he would really like to do it. It worked out fine and he was great. After the picture was done he was very pleased with it. The picture went on to become notorious because the MPAA wanted to get back at Jerry Gross who was releasing the picture so they slapped an X rating on I Drink Your Blood. It ended up becoming a landmark film because it was the first film ever to get an X rating because of violence and not pornography.
With all the publicity around it Bhaskar went back to dancing around the country. I believe he was in Michigan, he was rehearsing onstage and he had a scene where he did this cobra dance which is actually one of the extras on the DVD. Its this complete spin around the stage over and over again. When he was rehearsing this number the electrician backstage pulled the wrong switch and threw the whole theatre into darkness. Bhaskar could not stop and fell right off the stage into the orchestra pit. His spine hit one of the stands and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He thought his whole life was over with except that they kept telling him there was a possibility he would walk again. I talked to him almost every week. He took up art and he started painting. They were wonderful and he had showings all over the world. Then when he heard that 30 years later I Drink Your Blood was going to come out on DVD he was delighted. He had to go back to the hospital but I was able to show him the DVD and he was able to contribute some commentary. Then two days after he saw I Drink Your Blood DVD and told me how much he liked it the doctor told him that he would never ever be able to walk again. Then two days later he died because he just gave up.
DRE: How did the title I Drink Your Blood come about?
DD: They changed it! I thought it was terribly misleading. This isnt a vampire movie and there is no blood drinking in the movie. It was originally called Phobia but they said it wasnt sensational enough so I suggested Blood Phobia. They changed it to I Drink Your Blood and there isnt even a Bloody Mary in the picture. That title is so stupid they might as well have called it I Shit in Your Saddlebag.
DRE: How long have you worked on this DVD?
DD: I didnt do much of anything. The way it happened is that this guy called me up on the telephone about three years ago and asked if I was David Durston. He said his name was Bob Murawski [editor of the first Spider-Man movie]. I asked him why he wanted to know because I was embarrassed over how the film had been desecrated and mutilated in America. Murawski had seen the picture five or six times when he was a kid and he wanted to come meet me. He wanted to restore I Drink Your Blood and re-release it. He did everything with it, put in stereo sound, designed it, color corrected it and did some other digital things. All I did was that I gave him a 35mm uncut print of the picture.
DRE: Was the Charles Manson gang the inspiration for the movie?
DD: Yes, I went up to Cinemation Industries to meet with Jerry Gross and he said to me that he wanted me to top Night of the Living Dead but he didnt want any aliens or monsters in it. I think thats why I Drink Your Blood is so scary. It may be improbable but it is plausible. He gave me carte blanche on directing this picture. All he wanted to do was see the dailies and he left me totally alone.
DRE: How did you meet Jerry Gross?
DD: I was pretty well known in the industry for directing television, one of the first science fiction series called Tales of Tomorrow. Jerry Gross really wanted to top Night of the Living Dead because it made so much money. He said to me Go for the jugular! I had read something in the paper about this village in Iran that was attacked by a pack of rabid wolves and thought that was an interesting concept for a movie.
DRE: I read that you have some new movies coming out as well.
DD: Now that I Drink Your Blood is going to be released on DVD other things can get rolling. I had also written two scripts called Leech and Inflamed. Bob Murawski didnt like Leech because he thought it was too funny but he liked Inflamed so that may still happen.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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I bought this Special Edition DVD awhile back. Click on the title below for more details on the DVD.
I DRINK YOUR BLOOD.
This movie would make an excellent double feature with the notorious Swedish Hardcore Sexploitation/Revenge flick, THRILLER - A CRUEL PICTURE (aka THEY CALL HER ONE EYE which partially inspired Tarantino's KILL BILL - mainly Darryl Hannah's character):
Exploitation B movies reign supreme!!!