THE BLOOD COLLECTION OK, so you've seen every Hong Kong movie ever made, know your Eurocult films back and forth, and have even dipped your toes into the endless currents of Bollywood. Feel like you've seen it all?

Think again. It sounds like you're just about ready for a visit to Blood Island.

A mythical location dreamed up by Philippine filmmakers Eddie Romero and Gerardo DeLeon, Blood Island served as the setting for a series of wonderfully bizarre, low-budget horror films produced throughout the 1960s and early "70s by Hemisphere Pictures. These movies were big crowd-pleasers on the American drive-in circuit back in the day but faded fairly quickly into a long, undeserved obscurity — a situation that's only just been remedied by the release of Image Entertainment's "Blood Collection" on DVD.

Of the three titles released thus far in the Blood Collection — Brides of Blood, Mad Doctor of Blood Island and The Blood Drinkers — all are well worth seeking out. Simply put, these are some of the most addictively entertaining B-movies around. The films are full of problems — bad acting, cheap effects, irritating camera zooms — but they're also some of the most wonderfully sleazy, atmospheric horror productions you'll ever see, complete with moments that are genuinely disturbing and even oddly poetic.

Brides of Blood was the first of the so-called "Blood Island Trilogy," and, like all the films in the series, must be seen to be believed. Former teen heartthrob John Ashley (best know for his role in Beach Blanket Bingo and those long, manly sideburns) stars as a scientist/Peace Corps volunteer looking into the mutated life forms that have begun springing up on the island. Ashley encounters crab monsters, killer trees, and a vicious mutant butterfly (on a very visible string), as well as a colleague's nympho wife who just won't take no for an answer. There's also an eccentric plantation owner with a household of dwarf servants, a human sacrifice or two (opportunities to display beautiful topless Philippine girls) and lots of cool Tiki stuff and other local color.

Mad Doctor of Blood Island was the follow-up to Brides of Blood and it may be even more lurid and bizarre. Ashley stars again, this time as a government agent investigating a mysterious phenomenon that's turning everybody on the island into oozing green blobs. Ashley's love interest this time is Angelique Pettyjohn (who later went on to do porn films under the name Heaven St. John), and the movie ups the ante in both the gore and eros departments. Oversexed native girls and wonderfully inept shots of decapitated heads and severed limbs abound, all accompanied by an aggressive Tito Arevalo score that's often one half-step away from the avant-garde.

The Blood Drinkers isn't technically a Blood Island movie, but it's one of the most beautiful and strangest of all Philippine horror films. This incredibly odd offering features a very funky looking vampire with a shaved head and wraparound shades, who spends most of the movie trying to save his dying lover by making her a gift of her twin sister's healthy heart.

As in all the Blood Collection movies, there are plenty of gloriously cheesy elements (including a gnarly hunchback assistant and yet more evil dwarves), but the film is also surprisingly accomplished and even classy. Much of The Blood Drinkers is visually stunning, with red and blue tinted scenes alternating with the moody black-and-white photography, giving the production a lyrical, nearly opulent quality at odds with its bargain basement origins. There's never been anything quite like The Blood Drinkers, and vampire movie buffs should pounce.

All three of the Blood Collection DVDs are presented in restored, full frame transfers that have their share of minor flaws, but mostly look great. Blacks are rich and solid throughout, and those sinister jungle locations have never looked so lush and colorful. As if that weren't enough, all of the films are loaded with extras, including commentary tracks by head Hemisphere honcho Sam Sherman, an interesting interview with Eddie Romero, still galleries and trailers for tons of Philippine horror films. Each disc has a few special surprises too, such as a full 30 minutes of outtakes and extended scenes on The Blood Drinkers, presented silently so as to make the already surreal footage seem even more so. Very highly recommended stuff.

All three films:

This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2002.