Blood Mania (1970) by Robert Vincent O'Neil

Director: Robert Vincent O'Neil

Year: 1970

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Slasher

Plot:

Living alone in the family house, a young woman staying with her invalid father finds that her sexual hang-ups can be solved when she meets a doctor with money problems and tries to convince him to knock off her father, only for other complications to halt their plans.

Review:

This here was quite the decent if wholly unspectacular effort. One of the finest parts of this one is the fact that there's plenty of sleazy charms to be had here, with the film really getting a lot of mileage out of her nymphomania condition. Since the vast majority of the first half here consists of getting her naked as often as possible, there's plenty of fine scenes of her getting naked and rolling around with other men around her, so that it gets ample opportunity to showcase her body, which is a rather nice feeling here. The duplicitous nature of what's going on, as everyone is attempting to screw everyone else over and get their hands on an inheritance sum manages to also feel quite nice within this part, as the very fact that everyone's backstabbing each other and trying to work out the situation for their own interests, from getting the father killed off to solving his money woes and how they both apply to each other gives this some really good sleazy thrills as well by giving this a solid framework during the time period which was flooded with such types of films. This really helps make the first hour quite enjoyable even with the lack of activity during this time, and while it picks up in the finale with the second seduction attempt and the eventual surge into more realistic realms, which is quite fun, it's what really helps this one for the most part.

That does highlight one of the film's biggest flaws in that for a large portion of time barely anything really happens here other than the nudity, as the reliance on the backstabbing and double-crossing doesn't give this plenty of horror-based moments throughout here. The body count is exceptionally low as to be barely worthwhile, so there's hardly any gore or bloodshed, and that also leaves this startlingly low on suspenseful or tense moments as well because of the storyline. This one never really offers up many chances because of how it's carried out, and only the fact that there are plentiful amounts of nudity in here does this one really feel appropriate for its time, as it plays much older than it really should be based on the outcome featured here. That might leave this one strikingly disappointing for true horror fans, but it does have some solid and engaging moments within that do keep it from being flat-out boring.

Overview: **.5/5

A somewhat bland if appealing horror/thriller, there's enough to like here that it's not a bad take in the sexploitation side than anything else, as the slasher feature is where it tends to fall short. Those with an appreciation for that style or approach will have the most to like here, while most others expecting a more traditional genre effort should heed caution.