Blood Sabbath (1972)

Blood Sabbath (1972)
Directed by: Brianne Murphy
Written by: William A. Bairn
Starring: Anthony Geary, Dyanne Thorne, Sam Gilman, Susan Damante

Blood Sabbath (1972)
Directed by Brianne Murphy

Blood Sabbath is one of those films from the 70’s. You know the kind…. surreal, very little plot, loose script and loads of people running about nude.  There’s something fantastic about these kind of films. But first, the plot. David (Anthony Geary), a young Vietnam war veteran is hiking through the countryside and camps out for the night. However, his sleep is disturbed when a group of naked hippie chicks, who are also camping nearby, decide to undress and have some fun with David. David manages to escape and ends up tumbling down a ditch near a stream. Unconscious, he is awakened by a beautiful water nymph called Yyalah (Susan Damante), who he instantly falls in love with, as you do. Unfortunately, Yyalah cannot love David back because he has a soul and she hasn’t. So David makes it his goal to be rid of his soul so he can be with the woman of this dreams.

Nearby, villagers live in fear of the coven of witches who live on the hill who demand a child sacrifice every year. The head of the witches, Alotta (Dyanne Thorne), takes the soul of the child who then grows up as a witch under Alotta’s watchful eye. David spies the opportunity and offers his soul instead of a young girl’s in exchange to be with Yyalah. Alotta agrees but demands that David must return to her and live with her coven for the rest of his days should Yyalah leave him. David agrees and Alotta frees him of his soul. But David should know that where witches are involved, things do not go as planned….

Blood Sabbath never quite gets its feet off the ground with a struggled performance from Anthony Geary as David. He’s a very weak character with little to no charisma and is propped up by his love interest, Susan Damante. Sam Gilman plays supporting character Lonzo who lives in the countryside and allows David to stay in his home and for what his role requires, Sam does this very well. However, the person who steals the show, or should I say film, is Dyanne Thorne, an actress who drew me to the movie in the first place. Dyanne takes her role as the cunning Witch Queen and creates a brilliant character, one who is seductive, deceptive, ruthless and does whatever she can to get what she wants. In a way, I see this character as preparation for the our favourite She-Wolf, which she first appeared as 3 years after Blood Sabbath. The characters aren’t that different and I would say Ilsa is a more extreme version of Alotta. It’s nice to see Dyanne in a film prior to her iconic character and you can see from Blood Sabbath that Dyanne definitely has the attitude and charisma for her future role.

Blood Sabbath is quickly paced and once you’ve been introduced to Dyanne’s character, Alotta, you itch to see scenes with her in again, as all the rest without her are quite frankly boring. The film as a whole isn’t that brilliant, but you watch it for two things: the 70’s surreal, hippy feel and Dyanne Thorne. These two things the film does well with, and whilst it could have been a much better film, it is a bit of fun to watch and for that reason I give this film….

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