Blood Bath AKA

 

BLOOD BATH-1966-After it seems like a vampire killed a woman, some beatniks (including Sid Haig & Jonathan Haze) check out Max (Karl Schanzer) the artist's new painting. Then waitress Daisy (Marissa Mathes) has a discussion with ballet dancing Dorean (Linda/Lori Saunders) about a secret meeting she has with a man. 

While looking at some paintings Daisy meets artist Antonio Sordi (William Campbell), who's artist ancestor was burned at the sake after being betrayed by his mistress Melizza. While having a flashback/hallucination, he turns into the vampire and kills Daisy with a meat cleaver. Sordi is also the person Dorean was meeting on the beach. Later at a party, he attacks a woman who falls into a pool. Daisy's sister Donna (Sandra Knight) goes looking for her (Max recognizes her from Sordi's latest painting) but Sordi denies knowing her. She learns about Sordi's ancestor who came back as a vengeful vampire after being burned, eventually being staked. 

Donna sees a connection between the missing women and Sordi. She decides to shadow him but he kills her on a merry go round (while others do nothing). His vampire self terrorizes Dorean but she escapes. Max has a fight with the vampire who seems to fall to his death but his body disappears. Poor Dorean seeks shelter at Sordi's bell tower residence where she discovers a dead corpse (Patrick Magee). Sordi isn't dead and thinks Doreann is Melizza come back to him. Fortunately some of his victims come back to life and throw him in bubbling wax. 

This movie has a crazy history. It started out life as a US-Yugoslavian production called “Operation Titan” for which Roger Corman provided American actors William Campbell and Sid Haig as he planned to distribute it in the US. Corman was unhappy with the resulting film and finally asked Jack Hill to write a new script and shoot new scenes while incorporating some of the original. Hill turned it into a horror film called “Portrait in Terror”. Corman was still unhappy with this new version and hired Stephanie Rothman to shoot more scenes. Unfortunately star William Campbell refused to do anymore re-shoots and an unidentified actor portrays the vampire monster which is why the Sordi character transforms into a totally different monster! Sid Haig's character also grows a beard for his later scenes! New scenes were also shot for a TV version called “Track of The Vampire”. 

There's always a story with Roger Corman!

Thanks for reading!