BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR - Jimmie Roosa & Don McGinnis - "Echo Of Terror" (1972)

Al! Al! Al!! What a story! For the longest time I thought Jerry Warren was the The King of cut and slash film making, but with the film "Blood Of Ghastly Horror", Al Adamson has easily become the rightful heir to the thone, and if you make it through this masterpiece of crap, you might want to find yourself situated near one too, as you might find you have a need to puke! I'm surprised Al didn't try to save even a few more pennies, and shave down the name to the abbreviated, more accurate, and appropriate title, simply "Ghastly!"

The IMDB got it wrong this time, "Psycho A Go-Go" and "Blood Of Ghastly Horror" are not the same movie!! "Blood Of Ghastly Horror" is 85% "Psycho A Go-Go," not figuratively, but literally. Al took his own film from 7 years earlier, "Psycho A Go-Go" and basically used it as one big flashback, then added a few minutes of meaningless footage and bullshit at the beginning, a few inserts, and a different ending.

The music by Jimmy Roosa is outstanding, but Al cut out all the cool Linda Clarke songs featuring the vocals of Tacey Robbins, but thank the Lord that he also cut out the nauseating "Swanee River" songs by that obnoxious minstrel pull-string doll! That alone makes it worth forgiving! Added music for this feature was by Don McGinnis who would go on to work on a lot of TV cartoons in the 80's about characters like The Potato Head Kids, My Little Pony, and the Muppet Babies! Starting to make sense??

Al must have paid "The Stars" John Carradine and Tommy Kirk for far less than a day's pay, probably around $79.00 a piece, as they just have a few lines and are out of there! Exit stage left!

Here's what Al can do with a used hard hat, a piece of styrofoam, the seat belt out of his car, and 37 cents of wire! Voilà!! Instant Mad Lab!

Only Al's wife, Regina Carrol, would be a good enough sport to put on all this makeup and not get paid!

A lot of the brilliant cinematography by the genius Vilmos Zsigmond that made the first film a standout is still intact, but the new added footage shot by Louis Horvath is a total mess, with the actors consistently out of frame. Sloppy, not arty! Looks to me like when Al says "Action!" it's kind of like playing hide and seek, ready or not here we go!! Hey Wild Al, wait for me to catch up, I haven't even started the camera yet!!!

You have to be able to appreciate the fact that this film is devious, but classic Al! If you haven't seen "Psycho A Go-Go" you might fall for this fiendish concept, but if you have seen "Psycho A Go-Go," then you're in for an ultra serious case of deja vu or bad acid flashbacks! One great thing about this film is that it makes you realize how fantastic some of Al's other films are. Al's "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein" is like "Avatar" compared to this movie!

Like Lenny Bruce, Tommy Kirk became a martyr whose career died for your sins. Blacklisted in the 60's for things that nobody would even bat an eye at today, the oh so horrible acts of treasonish behaviour, being gay, and smoking pot, I think this is right around that same time that Tommy's career had sunk so low, he was willing to do almost anything for money, including being the Grand Marshall of the annual Delano Harvest Holidays parade!!