“Bloodsucking Freaks”

Robert St Mary
knowsaint@yahoo.com

Starring: Seamus O’Brien, Luis de Jesus
Written and Directed by Joel M. Reed
Released: 1978
Country: USA

The first thing that makes this film in my opinion important is the fact that it has remained an “infamous” film for well over 20 years. It is one of the few films that I can think of that still has the emotional, physical and mental impact it had when it premiered and it still is not easier to watch. Another film that comes to mind is Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom”. Both at times are hard to watch, make valid points and in some people’s estimations are nothing more then exploitation and trash. While Pasolini’s “Salo” is about fascist Italy in the 1940’s, Reed’s “Bloodsucking Freaks” is nothing more then a film about a guy who likes to torture women on stage for fun and profit. Or is it???

How can a film that shows naked women being tortured be “pro-feminist”? I believe that this was not Joel M. Reed’s intention while making “Bloodsucking Freaks” but one can get a lot more out of this film beyond it’s shock and gore value if one looks at this film past it’s base level.

Sardu, “Master of the theater of the macabre.” A middle age white male businessman in terms of what he deems art. His business is both legal and illegal. First there is the theater. That represents the “legal” aspect of his business, although one could argue that it is illegal to kill people, even on stage for “art sake”. The illegal side of his business is the white slavery trade. Women shipped and sold to people all over the world. He is an upper class “gentleman” who appreciates the finer things in life: brandy, cigars, parlor games and of course a little bondage because he has been a “bad boy”.

Ralphus is Sardu’s Latino midget henchman. He will do whatever Sardu asks of him. Why? Well, he loves his job and some would say his position, in that he can be up there with Sardu. Ralphus talks in the “yes, Masta” way that most slaves on film are portrayed. A kind of ethnic bowing down to the white man. Ralphus’s stature as a midget or “little person” is symbolic of the white man’s racial idea that all other races are “inferior” to the stature and power of him (Sardu). 

Maverick is the All-American football hero. He’s a big man because of his career in the male dominated world that this character and we live in. He is said to be based on 70’s New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath. Good looking, charming and popular, he is a real man’s man and by that token a real ladies man. He dates the ballerina, Natasha DeNatali

Sgt. Tucci is a crooked cop looking for a pay off any which way he can get one. He could care less about the laws and ethics he is supposed to uphold. He is an opportunist who plays any side as long as it is profitable for him. The cop represents the government and ethics.

Natasha DeNatali is the Lincoln Center ballerina who is kidnapped and forced into Sardu’s show. She is symbolic of most women. Repulsed by the torture show, a refusal to be dominated by Sardu and her career represents a dream that most little girls have at one time or another, to be a dancer or ballerina. Silo, the critic. He is the man who calls Sardu on his actions. Therefore Sardu doesn’t like him. He has him kidnapped and tortured in the film. He represents the intellectual and informed point of view through which people can see “the truth”, that Sardu’s work is garbage and beyond that dangerous.

What is interesting about the torture sequences is that one can make a case of all of them on a symbolic level. First, there is the fact that through out the whole film, Sardu, never does anything to any woman. He leaves that up to Ralphus. Sardu commands Ralphus to torture the women as he sees fit. Symbolic? The white man will “set the stage” for what happens but will not take part in the action directly. Look around at the world. Major companies and government are controlled largely by white males (Sardu?). Do they do the killings and torture of people themselves? No, they allow others the do their work for them. Wars, gangs, poverty and other social ills are set up by the socio-economic structure of the world in which we live, which in the western world is controlled by two things: big business and government. Sardu represents both in his microcosm of the theater. The theater is his world. Tucci, the cop also represents the government that allow such atrocities to continue because of the money and power that is involved. Tucci receives a payoff from Sardu to allow him to continue working while he lies to Maverick about the real reason his girlfriend is dancing for the theater of the Macabre. 

The torture scenes seem to be about conforming and containing women’s desire both in the physical but even more so in the mental and spiritual sense. What body parts of the women that are tortured has it’s own deeper symbolic value. The second torture of the film, “The Iron Tourniquet” is one that strikes me as very interesting. A metal halo thing is put on the woman’s head and then tightened like a vice until she is dead. I think that says quite a bit. That this world seeks to squeeze the mental power from women and conform them into a cold, preset mold as long as possible. 

When Natasha is kidnapped she is brought to Sardu, who shows her what will happen if she refuses to dance for him. Ralphus then processes to cut the feet off another dancer as a motivation to start rehearsal. Thus the message is, “do as we tell you or we will remove your method of expressing your passion in life”. This shows once again the place which men try to control women’s passions.

Another torture later in the film shows a woman being strapped to a table then being given electric shocks via her nipples. Nipples represent motherhood. It is the place of feeding and comfort. Also, it can represent sexuality during arousal which equals passion. Society’s clamping down on a woman’s passion and the greatest aspect of femininity: motherhood.

But the biggest and most obvious metaphor for the restraining to women’s passions is the cage of naked women. Naked women in this film represent the power and passion of women. Caged women is caged passion. This passion is placated by Ralphus in one scene where they are fed a live man. This man, a doctor, is thrown into the cage. They tear him apart and cannibalize him. So the doctor, being a professional man can mean that women are given things like men and more importantly men of status with money within our society to dull their passions there by calming them for a while so that they will not break out of the cage society has set for them. 

There is one torture in particular that sheds an interesting light on both Ralphus and Sardu in terms of limits. The doctor who is called to take care of the sick Natasha, as payment for his work he is given a woman to torture and do with as he pleases. So he straps her down in a chair, removes her teeth with a pair of pliers, shaves her head, drills a hole into the top of her skull and then proceeds to suck her brains out through a straw. The doctor, a white male in a position of authority in the world can also represent mainstream white male dominated society. Removal of teeth = take your voice way, “you have no say”. Sucking your brain through a straw = removal of mental ability, passion and personality. What makes this one so interesting is that it shows that Sardu and Ralphus have their limits as they are disgusted by this and then decide to toss the doctor to the caged women. This shows that even fascists (Sardu and Ralphus) have their limits on what is acceptable and what is not. Why? I believe it is a double standard issue. That it is perfectly fine for them to do it but not OK for another person. See World War II for more on this: Germany vs. USSR. Fascist vs. Fascist. 

The place and use of women in this film also sheds a light on the feelings of Sardu and Ralphus and a woman’s place within our society. Sardu uses women in several ways, for profit and personal gains. First, there is the white slavery trade. In one scene we see Ralphus (remember Sardu never tortures the women) sealing up big cardboard boxes. At one point a women pops out of a box. He hits her on the head, pushes her back down into the box, seals the box and then places a “Fragile: Handle with Care” sticker on the box. The caging and then selling of women’s passions could be what this is all about. But what is interesting is the “Fragile” sticker. Meaning that after we have processed her she is now of value to us because she will bring us much money. I feel it also little dark joke in that we (meaning Sardu and Ralphus) may oppress and torture women but we still are gentlemen who are careful and courteous to the “fair sex”.

Sardu never tortures any women on stage as I have said before. But in his private live he does find some use for some of the women. Sardu’s use of women as dinner tables, seating benches and as entertainment seem to shed further light on him and his representation. Meaning that women to him are useful when they are used for domestic or homebased purposes, for his amusement and in some way for their support being that women are the basis for his livelihood. This could relate to a lot of feelings on marriage and a woman’s place in a man’s life. This could also relate to an idea that a woman is only there to pleasure the man or to be like furniture and serve her purpose and to have no passion or life beyond the basic mechanical use that is demanded of her.

Like most films the ending seems to give us the whole picture. We get everything we need to know in terms of symbolism and there is quite a bite to chew on (if you have seen the film excuse the pun). The last torture show features a brainwashed Natasha kicking the critic to death. Like most people they are set in their ways. They only see what they want to see and when someone offers them a new or truthful idea they attack it. Natasha does Sardu’s bidding in that this man, the critic, would not bow to him and give him the proper respect for not only his work but his “art”. It can also relate to women being told by the popular male dominated culture what is right and wrong and when a new idea that maybe be right comes along they attack it as wrong. Case in point is when I heard people talk to women about shaving their underarms and legs. We know that the hair is there, it is natural but when they are asked about what they think about not shaving they get make excuses about why it is necessary. Who made is necessary? The male dominated society in which we live. You can see the same thing when confronted with women’s magazines that are owned by male dominated corporate structure. They constantly tell women they are fat, not sexy enough and that the reason their relationships fail is because of them and offer them paths to happiness via conformity and oppression. Do women get mad and say “NO! That’s not true!”. No, they attack men and more importantly other women who say that these ideas are wrong and are what are holding back women in this country.

Later on in the end scene Sardu and Ralphus are caught by Maverick and Tucci and are tired up. Tucci heads off to investigate the rest of the theater. He finds the caged women. He frees them from their cage and they attack him. Natasha then kills Maverick with a hammer to the head. She kneels down next to his body, tastes his blood and then strips her overcoat off and runs to the other women. The final scene really says a lot about the message I get from the film. The women, naked are dancing and jumping about. We see a pan shot of the heads of Sardu, Ralphus and a black woman who was also one Sardu’s henchman, cut off and on a table. The women are dancing around and one of them is eating a sandwich. The last shot of the film is a close up the woman taking a bite out of this sandwich. It is a sandwich made from a male organ. One can infer that it is Sardu’s penis. The penis symbolizing the male on the whole but chiefly power and oppression over the women. Since they are freed from their cage they have risen up against their masters. The white male businessman (Sardu), the government (Tucci) and the lover (Maverick). They have also killed other slaves like them but in higher positions, those being Ralphus and the black woman. What are they telling us? That a great uprising will come and they will destroy those who have tried to destroy and oppress them. It is only a matter of time before the culture breaks and can no longer control the caged passion of women everywhere.

Do I believe that it was Joel Reed’s idea to make this film full of images and ideas that one can come to if you really watch it? I don’t know. More then likely I would say no. This film was to be horror sexploitation in it’s rawest, low-rent form. I think though that one cannot deny that these messages exist within the film when put in context of the society in which we live. I believe that the film makes good points in a subversive manner. As in most subversion it is never clear if these points are the author’s aim or just a coincidence. But I leave you with this. In one scene Ralphus is dancing and playing a set of cymbals. Cymbals = Symbols? Think about it.