I Drink Your Blood: David E. Durston

Well, I'll give director David E. Durston credit...he certainly came up with an original take on the zombie genre with I Drink Your Blood. I would have never thought to write a zombie movie where the initial outbreak was caused by a group of Satanic hippies eating meat pies mixed with blood from a rabid dog. Oh, it may advertise itself to be more of a hippie-sploitation or Manson-sploitation flick. But let's look at the facts. Once infected by the rabies meat pies, they froth at the mouth, gain an uncontrollable taste for human flesh, and spread the disease by biting others. Of course, one can be forgiven for not picking up that I Drink Your Blood is a zombie film. The first half of it was clearly made to ride the tide of popularity surrounding the Charles Manson murders. The hippies move into a small town and partake in human sacrifices and blood rituals. They savagely beat a local young woman and dose her grandfather with LSD when he tries to rescue her. This is the act which inspires the young woman's younger brother to create the rabies meat pies. Once they are infected, the film proceeds to follow a more formulaic storyline: the infected break out, the virus spreads, and the survivors make a last stand. One quirky feature of Durston's zombies is that they are extremely hydrophobic. This is explained as a symptom of the rabies virus. As a result, one group of survivors figures out the ultimate defense against the horde: wade into the middle of a stream. Despite the ridiculousness of this scenario, Durston is able to maintain a legitimate sense of fear and terror. In fact, the entire film, while rather silly when you get right down to it, is very solid. Now if you'll excuse me...I'm rather hungry...

7/10