October Horror Challenge 2019 #37: "Bloodlust"

I heard this movie was terrible,  and it's a 60s era horror movie that I haven't seen yet, so of course I put it on my list to watch immediately. I'm a glutton for punishment, I know, but the reason I seek out these movies is because sometimes I find little gems that I actually love, and this is one of those times.

This movie is about a group of annoying college students (or maybe they're supposed to be high school students, but they look way to d either way) who go on a boat trip for a getaway and wind up on a secluded island with a rich guy living on a huge estate who seems to want them for some nefarious purpose. Soon they find out he intends to play a sick game, letting them loose on the estate and hunting them down like animals.

There are other movies with this plot (or something similar) but this us one of the earlier examples, and the plot is so creepy that I'll probably enjoy it every time I see it. I grew up around hunters, and our family was big on hunting because we were poor and if we bagged some deer that meant venison for everyone to last through the winter. We always killed for food, so the idea of people killing just for sport seemed kind of a waste to me, and add to that the idea of people hunting and killing other human beings seems extra horrible.

Even just going for walks in the woods as a kid we always had to dress in bright orange and stay with the group and make a lot of noise so we wouldn't be mistaken for animals and shot, so imagining having to survive in the woods with someone who intended to kill me is horrifying. Knowing all this, the premise of the movie keeps me interested, even if the actors aren't the best.

A young Robert Reed plays one of the students, and it's funny to see him spouting his usual "preachy dad" dialogue while he's supposed to be a kid. Whatever, father knows best wannabe, this ain't the Brady Bunch, so shut up. The actor who plays the demented rich doctor who lives on the estate is hilarious. He chews the scenery like Nicholas Cage on acid, and I feel like Vincent Proce should have played this role if the filmmakers could have afforded him. There's a lot of gore for a black and white movie. Someone gets boiled alive, and someone gets impaled on a torture device, which is icky but very cool. In spite of its issues, I still enjoyed watching this movie.