Blood Mania

Plot

Dr. Craig Cooper, a physician, cares for his dying employer, the wealthy curmudgeon Ridgeley Waterman, at home with Waterman's daughter Victoria and a live-in nurse, Miss Turner. Victoria, a nymphomaniac, repeatedly tries and fails to seduce Dr. Cooper. An unnamed old connection blackmails Cooper for $50,000 over his provision of illegal abortions. During a house call, Cooper tells Victoria he has tax problems; she offers to get the money and seduces him.

Victoria then poisons and kills her father to pay Cooper's debt with the estate. Cooper rules the death a stroke, and Victoria avoids suspicion. Victoria's estranged younger sister Gail returns from New York City with Kate, a middle-aged woman who lives with Gail and has an unspoken, unreciprocated sexual interest in her. At the reading of the will, Gail is the primary beneficiary, leaving Victoria only the house and a small allowance.

Distraught, Victoria becomes bedridden. Cooper learns of Gail's wealth and begins seducing her. Kate, realizing the relationship, returns to New York. After an evening out, Gail offers to split the estate with Victoria, who refuses.

Gail reveals she has offered to help Cooper with his tax issues, and Victoria learns of the affair. Victoria bludgeons Gail to death with a lamp in the bathroom. Cooper returns, finds Gail dead, and Victoria painting with her sister's blood. He carries Gail's body to the car trunk.

Returning, he embraces Victoria as she sees Gail's corpse behind the door. It falls, revealing Cooper's blackmailer, grinning, as a painting shows Cooper with a skeleton draped across his arms.

Production

Blood Mania was shot over twelve days in Los Angeles, California. Director Robert Vincent O'Neill, originally a props master, had worked as the props head on Easy Rider (1969) and became involved after the original director dropped out shortly before shooting began. Production manager Gary Kent said: 'Robert was a prop man to begin with. I had no idea he was a director. The next thing I knew he was doing it, and he called me in as a production manager. It was fun. He took it seriously, so you never got the feeling he was just in it for the bucks. I thought it just took him forever to get a shot. He was always fussing over it. It was murder. His movies were long and arduous, but nonetheless I had some affection for Robert.' According to star Vicki Peters, the house used for filming was formerly owned by Bela Lugosi.

Release

A year after production, star Leslie Simms was called back for re-shoots for an alternate television cut. To remove nudity and violence for cable, a subplot was added in which Nurse Turner is in cahoots with the blackmailer, and new footage shows her reporting the murders to him. Michael Bate of the Ottawa Citizen compared the film to a soap opera, writing that 'by skimming over the film's few tense moments, director Robert O'Neill fails to inject his work with any sense of terror.'

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it a 'glum and tedious exercise' but praised the cinematography for providing a 'rich, sensuous look' and noted the 'eerie score.' Scott Weinberg of eFilmcritic.com gave a negative review, calling it 'stunningly drab' and noting that it offers 'nothing more than three or four gauzy love scenes offset by a nonstop deluge of "Let's kill so and so for his fortune" schpiel. I instantly and involuntarily tuned out every time the characters spoke.'

Blood Mania was released in super 8 and as a double feature DVD with Land of the Minotaur by Code Red in 2012. On January 31, 2017, Vinegar Syndrome released it as a double feature DVD and Blu-ray with Point of Terror (1971), also starring Carpenter; the first 3,000 units included a bonus disc with the television cuts. It was also included in Mill Creek Entertainment's '200 Drive-In Cult Cinema' DVD Collection in 2013.