David (Anthony Geary) is a Vietnam veteran hitchhiking around the country when he is harassed by four naked women. He runs away. David ends up falling into the river and is knocked unconscious. The naked women lose interest in him and leave. When David comes to, Yyala (Susan Damante) is with him. Yyala is a water nymph. David falls immediately in love with her. Yyala says she has to leave but she promises to return. David passes out again. The next time David wakens a hermit named Lonzo (Sam Gilman) is there. Lonzo takes David to his shack to recover.
Also in the woods is the Queen of the witches, Alotta (Dyanne Thorne) and her coven of naked witches. Alotta has an agreement with Lonzo and the village. Once a year the villagers give the witches a young girl as a sacrifice. In return the witches leave the villagers alone. Lonzo is the go-between between Alotta and the villagers.
Yyala tells David that they can’t be together because he has a soul, and she doesn’t. David wants Yyala so he asks Lonzo how to get rid of his soul. Eventually David learns that Alotta can perform a ritual that will accomplish David’s desire. David goes to her to ask her to remove his soul so that he can be with Yyala. Alotta, on the other hand, has her own plans for David.
“Blood Sabbath was released in 1972 and was directed by Brianne Murphy. It is a paranormal horror and an exploitation movie. The film is out there but it’s not easy to find.
This was a strange little movie. I ended up not being very fond of it. There isn’t much in the way of plot here. There’s more hippie than horror about it. The movie is more for people who like to look at naked women. It’s a fast-paced film but it left me feeling slightly bored and uninterested in the characters. It does have one really important feature. It is one of the few drive-in horror exploitation films that were directed by a woman. Murphy only directed two films, this one and “To Die To Sleep” 1994. Murphy is better known as a cinematographer.
The Vietnam aspect of the film is central to David’s psyche and how he responds to his situation. In Vietnam he accidentally killed two children. When it comes time to give up his soul, he does it, not just to be with Yyala, but to save the soul of an innocent child. This is his way of trying to compensate, at least a little, for what happened in Vietnam. It’s an interesting concept but it wasn’t executed as well as it could have been.
The star of the film, Tony Geary, is well known by those who loved the soap opera “General Hospital”. Geary played Luke Spencer on the daytime drama.