Night of Bloody Horror (1969)
Directed by Joy N. Houch. Jr.
Starring Gerald McRaney, Evelyn Hendricks, Gaye Yellen, Herbert Nelson, Lisa Dameron, Charlotte White, Nick Krieger

This is a title that I remember renting back in the VHS days and wondering what the hell was going on in the film. Not because it was an intricate or confusion plot, but because it was so damn dark! I honestly didn’t remember any of the film from back then. It’s been released on DVD before, but the quality always looked the same. When this new Blu-ray from Leomark & Shoreline Entertainment came out, I figured I’d give it a try. Unfortunately, it looks exactly the same. Dark as hell. Any time there are night shots, you can barely see anything. Even indoors, the lighting isn’t the greatest. Very disappointing. But let’s get to the actual movie.

This is the first film directed by Joy N. Houch Jr., who would go on to direct other grindhouse and drive-in fair like Women and Bloody Terror (1970), which has one hell of an exploitive title, The Night of the Strangler (1972), which starred Mickey Dolenz from The Monkees, The Brain Machine (1972), which stars James Best, and Creature from Black Lake (1976), which is probably his best film, as well as his best known film. So, I’ll have to give Bloody Horror a little bit of a break since it was Houch Jr.’s first feature, and maybe he didn’t realize what filming at night meant needing lights.