My allergies to romantic vampire material is the reason why I had never heard of America's answer to Christopher Lee, the late, great Robert Quarry. The Deathmaster is the exact type of early '70s Satantic/Hippie Horror film I adore. Despite its' flaws, The Deathmaster works so darn well simply because Quarry kicks all kinds of ass as Khorda, a vampiric twist on Charles Manson. Now if that isn't enough to make you rent (or buy this movie), I don't know what would. Manson scares the shit out of me, yet when Hollywood presents an alternate take on Charles Manson, I can't help but get suckered in. I stumbled across a review of this while reading a blog. Manson was a vampire of sorts, and to see this literally played out is quite inventive.
The concept was Quarry's idea, who sketched out what he wanted to see in the film, but the screenwriter (or lack there of) wasn't quite there. As I suspected, all of Khorda's dialog was improvised by Quarry himself. Quarry plays the charismatic guru type to the hilt without being campy. I liken him to Severen Darden's creepy Satanic High Priest (One) in the awesome Werewolves on Wheels. Both of these gentlemen are great actors who improvised their dialog, thereby taking their characters very seriously. So what's the story?
A coffin washes ashore and some sorry surfer dude makes the mistake of looking inside. A zombie-like West Indies hippie Barbado throttles the surfer for his curiosity. Not unlike Franco Nero's Django, Barbado drags the coffin toward destiny....(well okay...how can I not spoil this...)
Meanwhile, Pico and Rona are two hippie kids looking for more than the usual highs and commune living with their squatting, lovely chums. After a confrontation with biker Monk and his old lady Esslen, Monk kowtows to Pico's kung fu (yes, I'm serious) and the biker couple follow our flower children leads to the house where they join their hippie buddies in squatting, smoking and singing. The young cast are slinging laughably bad, dated dialog (even for 1970)... making Quarry's character all the more potent when he finally appears.
In the midst of the hippie business, Pico goes off on a downer trip. Like most people he wants more out of life. At this point, Khorda makes the first of two killer entrances. For the first, we only focus on right hand and the awesome little magical flourish. This bit made me think Khorda wasn't an ordinary vampire (and true to Quarry's genius, Khorda is not some Bela type). Inside the commune house, Barbado joins the hippies for some bad musical revues (he's been working into their good graces) before Khorda finally puts himself into play. Slipping into the house, Khorda stays hidden in the shadows talking a bit of the guru business before we finally see him.
Let's just say his double talk about eternity and pure blood is genius. Let's just say all the hippies fall for him fast, except for Pico who becomes our hero.
With all kinds of neat variations upon vampire lore: cross, the mirror (what Khorda says) and Khorda's history, I have not been this enthralled by a vampire's origin since Near Dark. I'm not quite sure about the climax of the film (though the ending is quite good. It really does have a sort of Italian horror flare to it).
This flick is not without it's flaws: the acting from just about everyone else besides Mister Quarry is woefully bad, same goes for the dialog. Even the '70s folk music sounds more like sitcom music. All that said, the atmosphere, concept and vampire make this one really special in my book. Mister Quarry succeeded in showing the dangers in following a cult leader and, too, in making a Manson-like vampire.
Highly recommended (esp. if you're not high)
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