Beast of Blood ** (1970, John Ashley, Celeste Yarnall, Eddie Garcia) – Classic Movie Review 7657

‘See Human Heads Transplanted!’ ‘See natives eaten alive by giant vultures!’ Directed Eddie Romero’s low-budget (between $125,000 and $200,000) 1970 Filipino horror film Beast of Blood [released in the UK as Blood Devils] is the sequel to The Mad Doctor of Blood Island. It stars John Ashley as heroic Dr Bill Foster, Celeste Yarnall as reporter Myra J Russell and Eddie Garcia as crazed Dr Lorca.

Beast of Blood is the fourth in a series of the four Blood Island Filipino horror films, produced by Romero and Kane W Lynn, which also includes Terror Is a Man and Brides of Blood. It is Romero’s last film for Lynn’s Hemisphere Pictures.

It follows directly on from The Mad Doctor of Blood Island, but Eddie Garcia takes over from Ronald Remy as Dr Lorca, the mad doctor who creates a monster but, after its head is cut off, he keeps it alive in a serum he has invented. Celeste Yarnall becomes a scream queen as Myra is terrorised by the headless monster, which Ashley’s Dr Bill Foster fights. Taken in the right spirit, it is a fun bad movie.

Co-producer Beverly Miller plays the ship’s captain. Also in the cast are Liza Belmonte as Laida, Alfonso Carvajal as Ramu, Bruno Punzalan as Razak, Angel Buenaventura, and Johnny Long.

The screenplay is by Eddie Romero, based on a story by Beverly Miller.

It was released in 1970 in a double bill with Curse of the Vampires. The poster shows the chlorophyll monster ripping its own head off, though no such scene exists in the film.

RIP Celeste Yarnall (July 26, 1944 – October 7, 2018), who went from the US National Association of Theatre Owners Most Promising New Star after appearing with Elvis Presley in Live a Little, Love a Little in 1968 and starring as a jungle girl in Eve, to being terrorised by the headless monster in Beast of Blood.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7657

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