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Blood, Boobs & Beast (2007)

DVD Cover (Troma Entertainment)
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Overall Rating 69%
Overall Rating
Ranked #11,140
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Blood, Boobs and Beast tells the compelling story of Don Dohler, whose movies have been called everything from oddly brilliant to some of the worst films of all time. Despite his critics, Dohler has gotten all 9 of his sci-fi and horror films distributed internationally, as well as TV syndication for his first film, The Alien Factor . Dohler has also inspired artists and filmmakers such as Robert Crumb, J.J. Abrams and Art Speigelman with his underground comix character ProJunior, and his DIY filmmaking magazine, Cinemagic. Mild-mannered and unassuming, Dohler started making wholesome sci-fi films in the Baltimore area in 1976, but recently began including nudity and gore in his movies to please distributors. At age 59 he's just finished his most gratuitous movie to date and it's selling well, yet Dohler feels "sick of the exploitative stuff" and is considering giving up the Blood, Boobs and Beast formula. However, Dohler's recent partner Joe Ripple disagrees and views these components as essential to gaining distribution. Since the pair's filmmaking philosophies have begun to differ, it's possible that their current film could be their last. Shot and edited over two and a half years, Blood, Boobs and Beast provides a fresh and humorous look at low-budget filmmaking through the unassuming eyes of Don Dohler. With revealing interviews and beautiful cinematography, Blood, Boobs and Beast is a touching portrait of Dohler's career, his family, and his struggle to just make a good movie. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: March 14, 2007
Making a biography-styled documentary is a tricky task thanks to the varying name value of the subjects being featured. On the one hand, you can make a biography about someone that everyone knows - let's say Steven Spielberg for example. The problem there is the same thing that would set it apart: everyone knows who Spielberg is and what he's done, so the best you could hope for from the film would be to see some interesting interview segments and trivial factoids. On the other hand, you can make a biography about someone that isn't very well-known, but you run the risk of winding up with a biography that leaves the viewer wondering why they should care about the subject in the first place. At a glance, Blood, Boobs & Beast (a biography of independent director Don Dohler) fell into the latter category. I'd never heard of the guy prior to receiving this DVD, and I can't recall seeing a single selection from his filmography. When you put those two together and add in the fact that he stuck almost exclusively to the horror genre - a genre that I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about - it should go without saying that I wasn't expecting a whole lot.

To enlighten the readers who may not have heard of him, Don Dohler is a Baltimore-native director (and creator of Cinemagic magazine) who started out making low-budget horror / sci-fi films during the seventies. He directed five films - The Alien Factor, Fiend, Nightbeast, The Galaxy Invader, and Blood Massacre - before going on a self-imposed hiatus from the world of film. He returned in 1999 with Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage, and during the shooting, he met actor Joe Ripple. The two saw eye to eye on a lot of things, and Don - not being a fan of actually directing films - asked Joe to direct his films for him so that he could focus exclusively on cinematography and editing. With both a partnership and a friendship formed, the duo would go on to release five films: Harvesters, Stakes, Vampire Sisters, Crawler and Dead Hunt.

However, things had changed since Don's first run as a filmmaker during the video boom of the eighties, and he now found himself having to include the three B's (Blood, Boobs & [a] Beast) in each of the films he was involved with or risk losing out on any hope of a distribution deal. The former and the latter weren't a problem - after all, this is horror - but it's the exploitation stuff that Don isn't a fan of, and his fans agreed after comparing his early work to his new stuff. Joe, on the other hand, stands firm in saying that it's a required element in today's releases, and as a result, Don is seemingly losing interest in film-making. Will he ever make another film, or will this formulaic approach to movie making run this guy out of the business? Watch the movie to find out.

For starters, I'd like to point out something about the film that viewers may call me out on for not mentioning in this review: the ending. Personally, I would have mentioned and discussed it in this review, but I was specifically asked to refrain from mentioning it by the director. I don't necessarily agree with that request, but I can understand why it was made: to reveal the ending would considerably lessen the impact, and honestly, I'm glad that I didn't know about it before sitting through the film. Therefore, I'll let viewers experience it for themselves, but hopefully you'll understand when you find yourself asking why I omitted it from this review.

What I will discuss is how much I enjoyed the film. I can safely say that I didn't expect that: after all, I'd never heard of the guy who was the centerpiece of the film, I'd never seen his films, and even if I had, well... Don himself admits that they're not exactly award-winning masterpieces, if you catch my drift. Therefore, why should I care about his life story? This question was answered almost from the opening moments of the film: Don Dohler is a very well spoken guy with a lot of interesting stories to tell about the movie-making business. He also gave director John Kinhart an inside look at what it truly takes to create an independent feature-length film, and those of you who think it's all fun and games should definitely give this one a watch.

I also thought that the editing of the film was handled excellently, which itself is a rarity in independent documentaries (sad but true). Everyone involved has a lot of interesting stuff to say and there's a handful of appearances from "big name" people to weigh in on Don and his work: Tom Savini, Lloyd Kaufman, and J.J. Abrams (creator of the TV show Lost) all pop in for a few minutes, and it's all spliced together perfectly. Everyone is given ample time to tell their stories, but at the same time, nobody is ever given too much time on one subject; you'll never find yourself wanting to fast-forward through a segment, and in fact, there's an abundance of downright riveting material to be found.

This is a film that fans of independent horror should definitely check out, even if you found yourself thinking "Don who?" at the beginning of this review. I have no clue as to what sort of distribution deal it's getting, whether it's making the festival rounds, or even if you can snag a copy from the official site just yet, but keep an eye out for it: you won't regret it. 9/10.
bluemeanie #1: bluemeanie - added March 15, 2007 at 10:54am
Wow. I had no idea this documentary even existed. I know Don Dohler's films. I actually own an old VHS copy of "N ightbeast" and remember seeing "Fiend" back when it used to come on television with a different name -- "Deadly Neighbor". Yeah...he's definitely a case of a creative person with great ideas who just never got the exposure he deserved. Plus, most of his films hit in the 1980's, where 10 horror films were released every week to theatres and straight to video. I don't think we'll ever fully realize how many lost 80's classic horror films there are and were. 8/10.
Hellknight03 #2: Hellknight03 - added July 2, 2009 at 9:24pm
Yeah good documentary. A must for any true horror in my honest opinion.
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