Here from the folks at VCI Entertainment/ MVD Visual is Bloody 70’s Horror Double Feature. The three-disc Blu-ray, and double DVD set takes in two Mexican horror films produced primally for the US grindhouse market. We have Mary, Mary, Bloody, Mary- a crossbreed of female vampire and gallio horror, and René Cardona Jr’s Blood Feast a rather muddled/ low-grade stalking rich guy in a house fall of cat’s horror. The set features new scans of both films, as well as lengthy video essays from genre expert/ historian Dr David Wilt.
 

From the year 1975 Mary, Mary, Bloody, Mary is a decidedly odd blend of off kilter-yet-low key Vampire horror and Gallio killer flick. It was helmed by Mexican director, writer, actor Juan López Moctezuma. He only had five other director chair credits to his name- these took in the surreal horror comedy of The Mansion of Madness (1973), onto bizarre nunsploitation Alucarda (1977), lightly horror edge thriller To Kill A Stranger (1984), immigrant drama Welcome Maria (1986), and circus trope focused horror of El Alimento Del Miedo (1994).
 
The film kicks off in classic horror film fashion, as we see a woman breaking down in her van late at night- it’s pouring with rain, and she is outside a seemingly abandoned old house. She pushes her way into the house, to get sudden accosted by a man- and here we meet our two lead characters. The woman is Mary (Cristina Ferrare) a brunette in her early thirties who we find out is an artist. And Ben (David Young) a thirty-something drifter, who rather looked like Templeton Peck (Face off the A-Team). The pair quickly iron out their misunderstanding, and the next day set off together in the van.
 
Fairly soon, via often jarring flashbacks we find out Mary swigs both ways- picking up partners of both sexes who more often than not are fascinated by her paintings…. oh, and she’s a vampire. In her hair clasp she hides a knife- this she uses to rip into her victim's neck, then slurps out their blood. Though without the bloodsucking standard tropes - she doesn’t have to stay out of the light, can be injured, etc.
Also going on at the same time we have a skinny figure, dressed all in black with black gloves, a fedora, and a blacked fabric mask- he’s also killing folk with a flick knife. Step into investigating both murders we have middle age US cop Cosgrove (Arthur Hansel) and walking-with-a-cane Lieutenant Pons (Enrique Lucero).

The film switches between bloody and fairly extreme knife murders, light fleshy action including most notable a woman-on-woman encounter in a mirrored bathroom, a police investigation, and Mary and Ben's growing relationship. The murders often have fairly varied/ at times how-did-they- get-away- with-those settings- like a beach in the daytime, where Mary repeatedly stabs a Fishman.

Acting wise it’s a little mixed- Ferrare as Mary has a fair amount of troubled mystery about her, though at times she switches between being flat and whiny overacting. Young is passable as the hitching around the US drifter, though again does have his flat wooden moments. And Hansel and Lucero are a fairly typical cop duo.

On the whole Mary, Mary, Bloody, Mary is an interesting blend of modern-day vampire. Giallo murder mystery, and general bloody and fleshy bound 70’s horror.

The second film here is René Cardona Jr’s Blood Feast (aka Night of 1000 Cats) it's from 1972. As its title suggested it was directed by René Cardona Jr a very prolific Mexico City born director and producer- having ninety-nine films to his name. These went Spy-focused comedy action film SOS Conspiracion Bikini (1967), sex comedy Twenty-Four Hours of Pleasure (1969), western Guns and Guts (1974), and killer chicken film Beaks: The Movie (1987).

René Cardona Jr’s Blood Feast runs at just over an hour- and boy it feels like twice, maybe triple that time- as it's really badly paced, muddled and messy film- which worse of all features cat cruelty. The film tells of neatly bearded millionaire Hugo (Hugo Stiglitz)- he lives in an isolated monastery with his bald and grunting henchmen. He often goes flying in his copper, and we get a lot of footage of this- while he’s flying about, he picks up women, taking them back to his gothic monastery. Here he wines and dines them, before killing them- chopping them up (we don’t see any of this) then feeding them to a wired compound fall of hundreds of cats. Oh, and he also cuts their heads off- then puts them in jars (again off camera). The whole thing is jarringly filmed, there is little or no blood, and at the end you're left with a rather dull, at times unpleasant (due to mishandling of the cats), film- which really, I couldn't really say anything positive about.

Moving onto this recently released three-disc all-region set. On the first Blu-ray disc we find both films and their extras, with the remaining two DVDs each taking in one of the films. Both films look good enough, though I don’t think the jarringly cut René Cardona Jr’s Blood Feast could ever look great. On the extra front, we get two very in-depth video essays by Mexican genre historian Dr David Wilt, who has added excellent content to other Mexican film-focused releases on VCI Entertainment. So first up we have one focusing on Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary this runs at 42.03. He starts off by discussing how the film came about & the director was selected. Apparently, the film had a budget of $400,000- he talks about its shooting schedule, the supporting actors who were all English-speaking Mexican veteran actors, and he talks about a few of these in detail. He gives press quotes from when the film was released, before going in-depth into director Juan López Moctezuma career. Next, we of course have a video essay focusing on René Cardona Jr’s Blood Feast- and this comes in at the 44.09 mark. He starts off by giving basic background to director René Cardona Jr, who started off being a child actor in Mexican film. He discusses the film to hand, and its actors. Before once more going onto detail about the director's output and notable films. Both are these essays are well worth a play.

It certainly is wonderful to see the guys at VCI Entertainment/ MVD Visual releasing more Mexican genre films, this time of course with a horror and more US setting/perspective. The scans of both films look good, and the extras are top-notch, Mary, Mary, Bloody, Mary is certainly the better/ more effective of the two films, but who knows maybe you’ll get more from the second film than I did.