The Philippine-shot Blood Seekers is a notch more smoothly constructed, even if the speaking extras occasionally sound as if they learned their lines phonetically á la ABBA. The plot centers on "a strange blood cult" that operates out of a barrio nightclub; its blond-haired leader is draining the blood of young girls to keep herself young. Our hero (Robert Winston) is an American (yup, another one!) called to the island to investigate the serial killings; though not as much the jaunty swingin' bachelor as the hero of Zombies, he still manages to romance the adopted sister of the island's dim police inspector - and, of course, rescue her when she's captured by the cult leader's bulbous headed henchman.
Though originally filmed in black-and-white, Blood Seekers was tinted post-production to give the illusion of being shot in color. Thus, scenes set in the movie's Barrio Club are bathed in a lavender glow, while the exterior daytime sequences are shown in a sickly sepia. Infinity's version of the film has a distinctly muttery soundtrack, but since much of our hero's dialog is comprised of unfunny wisecracks, it's no big loss. It's not as if you're missing any subtle character nuances here.
The third "Blood Vision" feature, 1978's Blood Stalkers, actually lives up to its gory title, though it takes its own sweet time getting there. The only entry with a vaguely familiar face (Ken Miller, who played the bongos in I Was A Teenage Werewolf and was one of the menacing gang members in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil), Stalkers attempts to blend Deliverance with Legend of Boggy Creek. If the results are a mishmash, at least you can see writer/director Robert W. Morgan (who also casts himself as one of the movie's overripe poacher swampbillies) trying something interesting. The flick concerns a quartet of flare-wearing tourists, led by brooding Vietnam vet Jerry Albert, who run afoul of the title stalkers when they stay the night in a grunged-out deserted cabin built by the hero's dad.
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