The most stomach-turning black comedy of the 70s. It’s all about a New York City S&M theater run by a goateed dandy named Master Sardu. Sardu keeps his budget low by kidnapping his female performers rather than hiring them, and, apparently, by not giving them any clothes. Everyone thinks that the naked ladies on stage who scream holy hell as their hands are chopped off and their heads are crushed in the “iron tourniqet” are just darn good actresses, but NOPE. Sardu is treating the Manhattan theater crowd to actual death and mutilation. When a big critic tells Sardu off and refuses to even write about his little tortue revue, Sardu kidnaps the guy and makes him a part of the show. While he’s at it, Sardu also kidnaps a famous ballerina and gets her to join the fun by making her witness so much head-chopping, eyeball-eating, ass-bloodying carnage that she emerges as his mewling, brainwashed slave.
One moment that everyone talks about here is the “straw” scene, where a doctor gets his jollies by pulling out a girl’s teeth with pliers and then drilling a hole in her head from which he sucks out her brains. There’s also Sardu’s cage full of naked women whom he starves into cannibalism and insanity.
This film goes well with a big meal. Lots of meat and red tomato sauce.
Originally titled The Incredible Torture Show. It also played some drive-ins and grindhouses as The House of the Screaming Virgins. When Troma bought it, they retitled it Bloodsucking Freaks and the name stuck.