Search - Color Me Blood Red on DVD

Alright, little finger. Bleed for the big man.

Pamela Scarangello | Middletown, NJ USA | 01/01/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"1965's "Color Me Blood Red" is another slice of sickening cinema by H.G. Lewis, the Godfather of Gore. Released one year after "Two Thousand Maniacs," this film takes place on the sunny beaches of Sarasota, Florida. Actor Don Joseph stars as Adam Sorg, a blunt and frustrated artist who enjoys making rude comments toward any critic who analyzes his work. Although savvy collectors at Farsworth Galleries are anxious to purchase his abstract paintings, Adam indignantly refuses to sell them. Isolated in his studio, he has a great deal of trouble trying to concoct the best color scheme. Later, when his nagging girlfriend Gigi (Ellen Warner) cuts herself on a jutting canvas nail, Adam is instantly enamored at how blood emits the most brilliant shade of red. Immediately, he attempts to cover an entire canvas with his own hemoglobin; slicing open his hands with a razor blade, he feverishly smears his own bleeding digits onto a nude portrait, frantically squeezing the wounds before they clot. However, as he became dizzy and lightheaded, it doesn't take him long to realize that to finish his masterpiece, he would have to bleed himself dry. So, what does he do instead? As Gigi assails him with yet another tongue-lashing, Adam stabs her in the cranium with a palette knife! Then, in perhaps the most morbid example of artistic expression, he holds up Gigi's limp corpse and wipes her face on the picture, using her head as a giagantic brush! Eventually, his first ghastly painting is complete; we as an audience get to see it as a grisly representation of Adam's obsession with blood. When the critics at Farsworth Galleries see this work, they are instantly astounded and expect Adam to create more pieces with the same style. Buyers offer the upcoming artist up to $15,000. But, in an insane outburst, he downright refuses to sell the Red Painting. Over time, of course, the guilt relating to Gigi's death and the pressure to uphold his reputation drive him to the brink of madness.
In a fiendish manner, Adam continues his pattern of bleeding brushstrokes by killing any youth who vacations outside his beach house. At one point, he preys upon two unsuspecting swimmers; driving a motorboat, he stabs a young man in the chest with a harpoon, then grinds apart his flesh with the spinning propellers! The other victim was a woman; he has her tied against the wall with her intestines hanging out! Weeks later, a group of college students set up a picnic on Adam's cove. Like a crazed stalker, he lures a virginal girl named April (Candi Conder) into his studio, promising her the chance to be a model. I don't want to give the ending away, but let's just say that it includes sweet April in a pink bikini, a little bit of bondage, and a sharp axe!
While H.G. Lewis did have a disturbing concept behind "Color Me Blood Red," the film fell short overall. The outcome was predictable and the pacing was far too slow. The movie's grusome humor isn't as over-the-top when compared to "Two Thousand Maniacs" and "Wizard of Gore." Still, if you are a ravenous fan of Lewis's lurid legacy, this DVD is worth purchasing."

Immaculate print quality, tons of extras!

mark czuba | city of chamopions | 04/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If You are a Herschall Gordon Lewis Fan or just love vintage Gore, then Buy this DVD now! Firstly the print quality is beautiful very clean and crisp. There is an awesome Secondary audio track With the man himself Herschell and Producer David Friedman, who rant quite lucidly about being exploitation filmmakers, and the golden age of Gore. This happens to be one of the first Gore movies ever made, very disturbing at the time (even today) The wonderful extras on the DVD keep you occupied for hours, it has over 50 MINITES OF OUTAKES! extremely rare stuff no one has seen for years, also included on the DVD is an extra short film with one of the actors from Color me Blood red, called "Cutting Magic". Image makes some of the greatest Dvds for affordable prices. This movie you'll never find on a Criterion lable."

Weak HG Lewis flick

Dave. K | Staten Island, Ny | 11/23/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"COLOR ME BLOOD RED

** Out of 5

Release Date- October 13th, 1965

Running Time- 78-Minutes

Rating- NR

Writer/Director- Herschell Gordon Lewis

Starring- Don Joseph, Candi Conder, Elyn Warner, Pat Lee, Jerome Eden

Released in 1965, Color Me Blood Red is considered by many fans of H.G. Lewis to be one of his weaker films and to be honest it's kind of hard to argue against that. When one watches a movie by Herschell Gordon Lewis you should know what to expect and Color Me Blood Red has pretty much all the elements that made H.G. Lewis a cult favorite, but those elements don't work nearly as well as his movie that came before and after this.

The screenplay was written by H.G. Lewis and overall the script is rather pathetic; the characters like expected are poorly developed, but going into the movie that was sort of expected, but the characters were really annoying. For me the characters are among the worst I've ever seen in a movie. All of them were either boring or annoying and in some cases both. Nobody goes into an HG Lewis for the characters, but it's as if he wasn't even trying.

As director Herschell Gordon Lewis doesn't fair any better. Color Me Blood Red is very poorly paced and almost always boring. Due to the poor nature of the film there are some entertaining moments, but for the most part it's just boring. There are only 4 death scenes and Color Me Blood Red needed a lot more than that the movie only runs at 78-minutes, but it felt a lot longer and it seemed like forever in-between death scenes. The gore was alright, but in the end it didn't make up for everything else.

The acting was beyond terrible; you don't go into an HG Lewis movie for the acting, but the actors in Color Me Blood Red were downright terrible and it's not a shocker none of them had much of a career. Besides being bad actors they were also really annoying. Don Joseph as Adam Sorg and Candi Conder as April were the best of the lot, which isn't saying too much, but at least they weren't all that annoying.

Overall Color Me Blood Red is just a poor movie and due to the poorness it does have some fairly decent moments, but they are very few and far between. If you are curious about the films of HG Lewis this isn't the best place to start. This was the last movie made together by HG Lewis and exploitation producer David F. Friedman who produced many of Lewis' more well known movies. They had a falling out, but would later patch things up and re-team in 2002 for Blood Feast 2: All You Can Eat, which was the first movie by H.G. Lewis since The Gore-Gore Girls, which was released in 1972."

I Always Though Artists Were A Bit goofy

Stanley Runk | Camp North Pines | 10/24/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Of Lewis' Blood Trilogy, this is definitely the least bloody. That's not to say it's not an entertaining movie(hence the four stars) though. The now not-so-original plot of an artist murdering folks for his art is the basis of the movie. An arrogant schmuck of a painter discovers that missing ingredient for the color of his paintings.......blood of course(assuming the title didn't give that one away). After nearly bleeding to death cutting his fingers, artist Adam Sorg resorts to murdering his girlfriend, and then just about anybody who winds up on his beach front property. This is intercut with some groovy teenagers partying down on the beach. All the Lewis trademarks are there, but as stated before, a lack of gore for a gore film. That shouldn't discourage Lewis fans though, coz it's never boring. Strangely enough, one of the most disturbing scenes uses probably the simplest of fx gags. It makes you cringe a tad seeing Sorg squeezing blood from his fingertips and furiously painting the canvas with it. Fun stuff and certainly worth your time."