Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (2019)

As someone who enjoys all types of B-movies, I hesitate to admit that, before viewing Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson, I had never heard of him. After reading the description of the movie on the horror streaming service, Shudder, I was intrigued. “Horror Film Director Found Slain, Buried Under Floor” is how the summary started. As a fan of horror films and true crime documentaries, I immediately hit the “play” button.

Blood & Flesh begins by filling the viewer in on Adamson’s life and upbringing as the son of New Zealand actor, producer, and director, Victor Adamson. The elder Adamson produced and starred in countless films, many under the name Denver Dixon. Most — if not all of them — were of low quality.

Under his father’s tutelage, Al Adamson began producing and directing B-grade movies in the early 1960s. The film documents his early attempts at getting films distributed and failing, mainly because his films didn’t adhere to the trends of the time. So, Adamson and his loyal crew of actors and technicians would often insert extra scenes into already finished films in an attempt to make them relevant.

Working with extremely low budgets, Adamson would use the help of his friends and crew to get the most out of what little money he had to make a picture. For example, aerial shots were possible because one of his actors owned a plane. Rental cars were used for car chases and then returned in banged-up shape. He’d frequently hire stars in the twilight of their careers to capitalize on their names while giving them a much-needed paycheck. And, no matter the genre of the film he was making, he almost always seemed to find a way to incorporate violence and nudity. With titles like Blood of Ghastly Horror, Psycho-A-Go-Go, and Five Bloody Graves, this should hardly come as a surprise.

Finally, after a string of financial and critical mishaps, Adamson hit pay dirt with Satan’s Sadists, starring Russ Tamblyn. Taking advantage of the popularity of biker films, the movie was made for $50,000 but ended up making between $600,000 and $20 million depending on who you believe. After that, Adamson released many of his previously shelved films to capitalize on his newfound success. And, for a while, Adamson supplied drive-ins and grindhouses with a plethora of content for their screens. That is, until the decline of both types of venues in the 80s. Adamson retired from films and began a successful career in real estate.

Director David Gregory interviews many of Adamson’s stable of actors, actresses, producers, and cinematographers to help construct a profile of the seemingly well-liked filmmaker. Gregory also uses footage from Adamson’s last interview in 1995 to allow the film’s subject to provide his own unique perspective. Footage from Adamson’s films highlights the conversations and provides a delightfully demented look into the world of exploitation films.

The film shifts gears as it documents the final years of Adamson’s life. Things get a bit darker after Adamson’s wife, Regina Carrol, passed away in 1992. Adamson came out of retirement to work on a docudrama about UFOs. Which, according to interviews with his producer and second wife, led him to meet some dangerous people. And, thanks to his real estate dealings, he also met and employed contractor Fred Fulford, which would turn out to be a fatal mistake.

Not knowing anything about Al Adamson didn’t prevent me from throughly enjoying Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson.  Despite Gregory’s penchant for depending on talking heads to tell the majority of the story rather than using a narrator, I found the documentary to be engrossing. I’m interested to seek out and watch Adamson’s work now that I can view it in the proper context.