"Blood Boobs & Beast" Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

Blood, Boobs & Beast
Year: 2009
Director: John Paul Kinhart
Studio: Troma Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 77 Mins.
Official Website: http://www.bloodboobsandbeast.com/



Going into this film, I wanted to see “Blood Boobs and Beast, because it looked like an interesting documentary since it’s won awards at such film festivals, like the Atlanta Horror Film Fest and the B-movie Film Festival and receiving such rave reviews on sites, like Film Threat and Dread Central.

“Blood, Boobs, Beast” follows the career of Don Dolher, who passed away in 2006. He’s an underground filmmaker who’s directed films that have been either oddly brilliant or just awfully bad. All of his nine films have been distributed nationally and internationally. He’s also inspired a lot of filmmakers and artists like J.J. Abrams (Lost) and Robert Crumb. The film goes into his career from his beginnings in 1976 to through the later films in his career, where the Blood Boobs and Babes formula has effected his creative vision though the later films that’s making him considering retiring from the movie business. The documentary also takes a very candid look into the personal life from his family to the effects that his later films have on him personality.

After seeing this film, it really made me interested in wanting to see some of Don Dohler’s work. “Blood Boobs and Beast is a very entertaining documenty that looks back at the life and films of Don Dohler, while going into the world of underground filmmaking. One of the things that director John Paul Kinhart does very well is to make this film, very accessible to viewers like me who never heard about Dohler and his films. The reason why this was accessible, Kinhart does more than highlight his subject’s career. He spends time going into his family life, as that was one of the most touching aspects of this film, from his wife and kids to his relationship with his half brother and sister, who suffers from a disability. Kinhart also does a very good job going into the relationship that Dohler has with his co- collaborator, Joe Ripple. It goes through the production of Dohler’s last film “Dead Hunt”, which was plagued with various production problems, from the script to one of the actors not showing up, to having someone fooling around the building’s alarm system. The director does a great job capturing Dolher’s emotion through the problems with the production and the disagreements he has with his co-collaborator.

Another thing that made this film accessible was the fact that Kinhart also interviewed people, who are fans and were influenced by Dolher’s work. These people included Tom Sarvini (“Dawn of the Dead” (1978)), Tom Sullivan (Effects Artist, “The Evil Dead”) Lloyd Kaufman and J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias). He does a very good job getting those people to explain why they liked Dohler’s films and why he didn’t get the recognition or massive following that those films deserved.

The film is also a fascinating look at the world of underground filmmaking. It goes into the aspects of the production and the business side of the process. One of the things that this film did very well was to show the pitfall that these underground films have, during the filmmaking process. Kinhart does that very well, through the disagreements that the co-directors have on what elements they want, in their film. It’s shown very well through the both co-directors emotions, as Dolher doesn’t like adding these exploitive elements as it wasn’t the reason he got into filmmaking, while Ripple wants these elements because that’s the only way they can sell the films to distributors. It’s makes it a good look at the filmmaking process.

“Blood, Boobs and Babes” is a very fascinating and entertaining look at the life of an iconic underground filmmaker and the world of low-budget filmmaking.

Review Rating: 5 Stars