A clerk who has been left deaf and dumb after a childhood with an abusive father, has an obession with the dead. He regularly breaks into mortuaries and starts to take souvenirs such as eyeballs. This escalates with him wanting to drink the blood of the dead. After his neighbour dies who he has a secret crush on, things get even worse as he starts to kill people.

Blood Lust feels more like an arthouse film rather than sensationalistic exploitation fare. It feels like a Fassbinder detour into very original horror fare.

Blood Lust hinges on the central performance from Werner Pochath and he really gives an incredible turn. There are echoes of Norman Bates, John Amplas’ Martins and Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang’s M. But, theres so much more too. Pochath has massive screen presence and his face on the screen is the very definition of ‘haunted’.

I also love the fact that the character (who is just credited as ‘The Man’) seems obsessed with porcelain faced dolls which are scattered around his apartment and reminded me of Joe Spinell in Maniac.

The soundtrack is all waterphones, intense church organs and studio trickery. It’s just as original as the events unfurling on the screen.

Blood Lust was cut by 3 and a half minutes for it’s original cinema release here in the UK and was then, of course, banned on video. The gore in the film is eerily realistic and the early abuse scene leaves nothing to the imagination. But it still shouldn’t have been banned or even cut. This is a beautiful piece of art that deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

4 out of 5 stars