The director of LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY'S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU now brings us another thorough genre examination with BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON on Blu-ray from Severin Films.

While there is virtually no cult horror fan who has not heard of Al Adamson and seen one or more of his films, less is known about the man himself apart from the loss of life partner Regina Carrol and the sketchy details of the circumstances around his brutal murder. The documentary BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON from Severin's David Gregory attempts to provide a well-rounded picture of Adamson as a filmmaker, businessman, and a human being through his films, his collaborators, friends, loved ones, and the people involved in the investigation into his final days. Adamson and cinematographer Gary Graver appear in archival interview footage while Gregory has tracked down just about every surviving collaborator he could find including Independent-International distributor Sam Sherman and his wife Linda, John 'Bud' Cardos (KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS), stuntman Gary Kent (SCHOOLGIRLS IN CHAINS), filmmaker Greydon Clark (WACKO) – who had come to set with actress Vicki Volante (BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE) as her "boyfriend" to discourage Adamson's attentions and ended up getting his start working for free on an earlier incarnation of HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS – actors Robert Dix (FIVE BLOODY GRAVES) who died in 2018, Marilyn Joi (NURSE SHERRI), Russ Tamblyn (THE HAUNTING), Sheryn Winters (THE FEMALE BUNCH), and Leslie McRay (THE GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS), as well as those influenced by Adamson including Phil Smoot (THE BONEYARD), BIOHAZARD's Fred Olen Ray (who collaborated frequently with Graver), Worth Keeter (WOLFMAN), and those from Adamson's private life like his brother Ken, his housekeeper, and significant other Stevee Ashlock who was to star in his comeback film BEYOND THIS EARTH.

Topics covered include Adamson being roped into playing the villain in his father Denver Dixon's HALF-WAY TO HELL, meeting young Sam Sherman when the latter met his father for Famous Monsters of Filmland coverage, Sherman and Adamson's first stab at film doctoring with the unreleasable ECHO OF TERROR – which went through a number of incarnations hoping to attract distributors including PSYCHO-A-GO-GO, THE MAN WITH THE ELECTRONIC BRAIN, and the better known BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR – collaborating with Dix on FIVE BLOODY GRAVES, and his first stab at conventional horror with what would become BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE (unfortunately sold out from under him and Sherman by credited screenwriter Rex Carlton (THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE) who owed money to the mob and committed suicide. Also discussed are Adamson's hopping on trends including adding biker scenes to the spy movie that was THE FAKERS to become HELL'S BLOODY DEVILS and landing retired Tamblyn for follow-up SATAN'S SADISTS while Dix and Sherman also cover how black and white Filipino monster movie TAGANI became HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS with new color scenes, color tinting of the monochrome scenes, and the shooting of a prologue vampire attack which comprised the only footage used in the film's trailer. The transformation of BLOOD FREAKS to DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN includes commentary from Frankenstein actor John Bloom and Dracula actor "Zandor Vorkov" aka stockbroker Roger Engel who even today is still puzzled as to why Adamson wanted to cast him, as well as discussion of using ailing actor Chaney Jr. and J. Carroll Nash, and the relationship between Adamson and muse Regina Carroll. Adamson's Blaxploitation phase as includes mention of doctoring MEAN MOTHER which started life as a Spanish Leon Klimovsky caper film while discussion of the two stewardess films includes some amusing anecdotes about shooting a racy scene on a real plane that got the kicked off and the attempts with the sequel BLAZING STEWARDESSES to cash in on BLAZING SADDLES as well as attempts at wider appeal with its reissues CATHOUSE CALLGIRLS and THE GREAT AMERICAN TRUCK ROBBERY.

With the first two thirds of the film as a freewheeling filmmaking adventure of ups and down and desperate attempts to exploit any trend, one dreads the move to coverage of his later life starting with the death of Carroll. Although he had retired from the movie business after his failed kids films CARNIVAL MAGIC and LOST (also available on a Blu-ray double feature from Severin Films) and mourned Carroll who he had hoped to keep alive until there were significant advances in cancer treatment, and cursory knowledge about his retirement and death would have you believe that he became a hermit who fell victim to a handyman. The documentary reveals that is far from the truth. Although the loss of Carroll hit him hard and he bought a fixer upper ranch in Palm Springs, he was not fully cut off from his filmmaking friends, and Sherman tried to get him involved in another project involving UFO sightings. What Sherman, and Adamson's discovery Stevee Ashlock did not anticipate was how involved Adamson would get in research, going from skeptic to believer (which included Australian money and some location shooting in Italy) and the mysterious nature of the production coming to a halt. It is at this point that a chilling sense of dread can be felt as we see Adamson becoming isolated and putting his trust in handyman George Fulford whose behavior unnerved Ashlock, Adamson's housekeeper, and his brother in the days before Adamson's disappearance, the frustration of getting the police to investigate, and the horrific discovery. Thankfully, the documentary accepts the district attorney and police assessment that Fulford's crime was simply badly planned rather than raising bad taste questions about the "men in black" and Adamson’s final project. Rather than exploiting its subject as its title suggests, BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON presents an exploitation filmmaker who some may only have known through his outrageous films as a good-natured, flawed, and vulnerable human being.

Available separately and in the aforementioned boxed set, Severin's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen Blu-ray looks like what one expects of a documentary, made up as it is of generally crystal clear talking head footage shot against a variety of backdrops, film clips of varying quality (excerpts and trailers), archival video and news footage, and some interstitial footage. Audio options include a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that gives spread to the underscore and some effects while the 2.0 option is perfectly serviceable for a talking head piece. English SDH subtitles are included along with French, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles. A selection of outtakes (20:10) include more background on Denver Dixon, more discussion of the Manson crimes during THE FEMALE BUNCH, Tamblyn on the artwork he was doing after retiring from the business, and Gary Kent on a later project that had some parallels with Adamson's fate. All that seems to survive of Adamson's UFO film is a promo reel for "Beyond This Earth" (3:09). Also included is a trailer (2:40) for the documentary and an Al Adamson poster gallery.

Since the documentary Blu-ray is also disc fourteen in AL ADAMSON: THE MASTERPIECE COLLECTION, it shares disc space with Adamson's THE FEMALE BUNCH (1971) in which Sandy (Nesa Renet) heads to Las Vegas to make it big and ends up a waitress. She thinks things are turning around when she moves in with handsome lounge singer Scott (Don Epperson, CAIN'S CUT-THROATS); however, he has a roving eye for his female fans when he performs on stage and he ends up throwing Sandy out. After a failed suicide attempt, Sandy is convinced by co-worker Libby (Regina Carrol) to go out to the desert to join a gang of women who live in a commune on a ranch. After a grueling initiation rite that includes being buried alive, Sandy discovers that the group are not all about peace and love. It turns out that leader Grace (Jennifer Bishop, MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH) is running drugs with pining, alcoholic former movie western cowboy Monti (Lon Chaney Jr., GALLERY OF HORROR) – supplied by lesbian jet set junkie Sharon (Sharyn Wynters) – when they cross into Mexico monthly for a little fun with American wastrels like biker Bill (Russ Tamblyn) south of the border. No men are allowed to even know where the ranch is, however, and when Denise (Leslie McRae, THE GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS) sneaks Bill in for a shtup and they are caught, he is beaten and branded on the forehead. When a vengeful Bill infiltrates the ranch and things turn deadly, Sandy flees into the desert with Bill's buddy Jim (Geoffrey Land, DOCTOR DRACULA) as prey for THE FEMALE BUNCH.

Although a work-for-hire project for producer Raphael Nussbaum (PETS) and executive producer Mardi Rustam (EVILS OF THE NIGHT), THE FEMALE BUNCH really does not look any more or less like an average Al Adamson film, with its post-production narration to tie things together, inserts, and the presence of ailing Chaney Jr. (who had throat cancer and would perform without any dialogue in his final film DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN) playing a washed-up character. The titular bunch are an interesting cast but feel rather underused in the film's rush to the action, with Carroll and Wynters really having little to do despite the functions of their characters in the plot. Conceptually, it is the type of 1970s grind house film that Quentin Tarantino would probably champion and rip off, but those who might have sought it out based on that would probably be disappointed. Casting director Susan Arnold – daughter of Universal fifties sci-fi/horror director Jack Arnold (TARANTULA) – served as make-up artist and appeared as one of the background girls along with Jacqulin Cole (actress and future wife of director Greydon Clark). Editor Sergei Goncharoff would later direct Bishop in HOUSE OF TERROR. Future Larry Cohen DP Paul Glickman (THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN) was assisted here by CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEATH THINGS' Gary Goch, while John "Bud" Cardos – who also directed additional scenes for the film – and future cinematographer R. Michael Stringer (who often worked under Al Adamson regular DP Gary Graver) also have cameos.