Deathmaster

Deathmaster (1972)

Eyes Like Hot Coals...Fangs Like Razors! Khorda the Deathmaster Has Left His Tomb!

A mysterious, charismatic stranger attracts a cult-like following of aimless young hippies, only to reveal himself to be a vampire.

Date of release
1972-08-15
TMDB
5.0 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 28m
Genres
Horror
Director
Ray Danton

Casting

Interesting facts

Deathmaster aka The Deathmaster is a 1972 American vampire horror film starring Robert Quarry.

Background

With the Manson Murders being quite recent, Quarry wanted to make a Charles Manson-type vampire. Prior to this film, Quarry had played a vampire in Count Yorga, Vampire, released in 1970 and it’s sequel, The Return of Count Yorga, released in 1971.

Part of the film was shot in a house on the Hollywood Hills. In many of the film's scenes, real hippies were used and according to the book, What's His Name? John Fiedler by Elizabeth Messina, many of the hippies were on drugs. The film shows a period in time of the Topanga Canyon hippie counterculture community. Gary A. Smith suggests in his book, Vampire Films of the 1970s, that this may be the only filmed document of the scene in that period.

This film also was the feature film debut for television actress Brenda Dickson. Both Bobby Pickett who played Kirkwood and LeSesne Hilton who played Barbado were musicians. Pickett was known for the hit "Monster Mash", as well as a lesser hit "Graduation Day". Hilton, sometimes referred to as Le Sesne Hilton, had been one of the featured performers at the 1963 Pasadena Folk Festival and had provided music for Robert M.

According to Psychotronic Video, the film cost $120,000 and was completed two days ahead of time.

The film had a brief run in theaters due to lack of promotion, and was licensed for television quickly, ending up in late-night slots.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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