In 1971, drive-ins across America and the maniacs inside the cars wanted more of the Blood Island movies. But hey — the guys behind them were busy, so Hemisphere said, “What if Al Adamson made a Blood Island ripoff outside of the Philippines?”

Brain of Blood is the result. The gory, ridiculous and totally awesome result.

Amir (Reed Hadley, one of the actors who played Red Ryder and also someone who narrated Department of Defense films during World War II) is the ruler of Kalid and is dying, but a scientist named Dr. Trenton (Kent Taylor, who shows up in all the Blood Island series) has different plans, thanks to the requisite dwarves and chained up women. Can Amir’s pal Bob (Grant Williams, who starred in The Incredible Shrinking Man, in his last role) and his wife Tracey (Al Adamson’s wife Regina Carrol) save the day?

Angelo Rossitto plays the evil Dorro. This small-sized actor also shows up in Scared to Death, From A Whisper to a Scream, The Trip, Freaks, Galaxina and nearly seventy other films, including a turn as Master in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. He’s also on the cover of Tom Waits’ album “Swordfishtrombones.”

John Bloom also shows up, who you may remember as Reaper in The Hills Have Eyes II, as well as playing Frankenstein’s Monster in Adamson’s borderline insane Dracula vs. Frankenstein, the recipient of The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant, Big Foot in Angels’ Wild Women, The Dark in, well, The Dark and appearances in Bachelor Party, The Great Outdoors and Up Your Alley.

You can watch this for free on Tubi and Amazon Prime, or go all out and grab the blu ray from Severin! There’s also a Cinematic Titanic riffed version of this under the title The Oozing Skull on Tubi. The title was changed as Sam Sherman was concerned that multiple versions of the film could create marketplace confusion.