Golden Oldies Week (July 27 – August 3) Something Weird Video have released such a wide range of movies over the last 30 years that trying to categorize them can be tricky. They started out as a gray market mail order distributor (aka a bootlegger) not unlike the Cape Copy Center or Sinister Cinema and eventually moved into the niche se ploit titles that would set them apart. The movies on this list are the kind of cult genre titles that were the bread and butter of many of the bootleg companies of the 90s and most were not exclusive to SWV. If you look in the catalogs or on the website these would be under categories like “Nightmare Theatre’s Late Night Chill-O-Rama Horror Show,” “Jaws of the Jungle,” “Sci-fi Late Night Creature Feature Show,” or “Spies, Thighs & Private Eyes.” Many of these are currently available as downloads from the SWV site (until the end of 2024)!

Whether you call this movie Blood Seekers, The Horror from Beyond or Blood Thirst, the biggest question is, “How was a black and white movie made in 1971?”

That’s because it was shot on location in the Philippines in 1965 and went unseen until it played double features with Bloodsuckers or as that movie was called in England, Incense for the Damned.

New York City detective and sex crimes specialist — years before Benson and Stabler — Adam Rourke (Robert Winston) has come to Manila to help Inspector Miguel Ramos (Vic Diaz) to solve a series of crimes. All of them have incisions on the inside of their arms, which means that maybe a blood cult is behind it.

Adam goes undercover as a writer seeking the story of the latest victim, Maria Cortez, who was a hostess at Mr. Calderone’s (Vic Silayan) Barrio Club, which is filled with beautiful women like Theresa (Judy Dennis), and Serena (Yvonne Nielson). When he comes back to his room, he’s attacked by an intruder and later meets his police contact, the one-legged Herrera (Eddie Infante).

Miguel’s sister Sylvia (Katherine Henryk) flips out on Adam, accusing him of not trying to solve the case. While this is happening, Theresa is attacked by a monster as Serena falls while dancing, suddenly appearing older. Seeing as how she and Calderone ran from Peru after the deaths of several young women, you can pretty simply determine that they are using the blood of women to keep her looking her best.

Adam is the worst detective ever and pretty much seemingly here in the Philippines to get laid. Don’t ask me how Sylvia goes from mad at him to in love or why Serena invites him home, then tells her at that Calderone killed his wife, made it look like suicide and forces her to dance at the club. She then drugs him and takes him under the club.

Serena ties Adam to a tree and tells him that was was chosen to become a golden goddesses. She must keep killing women to remain ravishing, mixing their blood with the powdered roots of ancient trees and the electrical energy of the sun harnessed in a small container. She takes too long explaining this and starts to age, which ends up with all of the men running after her. There, they meet the monster that does her bidding and defeat him with, well, an artificial leg.

Directed by Newt Arnold and written by N.I.P. Dennis, Arnold wouldn’t direct again for another 17 years — he mostly did second unit — and the movie that brought him back was Bloodsport.

This is at once a cheap monster movie and a film noir but it somehow outdoes expectations. It’s 74 minutes, with dancing women and a bubble faced monster that was recycled from the Outer Limits episode “A Feasibility Study.” Can a woman take the Aztec secret for eternal life and keep it going for centuries? The answer is yes.

You can watch this on Tubi.