# I Drink Your Blood
**I Drink Your Blood** is a 1970 American exploitation horror film directed and written by David E. Durston, in which a boy takes revenge on a Satanic hippie cult by feeding it meat pies injected with the blood of a rabid dog, turning the cultists rabid and setting them on a murderous rampage through a small town.[1](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/I_Drink_Your_Blood) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_drink_your_blood) Produced by Jerry Gross and distributed by Cinemation Industries, it is remembered chiefly as the first film the MPAA rated X for violence alone, and for its long afterlife on home video and in grindhouse (theater showing low-budget exploitation films; central to article) revival culture.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/trivia/) • [4](https://grindhousereleasing.com/grindhouse-releasing-announces-i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | David E. Durston[1](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/I_Drink_Your_Blood) |
| Production / distribution | Jerry Gross Productions; Cinemation Industries[1](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/I_Drink_Your_Blood) |
| US release | January 20, 1971 (limited)[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/releaseinfo/) |
| Working title | *Phobia*, changed so the film could be double-billed with *I Eat Your Skin*[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337) |
| Rating history | Initially rated X for excessive violence; changed to R after cuts and additions[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337) |
| Filming location | A ghost town near Sharon Springs, upstate New York, over eight days in 1970[7](https://mountaineagle.net/articles/display/filmed-locally-i-drink-your-blood/) |
| Notable cast | Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury, Jadine Wong, Rhonda Fultz, George Patterson, Riley Mills, and Lynn Lowry in her first film role[1](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/I_Drink_Your_Blood) • [8](https://www.genregrinder.com/post/i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray-review-originally-published-2016) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
A group of Satan-worshipping hippies arrives in a fading small town when their bus breaks down, terrorizes the residents, and takes over an abandoned hotel. They rape a local girl and dose her grandfather with LSD. Her young brother, seeking revenge, shoots a rabid dog, draws its blood with a syringe, and injects it into meat pies from the town bakery, which he then sells to the cult. The infected cultists descend into a rabid, murderous frenzy, killing and infecting others, including workers at a nearby dam.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_drink_your_blood) • [9](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/i-drink-your-blood)
Despite the title, no one drinks blood in the film; the name came from an advertising executive's idea for a double feature pairing, *I Drink Your Blood* and *I Eat Your Skin*.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/trivia/)
## Production
Durston wrote the screenplay under the working title *Phobia*. According to his audio commentary on the 2002 director's cut DVD, distributor Cinemation Industries changed the title because it wanted to pair the film with *I Eat Your Skin*, a 1964 zombie film, in a joint release.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337) Durston stated that he partially based the story on [Charles Manson](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-manson), whose cult's crimes were then recent news.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337)
The film was shot on location in a ghost town near Sharon Springs in upstate New York over eight days in 1970; locations included the old Roosevelt Hotel on Washington Street, which was torn down in 1976.[7](https://mountaineagle.net/articles/display/filmed-locally-i-drink-your-blood/) Durston himself stepped in to play the town doctor at the last minute after an actor dropped out.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/trivia/) The cast includes the dancer and choreographer Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury as cult leader Horace Bones, a performance critics have singled out as the film's strongest element, and a young Lynn Lowry, uncredited and mute, in her first screen appearance.[9](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/i-drink-your-blood) • [8](https://www.genregrinder.com/post/i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray-review-originally-published-2016)
## Censorship and ratings
According to a February 1971 *Hollywood Reporter* news item, the film was initially assigned an [X rating](https://www.edgepedia.org/x-rating) because of excessive violence, and the rating was changed to R after cuts and additions were made.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337) IMDb trivia and the distributor Grindhouse Releasing both describe it as the first film rated X by the MPAA on the basis of violence alone.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/trivia/) • [4](https://grindhousereleasing.com/grindhouse-releasing-announces-i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray/)
The film's release history is tangled. IMDb's alternate-versions entry states that the original 73-minute cut received the X rating and that the film was re-edited, with scenes added, to an R-rated 83 minutes, while the AFI Catalog lists the running time as 80 or 82 to 83 minutes.[10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/alternateversions/) • [6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337) Durston said that when theaters threatened to pull the film over the X rating, the distributor allowed them to edit their own prints, producing hundreds of different versions in circulation.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/trivia/) One excised sequence, restored on the 2002 DVD, shows the character Rollo stabbing Shelley twelve times in the chest and cutting off his leg with a hatchet.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337)
## Reception and legacy
The film was, by Grindhouse Releasing's account, a big grossing hit at drive-ins and grindhouse theaters despite the censorship, and it has since been described as one of the most infamous movies in the history of exploitation films.[4](https://grindhousereleasing.com/grindhouse-releasing-announces-i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray/) Contemporary critical opinion is mixed: on Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 60% Tomatometer score from four reviews, with critics such as Scott Weinberg calling it a looser, sillier cousin of *Night of the Living Dead* while conceding that it moves fast.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_drink_your_blood) Reviewers have noted its practical gore effects, its minimalist electronic score by Clay Pitts, and its place in the short-lived "evil hippie" cycle of early 1970s horror.[8](https://www.genregrinder.com/post/i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray-review-originally-published-2016) • [11](https://silverscreenriot.com/the-deepest-cuts-i-drink-your-blood-1970/)
The film was not copyrighted at the time of release; a videocassette version was copyrighted by Valiant International Pictures on April 5, 1995.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337) Grindhouse Releasing issued an authorized special edition DVD in 2002, restoring long-lost scenes with Durston's participation, and in November 2016 a deluxe two-disc Blu-ray presenting the uncut director's cut in high definition alongside *I Eat Your Skin* and Durston's *Blue Sextet* (1969).[12](https://grindhousereleasing.com/i-drink-your-blood/) • [4](https://grindhousereleasing.com/grindhouse-releasing-announces-i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray/) The film has also been featured in documentaries and retrospectives on grindhouse cinema, including *American Grindhouse* and the "Video Nasties" guide.[1](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/I_Drink_Your_Blood)
## References
1. [I Drink Your Blood, The Grindhouse Cinema Database](https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/I_Drink_Your_Blood)
2. [I Drink Your Blood, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_drink_your_blood)
3. [I Drink Your Blood (1971) Trivia, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/trivia/)
4. [Grindhouse Releasing Announces I DRINK YOUR BLOOD Blu-ray!](https://grindhousereleasing.com/grindhouse-releasing-announces-i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray/)
5. [I Drink Your Blood (1971) Release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/releaseinfo/)
6. [I Drink Your Blood (1971), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54337)
7. [Filmed Locally: I Drink Your Blood, The Mountain Eagle](https://mountaineagle.net/articles/display/filmed-locally-i-drink-your-blood/)
8. [I Drink Your Blood Blu-ray Review, GenreGrinder](https://www.genregrinder.com/post/i-drink-your-blood-blu-ray-review-originally-published-2016)
9. [I Drink Your Blood, Screen Slate](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/i-drink-your-blood)
10. [I Drink Your Blood (1971) Alternate versions, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067229/alternateversions/)
11. [The Deepest Cuts: 'I DRINK YOUR BLOOD' (1970), Silver Screen Riot](https://silverscreenriot.com/the-deepest-cuts-i-drink-your-blood-1970/)
12. [I DRINK YOUR BLOOD, Grindhouse Releasing](https://grindhousereleasing.com/i-drink-your-blood/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Exploitation and extreme horror films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license