By Geno McGahee
“Ironically enough, I don’t watch horror films. I don’t like them.” – Joe Ripple
In the 1980s, video stores were everywhere and I would gather whatever money I could and find my way there to rent horror films. In a mom and pop shop, I found a movie called ‘GALAXY INVADER,’ and was intrigued. It was an alien in the woods taking on a bunch of rednecks.
It was the first time that I had seen what are called “micro budget” films today, and I immediately fell in love with it. The movie was outstanding and it got me thinking about filming. It made the idea of making a movie on little to no money plausible. It wasn’t much later that I picked up a video camera and shot some horror shorts.
The filmmaker was Don Dohler. John Kinhart has put together a documentary called ‘BLOOD, BOOBS & BEAST,’ which covers the life and eventual death of Dohler and the transition from somewhat wholesome sci-fi and horror to smut and garbage films.
There are two chapters when it comes to the film life of Dohler. The first chapter included the films ALIEN FACTOR, FIEND, NIGHTBEAST, GALAXY INVADER, and BLOOD MASSACRE. He would retire for 12 years and come back to make films that were well below the standard that he initially set and that was thanks in large part to the input of Joe Ripple…a man that insisted that you needed T&A to sell a film.
Keep in mind that Dohler got his films onto cable with little to no nudity. There was a level of innocence and charm. The films had heart. When you watch one of the newer ones like HARVESTERS, you can see that it just isn’t there anymore. The love is gone. So, I try to forget about the Ripple years.
In BLOOD, BOOBS & BEAST, Dohler starts at his beginnings, which was having a gun put to his head and having his life threatened. He made the decision that if he lived through the robbery that he would make the feature film that he had always spoke of. He lived through it, and would make ALIEN FACTOR in 1976.
John Kinhart does a fantastic job of chronicling the films of Dohler, with interviews of those involved and a lot of footage both from the film and behind the scenes. A distraction, however, are the two idiots that are “Dohler fans” and think that it’s just hilarious to wear funny hats and then change them up at every cut. Every time that I see them, I hit the fast forward. They are annoying and are mere filler to make this film a movie length. They are probably friends with the filmmaker. I can’t think of ANY reason why these two would be allowed to be part of this documentary that is just outstanding…then they ruin it.
The documentary covers the micro budget production of DEAD HUNT, the last Don Dohler film, and it’s incredibly interesting. If you wonder what it’s like to make a movie without a budget or next to nothing, you can find out a great deal by watching this documentary and the things that can go wrong during the production of one of these films. It was very fascinating and for me, it was something that I could certainly relate to.
Dohler’s films took the turn for the worse when Joe Ripple was brought in as a director. Ripple initially began as an actor and got his claws into Dohler’s work and as you witness the behind the scenes conversations, you see how the wholesomeness was twisted and the artist that was this filmmaker was tainted and ruined. Ripple spoke to a very low end distributor that advised him that you need nudity to sell a horror movie and he couldn’t get it out of his mind and kept pushing for more and more of it, which is why the soft core porn ‘VAMPIRE SISTERS’ was created under the Dohler name. If you watch ALIEN FACTOR or FIEND and then watch VAMPIRE SISTERS, you will puke in your shoes.
During production of the documentary, Don Dohler is diagnosed with cancer and he begins to question what he’s done with his life. It’s sad to see him call his films a “waste,” which they certainly were not.
BLOOD, BOOBS & BEAST covers the life and death of Don Dohler, spanning his comic book beginnings, through his first run of films to his return to film and disastrous work with Ripple under Time Warp Films. Being a huge Dohler fan, this was great to watch, but filmmakers, and those that are just interested in the goings on behind the scenes of independent film will really enjoy this. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 8/10
