Night of the Bloody
Transplant is an ancient gore film, made in a particularly snow bound looking
Michigan, about a pioneering doctor whose attempts to perform a heart
transplant are hindered by his peers, but aided by his trouble making brother,
whose run in with a hooker leaves the Doc with an ideal candidate for heart
surgery. Made by entrepreneurial have-a-go filmmakers who even managed to talk
real life policemen into being in the film…not every ballsy, indy filmmaker out
of Michigan can have the career of a Sam Raimi though, and after just one more
effort, a softcore movie called ‘Judy’, also made in 1970, Night of the Bloody
Transplant’s director David W. Hanson appears to have thrown in the towel. From
a modern day perspective, it is odd to see a heart transplant operation
discussed as some kind of taboo, unheard of procedure. An aspect to the film that even in its day
must have seemed dated, considering that the first heart transplant had been
performed back in 1967…which does make you wonder of The Bloody Transplant had
been sitting on the shelf for a few years before its credited 1970 release
date.
The tone of Night of the Bloody Transplant is decidedly 'amateur
theatre' occasionally enlivened by HG Lewis type splatter, as well as the
vomitous inclusion of real life heart surgery footage in the tradition of films
like Night of the Bloody Apes and Castle of the Creeping Flesh. There is also padding
designed to shine a light on local talent ...tone deaf singers, burlesque
dancers, nude body painting etc etc...giving you a rough idea of what passed
for entertainment in chilly Michigan back then. To be honest, it makes you wish
they’d just shot an entire film’s worth of these showbiz hopefuls and junked
the mad doctor/horror film stuff. Would this
film have ever resurfaced on video in the early 1980s without the exploitable ‘early
gore film’ aspect though?...probably not.
Saying that this is hardly a well known film these days anyhow…for years
I thought Night of the Bloody Transplant was simply a video re-titling of Doris
Wishman’s The Amazing Transplant. Has my
life been greatly enhanced by the knowledge that The Bloody Transplant and The
Amazing Transplant are two separate films?...probably not…but like all the
other regional horror curios, Night of the Bloody Transplant isn’t without its
time capsule appeal…although given how cold the exteriors look in Night of the
Bloody Transplant, maybe its more of a snow globe than a time capsule.
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