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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

I wanted to but couldn't!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

A Taste Of Blood is a bit of a departure for exploitation director Herschell Gordon Lewis. More expensive, slower paced and taken more seriously than his usual projects. John Stone(played by Bill Rogers)gets a package in the mail which contains two bottles of brandy, which he then toasts to the memory of his ancestor. Said brandy contains the blood of Dracula(which he slowly becomes throughout the course of the film). Bill Rogers does a good job as the lead and sort of resembles Christopher Lee. HGL gives a good go at a Hammer styled Dracula film. While lacking the funding and talent pool of a Hammer production, I think the godfather of gore did well with the resources he did have. A Taste Of Blood is a very enjoyable, ultra low budget horror film that may be less over the top and campy than most of the films Herschell is known for, but contains more gore than other films of this genre made during this period. It is a different sort of film for Herschell Gordon Lewis, but is entertaining and well made.

Herschell Gordon Lewis' own Dracula film is considered an overlong bore by many vampire (and HGL) lovers of the Bram Stoker character, with limited gore and extended takes of acting and dialogue in real, authentic locations in Miami. Uncharacteristic for HGL, "A Taste of Blood" is just about 2 hours in length and he admittedly took greater pains in setting the lighting and allowing for his performers to explore their characters with more depth. President of a company, John Stone (Bills Rogers), receives a package containing a small chest with two wine bottles inside containing the blood of Dracula. Stone, thinking the bottles are filled with wine, takes a drink, and after multiple tastes of the blood slowly is overtaken by the evil of Dracula soon pursuing humans when he runs out. Using a blue light and pasty make-up, Rogers is presented as a Dracula more akin to a zombie in Bob Clark's "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" than the Hammer movies. While not as overly gory as the renowned "gore trilogy", there are some instances of bright red stage blood and open wounds (the most gruesome is where a female victim's throat is torn open by a voracious, unhinged Stone, fully overwhelmed at this point by Dracula's power). Because the movie is so dialogue-heavy with plenty scenes of characters talking for great lengths, I imagine (and have read) that this particular movie will fail to generate the same order of jovial fandom as HGL's schlocky, campy, gory splatterfests. That may be the problem: his fans expect the absence of restraint, having embraced the gratuitous nature of HGL's movies, wallowing gleefully in the over the top performances and violence. Elizabeth Wilkinson is Helene, John's concerned wife who can see the personality change, her life soon in danger when he finally becomes completely vampire; Bill Kerwin is Helene's doctor friend, Hank (he's in love with her), who she confides in. Otto Schlesinger is Howard Helsing, one of the last descendants of those who killed Dracula in danger of being a victim at Stone's hands (Stone went to London on "a business trip" killing several of the descendants of those behind Dracula's death), appealing to Hank for help. Wilkinson, while not much of an actress, is quite a pleasure to look at (I found my eyes always wandering to her boobs, although she is costumed in tight-fitting wardrobe elaborating her nice curvaceous figure). HGL has a small part as a British seaman (he even uses British dialect!)! The film includes all the requirements of vampire movies: the danger of the sun, annoyance of the crucifix, and the staking of the heart is how to kill Stone's vampire.

From the mind of gore master Herschell Gordon Lewis. a ghastly tale of the revenge of Dracula. John Stone(Bill Rogers), a quirky mundane business man,receives a couple of bottles of brandy that supposedly and unknown to him contains the spirit of Dracula's blood. Stone's wife(Elizabeth Wilkinson)realizes that her husband has become cold and distant since sampling the brandy. Stone is drawn to Europe, where he continues an awkward taste for blood and is driven by urgent revenge to destroy the last remaining descendants of Count Dracula's persecutors. Pretty lame even for Lewis's standards. Others in the cast: William Kerwin, Eleanor Vaill, Gail Janis and Otto Schlessinger.

A taste of Blood is Herschell Gordon Lewis's answer to a Vampire Film. Husband (Bill Rogers) and Wife (Elizabeth Wilkinson) get a mysterious package in the mail from England filled with brandy bottles and a message telling them to toast Their ancestors. The husband starts to nip away at it slowly despite his wifes insistence not too. Bad move, turns him into a creepy lookin, blue make-up, type vampire, with a funky looking ring that can hypnotize people. This movie has all the HGL trademarks, including the unstable camera shots, cheap locations, quit editing during exciting moments, and bad acting. Bill Kerwin (from Blood Feast and many more HGL's films) has a role in this one too as an overly bothersome friend of the family. There is even a Howard Hesling doing the Dr. Van Hesling thing here. Good 'OL Hersch has a cameo as an English sailor. This film has it's moments, but at 118 min. is way too long, it can easily be trimmed to a nice 75 min. and still have the same outcome. Also I might add for a HGL film the gore is rather tame, and it takes a good 45 min. to see any blood, and when you do see it, it is rather lame.