A Bucket of Blood

1959 Directed by Roger Corman

Horror Marathon 2024 Day 25 Film 52

"Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art... THE ARTIST IS; all others are NOT."

At a Beatnik cafe a barhop listens to the drivel of poetry of the intellectual ARTIST. The rambling words pontificate on the state of being a true creator while everyone else is dead.... and other self aggrandizement. With a burst of inspiration the barhop decides to work with clay- the problem is he doesn't really know how to form it. Taking the words of poetry to literal heart he starts killing and embalming his subjects in the clay. Of course his work is a success with the artist crowd-- too fascinated with freeform art they now see realism!!

I loved this 50s take on artistic skewering-- which would be a great companion piece to The Driller Killer's maniac. Treading over the same self obsession the artist becomes too literal- a joke of himself. It's obvious too that the barhop isn't interested in art for its own sake, but the status and money that comes with it for a girl that he never feels adequate for. Filmed on the same sets as Little Shop of Horrors, this has the same charismatic charm of whimsy and grotesqueness.

The budding killer artist starts to cosplay with the wardrobe of the artist; don't get too infatuated with your own hype and get so addicted to success that anxiety drives your creative process. "I've gotta do something before they forget" seems to be the addiction of many "influencers" today.

The lampooning of beatnik culture feels relevant today - wheatgerm and packaged health "superfood" consciousness sold at exorbitant prices. The little bits about art collectors and critics ballooning art prices were hilarious too. It's a quick cheeky movie that revels in being a bit ghastly.