Killer B's on DVD: Barn of the Naked Dead

Years ago when I first read about 1974's Barn of the Naked Dead I thought "this is the greatest title ever conceived anywhere by anyone in the history of cinema and I must see it," so I was a bit disappointed when I eventually tracked down a VHS copy and found that it was then traveling under the name Nightmare Circus (which in fact was the original release title). This new DVD version from Legend House restores the salacious but sadly inaccurate (only the briefest of nudity here) title by which the flick is best known.

Three showgirls on their way to a job in Vegas break down in the desert. As this is an exploitation horror film, one need not be a rocket scientist to deduce that the nice young man named Andre who stops to help isn't very nice at all. Andre is played by Andrew Prine and despite his numerous film and TV credits, I remember him best as the villain in the unsuccessful Wonder Woman pilot movie from 1974 that featured Cathy Lee Crosby as the amazon princess. Andre has issues with women stemming from his mother's desertion. He deals with this by collecting women and chaining them up in his barn (no naked dead folks, but we do get a barn), and trains them to perform like circus animals. Picture Norman Bates with a flare for the theatrical.

To spice things up, our resident lunatic occasionally paints one of the girls with calf's blood and gives her a running start before sicking his cougar on them. The family farm also happens to be located near a nuclear test site, which has something to do with the irradiated monstrosity preying on the locals and Andre's captives. The monster is kept pretty much in the background for most of the film, and I found myself wishing this plot element was either expanded upon or eliminated entirely.

Truly this is a product of the drive-in/grindhouse era with its politically incorrect premise, tawdry title and a wonderfully cheezy 70s score with lots of brass. Characterization is minimal, but the pace is pretty steady. If you're partial to an amiable slice of B-movie cheese from the Nixon era, you may want to give this one a spin.

Code Red DVD plans to release this film as well under the title Terror Circus, claiming that their version will feature a brand new transfer from the original negatives. If you have your heart set on a pristine print you may want to wait and see how the Code Red version measures up. The Legend House disk features an interview with star Perrine (who interestingly enough directed a portion of the film) which offers an interesting look back at the production. The highlight of the extras, though, is Gore Beat, a video horror magazine in which musician/producer Johnny Legend interviews B-movie auteurs John Landis, Ray Dennis Steckler, Fred Olen Ray, and Brian Yuzna, with scads of b-movie clips peppered throughout.