Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson

Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson is a thrilling 2019 documentary that takes its viewers on a captivating journey into the life, career, and shocking demise of renowned B-movie director, Al Adamson. Directed by David Gregory, this documentary delves deep into the fantastically offbeat, sordid cinema legacy of a man whose strange life culminated in a notorious, headline-grabbing death that seemed to be lifted straight out of his own distinct brand of film.

Styled with a true crime narrative, the film gradually unpacks the bizarre events surrounding the untimely death of Al Adamson, whose body was found directly underneath his own hot tub several weeks after he supposedly went missing. However, the movie is far from being just a murder mystery. It expands its horizons to shine a spotlight on a significant, if comparatively obscure, sector of the movie industry, exploring the underbelly of B-movie production in a time when cinematic purity was being refashioned by low-budget, high-aspiration filmmakers like Adamson himself.

The documentary is a compelling exploration of Adamson’s unique brand of filmmaking, looking at the creation, execution, and cultural resonance of his body of work that included unusual combinations of genres, from horror to spaghetti westerns and everything in between. His sensational titles like “Psycho-a-Go-Go”, “Blood of Ghastly Horror”, and “Dracula vs. Frankenstein” reinvented the B-movie stereotypes, championing a low-budget, independent filming methodology that has inspired many mainstream cult classics.

Central to the documentary is footage from interviews with Adamson, along with a range of enlightening testimonies from collaborators, friends, and film historians. One key figure that emerges is Samuel M. Sherman, Al's longtime business partner and friend, whose anecdotes and insights about Adamson and his work give the audience a warm, often humorous, picture of the B-movie maestro.

To balance out the detailed exploration of Adamson's filmmaking and his various escapades in independent cinema, the documentary includes a fair share of interviews with film historians. Commentary from Chris Poggiali, one of the leading names in film history, provides a wealth of academic insights, helping viewers to understand Adamson's body of work in the broader context of cinema and American popular culture.

But the documentary does not shy away from the dark side of Adamson's narrative. The getting-to-know-Adamson section is followed by a detailed reiteration of the shocking circumstances of his death. Without rendering spoilers, the film showcases the striking dichotomy between the quirky movies Adamson directed and the chilling reality of his own life’s end.

The filmmaking in Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson wonderfully complements the subject matter at hand. By inserting Adamson’s own footage into the backdrop to give vivid accounts of his history, the film creates a deeply burrowing and at times uncanny sense of connection in the viewer. What’s more, the vibrant cinematography and shrewd editing pull together a story that highlights the surreal intersection of art and life, cinema and reality.

In terms of pacing, while the documentary is long, it never feels often tedious. Gregory unpacks the multiple layers of Adamson's life -- as a film director, a rebel, a friend, and a victim -- with palatable doses of amusement, intrigue, admiration, and horror.

In summation, Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson is as much a tribute to the man's cinematic legacy and the evolution of American independent cinema as it is a disquieting depiction of his shocking demise. It is an essential watch for film enthusiasts, luring them into the eccentric world of a man who defied the barriers of budget and talent to create an indelible, if peculiar, mark on the world of cinema and whose death became an eerie echo of his reel life.