''Blood Circus'' (also known as ''Blood Circus Wrestling'') is a 1985 independent American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

- horror film about intergalactic

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

. It was produced by

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

-native Santo Victor Rigatuso, also called Robert "Bob" Harris, who promoted it through infomercials for his mail-order "Santo Gold"

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...

business. Though it had a brief regional release funded by Rigatuso, the film never received distribution.

Plot

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

s from the planet Zoran are sent to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

to fight against professional wrestlers from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, but prove to actually be

man-eaters A man-eater is an animal that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behavior. This does not include the scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the incidental eating of a human that the animal has kil ...

who devour their opponents upon defeating them.

Cast

*Santo Victor Rigatuso as Santo Gold *John Harris (III) *Jerry Reese (as Voodoo Malumba) *Vinnie Valentino

Production

Filming for ''Blood Circus'' began in 1985 on a purported budget of $2 million, largely financed by Rigatuso's Credit Card Authorization Center business. This business offered customers with bad credit histories the opportunity to purchase a fake

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

for $50, with which they could only purchase exclusive "Santo Gold" jewelry (Rigatuso would later serve ten months in prison in 1989 for

mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity ...

in relationship to the enterprise). One of the key moments in ''Blood Circus'' was filmed at the

Baltimore Civic Center CFG Bank Arena (originally the Baltimore Civic Center and formerly Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore Arena and 1st Mariner Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Convention ...

, where Rigatuso, playing a character called Santo Gold, performs a song before the climactic wrestling match. The song lyrics have nothing to do with the film; instead, the song promotes Rigatuso's "Santo Gold" jewelry. Extras were paid $10 each to sit in arena and observe the action. Some of the "Earth wrestlers" were actual professional wrestlers from the

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

-based

Southwest Championship Wrestling Southwest Championship Wrestling (SCW) was a professional wrestling promotion that was owned by Joe Blanchard and based in San Antonio, Texas, from 1978 to 1985, when it was purchased by Texas All-Star Wrestling and absorbed into that company. ...

6:05 Superpodcast, "Episode 18: Later, Brotherrr..." March 24, 2016 promotion, including Douglas “Ox” Baker, an experienced actor in his own right, Vinnie Valentino, and

Eric Embry Douglas Eric Embry (born July 10, 1959) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Championship Wrestling from Florida, World Class Championship Wrestling, and the United States Wrestling Association. H ...

. On June 5, 1985, it was reported in ''

The Arizona Republic ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...

'' that Rigatuso was planning to release a 30-minute documentary on the production and an album to promote the film.

Release

After spending two years editing the film, Rigatuso could not find a distributor for the ''Blood Circus''; he ended up renting several theaters in the Baltimore area to show his film. It was shown for only a week, and took in far less than it cost to produce. The film was never shown to the public after it ended its initial run, and the original copy was believed to have been lost. Clips of ''Blood Circus'' can still be seen in portions of "Santo Gold" infomercials circulating on the Internet. "Scream bags" were also provided to moviegoers as a promotional tie-in. The bags had a long

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

about ''Blood Circus'' on each side, as well as a coupon for a free

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

ring from Rigatuso's "Santo Gold" infomercials. In 2008, Santo Gold claimed that the 35mm negatives of ''Blood Circus'' had finally been found, and that producers were being sought for its release.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0088824, title=Blood Circus
Santo Gold - Ridiculous Infomercial Review
*YouTube
Archived Santogold infomercials
1985 films Professional wrestling films American science fiction horror films Films shot in Baltimore Infomercials 1980s science fiction horror films Rediscovered American films American independent films 1985 independent films 1980s rediscovered films 1980s American films