New York City, 1976. Newspaper ads dare the denizens of Times Square to see a morbid movie called The Incredible Torture Show. The film is yanked from theatres. Years later it is retitled Blood Sucking Freaks and hits pay dirt, becoming a perverse cult classic. Its writer and director is Joel M. Reed. Like his films, the life of Joel M. Reed is a crazy cocktail of New York satire and sleaze, commencing with cocktail lounges in the 1950s, before hitting the grindhouses of the 1970s. Using Reed and Blood Sucking Freaks as its cornerstone, this book - 20 years in the making - is a snapshot of the last gasp of Times Square as AIDS, crack, and anti-porn laws strike their final blow.
