by Something must be said for all of those old horror films that were never re-released when digital formats became the norm. Now I’m not saying they all deserved to be remastered or even made to be available in disc format, but with such vast numbers some gems had to be left behind. While researching obscure horror films I stumbled upon a little known number called Blood Frenzy. This is a sleazy low budget slasher film released at the height of the genre, and was directed by a former adult film director. If that doesn’t sound like the makings of a bad film than I don’t know what does. Fortunately schlock movies are my forte, and so I immediately sought this one out. To my surprise I actually really liked Blood Frenzy even if high art it is most certainly not.
Blood Frenzy opens with a child playing with a jack in the box. Into the room stumbled their drunk father who starts to get violent but our silent protagonist puts an end to this with a claw hammer (at least I think that’s what it is). This child is not right in the head as we soon learn when they return to playing with the now bloody toy. Fast forward a number of years later and the story really starts. We have six people, all patients of the same psychiatrist, being brought into the middle of nowhere for therapy in some new pioneering method of dealing with their problems. Whatever, it’s a horror film so belief must be suspended. The issues being dealt with include not liking to be touched, intimacy addiction, alcoholism, bitterness, machismo, and Vietnam flashbacks. The kind doctor has chosen some remote location in the desert for them to talk about their feelings, and so they set it for this desolate place.
Things start on a bad note with everyone bickering among themselves, and things only get worse when supplies go missing. The doctor is convinced that this therapy is worth trying so she forces her patients to stick it out. The first morning the group awakens to find one of their own dead in his tent, and the tension only rises as they try to figure out which one of them has murdered their comrade. This is a cheap horror film, and so of course their one vehicle doesn’t start and they decide to go hiking and separate into groups of two. Unsurprisingly the body count continues to rise as the victims are distracted by the same Jack-in-the-box featured in the opening sequence. This continues until there are only a few of them left at which point we get the ‘big reveal’ on who the killer actually is.
Let me start by saying that the film is extremely predictable. There’s one twist I didn’t expect, but I knew from the start who the culprit was going to be based simply on the child’s hair in the opening sequence. They didn’t even bother trying to fool viewers. With that said I didn’t mind because I really liked the characters which came as a big surprise to me. It’s interesting that the film comes outright and tells you their trope from the start. It makes the film seem like a bit of a parody to be honest, but in a smarter more outright sense than in most other cases. They’re all one dimensional, and most of them are plenty likable. The alcoholic in particular has some pretty good one liners, but they all have their moments to be honest. As you would expect from a director with Hal Freeman’s pedigree the death sequences are cheap, explicit, and feature a lot of blood. I was sorry to see a few of my characters go in such a brutal way.
Blood Frenzy isn’t a particularly scary movie (the death sequences are pretty nasty but feature too much build up most of the time). Something must be said for the setting though. I’ve always really enjoyed the desert scenario in horror films (the Hills Have Eyes is one of my favorites) and Blood Frenzy makes good use of it. If the filmmakers did one thing right it’s the atmosphere. The desert feels oppressive and you can almost feel the heat and arid air here. The location was truly desolate and feels hopeless. The scenery is beautiful, alien, and sure as heck beats the pants off of the woodlands that so many other slashers rely on. The silver mines and old road feel like they have a story to tell which could have made for some nice background or lore, but the story didn’t explore this idea at all.
I went into Blood Frenzy expecting to absolutely hate it. I’m quite surprised that I ended up liking it quite a bit. Sure, it’s a cheap slasher film that lacks finesse and story building but aren’t they all? The film feels like a parody; either Hal Freeman didn’t want audiences to have to think or he just spelled everything out for them as a gag of sorts. It’s tough to tell, but the end result is bizarrely charming. It has great atmosphere and some decent shock sequences regardless. I’m not embarrassed to say that Blood Frenzy is a step above most other slasher films.
Pros
- Great desert setting
- Entertaining characters
- Cheesy in the best way possible
Cons
- Contrived and shallow
