Well, it’s Halloween and my final October Challenge review. Next year I will instead be enjoying myself at Universal Horror Nights in Florida and after five years of doing 31-35 reviews over October I feel I have well and truly defeated the challenge. I started out doing the reviews on facebook, but four years worth are on this blog that came into being as a result of this challenge. I just had to go one better than the usual October challenge. Don’t worry though, there will still be reviews on this blog. But I’m reclaiming my Octobers!
Anyway, I can’t finish on just one movie so I’m giving you a double bill review for Halloween with two movies from the 1980’s I haven’t seen before. Actually, both came to my attention through the “In Search of Darkness” documentary series on 80’s horror. Specifically this is “Blood Rage” from 1987 and “Night of the Demons” from 1988. Since this is a double bill I will keep the reviews relatively brief. Let’s get into it!
Blood Rage (1987)
Blood Rage is a low budget independent 1987 slasher from John Grissmer. It is a rare Thanksgiving based slasher. The movie stars Mark Soper as identical twins “Todd” and “Terry” with support from Louise Lasser as their mother and Julie Gordon as Terry’s girlfriend. The movie was a difficult production with Grissmer and Lasser not getting on at all and at least one actress failing to turn up forcing producer Marianne Kanter to take her place in a key support role. Grissmer even quit the production at one point, but Kanter convinced him to return. Bruce Rubin provides the script, Richard Einhorn the music and Richard E. Brooks cinematography. Ed French provides the special effects.
This is the story of twin brothers Todd and Terry. Terry is a psychopath and Todd is perhaps a little autistic (Not labelled as such in the film, but seems that way). Terry framed Todd for a violent murder when they were children and even though Todd’s psychiatrist believed he was innocent, thanks to his mother taking Terry’s side he remained locked up for ten years. Eventually he escaped and returned home one Thanksgiving. At the same time with his mother planning to marry, Terry is once again triggered into a psychotic rampage, but this time killing everyone he comes across. His plan apparently is to blame his brother again.
That’s Not Cranberry Juice
This is almost a good slasher film. It suffers from wildly inconsistent acting quality, the worst of which being the unfortunate producer Marianne Kanter, who was forced to take the role of Todd’s psychiatrist. Marianne did have acting experience but quit acting 20 years earlier to be a producer and after watching this I can see why. She’s a good producer, but a bad actor. Mark Soper is inconsistent in his performance, sometimes very good and able to keep his two roles feeling unique, but other times he was clearly phoning it in. Louise Lasser puts in the best performance, but was clearly viewing the film as more comedic than everyone else involved.
The story itself is at it’s core an interesting and original story. In execution however it ends up feeling quite ridiculous. Still, their are many kills in this slasher and they are all well executed (Excuse the pun). They are fast and brutal, with decent looking effects. Some of the gore is so over the top though, that it becomes comedic. I can’t help but imagine this is the kind of film that a movie like Terrifier will have taken influence from. Blood Rage could really have done with some more consistency. Embracing the comedic side would have been the better plan than shying away from it. Anyway, overall I was entertained and so it’s a safe 5.5/10.
Night of the Demons (1988)
Since this is my Halloween review, it’s only right to have at least one movie set on Halloween. So this is “Night of the Demons”. A 1988 horror movie from director Kevin S. Tenney and writer/producer Joe Augustyn. While not especially successful on release, the movie would garner enough of a cult following to earn it a couple of sequels and a remake. David Lewis provides cinematography and Dennis Michael Tenney (Kevin’s brother) provides the music. The movie stars Amelia Kinkade as “Angela Franklin” (Who would return for both sequels).
Goth girl Angela Franklin and her best friend Suzanne (Linnea Quigley) have arranged a Halloween party at an abandoned mortuary known as “Hull House”. The place is rumored to be cursed. Despite being somewhat of a social outcast as a weird goth the locals figure she will know how to throw a hell of a Halloween party. Turns out that would be an understatement but only through the aid of the demonic possession the place is under. When a demon gets into Suzanne, it quickly spreads the possession to others until only a handful remain and mus try and escape their former friends.
Hell of a Party
This is a movie that improves a lot as it progresses. It starts off on shaky ground with some weak acting and two dimensional character. That said, it progressive sensibly in the early stages setting things up and establishing the key characters. About half way through the movie kicks into gear as the demons start to possess the teenagers. At this point the plot is basically just “Survive if you can”. Not that it was a complex plot before this. Really there is no depth to the movie at all, but it is a movie that knows what it is and embraces it. Once the mayhem begins it’s quite fun and creative.
Amelia does a particularly good job as Angela. I can see why she is the only character to return, gothic wedding dress and all. I did enjoy this enough to want to track down the sequels. While some of the acting is iffy, the cinematography is pretty solid. The effects are often more goofy than shocking, but for this kind of film is fine. This is a good example of what you can do with a fun low budget horror. It’s nothing to write home about, but as it’s my final October Challenge review I’m feeling generous and so giving it a narrow 6/10. Grab some beers and popcorn and have some fun.