Blood Rage (1987)

Although often dismissed as a lesser slasher movie, and it's hard to really argue against people who don't view it with the same affection as I do, Blood Rage is most definitely a fun entry in the sub-genre. What it lacks in certain areas, such as the script and some of the performances, it more than makes up for with decent pacing, some impressive practical effects, and a constant feeling of glee.

Things begin at a drive-in theatre in 1974. Young Todd and Terry, identical twins, take the opportunity to sneak out of the car while their mother is making out with her date. Terry kills someone with a hatchet, then ensures that Todd is blamed by smearing him with blood and putting the hatchet in his hands. Todd is too shocked to speak, and ends up being placed in an asylum after being found guilty of the murder. A decade later, Todd escapes from the asylum. This times perfectly with Terry once again feeling murderous, this time after learning of his mother's engagement to her fiance. And so begins a night of murder, mistaken identity, and multiple utterances of the line "that's not cranberry sauce" (oh, it also takes place on Thanksgiving).

Directed by John Grissmer (who only did one other film before this) and written by Bruce Rubin (credited under a different name), Blood Rage is wildly uneven in how it tries to achieve a satisfying final result. I'm not surprised it made little impact when first released, having been shelved for a good few years after completion and ending up limping out to audiences once the slasher star was definitely shining less brightly than it once did.

Mark Soper does a good job in the dual role of Todd and Terry. It's not always easy to keep up with who is who (although the main thing to remember is that it is actually Terry who is always killing people), but Soper does well as both the killer who has everyone fooled and the innocent man who everyone thinks is dangerous. You also get a decent selection of attractive young women to be potential victims, including Julie Gordon, Lisa Randall, and Jayne Bentzen (although the latter is playing the mother of another character). There are a number of male characters too, but few of them stand out, with the exception of Ted Raimi in his amusing cameo at the start of the movie, selling condoms in the men's room of the drive-in. Louise Lasser and William Fuller are a different matter, playing the mother and her fiance, respectively. They are given a lot of the worst lines from the script, admittedly, but also deliver their dialogue in a way that adds to the off-kilter feeling of things.

When it comes to a slasher from this time period, however, what can help is a decent bodycount, and Blood Rage certainly has that. I didn't keep an exact count, but I'd be very surprised if the tally for Terry wasn't into double figures, and a number of those kills are shown with surprisingly decent special effects (largely created by Ed French, who also has an amusing onscreen cameo). So it delivers on that front. It also uses the standard template well enough - opening "tragedy", psychological issues, escaped killer years later, bodies piling up, final act that comes with a bit of a twist on things - to be rated well enough alongside many other slasher movies from this decade.

I can see some people being put off by what it doesn't get right, but that adds to the overall experience for me, making Blood Rage more fun than it otherwise would be. You might like it as much as I do, you might end up hating it, but it at least remains more memorable than many others.

7/10

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