SoH Reviews: Blood Rage aka Slasher

“It’s not cranberry sauce.”

Hold the cranberry sauce, what this movie is, is actually kinda fun. I had a good time watching this. I was also slightly confused but that takes a backseat to the fun.

I’m talking about 1987’s Blood Rage (directed by John Grissmer) as it was titled on Prime but when the movie began, it’s called Slasher. It’s also known by Nightmare at Shadow Woods but either way, it’s a film taking place on Thanksgiving night (most of the movie) and is surrounded by a very dysfunctional family: a mom and her twin sons.

One of the sons killed someone and sent off to a mental institution. The only problem is that the wrong son was sent away, thus a breakout on Thanksgiving and a final confrontation.

I walked away from this to now return a few days later and I’m still confused about the ending… or the actress who played the mother. She, she was not good. I’m not sure what happened there except confusion and a downward spiral. I’m gonna get to her in a bit but here’s what I enjoyed about it. The special effects are pretty cool, my personal favorite is the female doctor or psychologist in the woods, basically butchered in pieces and it’s brutal to see the aftermath but it’s done really well. I also enjoyed the small glimpses of Terry’s behaviors of not being control or things not going his way. We saw that when his mother announced an engagement and I just remember thinking, huh, he doesn’t like change. Doesn’t like it all.

Terry makes a good villain. Clean cut, charming when he needs to be, very Ted Bundy in that manner.

What I didn’t like, or I couldn’t stand, was the actress who played the mother, Maddy. I had to look her up, Louise Lasser. Unless she was told to act this way in the movie, I just never bought into a mother reacting the way she did. Very questionable. Again I say, unless she was told to act in the manner of “drink wine, try to sweep with a cigarette in the mouth, check on your fiance and ignore the obvious blood splatter everywhere talking to a corpse” vibe, then ignore the entire paragraph!

You briefly see family dynamics around a dinner table equipped with a turkey, lots of blood, a crying baby, many chase scenes, deaths upon deaths and an ending where the mother is crying with a gun at a pool, the remaining twin is also screaming at the pool and… the final girl actually lives and leaves with a new baby. 

That’s Blood Rage for you. I recommend it.

It’s available on Prime and as well as Shudder.