*Spoilers (slight)*
I was just settling into watching 1982's BLOOD SONG when the psychopath made his first appearance. All of a sudden something dawned on me. I thought to myself, hang on a minute, I recognise this guy from somewhere'. And low and behold, it was none other than fifties rock and roll teen idol Frankie Avalon. For those of you who don't know, he was that youngster groomed for stardom by Bob Marcucci and Peter DeAngelis. In 1958 he became part of the Philadelphia phenomenon' that also gave life to rockers Fabian and Bobby Rydell. He enjoyed a successful career in music and amongst others gave us chart toppers in Venus' and Why'. Quite what he was doing starring in a lowbrow slasher flick was far beyond me. I guess it was just another experience to add to his already extremely varied career resume. But would he alone, help to save this attempt from being wholly lacklustre?
A middle-aged guy returns home from a trip in a black taxi. He thanks the driver and heads up the footpath to a dimly lit house. Seconds after his entered, we hear a frantic male scream `Put down the gun', before two shots shatter the silent night sky. It seems he's caught his wife in bed with another man and let his emotions get the better of him. He asks the lord for forgiveness and then turns the gun on himself, ending the wraith of his unforgiving conscience. All these events are witnessed by a small boy, who's obviously distraught and overtaken with upset so much, that instead of whimpering or crying, he plays a mournful tune on a small wooden flute! (And yes, if you're thinking what? Already, I suggest you don't even bother watching this at all!) Some years later we are shown a patient recklessly escaping from a mental institute but taking the time to save a similar looking small brown flute hmmm! We are now introduced to a young girl named Marion (Donna Wilkes). She keeps having strange nightmares in which a deranged killer plays a strange tune on a mouth instrument, before he ruthlessly butchers innocent people. The young girl is convinced that these are not dreams but are more like premonitions. All her friends including her boyfriend Joey (William Kirby Cullen) think that she's just stressed out by her control freak' father Frank (Richard Jaekel) who's pretty damn strict. Before long the local county Sheriff (who is also a wisecracking one liner king'. Watch out for his witty dialogue including the classic ` I've got a hang over that'd make King Kong climb a wall! And also `I don't wanna be disturbed unless world war 3 breaks out on Main Street' which, was another of his comical quotes!) finds a mutilated female corpse and it becomes apparent that maybe Marion isn't all that crazy
Well, where do I start? Firstly this is a pretty shoddy release and watching it - for the most part - to write this review was a pain staking arduous task hindered mainly by the fact that my copy which, was extremely hard to get hold of had a thin transparent line running straight through the middle of the screen, right until the end. The acting isn't too bad, and at least the heroine featured here is indeed a teen, but to be totally honest not a lot happens and I found myself having to keep rewinding it in case I'd missed something, where I was absent mindlessly flicking through my copy of The Sun whilst watching. That's never a good sign and further proves that BLOOD SONG cannot manage to keep you interested for long.
People expecting to witness yet another carbon copy of either HALLOWEEN or FRIDAY THE 13TH will be pleasantly surprised to find out that this is a shockingly different approach that manages in many ways to break the mould. This is apparent in lots of circumstances including the final girl being hardly virginal; she's no Laurie Strode! If I had to put my finger on the inspiration behind this flick, I would say it owed more to NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN or maybe even THE SLAYER. What is interesting however, is how it looks like this may have had a major part in the influence behind Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Although this is hardly worthy of such an accolade, it's clearly two years Craven's predecessor and many of the ingredients honestly do look to have been lifted. The way that Marion dreams of all of the murders is almost identical to the fate that springs upon Nancy Thompson and her friends down good old Elm Street. Wes' box office smash is a much stronger effort, but it's interesting to note that he must've seen this before he helmed his idea!
What about redeeming features I hear you ask? Well it's pretty graphic, as in you get to see some ketchup pour out of some hardly imaginative wounds! But after watching over an hour of mindless and cheesy screenplay the ending really did surprise me. Obviously I can't spoil it here for you, but it was the only sign of any intelligence on display and left you with just a touch of satisfaction. To be fair this is an original effort. And if we gave awards for ideas then this would certainly gain a prize. But I'm afraid a flick will only get rewarded here if it's above average and interesting, which, sadly this isn't. Sorry Frankie even you couldn't save this one
I was just settling into watching 1982's BLOOD SONG when the psychopath made his first appearance. All of a sudden something dawned on me. I thought to myself, hang on a minute, I recognise this guy from somewhere'. And low and behold, it was none other than fifties rock and roll teen idol Frankie Avalon. For those of you who don't know, he was that youngster groomed for stardom by Bob Marcucci and Peter DeAngelis. In 1958 he became part of the Philadelphia phenomenon' that also gave life to rockers Fabian and Bobby Rydell. He enjoyed a successful career in music and amongst others gave us chart toppers in Venus' and Why'. Quite what he was doing starring in a lowbrow slasher flick was far beyond me. I guess it was just another experience to add to his already extremely varied career resume. But would he alone, help to save this attempt from being wholly lacklustre?
A middle-aged guy returns home from a trip in a black taxi. He thanks the driver and heads up the footpath to a dimly lit house. Seconds after his entered, we hear a frantic male scream `Put down the gun', before two shots shatter the silent night sky. It seems he's caught his wife in bed with another man and let his emotions get the better of him. He asks the lord for forgiveness and then turns the gun on himself, ending the wraith of his unforgiving conscience. All these events are witnessed by a small boy, who's obviously distraught and overtaken with upset so much, that instead of whimpering or crying, he plays a mournful tune on a small wooden flute! (And yes, if you're thinking what? Already, I suggest you don't even bother watching this at all!) Some years later we are shown a patient recklessly escaping from a mental institute but taking the time to save a similar looking small brown flute hmmm! We are now introduced to a young girl named Marion (Donna Wilkes). She keeps having strange nightmares in which a deranged killer plays a strange tune on a mouth instrument, before he ruthlessly butchers innocent people. The young girl is convinced that these are not dreams but are more like premonitions. All her friends including her boyfriend Joey (William Kirby Cullen) think that she's just stressed out by her control freak' father Frank (Richard Jaekel) who's pretty damn strict. Before long the local county Sheriff (who is also a wisecracking one liner king'. Watch out for his witty dialogue including the classic ` I've got a hang over that'd make King Kong climb a wall! And also `I don't wanna be disturbed unless world war 3 breaks out on Main Street' which, was another of his comical quotes!) finds a mutilated female corpse and it becomes apparent that maybe Marion isn't all that crazy
Well, where do I start? Firstly this is a pretty shoddy release and watching it - for the most part - to write this review was a pain staking arduous task hindered mainly by the fact that my copy which, was extremely hard to get hold of had a thin transparent line running straight through the middle of the screen, right until the end. The acting isn't too bad, and at least the heroine featured here is indeed a teen, but to be totally honest not a lot happens and I found myself having to keep rewinding it in case I'd missed something, where I was absent mindlessly flicking through my copy of The Sun whilst watching. That's never a good sign and further proves that BLOOD SONG cannot manage to keep you interested for long.
People expecting to witness yet another carbon copy of either HALLOWEEN or FRIDAY THE 13TH will be pleasantly surprised to find out that this is a shockingly different approach that manages in many ways to break the mould. This is apparent in lots of circumstances including the final girl being hardly virginal; she's no Laurie Strode! If I had to put my finger on the inspiration behind this flick, I would say it owed more to NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN or maybe even THE SLAYER. What is interesting however, is how it looks like this may have had a major part in the influence behind Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Although this is hardly worthy of such an accolade, it's clearly two years Craven's predecessor and many of the ingredients honestly do look to have been lifted. The way that Marion dreams of all of the murders is almost identical to the fate that springs upon Nancy Thompson and her friends down good old Elm Street. Wes' box office smash is a much stronger effort, but it's interesting to note that he must've seen this before he helmed his idea!
What about redeeming features I hear you ask? Well it's pretty graphic, as in you get to see some ketchup pour out of some hardly imaginative wounds! But after watching over an hour of mindless and cheesy screenplay the ending really did surprise me. Obviously I can't spoil it here for you, but it was the only sign of any intelligence on display and left you with just a touch of satisfaction. To be fair this is an original effort. And if we gave awards for ideas then this would certainly gain a prize. But I'm afraid a flick will only get rewarded here if it's above average and interesting, which, sadly this isn't. Sorry Frankie even you couldn't save this one