Blood Song

Of all the people to star in an early 80's slasher film, Frankie Avalon doesn't seem like the most obvious choice and yet here he is, trying to give a respectable performance as the screenplay of Blood Song lets him down nearly every step of the way. Don't get me wrong. There's still some fun to be had with Blood Song, but it's not as taut and potentially thrilling as it could have been.

A young boy witnesses his father killing his mother, her lover, and then himself and is so in shock that all he can do is play his little wooden flute his father made him. Cut to present day and he decides to escape from the mental hospital where he's been cooped up forever. While he was there, he donated blood and this blood provided a life saving transfusion for a teenage girl named Mary (Donna Wilkes) after her father got them into a horrible accident which left her in leg braces.

Somehow, this shared blood has given them a psychic link and Mary can see him escaping and killing anyone along the way who says something disparaging about his flute.

If Blood Song had left out the silly blood transfusion leads to psychic visions subplot and kept the killer's flute out of it, it would probably be a much more effective movie. As is, it's too unintentionally hilarious to have the tension of chase scene broken by Avalon pulling out his flute and playing a few notes.

The acting isn't horrible, but Wilkes has been better in other films. The downbeat ending is a really punch to the stomach as well, but would have fit better into a more frightening film.

Pretty Wilkes ('Jaws 2', 'Angel') stars as angsty teenager, crippled in an automobile accident caused by her father, now experiencing bizarre flashbacks that somehow connect with a spate of violent killings committed by a flute-playing escaped mental patient.

Character-driven slasher features an impressive cast and foreboding synth-pop soundtrack (including a soulful ditty by Lainie Kazan), although the dialogue is often drivel ('I see things that aren't there, I dream about people I don't know, and I keep hearing this weird flute').

Sympathetic Bower and rough-handed Jaeckel play Wilkes' bickering parents, Clark is the frustrated sheriff, and nasally North the dateless girl friend whose role sadly goes nowhere. As for Frankie Avalon, you may not see 'Beach Party' the same way again, and despite playing very much against type, he's quite effective as the childlike serial killer.

Quirky, gory psychological slasher flick is obscure, but worth finding if you like 'em downbeat and nasty although the laboured climax possibly doesn't do the rest of the film justice.

Honestly,I'm shocked no one has posted that headline yet,it's so obvious!I've seen this movie,and it's pretty bad!It should be noted that except for his occasional reunions with Annette,this is Avalon's ONLY acting performance since "Grease" Sad,when you consider he started his acting career with a few A pictures["The Alamo" & "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"]and then degenerated into the AI Beach films! Not a defense of him or this film,just a witty comment!

The Plot = A young boy witnesses his father shoot his mother and her lover and then himself, and is then sent to a mental hospital, but many years later he escapes along with his flute and goes on a killing spree. In the meantime a young girl Marion begins to have visions of him killing people through a rare blood transfusion between the two.

Okay Blood Song has some interesting ideas, but fails to execute them properly, for a start the whole concept of a girl having psychic visions of the killer could have been interesting but as the movie goes on it becomes it a bit dull, as there is absolutely no explanation given to why she has these visions, we know how through the blood transfusion.

I also liked the idea behind the heroine being physically flawed, which would seemingly make her a much easier target for the killer and possibly add to any sort of suspense later in the flick. Of course we don't get any of that. The film also throws in some long and drawn out drama scenes which takes away the tension out of this movie and plus while the murders and the final showdown are real highlights of this movie, it just takes too long and spaced too far apart, I mean at times I kinda forgot that I was even watching a slasher movie, it felt like a drama.

The positive aspects of this movie, is for one thing the climax watching the girl limp herself away from the killer and into some lumber yard. The change of setting proved interesting. And the performances were pretty good, Frankie Avalon was interesting as the serial killer even though he chewed the scenery practically all time but I found him fun and Donna Wilkes played the female lead pretty well, she hit the right notes at the right time.

All in all Blood Song is definitely an average 80's slasher with some pretty interesting ideas but are flawed to say at least I would only recommend this if you're a huge fan of 80's slashers.

I was an assistant on this film. The staff was far from "un-professional" it is just in this business extras are not coddled. It was a fast paced, gotta get it right, no time for "pretty pleases". It is not the best horror flick but it has some great scenes as previous posted pointed out. Most extras and townsfolk enjoyed the film shooting and enjoyed the attention. We were in a great little Coos Bay hide away...fun little town. North Bend was great too! Lenny Montana - as big as he is - was the nicest and most gentle people I've met. It was odd seeing Frankie Avalon as a murdered. Still wickedly handsome. Low budget - blood, horror, fun story theme. It is great that it was repackaged as part of the double feature with Mausoleum.