Blood Trails

Bike messenger Anne (Rebecca Palmer) has a one-night-stand with psychotic cycle cop Chris (Ben Price), after which she leaves for a weekend of mountain biking with her unsuspecting boyfriend Michael (Tom Frederic). Opting to ignore signs prohibiting the use of a dangerous trail, the pair speed through the rugged countryside unaware that they are being stalked by Chris...

Hardcore mountain bikers require some serious skills to avoid coming a cropper on perilous terrain, but the killer in this film takes the sport to a whole new level, not only making his bike fly, but also angling it in mid-air in order to tear out someone's throat with the chain. And he still lands safely back on two wheels. Tekkers!

Such a ludicrous death might have been fun if it was executed in a tongue-in-cheek style, but it is played out in such a straight manner that it proves laughable for all the wrong reasons. Sadly, it's not the only thing about the film that beggars belief, the killer being able to locate and sneak up on his victims with surprising ease and Anne being amongst the most unlikeable and irritating of horror movie victims, repeatedly making dumb decisions that put her, and those she is with, in mortal danger.

Director Robert Krause makes good use of his scenic setting, achieves a touch of genuine suspense towards the end of the film, and delivers some juicy gore, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. My advice: steer well clear of this one.

I didn't expect much from this movie, but "Blood Trails" turned out as a very pleasant surprise. It's a gritty, unpleasant slasher movie, not timid, but effective by suspense rather than splatter. Even though the final confrontation is inevitable, the actual outcome remains unpredictable until (literally!) the last split-second.

Cinematography and editing are beautiful, often relying on extreme close-ups that reflect the tunnel-vision panic of the leading character. Thereby, the movie creates a dense, believable atmosphere. The bicycle theme is an interesting variation, lending both independence and vulnerability to the heroine. The lead actress is probably the strongest asset of the movie: Rebecca Palmer is absolutely great here.

Highly recommended!

This movie is so bad that it is still screening on my DVD while I type this so don't yet know the ending. Mind you, something tells me I could make a very educated guess.

Another reviewer compared it to a student film and boy is he right; in fact I swear I shot this at Brookland Tech in Weybridge on the film course in 1969.

Surely the censor should have refused it a rating at least to spare us actually spending money to watch it.

Just looked up and it's the old serrated knife against the heroine's milky white thigh - yawn. Can you just kill her pretty please Mr Badman - all she does is cycle furiously, scream and jump into rivers covered in blood; emerges cleansed of the blood and then - oh yes, even the continuity girl lost interest, becomes miraculously blood spattered again.

"This is you, this is who you are" - Oh for heaven's sake who wrote this crap? Avoid it like the plague.

Utterly dreadful movie. I'm not sure how I managed to get through it. The acting is extremely wooden throughout, the characters are very two dimensional and all of this is made even worse by the fact there is very little dialogue in this movie (perhaps 10 lines at the most.

The first death scene requires an enormous suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer because of laziness on the part of the writer.

Every single event in this movie is a horror movie cliché and I even found myself saying out loud what would happen next to be proved right about 80% of the time. The remaining 20% was either delayed or substituted with another cliché.

This reminds me of a student film, of a fledgling screenwriter trying to make a homage to his favourite horror movies - it is most certainly NOT a decent horror movie in its own right.

I want those two hours of my life back.

The last years we have seen a lot of horrors that happens in the wild. High Lane was one of them for example. Here we have another one. It hasn't received very good reviews and even I still don't know what to think about it. The acting by all actors was convincing, I never have seen another flick they were in but again, they did well for me. The only negativity I could give is that it is sometimes a bit slow. Again, the storyline is very simple, Anna, while doing her job as a bike messenger gets in contact with a unknown biker. She was supposed to have sex with him but instead he played some kind of bondage with her. Due that bad experience she decides to go for a hike with her best friend. But not knowing that the unknown biker is watching her. From there on it's cat and mouse with some decent gore added with it. Robert Krause, the German director surely comes from goreland so he knows what he has to deliver. There are indeed some rare twist of situations, for example, the workers in the wood make strange reactions towards the girl without knowing her story. But now and then it's a bit of the same. Running away, being caught, running away again, being caught again. The final scene is again in the gory department so again that's okay. I guess everybody could watch it but some will indeed turn their face away with the first and last killing. Not that bad but lacking in delivering fear.