Varsity Blood

VARSITY BLOOD (2014) is a modern-day slasher that tries to throw back to the heyday of the genre in the 1980s but fails miserably at every turn. This is an unashamed cheapie in which a group of jocks and cheerleaders find themselves menaced by a madman dressed up in an uninspiring mascot costume. Could he or she be linked to a tragedy from the past? I won this title in a competition and ended up wishing I hadn't, because it's pitiful stuff, with bad acting and insipid storytelling. The whole plot feels borrowed from better mainstream fare like I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, and even the kills, that timeless draw for horror fans, are disappointing.

This is what the Disney Channel's version of an uncut slasher movie would be. Bad acting, characters that you wish will all get killed(except for two of them), writing that will make you cringe AND chuckle at the same time, and overall dumb and forced behavior. Watch without looking for any bit of masterful acting and you'll be fine.

Youths from the high school in Hogeye, Texas, celebrate Halloween at an abandoned farmhouse where they're picked off by someone dressed as the mascot of their school, an Indian warrior with hatchets and arrows.

"Varsity Blood" (2014) is a low-budget Indie that harkens back to the slashers of the early 80s with all the tropes thereof. I like the idea of the killer using the mascot costume of the school, which I don't remember being done before. The cheerleaders & friends are attractive in a voluptuous way with only one blonde being the thin stereotype. Lexi Giovagnoli stands out as the doe-eyed protagonist, Hannah, but there are a few other choice females.

The filmmaking is fine, especially considering the micro-budget, but the story perhaps needed more suspense. Still, I was impressed by the all-around quality of the filmmaking. The problem is the wooden acting, which makes it seem like the actors are reading their lines from a teleprompter; not all the time, but often enough that it mars the movie. All writer/director Jake Helgren needed was more professional actors, but he obviously didn't have the money for it.

Nevertheless, if you can acclimate to the stilted tone of the verbiage, this is an entertaining traditional slasher. As usual, some of the characters are repellent, but there are likable (or bearable) ones as well.

The notable football movie "Varsity Blues" (1999) was shot in the same high school where this one was filmed, which happens to be the alma mater of Helgren.

The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot just east of Austin, Texas, in the towns of Elgin, Smithville, Bastrop & McDade. Elgin used to be called Hogeye, the name of the town in the story, but it was changed for obvious reasons.

GRADE: C/C- (4.5/10)

If this film was released in 1981 it would be considered a staple of the sub-genre. That being said it is still one of the best movies made in the past decade or so that is clearly a throwback to the golden era.

The acting was above par for a low budget flick with the token most hated guy, Blaine (Blair Jackson), and the actresses who played Linda (Kiarra Hogan), Tina (Natalie Peyton) and Heather, doing a great job.

IMO one of the major flaws of the film was the final girl being miscast. Heather was the perfect final girl for the film and the actress who played her, (Elyse Bigler), is one of the most physically capable and athletic slasher chicks of all time (as well as one of the cutest).

The humor was on point and not overdone. The killer had a unique costume that worked well and the physicality to make the violence believable. The kills were standard slasher fare, which is a compliment. No need to put "avocado on the burger" (Silent Night) as they say. More suspense and atmosphere, perhaps a more ominous score and this would get a couple of bumps up and be about as good as it can get for a genre that is extremely well defined.

Won't go through the scenes as it has been well reviewed already. Just giving it a big thumbs up to those searching the reviews to see if it's a throwback slasher worth a watch.

Yes it is, put it on !

No matter how hard they try (or don't try) modern slashers can never seem to capture the endearingly innocent goofiness and corniness of the 78-83 era. Varsity Blood is no exception, although to be fair it does at least start in the right gear. The opening few minutes got my hopes up that I was about to witness a retro slasher homage done the right way for once (the killer looked truly hilarious and the film briefly seemed like fun), but it soon shifted gears into snooze-mode.

One of my main problems was the way almost every character garbled their lines out in such a lacklustre way that half of what they said was unintelligible. I don't mind dumb dialogue, in fact I love it, but only when I can make it out. This and the total lack of screen presence of most of the cast, and the fact the plot moved slower than an iceberg chained to a wall made me give up about half way through, which I rarely do. This wasn't insultingly annoying, but should've been much more fun than it was.