Locura sangrienta

Mostly predictable slasher flick with one nice twist towards the end and some fun 3D effects. The story itself sounds more interesting on paper than it ends up in the film, but it's anchored by a great performance by Belinda Montgomery who seems to think she's in a much classier film than she is. Viveca Lindfors chews up the scenery in the best way as the housemother of a sorority where a series of brutal murders took place. It's not a movie you'll remember much about when it's over, but it's not the worst way to spend 90 minutes of your time.

A dangerous lunatic escapes from a mental hospital. A girls college is nearby. You figure out what happens next. And if you can't, you haven't seen enough movies. Or I've watched too many. Anyhoo, as the body count rises and we get a couple of obligatory boob shots, no-one believes the one sane female doctor who knows what's going on, so she sets out to stop the guy herself. After all, those vestal virgins ain't gonna be much use in a fight...

Apart from a nostalgic glance at an old Dragon's Lair arcade machine, there is NOTHING that separates this from the surfeit of others slashers from the 80's. Bad hair, awful editing and plot holes are here in abundance. Why for instance, when our mad psycho catches up with the good lady doctor, is she the only victim he doesn't dispatch straightaway... He ties her up (not very well) thus giving her a chance to escape. Not only is he crazy, but also incredibly dumb.

File under FORGETTABLE NONSENSE. Next... 4/10

This is a relatively well written and well shot 80s Slasher film that deserves to be better known. The acting by the main actors stands up (a few of the extras are a little weak but that adds to the 80s Slasher charm), and the story, while not the greatest, is definitely good enough for the genre. There's a pretty high kill count, and actually more than one bad guy (there's a couple "sub" bad guys).

Now, it's pretty important what cut of this movie you end up watching, as many are heavily edited as well as poorly cropped. I grabbed the latest Vinegar Syndrome release which has been beautifully restored as well as released in 2D, the original anaglyph 3D as well as an amazing Blu-Ray 3D release (for those few movie nerds like me that still have a 3D TV kicking around).

This was an enjoyable movie with good characters, plot, acting, directing, music and effects. It must have been heart breaking to put the work into the gory fx only to have annoying censors delete it just cause. This movie really had the potential be more than a cheesy B horror.

Either ways, what's left is a nooted horror with little actual depictions of the numerous grizzly death scenes in the movie. I would say this movie could have been as good as the original friday the 13th's or sleepaway camps but they destroyed it in its prime. Still worth seeing though for everything else.

Silent Madness (1984) is a movie that was highly recommended on Twitter and is available for free on YouTube. The story focuses on the head of a Psychiatric ward who releases an inmate and blames it on a computer glitch. A group from the ward tracks down a trail of murders to a sorority house where they hope to finally catch the killer. This movie is directed by Simon Nutchtern (Savage Dawn) and stars Belinda Montgomery (Tron: Legacy), Vivica Lindfors (Creepshow) and Sydney Lassick (Carrie). This was a fun old school slasher film with some better than expected kill scenes and predictable but well done sequences. The premise was also entertaining as was the dialogue between characters. This truly has a classic 80s slasher feel to it you'll thoroughly enjoy. I'd score it a 6-6.5/10.