Blood Relic

A cast of mostly anonymous teenagers hired to clean a aerospace museum experience bloody mayhem after one of them finds an occult talisman. This film is strongly adequate in most categories. The photography is professional. The direction is reasonably assured. The cast isn't too embarrassing, and generally all of the girls show some flesh. The aerospace museum location adds production value even though most of the mayhem happens in a more generic warehouse. The gore is adequate – though the make-up generally plays out in the aftermath of the attacks rather than in the violence itself. So what's the problem? It's just tired. Young, good-looking people being killed off one-by-one by a masked assailant. Been there, seen that. I needed an extra hook, and there wasn't one. The potential of an interesting "monster" was wasted. The talisman is a wasted device. It seems turns the wearer into a homicidal maniac. The characters are always simply running from the unknown human carrier than battling the demonic entity pulling the strings. It would have been more interesting if the filmmakers had taken the time to develop force behind talisman better, and let the characters try to figure a way to take it on directly. Not terrible, when you consider the low standards of the genre, but there are better films out there.

Director Ingvordsen's third foray into the horror genre proves to be his best attempt yet. Not a masterpiece by any means, but also devoid of any pretense claiming itself to be... his movies never try to be anything more than they are - a stab (no pun intended) at some good old fashion scary fun. Although the story has a couple of clever gags, beyond the smoke and mirrors the script is rather formulaic, and thus somewhat predictable. The actors are a bit of a mixed lot with Park, Grant, & Steccato a step above the rest. Ironically, the film's only actor of mainstream notoriety, Billy Drago gives a tremendously "over the top" effort and the worst performance in the film. Scream Queen Debbie Rochon does her job well and provides a nice mammary cameo... but other than that she is rather forgettable. The locations used are pretty cool and definitely up the production value. Although Ingvodsen has begun to introduce more flesh and gore with this movie -- he hasn't learned that although Sam Raimi was from the bootleg special effect school, he at least did it well. Note to the director - get a real special effects artist next time, there is only so much disbelief to be suspended. In writing a critique, I am being critical... with my pet peeves aside, the movie was worth a watch. It held a good pacing, was well shot and edited, and has some great moments. If it's a low-budget slasher flick you want, then you've found it.

Everything you desire in an 80's slasher movie is here. And what elevates Blood Relic somewhat, is the unique location used, which certainly beats the cheap storage garage sets many low budget films use today. Also two of my personal favorites, Debbie Rochon, and Billy Drago are involved. Sadly Debbie is not the star, but her scenes are still beneficial to the film. And for my money, Billy Drago can be in the most lousy piece of trash film imaginable, and still deliver an engrossing villainous performance. The kill scenes were solid here, and the ladies shed there clothes often. Ingvordsen has finally got a grasp on what fans of this genre enjoy, after his watchable, yet almost pg level Bog Creatures. In the end this is an above average throwback, with a unique setting, and the required horror goodies.

Working at a local military museum, the workers restoring the exhibits find that a sacred amulet found there releases a murderous spirit on the base and is being forced to kill due to the homicidal influence of the relic, forcing them to find a way out of the museum while stopping the killer's rampage.

This here wasn't that bad of a slasher. One of the things it does right is getting a good setting for this of an airplane museum, which is pretty creative and allows for some great scenes within such a location. The scenes after the party, mainly the ones of the survivors wandering through the darkened hallways, trying logical plan after logical plan to get out, provide some great suspense as they go about their plan of action without alerting the killer, and trying to accomplish all this really great sneaking around in such creepy locations are really good. Due to the blackout in the area bringing up the cramped and confined office spaces and crew quarters within the long hallways while moving out into the main hall of the museum which has them interacting alongside the full-scale plane props during this set-up, the atmosphere here is highly enjoyable while generating plenty of fine suspense along the way. The killer in here has one of the greatest designs ever, as the large jumpsuit, pilot's helmet, and mask make for a great look for a killer, and this one pulls it off nicely which compliments the suspense quite well. There's some great nudity in here, which is greatly appreciated and surprising for this film, not only including a strip-poker sequence that has enough flesh since everyone strips off, but there's a couple of great sex scenes and the fun sequence where one woman is forced to strip for her boyfriend wearing a pilot's outfit until it's revealed that it was a gag, but it's a suspenseful one before that nonetheless and is all a part of the fun had with the nudity. The last big plus here is the fun and ingenious twist provided at the end that turns around the identity of the killer really nicely and comes about as a fun and surprising scene. Along with the blood and gore in here, these here are the film's good points as this here only has a few flaws to it. One of the biggest problems here is the fact that the purpose of the talisman relic indulging in the power to the others is never explained. It's simply told what it is, what it looks like and what happens, but never why and there's a serious void in here due to that, especially since there are two people who had been exposed to the powers who had told of their experiences, yet nothing is said why they were under the influence. Another flaw is that the majority of the film's kills are incredibly lame in execution, either doing it off-screen to be found later or just being the single most bloodless type of kill around which really leaves them pretty lackluster for the most part. The last flaw in here is the lame séance scene, which offers nothing of value, seems stuck in for no reason other than a lame jump-gag or a predictable supernatural twist, and could be done away with easily. These here are the film's flaws that hold it back.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Graphic Language and a couple mild sex scenes.

A complete waste of about a half an hour.IT'S A CURSED TALISMAN MOVIE...OH NOOO!The only thing this movie had going for it was a nice collection of vintage warplanes that were housed in the museum used a setting for this mess.Cardboard acting, horrible make-up (rubber Spencer Gifts Heart, and Campbells Tomato Soup blood)and the same old "lets have a séance" plot line abound in this movie.About the only thing frightening in this movie is Billy Dragos dental work!I had to turn it off after what appears to be every female hottie in this film starts disrobing,looks like the producers ran out of ideas early here.I can't understand why after watching the terrible acting in the first half hour of this movie,anyone wouldn't be rooting for the killer anyway. Skip this one.