Blood Frenzy

Supremely annoying characters are driving through the desert, when their van breaks down, only to be set upon by an unseen killer.

As in the vastly superior 1977 film, The Hills Have Eyes, the desert location gives a creepy atmosphere to the proceedings, but the characters are all so very annoying, and the gore effects are all so underwhelming they aren't worth waiting for.

Directed by hardcore pornographic filmmaker Hal Freeman, and allegedly based on a script by Ray Dennis Steckler , pointlessly​ titled " Warning - No Trespassing " , which was rewritten by Freeman's frequent collaborator, Ted Newsom, this will, at least, answer anyone's questions about why Wednesday Addams didn't continue acting.

Nowadays it's hard to come by this movie. The copy I found is very bad, audio and footage were damaged (and I even think it was a fandub?) and it's all in all a trouble to find this movie and then additional trouble to watch it and more than 90% of people won't endure such trouble to watch this movie. But those who do (and I'm assuming those brave few will be hardcore fans of the horror genre) will find a nice little slasher that obviously had effort put into it. Characters are interesting enough to make the watching of a movie entertaining and the whole thing has a certain kind of atmosphere and charm. It's not scary or creepy, so don't go in expecting a hidden gem, but it's still entertaining if you can appreciate the effort. It's also worth noting that the director of the movie is Hal Freeman, and he was a porn director, so it's no wonder female characters are dressed in a bit revealing fashion, which serves as nice bit of eye candy. All in all, just for the chemistry between the characters and the obvious effort put into the movie, I give it 6/10, but I recommend it only to hardcore genre fans, because everybody else won't finding anything here that's worth their time and can safely regard the rating as it currently is, a 4/10...

BLOOD FRENZY is a SOV (shot-on-video) horror film I'd heard lots of good things about, yet after I watched it, I have to say that I feel it is overrated, which might be the first time I've ever said that about a SOV movie!

A psychiatrist takes six of her patients in an RV out in the desert for a little isolation therapy, where each will confront his/her problems in an attempt to fix them. However, someone begins killing them in bloody ways, leaving an old jack-in-the-box as their calling card. Is it someone in the group? Or is it someone else?

BLOOD FRENZY started off strong, yet petered out during the last half or so. One of the film's strong suits is the entertaining and three-dimensional characters. I can't really pinpoint many really likable characters, but as quirky as the bunch was, I thought they were all believable, due, in part, to the strong performances given by the cast.

The writing was above average, and I feel the desert setting is a sadly underused setting in slashers. There's a good amount of bloodshed and some realistic throat slashings, including a really good opening murder.

Unfortunately, BLOOD FRENZY became a little too repetitive for its own good. The murders seemed like they were all the same, and even the characters grew to be a bore. Throughout the film, the tone was serious yet a bit goofy at the same time. During the climactic showdown, it just turns to all out goofiness, which really doesn't work in the film's favor.

The movie also features Lisa Loring (Wednesday from THE ADDAMS FAMILY), who would go on to be in the much more entertaining slasher (this time in the snow!) ICED (1988). As it stands, I'd say it's worth seeking out, but don't expect much out of it.

A late entry in the '80s cycle of slasher movies, Blood Frenzy sees psychiatrist Dr. Barbara Shelley (Wendy MacDonald) driving to the desert to conduct a spot of confrontational therapy with six of her deeply troubled patients: macho douche-bag Dave (Hank Garrett), Vietnam veteran Rick (Tony Montero), bitter man-hater Dory (Lisa 'Wednesday Addams' Loring), sexy blonde nymphomaniac Cassie (Lisa Savage), alcoholic Crawford (John Clark), and Jean (Monica Silveria), who has a fear of being touched. No prizes for guessing that one of the group is a lot more disturbed than the rest and proceeds to kill off the others one-by-one, slashing their throats with a knife and gashing their stomachs.

This relatively obscure slasher starts with a gory prologue in which a drunken father tries to punish his child with his belt, paying the price for his abusive ways when the kid gets the upper hand and rips open pop's neck with a gardening tool! The desert-bound action leading up to the other murders is, by comparison, rather mundane—assorted bickering between the patients, with sex maniac Carrie trying to calm the situation by sleeping with the men (AND, later in the film, a woman)—but hang on in there: once the killer gets their game on, Blood Frenzy more than lives up to its title, the claret flowing freely throughout with plenty of throat cutting and a demented finale that features a juicy knife in the neck, a pick-axe in the back and an impaling on a wooden stake.

A female psychotherapist and her small group of emotionally troubled patients trek into the middle of the desert(where it's free to film a movie) for some solitude, and a bit of therapeutic soul-purging and brain-picking. Once settled at their destination, members of the group begin to disappear, leaving the others to nervously unravel the mystery while eyeing each-other suspiciously.

A fairly pissant little production, BLOOD FRENZY isn't exactly a marvel of filmmaking genius, but there are scores of truly wretched titles from the slasher canon which make it at least seem somewhat more substantial than it actually is. Formulaic, featureless, and for the most part watchable, this is a nondescript film which serves up the barest meat-and-potatoes provisions and makes zero attempt to distinguish itself with fresh ideas or impressive showmanship.

BLOOD FRENZY should manage to appease most undemanding slash-cinema enthusiasts, but mostly in a tap-water flavored sort of way. 4/10