Blood Stalkers

I rented this film about a year ago at a 'mom n pop' video store, thinking it would be trash, but perhaps entertaining trash. I made fun of the movie for the first thirty or forty minutes before I finally shut up and began to enjoy it. I'm not going to exaggerate and say this is a classic or anything, but it is a surprisingly good film with a few twists and some acceptable performances. It also has what, for my money, has got to be the greatest "scared sh*tless" performance in a single scene of any horror film I've ever seen; just keep your eyes on Jerry Albert (Mike) when he goes back to the car to get the beer. Albert may not be that great of an actor, but in this scene he delivers and then some! Albert redoes his "scared sh*tless" moment with Toni Crabtree later in the film. All in all, a great "C" movie that's hard to find, but worth it if you do.

The other reviews here give a pretty accurate view of the story and how it plays out so won't rehash any of it here. In presenting a review I would only add the filmmakers appeared to have a distinct vision of the film they wanted to make. Once a hardcore horror film viewer I've sat thru a lot of low budget dreck, so while some horror fans may describe Blood Stalkers as a bad and poorly made film, I would strongly disagree. Certainly not on par with say Sam Raimi's early work (The Evil Dead trilogy), it is an entertaining and sometimes scary film. The actors are not the buff and pretty people found in today's slasher films and Chainsaw remakes, but instead ordinary looking middle aged folk. And within the context of a low budget horror story they give rather good performances. The film has a terrificly crude visual style, and makes nice use of it's locations. Not as polished as much of today's low budget fare but worth seeing if you can find it.

Two married couples go out to an inherited hunting lodge, which has been vacant for eight years. They experience curious resistance from the yokels when they ask about the place. Worse, they're in for a night to dismember.

"Blood Stalkers" (1976), aka "The Night Daniel Died," was obviously inspired by "Deliverance," but also includes some (possible) swamp ape frolics. It starts out surprisingly well for a spare change Indie, as you get to know the four protagonists, although it starts to drag a bit. Voluptuous Cisse Cameron as Jeri is a highlight and so is blonde Toni Crabtree as Kim, the latter appearing in a tame nighttime skinny dipping sequence (just a heads up).

After the midpoint, unfortunately, there's an extended nighttime sequence that's too dark and tedious, which reflects lousy filmmaking. However, the bad parts are usually counterbalanced by effective sequences such as the artistic black church segment. The violent close is well done, all things considered, and I liked the explanation.

Ken Miller, who plays the secondary protagonist (Daniel), was 43 during shooting in June, 1975, while Cisse Cameron, who plays his wife, was 21. I bring this up because someone complained about how much older he was than her. But Cisse could easily pass for mid-30s, so it's not really an issue. And, besides, it's not like husbands being significantly older than their wives is rare.

Some of the music was composed by Stan Webb, who went on to contribute a song to "Thelma & Louise." The rest was done by Blood Sweat and Tears, who were uncredited to save money.

This was the sole flick directed by the writer/director, who happens to play the bald yokel in the film. He supposedly saw Bigfoot when he was 21 and appeared in four sasquatch documentaries between 1972-76, not to mention lectured at colleges and universities before retiring to western Montana.

"Blackwater" (2007) is a better movie of this no-budget Indie sort, which involves four women as the protagonists rather than two couples.

It runs 1 hour, 34 minutes, and was shot in southeastern Florida at Fort Lauderdale and the Everglades just west of there.

GRADE: C/C- (4.5/10)

I give it 8 out of 10 because it is a cult classic. Also it is directed by legendary sasquatch hunter Robert W Morgan who also plays the part of Jarvis in the film. In listening to recent blogtalkradio show called the AARF show(Robert Morgan is a co-host)he tells that because it has become such a cult classic and does well at movie conventions and such,there are plans to maybe do a sequel to this film. I think he said that two of the original stars have signed on and he hopes to have a few more. Robert is a good man and I hope it does well. He has devoted 50+ years of tireless work as a Sassquatch Researcher(which is also one of my interests)and author. Check out his show on the paranormal and maybe look for Blood Stalkers II sometime in the near future.

Some 70's horror movies are really scary which is definitely not the case here. I think the problem that really stopped Blood Stalkers from being a scary horror was the time it took for the horror element to kick in if you can call it that. It's not real horror by today's standards.

Blood Stalkers characters aren't obnoxious like many modern horrors. They are more ignorant or short sighted. It's an ugly story of how one can unwittingly find themselves in the wrong neighborhood very easily. The horror element is more of a disguise to cover up what little mystery the movie has which is probably why the movie rates so poorly. Calling yourself a horror when you aren't is clearly blasphemy to horror fans.

Apart from that obvious flaw its quite watchable and the music and sound affects aren't bad and quite expected for its time just don't go in expecting Evil Dead like horror or you will be very disappointed.

It could easily have been edited down to 80 - 85mins and it probably would have been better. I liked it but I doubt I would see it again anytime soon.