Blood Beat

A family's Christmas reunion gets off to a bad start when the son brings home his girlfriend, leading to an awkward feeling of deja-vu between her and the boy's psychic mother. Weird things begin happening, the weirdest of which happens to be the presence of a glowing samurai warrior who's murderous tendencies appear to be linked to the girlfriend's orgasms.

"Bloodbeat" is one of the more bizarre films you could ever see. What we have here is a slasher shot in Wisconsin by a French director with a ghostly samurai as the killer. It's actually pretty effective for the first two thirds of the running time, particularly a creepy home invasion and ensuing chase. Through some splendid editing, this sequence is interspersed with the girlfriend's writhing and upward-thrusting in bed. It's also undeniably cool seeing a samurai as the villain in a slasher. During the final third, however, the film veers off in an unsatisfying direction with over-the-top antics and ridiculous special effects. Disappointing, but not enough to ruin the film for me. Oh yeah, excessive overuse of violin chords too.

Where to begin with a movie like Blood Beat? I had never even heard of this until Vinegar Syndrome gave it a Blu-ray restoration a couple years back. It sounded odd enough that I decided to give it a chance. Odd is an understatement.

You are never given any explanations for anything that happens in this movie. It's not one of those experiences where the end credits begin to roll and you're angry because you feel like you wasted your time though. They never lead you on like you're going to get an explanation at any point, you're just along for the ride.

The film itself has slasher tendencies, but it's definitely not a full-on slasher flick. But for a slasher villain, the Japanese samurai is super cool and original. Not to mention that a girl keeps having orgasms every time it kills! Why? Who knows?! But it's a cool effect!

It also seems like the majority of the cast has phychic powers. How? Beats me! What does it all have to do with the mother's paintings? Don't ask me! But it adds an unusual supernatural angle to everything.

The film itself is actually shot rather well with some memorable cinematography. This combined with the editing, and in certain scenes the lighting, add to the trippiness of everything. Blood Beat almost plays out like a nightmare. There are many dream-like qualities to it.

I just finished the film as I'm writing this, and I'm so intrigued by this oddity that I feel compelled to research it a little further. This will be one I'll try to introduce to as many people as possible. Highly recommended to lovers of strange cinema, and those who know how to have fun with a "bad movie".

Blood Beat (1983)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely bizarre low-budget slasher about a group of people living in the woods of Wisconsin where they hunt deer and do very little else. One of the women begins to see strange things and before long a samurai warrior has her possessed.

Fabrice A. Zaphiratos wrote, composed, edited, shot and directed this bizarre film that's not really that good but at the same time if I ever met the man I'd have to shake his hand. I say that because quite often low-budget movies try to cash in on a popular genre while not doing anything original. If you're familiar with the slasher craze that was going on during this period then you know it was basically a bunch of horny teens in a variety of locations being stalked by a killer.

What's so interesting about BLOOD BEAT is the fact that the director really did try to do something different. This is a very bizarre movie and it's not one that is easy to write about because it's so darn weird that most people wouldn't believe what you're saying. The possession scenes, if you want to call them that, are being weird in their own right and why a samurai? In fact, why a samurai in Wisconsin of all places? The entire movie was obviously shot on a low-budget so there aren't any good special effects, no real memorable kills or anything like that.

The only thing you've got is this really weird idea that plays out about as weird as you could expect. I keep using the words bizarre and weird but there's really not other way to describe this movie. The performances are pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this and there's really nothing good here. The budget was way too low for the material to work but once again I tip my hat to the filmmaker for at least trying something different. In doing so he's at least created something you won't forget.

When i used to live in a crappy room in a crappy flat in London, me and my girlfriend (now my wife) sat down to watch this video (which my mate picked up in a cheap cash exchange shop) one lazy Sunday afternoon. We both really enjoyed this minimal but captivating little tale, but i have no idea why and still find it hard pushed to find a reason to recommend it. Might make a good double-bill with the equally diverting NINJA 3: THE DOMINATION.

I was quite surprised by this movie. Obviously it was made with no money at all, but acting, photography, editing and story are well done. Proves once more you can do an entertaining movie with very little. "Blood Beat" owes a bit to "Poltergeist", "Witchboard" and "The Shining" maybe, but has a good storyline of its own about the ghost of evil (dressed up as a samurai warrior, also incarnated in one young lady) against a family whose members seem to have a certain talent for (good) magic. The special FX to show the magic (red powerlines vs blue powerlines) look ridiculous by today's standards, but hey, this is just a cheap little horror movie to waste a Sunday afternoon with, okay? The movie has a couple of memorable scenes (e.g. the samurai slaying the older woman, while the possessed young lady is getting more and more "excited", I thought the rapid cutting was breathtaking). If you see a copy on a probably dusty shelf, give it a try, as the video tape will be cheap I bet.