Blood Frenzy

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...

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.

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.

This movie was not in the least what I expected. With a typical brainless horror title like "Blood Frenzy", I assumed it would just be another one of those countless formulaic slasher films out there. In fact, the only reason I rented this tape was because the video box proudly displayed the distributor's logo in large, conspicuous type: HOLLYWOOD FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT. I thought it was absolutely hilarious that a company whose name implies that their movies are good, clean, wholesome fun for the entire family would have a title like "Blood Frenzy" in their catalog. Upon seeing this, I grabbed the tape and headed to the front of the store, not caring whether the film would be good or not. I just had to see it now.

Blood Frenzy is actually more of a mystery film than a true horror movie, although it does manage to blend the two genres quite nicely. The plot concerns a doctor who takes her six patients, each with serious psychological problems, on a trip to an old, secluded cottage in the Mojave desert. Her intent is to enact daily sessions of confrontational therapy with her patients, free from the usual distractions of the rest of the world. A couple of days later, however, we find that their RV is broken down, the food and water supply has suddenly become exhausted, and the people are being killed off one by one. Who is committing these murders, and how will be able they contact anybody for help?

This movie will really keep you guessing, and I think it's safe to say that even if you are able to correctly guess the identity of the killer, you'll still be satisfied with the ending. It really wraps the story up nicely.

If you ever get the chance to see Blood Frenzy, I hope you decide to take advantage of it. Though it's not particularly scary, it does have a great story, nice special effects, and a cast of believable, well-acted characters. I look forward to seeing more titles from HOLLYWOOD FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT!

A four is generous. This is a mediocre low-budget slasher with poor gore effects (that it inexplicably dwells on, so you really have time to appreciate how unconvincingly rubbery that neck-slashing looks) and dumb characters. The premise is entertaining--a psychiatrist takes a group of patients out to the desert for presumably healing encounter-group-type work--but even by the usual know-nothing standards for such subjects, "Blood Frenzy" really botches it. The characters are all one-note caricatures of various conditions (nymphomania, alcoholism, frigidity, anger management, post- Vietnam PTSD, and what seems to be simply a case of "bitchy lesbian"), and it's ridiculous that anyone would think they could all be treated together. But OK, it's a slasher film, we're not here for realism.

The "name" actor here is Lisa Loring, who plays the lesbian, which in this kind of movie of course means she's a "man-hater" and puts the make on every woman in sight. (She also wears too much makeup that still seems to be perfectly fresh after a couple days' desert camping and various travails...but there I go, looking for realism again.) Hoo man, she is terrible. She starts out yelling and just gets hammier. The other actors are adequate given their silly roles and sometimes sillier dialogue.

You don't expect a lot from a movie like this, but it really does a poor job of building any suspense, delivering shocks, and other horror basics. By comparison "The Hills Have Eyes" is a masterpiece of complex plotting (among other virtues), if we're talking stuck-and-terrorized-in-the-desert movies in general. Why DID I give it a four? Well, you know--we'll all seen worse.