Blood Slaughter Massacre

Indie horror is strong and thriving today, thanks in part to the efforts and creativity of low budget Indie directors and the whole horror community, who embrace it. This is very evident in the indie slasher "Blood Slaughter Massacre" by Mass Grave Pictures. The film is a total tribute and celebration of all that was great about late 70's and early 80's slasher flicks that still dominate the horror fans psyche to this day. Directed by Manny Serrano, the film pays homage to those iconic moments within the classic horrors of "Halloween", "Friday The 13th", "Madman" and others, while creating a completely individual cabal of rising evil. In "Blood Slaughter Massacre", Officers Fincher and Cobb are called out to investigate a noise complaint, and what they find is far worse; twenty-four people, murdered in cold blood. The murderer escapes, and the Havenwood Police Department cover it up, inventing a story about an out-of-control fire. Ten years later –now detectives- Fincher and Cobbs, while investigating a girls murder, it looks as though the killer has returned to Havenwood. And this time he has a new diatribe guiding is malicious nature.

"Blood Slaughter Massacre" is a bit of a dichotomy in that it does create an elaborate plot which is supported by heavily built characters, and yet a lot of the story unfortunately unravels as the story grows. The robust, affirmative character relations, to the over all plots intent, flows more like a really bad cardiogram than a healthy pulse- pounding saga. That is really the only thing that hinders the film from being the massive indie slasher that is should be. Sometimes when writing a story – less is more. Especially with dialog relationship to the characters. Some moments, when explaining the 'whys and hows' of the connection to the enveloping plot, the lines seem over-indulgent and begin to wear on the story lines continuity. Now, that is the bad.

The good things about "Blood Slaughter Massacre"- is the complete tributary nature of the film to classic horror movies. The little nods and moments that highlight a certain film's influence on the writer and director's love of this genre. The total 'I love the 80's' vibe allows for a bit of fun in the films visual appeal. This film, unlike a lot of homage-throwback horrors takes a more serious approach to the slasher genre and I respect that. It gives similar atmosphere to the cult classic days of horror movie making. The soundtrack is thrilling and builds those same chillingly eerie, emotional connections between the story and the viewer. There is blood, blood, and more blood splattered all through this film, which eases the frustrations I had with the psychological aspect of the story that rested on the characters. The killer was a menacing, unstoppable killing machine with a plain. I loved that, that fact that he uses the dark arts as a justification for choosing his victims, hits a sweet spot for me in horror. I love films that utilize black magic in the plot-even slasher films.

Even though it sounds like I may not have enjoyed "Blood Slaughter Massacre" – I did. It is a cool low-budget flick, with a serious approach to the genre. It offers a creepy killer, and even though the plot seemed to be more than necessary it still offered a unique spin while still paying tribute to classic horror. The blood, gore and special effects where above standard for this level of Indie production. Most of the kill scenes allowed a face view graphic slaughter-and the pay off was a nice reward for the scene and the viewer. This film is a cool little indie flick that fans of the slasher genre will truly enjoy. As far as over all feeling of the film I am split. I loved everything about this movie except the actual character building story lines and their relationships to one another. Every thing else was top shelf-low budget- indie horror enjoyment.

I like to think that I am quite an easy to please reviewer, but some of the other reviews for this film make me question my own sanity! Certainly it's not the worst film ever made and there is definitely a story and direction in play, but other than that there isn't really much to praise here.

Now sure, there is a definite 80s style in the synthesizer background music and the masked killer plot, but these things are also generally used because they are cheap and simplistic, and therefore well suited to an ultra low budget horror film such as this, it's nothing to write home about. Furthermore the homage goes no further than simply supplying the exact same type of offering, and if you aren't sending up or moving on concepts from the past, then is there really much point in making a movie that 'should have come out in the 80s' beyond pure nostalgia?

Apart from that this is your standard ultra low budget horror movie where it was probably more fun to make than to watch; the story is all spelled out in untidy exposition, the gore is bad, the acting is questionable, the pacing is all off and most of this is covered up by a good amount of skin from the actresses involved. There is nothing wrong with this for amateur horror, but don't expect it to be a revelation in film making or anything.

This is what you get when anyone can get their hands on a camcorder and think they can make a movie. Let's look at the positives - well, there are none. It's another stupid attempt at a homage to 80's slashers which, as I recall, mostly sucked. But they were of a professional level of suck, so were tolerable. Be honest here, every Friday the 13th after the first one, every Halloween, they were all crap. So is this pile of steaming turd. Bad acting, no story at all, bad SFX, and crappy makeup. This is a 'film' that should be consigned to the dust bin of history. I'm really glad I didn't pay to see this. As for those 8's and 10's, I really think the people behind the camera just post their own reviews.

Nothing like 80s movies. Bad acting, horrible cinematography and sound. The pacing was equally as bad. Look, I love bad movies: Final Exam, Killjoy, Slaughterhouse Massacre. But this was unbearable and nearly impossible to sit through. Trust me, skip this movie. If you want a good homage movie, watch "Lost After Dark" or "The Sleeper."

There is just like so much wrong with this movie. The acting is bad, the story makes almost no sense and everything looks blurry! I really wanted to like this movie, but there was nothing redeeming about this and I like slasher movies usually, but not this. It's not even a slasher movie. The whole first half tries to be serious drama or something and have a story, but the story is just muddled at best and the acting does not lift it any higher. It takes WAY to long to get to the party scene with the girls, where they are trying desperately to be a Slumber Party Massacre or something, but they just fail. It just felt like almost no effort was put into this. The effects were hokey and that mask looked like something from party city, and what coroner wears sideburns like that in 1985, I mean what the hell is up with that? I really want my $20.00 back. Don't judge this movie by its box art because it's misleading. Just watch the 4 MINUTE trailer, which I saw after the fact. Wish I'd seen it sooner I would have avoided wasting my money on this thing. How do people get away with releasing a movie like this. Aren't there quality standards anymore? I guess obviously not when released by whatever the company was that put this garbage out there. $20 bucks wasted that's all I have to say. Even $10.00 would have too much for this thing.