Blood Tracks

A dumb, by the numbers slasher film in which a rock band called Easy Action and some models go to a mountain cabin where they film a music video. Unknown to this carefree and free-living group, a homicidal mother and her like-minded offspring are out to kill whoever happens to cross their path. Starring real life rockers including Shotgun Messiah's Zinny Zan, and Europe guitarist Kee Marcello, and featuring sex, nudity and gore. Blood Tracks is very cheesy, cheap and silly, and best watched under the influence of whatever your particular vice may be. It was directed by Mats Helge and Derek Ford from a screenplay co-written with Anna Wolf. The movie is set in Colorado but was filmed in Sweden. Co-director and British exploitation filmmaker Derek Ford (Corruption; Don't Open Till Christmas; Attack of the Killer Computer) has a brief cameo role.

Unquestionably one of the dumbest, dullest and most redundant slasher/exploitation hybrids of the entire 80's decade, "Blood Tracks" is a Swedish-American co-production that desperately attempts to cash in on the success of "The Hills Have Eyes" and other similar mountain-survival horror flicks, but tremendously fails. The most transparent problem of this film project is the lack of budget. The acting performances are weak, the choreography looks amateurish and – worst of all – three quarters of the film is shot without lighting. During practically all the death sequences, you find yourself staring at a fully black screen with only a bit of loud screaming in the background. The basic plot outline isn't too bad, actually – albeit very derivative – but in spite of this and the reasonably high body count, "Blood Tracks" is an insufferably boring and retarded 80's movie. The intro sequence is undeniably the best of the whole film, as a worried mother of three slays her alcoholic and abusive husband and flees into the snowy Colorado Mountains. Many years later (forty according the synopsis on the back flap of the DVD), a cheesy and ultimately gay rock band called "Solid Gold" journeys to the area, along with groupies and backing vocals, to record a video clip. Their atrocious music and annoying behavior quickly causes avalanches so immense they find themselves trapped and cut off from the world. The family from the intro, by now completely bewildered and having developed cannibalistic appetites, resides in a nearby abandoned factory and prepares for a luxurious smörgåsbord. The influence of "The Hills Have Eyes" is obvious, as it is even hinted at that the self-exiled family engaged in naughty inbred games, but they're not the least bit menacing or scary. The band members and their dim-witted entourage form the least amiable horror characters I have ever seen. They say imbecilic stuff (like "the snow is cold" and "hey, let's do it in the snow"), make stupid decisions and honestly deserve to die in the most painful ways imaginable. The Colorado filming locations – actually shot in rural Sweden – are beautiful to look at, but that's pretty much the only positive thing I can write about "Blood Tracks". They're quite a bit of sleaze and nudity, but none of the female cast members are attractive or sexy. If I remember correctly, even that dreadful similarly themed movie "Terror on Tour" was better than this.

My review was written in May 1986 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Blood Tracks" is a gory horror film that although it was made last year belongs rightfully in the cycle of teen slasher features from five years ago. Prospects are modest in international markets.

Silly premise has a rock group amed Solid Gold (played by Swedish band Easy Action) on location in the Colorado mountains (actually filmed in Sweden) to shoot a music video. A large contingent of attractive femme models isalong, to provide th usual scantily clad decoration (even though it's cold and strictly snowsville, with frequent avalanches to boot).

While the troupe is holed up in a snug mountain cabin, workmen disturb the peace of a barbarian clan of savages living underneath an abandoned factory nearby. A prolog sequence shows how an ultraviolent domestic quarrel some 10 years earlier ended up with daddy dead and mom and the kids trekking to the remote spot where they're living and murdering primitively today.

When the rock entourage youngsters are not engaged in sex they're wandering out in the snow (this being a cornball horror picture after all) to be attacked by the primitives.

"Blood Tracks" emphasizes some grisly makeup effects, particularly one in which a girl suddenly is split in two from head to toe. Several sex and nude scenes are included, the silliest of which has blonde Mary (Karina Lee) making love to a musician out in a car when they're buried by an avalanche; when rescued she scrambles across the snow naked much to the merriment of the rescuers.

Cast is hampered by the use of post-synchronized English dialog, but the youngsters are good looking and that apparently is all that is required in this genre.

Easy Action were one of the first Swedish glam rock band and was formed in Stockholm in 1982.In 1983 they released their self-titled debut album and had a minor hit in Sweden with the song "We Go Rocking".In 1985 the band appeared in cheap survival horror "Blood Tracks" made by B-movie producer Mats-Helge Olsson.Easy Action broke up around 1986 after having recorded "That Makes One".If you are a fan of this cheesy glam rock group then check out "Blood Tracks" with its corny murderous family hiding in a a snow-swept disused factory.The family lives close to the cabin where 80s Swedish rock band 'Solid Gold'(Easy Action) have just arrived to film their latest smash video."Blood Tracks" is a dull horror movie with flat characters and almost zero gore.Still I have seen worse.5 blood tracks out of 10.

This is the first Swedish horror movie I have seen and if I see any more I hope they are better than this. A rock group who are filming a video clip are destroyed by a group of animalistic hermits who have heretofore lived undisturbed in an abandoned factory. A "Structure Condemned Do Not Enter" sign is on the outside of the building so naturally they ignore it and barge in. This belongs in the subgenre of horror films that centre around rock groups - other titles include Song of the Succubus, Terror on Tour, Rocktober Blood, Trick or Treat, Monster Dog, Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare and Black Roses. The songs are by a group I've never heard of called Easy Action.