Blood Song

Honestly,I'm shocked no one has posted that headline yet,it's so obvious!I've seen this movie,and it's pretty bad!It should be noted that except for his occasional reunions with Annette,this is Avalon's ONLY acting performance since "Grease" Sad,when you consider he started his acting career with a few A pictures["The Alamo" & "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"]and then degenerated into the AI Beach films! Not a defense of him or this film,just a witty comment!

Got this in a double feature movie pack the other being "Mausoleum". I am surprised to see this one has the higher score of the two movies as I thought that one was more entertaining though not necessarily a good movie in its own right. This movie starts out showing a boy who witnesses his father killing his mom and her lover and then himself. Well this kind of makes him mental and suffice to say he will grow up to be our killer. They do not really try to hide who he is during the movie as you see him fairly early in the picture. Well a girl with a bad leg sees visions of him doing his killings and he soon goes after her after she witnesses him disposing of one of his victims. There are a couple of good kills in this one, but for the most part the film is rather slow and a lot of times there is not a lot going on. The film will focus on the girl and her relationships with her father and her boyfriend then cut to a scene from time to time of the mental dude killing someone. Then after she sees him face to face the film is just him stalking her before finally going after her in a very prolonged scene. Just not all that entertaining. The psychic link she shares with the killer almost seems pointless after the initial scenes of her seeing visions of his killing and really added no new dimension to the film other than she should have been a bit more ready for him than she was. So all in all have to say this song had no rhythm and runs way to long at the end. I kept thinking to myself near the end "Shouldn't this be over?"

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Blood Song; before launching into my critique, here's a breakdown of my ratings:

Story - 1.00 Direction - 1.25 Pace - 1.00 Acting - 1.25 Enjoyment - 1.00

TOTAL - 5.50 out of 10

Here is another one of those stories that hold so many opportunities, but the writers fail to make use of them. Even with the reduced scope, the story isn't too terrible. It is pretty much your psycho who escapes from the asylum and starts a slaying splurge narrative. But there are some respectable elements in the story. The relationship between the father and daughter in the film is one instance. The pair don't get along. Theirs is a love-hate relationship - they love to hate each other. But when we learn the cause of their rift, everything becomes clear. The poor old mother has to be the referee to their angry bouts of word-slinging. This kinship is one of the elements that deserved more attention from the writers. Just as is the connection between the daughter and the psycho killer. It's touched upon early that she received a blood transfusion after an automobile accident. The rare blood type came from...yeah, you guessed it, the asylum. So does she have the slasher's blood running through her veins? We never get that clarification. It could have added so much more to the story.

Levi, however, does a decent job of shooting the script. The few changes in camera angles and lighting place it above average, though not far above. It would have been ideal if he could have varied the tempo some. The single pace is fast enough to keep your attention on the screen, but adding a mix of pacing would have helped create more tension and excitement. There may even be something you recognise if you're an avid watcher of horror films. When Marion takes a walk along the beach, she ends up at the bay featured in The Howling - shame the werewolves burnt up a year before she could have used their help.

Here's another reason the writers missed opportunities was so annoying. They had a reputable cast to perform their work, yet another waste. All of the performers are perfect in their roles. A couple even goes the extra mile. Donna Wilkes must have used a cane to help her walk at some time because when the doctor removes her leg brace, she correctly utilises the walking stick. It's a small thing, but these slight issues help a person to believe. But the actor who really goes the extra mile is Frankie Avalon. At the film's start, Psycho Paul isn't much to write home about. He's just an average bloke who gets annoyed whenever anyone tries to take his daddy-made flute from him. Shame he only knows one song. Though by the picture's climax, Psycho Paul is having fun - and it's kinda contagious.

If you like your slashers, then Blood Song may be worthy of your attention. Though it's run-of-the-mill genre fair, I found it an enjoyable film. Therefore, if you've exhausted your slash and dash library, feel free to check out Blood Song - it's okay for a quickie watch.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chiller lists to see where I ranked Blood Song.

Take Care & Stay Well.

The Plot = A young boy witnesses his father shoot his mother and her lover and then himself, and is then sent to a mental hospital, but many years later he escapes along with his flute and goes on a killing spree. In the meantime a young girl Marion begins to have visions of him killing people through a rare blood transfusion between the two.

Okay Blood Song has some interesting ideas, but fails to execute them properly, for a start the whole concept of a girl having psychic visions of the killer could have been interesting but as the movie goes on it becomes it a bit dull, as there is absolutely no explanation given to why she has these visions, we know how through the blood transfusion.

I also liked the idea behind the heroine being physically flawed, which would seemingly make her a much easier target for the killer and possibly add to any sort of suspense later in the flick. Of course we don't get any of that. The film also throws in some long and drawn out drama scenes which takes away the tension out of this movie and plus while the murders and the final showdown are real highlights of this movie, it just takes too long and spaced too far apart, I mean at times I kinda forgot that I was even watching a slasher movie, it felt like a drama.

The positive aspects of this movie, is for one thing the climax watching the girl limp herself away from the killer and into some lumber yard. The change of setting proved interesting. And the performances were pretty good, Frankie Avalon was interesting as the serial killer even though he chewed the scenery practically all time but I found him fun and Donna Wilkes played the female lead pretty well, she hit the right notes at the right time.

All in all Blood Song is definitely an average 80's slasher with some pretty interesting ideas but are flawed to say at least I would only recommend this if you're a huge fan of 80's slashers.

Pretty Wilkes ('Jaws 2', 'Angel') stars as angsty teenager, crippled in an automobile accident caused by her father, now experiencing bizarre flashbacks that somehow connect with a spate of violent killings committed by a flute-playing escaped mental patient.

Character-driven slasher features an impressive cast and foreboding synth-pop soundtrack (including a soulful ditty by Lainie Kazan), although the dialogue is often drivel ('I see things that aren't there, I dream about people I don't know, and I keep hearing this weird flute').

Sympathetic Bower and rough-handed Jaeckel play Wilkes' bickering parents, Clark is the frustrated sheriff, and nasally North the dateless girl friend whose role sadly goes nowhere. As for Frankie Avalon, you may not see 'Beach Party' the same way again, and despite playing very much against type, he's quite effective as the childlike serial killer.

Quirky, gory psychological slasher flick is obscure, but worth finding if you like 'em downbeat and nasty although the laboured climax possibly doesn't do the rest of the film justice.