Blood Rage

Pros: great gory practical effects and a retro 80s soundtrack.

Cons: poor acting and dialogue, the story is bare bones and almost non-existent, and the pacing is sporadic and jarring for the most of the film's runtime.

Overall, it's a directionless movie that drags and basically seems to exist solely for its death scenes. I guess that makes it a decent enough late night popcorn horror movie, but you'll end up struggling through a rather horrendous film just for a few decent gory moments. Maybe worth a single watch, but that's it.

A homicidal child blames his twin brother for a grisly axe murder he committed and he's sent away until one Thanksgiving when he's released and the murders starts up at their mother's apartment complex again.

There's a hint of Greek tragedy throughout Blood Rage that doesn't always hit the mark, but you have to admire the filmmakers for daring to make something more than just another run of the mill slasher. If that's what you're looking for, you'll still be more than satisfied, because in it's uncut form, Blood Rage might be one of the bloodiest slashers from this era. Hands are lopped off, heads are split in half, and torsos are torn apart. Louise Lasser also blesses us with one of the great unhinged performances of all time.

"That's not cranberry sauce..."

Blood Rage has some GREAT kill scenes and practical effects (machete through the back) and it's filled with 1980's nostalgia from the can-opener beer cans, drive in movies, old video games and short shorts.

I was really tempted to give this movie 4 stars. It has a cool unique story of a brother who framed his twin brother for a murder he committed and when his brother breaks out of the mental institution he see an opportunity for another killing spree to frame his brother and get him thrown back in the mental institution again.

Maddy (Louise Lasser! Louise Lasser!) takes her twin, ten year old sons, Terry and Todd, to the drive-in theater for some wholesome movie watching fun. Unfortunately, Terry is a homicidal maniac, who can't resist the opportunity to slip out of the car, and murder someone with an ax! To make matters worse, he blames Todd for the murder, causing him to be locked away in a mental institution. Ten years later, Todd escapes, and heads home, just in time for Thanksgiving.

BLOOD RAGE is another enjoyable slasher film from the sub-genre's heyday. Overflowing with gushy gore FX, 80's fashions and decor, mountainous hair, and a skull-fracturing synthesizer score, it's a perfect slab of blood-drenched cheddar.

Still, in spite of the grisly goings on, the most haunting scene involves Maddy sitting on the floor devouring leftovers. Then, in her horror and grief, she cleans the oven! Vigorously! Drop whatever you're doing and watch this right now...

"Blood Rage" begins with two twin adolescent boys at a drive-in with their mother on a date; the two slink off, and one of them murders a man in his car. Ten years later, the psycho twin is incarcerated in a mental institution. On Thanksgiving, the good twin and his mother go to visit, but find he has escaped. He returns to the woodsy community where his mother lives and begins carving up residents like turkeys.

Let's face it—evil twins are to horror films what pumpkin pie is to Thanksgiving. It just works. "Blood Rage," a little-known slasher filmed in the early 1980s, knows this, and takes full advantage of the trope. The film fell into obscurity and wasn't even released theatrically until 1987; it made it to small theaters and B-movie drive-ins, and all but disappeared. What's interesting is that the film actually offers all of the hallmarks that genre fans love about these films: a holiday setting, corny one-liners, young adults copulating, and some impressive special effects set to a pounding synth score. You'd think the film would have at least garnered a cult following, but the limited availability of it until Arrow Video's 2015 release prevented it from ever really catching on.

The film is admittedly a mess in areas; some of the performances are hammy and the dialogue contrived, while the pacing is certainly bizarre at times, but for a low-budget B slasher film, these are typically taken for granted, and if anything are part of the charm. Louise Lasser spends the majority of the film boozed out screaming into a telephone and eating Thanksgiving leftovers on her kitchen floor, while her good twin boy searches ruthlessly for his unhinged brother. Bodies start piling up, and elaborate gore effects take precedent over plot development at times. The script overall is vaguely sketched and doesn't completely feel rounded out, and the film does suffer from a frankly nonthreatening villain, but the final act is tongue-in-cheek and well handled.

Overall, the film is a nice slice of eighties slasher pie that somehow got left behind. It's not a great film by any means, but it's also not a bad one when pitted against the genre standards. The ending is rather grim, and Lasser's turn as the mentally destroyed mother is hammy, Oedipal, and at times poignant. In many ways, the film reminded me of "Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker," another eighties slasher that never really caught on, in both tone and thematics. "Blood Rage" is most definitely worth a look for genre fans, and is a hokey, gory effort if nothing else. 6/10.