{"id":871,"date":"2020-11-25T13:51:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T13:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattshorroraddiction.com\/?p=871"},"modified":"2020-11-25T13:51:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T13:51:06","slug":"blood-rage-a-thanksgiving-slasher-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/?p=871","title":{"rendered":"BLOOD RAGE: A Thanksgiving Slasher Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s not cranberry sauce<\/em><\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There were some horror films released in the decadent 1980s that were so quintessential of their era they can’t be replicated in any shape, way, or form. John Grissmer’s 1987 splatter classic, Blood Rage<\/em>, is one of those movies, a slasher flick that’s dripping in early ’80’s fashions, sensibilities, and outrageousness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie opens in 1974, Jacksonville, Florida, at a drive-in showing a movie called The House That Cried Murder<\/em>. Parked in a station wagon is single mom Maddy (Louise Lasser) on a date with what looks like a much younger man. Packed in the back (or along for the ride) are her twin boys, Todd and Terry (Russell and Keith Hall). While Maddy makes out with her date, Todd and Terry sneak out of the car and before you can say foreshadowing, psychopathic Terry steals a hatchet out of the back of a pick-up, kills a poor schmuck in his car, and frames Todd for the murder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Flash forward ten years later and poor, innocent Todd (Mark Soper) is living in a mental health facility while Terry (also Soper), a college student, is spending Thanksgiving with Maddy and her fianc\u00e9 (James Farrell) at the Shadow Woods apartment complex. As the family sits down for turkey dinner, they’re informed that Todd has escaped from the hospital. This news causes Terry to malfunction and go on a killing spree, once again framing Todd for his horrific crimes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Filmed as Slasher <\/em>(and released in some territories as Nightmare at Shadow Woods<\/em>) in and around Jacksonville, FL, in late 1983, Blood Rage<\/em> is a no-holds-barred, unashamed gorefest. It’s a movie that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is: a fun, spirited splatter epic, overloaded with hammy acting, feathered hair, a pumping synthesizer score, and some terrifically gruesome murder set pieces created by Ed French (Sleepaway Camp<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the reasons Blood Rage<\/em> works so splendidly is because it doesn’t go the mystery-killer route like 90% of the slashers of the ’80s. Instead it tells us who the killer is (young Terry) within the first five minutes, because the movie isn’t about figuring out who is doing the slashing. It’s about<\/em> the slashing. In one way, Blood Rage<\/em> is an unconscious satire on slashers in general, and in another, it has the look and feel of an H.G. Lewis flick <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blood Rage<\/em> has within recently years been certified a cult classic. From Arrow Video<\/a>‘s wonderful Blu-ray release, to multiple Terry-inspired t-shirts and pins, Blood Rage<\/em> has successfully, and deservedly, branded itself into the 80’s horror zeitgeist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From its synth-pop-pounding opening, to Terry’s memorable one-liners (“That’s not cranberry sauce, Artie!”), to the surprise, downbeat ending, Blood Rage<\/em> is in a class of its own, and one of the few horror movies that take place at Thanksgiving. Unabashedly zany and cheerfully sadistic, it’s a classic of its time period, and despite having been filmed in the early part of the decade is an example of OTT late ’80s excess. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QnUIVHM4F-M\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not cranberry sauce! There were some horror films released in the decadent 1980s that were so quintessential of their era they can’t be replicated in any shape, way, or form. John Grissmer’s 1987 splatter classic, Blood Rage, is one of those movies, a slasher flick that’s dripping in early ’80’s fashions, sensibilities, and outrageousness. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","category-retrospective","category-slashers"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}