This sadly obscure 80's slasher/trash gem already earned half of its positive rating based on the exhilarating pre-credits opening sequence. It's one of the greatest and most promising intros I've ever seen in a horror film and I'm pretty sure every fan of the genre will concur. The first three minutes of "Blood Frenzy" are scarier, more atmospheric and most importantly gorier than the vast majority of 80's flicks are throughout their entire running times. And it even gets better and gooier after the intro, with an inventive premise, a morbid isolated desert setting, morbid scenery (the Jack-in-the-Box) and surprisingly professional art-direction and competent acting performances. A female psychiatrist develops the brilliant idea to take her six most complex patients out on a therapeutic excursion into the desert. They form a fine alliance of stereotypical social outcasts, including a sleazy alcoholic, a sexist macho, a traumatized Vietnam veteran, a female nymphomaniac, an embittered & cynical woman and a lady with a phobia for physical contact. After just one night, one of the patients is found with his throat brutally slit from ear to ear, the RV is sabotaged and the water supply is drained. Someone obviously doesn't want the group to leave the desert alive
Or maybe one of them has another psychopathic problem he/she hasn't shared with the group yet? With its concept of loonies in the desert (stalked by a maniacal killer), "Blood Frenzy" offers a nice variation on the usual premise of horny teenagers camping in the woods (and stalked by a maniacal killer) and it's a lot more suspenseful, too. The heated desert is an ideally hopeless and terrifying setting and there's the uniquely reoccurring use of a jack-in-the-box with its creepy tune to scare the pants off of you. The murders are rather low in number, but they are exceptionally gruesome. The killer has a fetish for slit throats and the camera literally zooms in as the blood sputters out of the victims' neck. The ingenuity of the plot weakens a bit near the end and the pacing understandably slows down a little, but the climax is suitably demented again, with a sublime twists. With all the crap 80's movies getting fancy DVD-releases lately, I honestly don't understand that "Blood Frenzy" hasn't received its very own special edition yet? It's a tremendously entertaining and blood-soaked little treasure, ripe for (re)discovery.
Review of Blood Frenzy
