Blood Rage (Aka Shadow Woods / Slasher) (1987)

Blood Rage (Aka, Shadow Woods / Slasher) is an American Slasher film produced in 1987. Written by Bruce Rubin and directed by John Grissmer, its undertones are very reminiscent of the campy “Friday The 13^th” series and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” with one homicidal son yearning for mother’s sympathy with a quick snap of his sanity. The film starts out in a crowded night at the local drive-in theater in 1974 in Jacksonville, Florida. For a fun night for many quickly turns into a blood soaked drive-in, when a single mother, Maddy Simmons (Louise Lasser) , takes her two young identical twin boys Todd (Mark Soper) and Terry (Mark Soper) with her while on a date.  The couple takes their night further as Ms. Simmons assumes the twins are asleep in the backseat, and as things get heated up in the front seat, the boys mischievously sneak out the back door without notice. Terry mysteriously finds and picks up an axe.   Peering into the next car, a couple takes their drive-in experience further and when discoved being watched by the twins, curses the boys to leave them alone.  Enraged, Terry  brutally attacks the couple. As the crowds gather after the shouts and screams, Terry quickly and hesitantly rubs the blood of his first victims on Todd’s face who had nothing to do with the murders and ditches the axe. In a dark twist, Todd claims that Terry was the one who murdered the couple and is quickly sent to a long term psychiatric hospital, leaving Todd as “The good child” knowing what he really did that dark night.  Fast forward nearly a decade later, it is Thanksgiving in Jacksonville, and the twisted Todd has kept his hands clean, now focused on convincing his innocence, life begins a new turn of events for him.  Terry has been locked up in a catatonic state with little to no memory of that night except that he was framed by his twin brother.  We are shortly introduced with Terry’s psychotherapist Dr. Berman (Marianne Kanter), and she admits that she knows Terry is not capable of such a crime and is determined to break  Todd’s secret. She rises to the top of Terry’s kill list. Ms. Simmons is now about to get married and this comes as unsettling news for Todd.  To make things more difficult, Todd’s brother, Terry has escaped his psychiatric hospital. Unworried, but a still very damaged Todd snaps further into his psychosis making sure Terry doesn’t expose his dark secret of that unfortunate night. Todd begins to pretend to be Terry, tricking his unfortunate victims, as the body count rises and his rage for blood is heightened in search of Terry. He begins to kill anyone and everyone who gets in his way. Blood Rage is a great psychological slasher film with plenty of gore and unique murder scenes. The film also features a cameo appearance by Ted Raimi as a condom salesman in the beginning. It’s one of the many eighties horror films you must add to your watch list. Now available exclusively as a Special Edition from Arrow Films, it comes packed full with 3 Discs, Blu-Ray/DVD & a DVD bonus disc which features three different versions of the film including the uncut and composite version.

Terror Train (1980)

Terror Train is a classic retro horror film directed by Roger Spottiswoode written by T.Y. Drake and produced by Daniel Grodnik . Terror Train stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson and David Copperfield as himself. It’s New Years Eve and a number of kids from a college fraternity play a cruel prank on a disturbed and shy kid Kenny Hampson (Derek Mckinnon). Three years pass by after the prank has gone horribly wrong and left Kenny in a psychiatric hospital, it’s now a New Year again and the fraternity throws a New Year’s Eve masquerade party on a train with Ben Carson as the train conductor. David Copperfield cameos as a magician on the train. During the long ride across town, the party goers parade around from bunk to bunk in a fancy train headed to nowhere. This night it will leave them going nowhere, as Kenny is back and he kills one by one by wearing the costumes of the party goers. Kenny changes costume masks for all the killings disguising himself from an alien lizard, a bird, and an old hag. As the train travels through the icy terrain, the student’s that were responsible for the prank are murdered. The film is packed with thrilling guesses as to who is beneath the mask; with scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis (Alana Maxwell) as Kenny attempts to redeem the kiss from the prank that made him go crazy. All aboard... If you dare! Terror Train has finally been released on a BluRay/DVD combo pack by Scream! Factory the collector’s edition feature is packed with tons of bonus features including, an interview With Production Executive Don Carmody, Producer Daniel Grodnik, Production Designer Glenn Bydwell And Composer John Mills-Cockell and is a must own for any fan of this classic slasher film. You can purchase Terror Train from either Amazon or directly from Scream! Factory as of Oct. 16, 2012.