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.

The Outing "The Lamp" (1987)

The Outing (The Lamp) is an American horror film directed by Tom Daley, written by Warren Chaney. In the year 1893 a young woman (Deborah Winters) wears a magical charmed bracelet is told that it holds the dark spirit of an evil genie, one that foretells the future of violent things. Fast forward to modern day, a gang of thieves, Harley (Hank Amico), Tony Greco (André Chimène) and Michelle Watkins as Faylene, are about to burglarize an old ladies house which turns out to be the young lady that owns the bracelet. Brutally murdering her with an axe to the face they then find an accompanying lamp. Now with the evil presence more rampant than ever, the evil genie is released and possesses the woman’s corpse to take revenge on the burglars. Afterwards as a detective surveys the crime scene an officer sends the lamp and bracelet along with the other evidence to display in the natural science museum. Now within the genies new home at the museum its new curator is being viewed by his new owner Dr. Bressling (Danny Daniels). While Dr. Wallace (James Huston) an archeologist and his daughter Alex (Andra Ivanyi) is visiting her father’s work, she eventually tries on the newly arrived bracelet shortly before an out of a fit of rage over an argument when she spouts “I wish you were dead!” she suddenly becomes unable to remove the bracelet. With the genie now taken possession of Alex she convinces her friends Babs’ (Damon Merrill), Ted (Scott Bankston) Ross (Barry Coffing), Gwen (Tracye Walker), Terry (Raan Lewis), Max (Brian Floores), to go on an “Outing” to spend the night there at the museum during a field trip there that her school goes to. The genie now more powerful than ever takes over more people and objects making artifacts take possession in the museum commit “acts of violence” alongside extreme gore, decapitations, possessions the outing has it all. Things take a turn for the worse and many more murders take place including Bob (Roy Wilson) an opera singing security guard (well deserved). When the genies true figure is revealed he chases Alex and her friends down corridors of the museum as help quickly arrives and together they try to destroy the evil genie. The film is a fun thrilled horror film closely related to “Wishmaster” and takes no boundaries too far, a classic 80’s horror flick with plenty of skin. The Outing (Aka the Lamp) is featured on a double feature as of last year by Scream! Factory and is accompanied by another horror film, The Godsend where a mysterious woman who has a baby that strangely ends up missing with suspensions that someone in that house may be a killer. Both are excellent movies and it’s a well purchased BluRay that can be bought from Scream! Factory or purchased on Amazon.

Killer Workout (Aerobicide) (1987)

In the heyday when fitness, image and homicide ran rampant Killer Workout aka Aerobicide was released among the populous, directed by David A. Prior. The story surrounds a twin sister Rhonda Johnson (Marcia Karr) who runs a fitness club in LA whose Sister Valerie was burned and disfigured badly during a tanning bed session in a salon. Throughout the film the club sees a major loss in membership as members are murdered by an unknown assailant. Luckily, Detective Lt. Morgan (David James Campbell) launches an investigation into the gym to find who has been killing members associated with the gym. The film can also be considered a thriller with more than one exciting twist and non-stop synth-pop, leggings, and jazzercise. Is the killer an obsessed lover who just won’t take no for an answer? Or is there a deeper routed problem possibly linked to Rhonda’s sister linked to these murders being committed on beautiful, perfect club members? With heavy sleuthing and captures of more than one possible suspect, Detective Morgan will sure get to the bottom of the case to bring justice to those killed. Deeper issues begin to surface that surround her sisters tanning incident and through-out the film various possible suspects come into question leaving you guessing until the end of the film. Killer Workout is a must see and must own film recently released on DVD and BluRay by Slasher // Video.

White of The Eye (1987)

White of The Eye is set in the isolated deserts of Tucson, Arizona. The story involves a deranged killer on the loose who has a knack for torturing and killing rich beautiful woman. The killer tortures them before killing them to keep their eyes open so he can showcase to them in a vanity mirror, thus the title of the movie “White of The Eye”. The movie is more of a thriller directed by Donald Cammell, adapted by him and his wife China Kong from the 1983 novel “Mrs. White” by Margaret Tracy. During many of the stalking and killing scenes of the actual white of the killers eye is referenced as you can see the pupils of the killer become dilated. It is also referenced to be a saying that the Native Americans use to describe war and revenge. Detective Charles Mendoza (Art Evans) from the homicide department seeks out Paul White (David Keith), who is a specialist installing hi-fi sound systems in wealthy people’s homes. Paul has many special talents such as to make noises echo through the air in his head to show him where the sound of speakers should come from in a room. One problem with this is he can’t do his trick with his eyes open. He is married to Joan White (Cathy Moriarty) and father to a little girl, Danielle White (Danielle Smith). Paul can’t shake the past of his wife who had dated another troubled individual, Mike DeSantos (Alan Rosenberg). Paul has various flashbacks of how he and Joan first met and how it came to be that Mike had come to abandon her. In the first of the murders, the killer even takes a shower as he meticulously leaves a blood bath behind with no clues but signs of a ritualistic murder. Joan is later questioned by Detective Mendoza who suggests that her husband Paul may somehow be involved in the slayings. At Mike’s suggestions Paul and Mike go deer hunting trip together when he first noticed that Paul becomes brutally violent when he shoots and mutilates a deer, demonstrating his twisted fascination with killing. There is a love triangle between the three individuals when Mike comes back into the picture. The movie leaves us to wonder who is capable of the murders happening around Tucson. Distrust and abandonment meet each other again as the murders continue and become more vicious and brutal, even more methodically as concepts of committing these killings in a painted face as an Indian Brave and turning the murders into ritualistically killings. The White of The Eye is a shocking and yet brilliant thriller throughout the entire movie that keeps you guessing who is committing this terror in Tucson. White of the Eye was released by Scream! Factory and is available on Blu-Ray, DVD and Streaming on Amazon Prime.