RECENT WATCHES: Blood Rage (1987)

Halloween has a dozen “Halloween” movies and a hundred 31st-set horror films that do not feature Michael Myers. Christmas has “Silent Night, Deadly Night” and countless other pictures that combine ghoulishness with holiday cheer. Where is the Thanksgiving slasher movie? Of course, real motherfuckers know that Thanksgiving slashers have been under our noses the entire time. “Blood Rage” was filmed in 1984 and unreleased until 1987. It would then suffer through several different new titles, the level of gore varying in each cut. The film was obscure, unknown to all but the most fanatical slash-heads, until Arrow gave it a fancy Blu-Ray release with all the bells and whistles in 2015. Since then, “Blood Rage” has started to fill the Thanksgiving-slasher-shaped hole in the hearts horror nerds the world over. 

In 1974, Maddy takes her new boyfriend and her identical twin sons, Terry and Todd, to the drive-in movie theater. While she's making out with the boyfriend, the boys sneak off. Terry hacks a necking couple to death and pins the crime on Todd. A decade later, the institutionalized Todd is just now beginning to remember what happened that night. Terry, meanwhile, has carried on a charmed life, becoming a star athlete at school and winning friends and a girlfriend. Convinced of his innocence, Todd escapes the mental hospital on Thanksgiving Day. Spurned by his brother's escape, and her mother becoming engaged to a new boyfriend, Terry begins to kill again. An apartment full of partying teens is caught in the middle.

One of the alternate titles “Blood Rage” circulated under throughout the years was “The Nightmare at Shadow Woods.” (Shadow Woods being the Jacksonville, Florida apartment complex the movie is set in.) This cut removed all the gore from the movie. Which must've made “Blood Rage's” already short 82 minute run time even briefer. “Blood Rage” is fantastically gory. Terry uses his machete to hack off hands and heads. He cleaves faces in two, stabs jugular veins, and slices whole bodies in half. The graphic latex butchery is paired with a sick sense of humor. Terry grins and chuckles all throughout the bloodshed, often mocking his victims in death by using their bodies as crude puppets.

The wacky gore effects aren't the only reason that “Blood Rage” has endeared itself to slasher fans all over. The movie really doesn't have much in the way of story, outside of its evil twin premise. The apartment complex setting is a clever way to introduce a whole flock of characters, the majority of which exist solely to pad out the body count. We get a couple of medical professionals, a crew of rowdy teens, and a handful of other characters that all get slashed through. None of them are especially distinct but there's something to be said for a slasher flick not getting in its own way too much. “Blood Rage” is here to deliver the butchery and it knows it, giving the fodder just enough personality that you don't mind spending a little time with them before the blade comes down. (The movie also has a higher-than-average amount of sex and nudity, surely making the exploitation mix even sweeter.)

“Blood Rage” being reclaimed as the premiere Thanksgiving slasher flick is a bit surprising. The movie features none of the colorful iconography you associate with the holiday. Terry does not don a pilgrim's hat nor a turkey outfit as he begins his slaughter. Only one sequence is set around the dinner table. Yet “Blood Rage” ends up embodying the anxieties of the holiday anyway. The unspoken tension in the family drives the plot. Terry's resentment of his brother and the unresolved lust between him and his mother is what forces him to kill. The awkwardness of Thanksgiving dinner, where mom announces her engagement, is all too evident. It's only a small part of the movie but the themes of familial drama fit right in with everyone's common Thanksgiving ritual. There's also a running gag about cranberry sauce, which is mildly amusing. 

Ultimately, what makes “Blood Rage” a campy delight is a pair – or is it a trio? – of wonderfully unhinged performances. Louise Lasser plays Maddy as a woman perpetually on-edge. She barely seems in-control of her emotions to begin with. After the news of Todd's escape, she starts to shovel cold Thanksgiving leftovers in her face. She chugs wine while doing some night vacuuming. Before the end, she's reduces to wailing in anguish into the phone while wearing only a bathrobe. It's a histrionic performance of epic proportions, Lasser going way beyond the limits of good taste to bring the cracked-up mother to life. 

Mark Soper, in the dual role of Todd and Terry, is similarly overcooked. He plays Terry as a perpetually grinning sociopath, who is perfectly content as long as he's getting his way. Todd, meanwhile, is a bundle of neurosis that leave him borderline catatonic. Soper is not a polished actor, though that ends up adding to the charm a bit, but he still convincingly creates two separate characters mostly through his body language. (Though the hair and make-up team helped a little, as Todd's hair is messy and Terry's is perfectly coiffed.)

Powered by a propulsive electronic score from Richard Einhorn, “Blood Rage” manages to be consistently entertaining for the short amount of time it takes you to watch it. The direction is pretty flat, most of the acting and characters are not especially nuanced, and the script doesn't always make a lot of sense. Yet it all blends together into an appealingly goofy and bloody mix. With enough T&A and gory special effects to keep you hooked during the more tedious bits, I'm happy that more fans have discovered this one. Until Eli Roth finally makes “Thanksgiving,” or at least until “Home Sweet Home” or “Blood Freak” get high profile Blu-Ray re-releases, I'm more than happy for this to be most people's go-to Thanksgiving set horror flick. [7/10]