Blood Theatre

 



Director - Rick Sloane (Hobgoblin, The Visitants)
Starring - Mary Woronov (Night of the Comet, Warlock), Jenny Cunningham (Record City, Christiana), and Jonathan Blakely
Release Date - 1984
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Who will survive opening night"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

  

     Slashers from the 80s will always have a spot in my home.  I absolutely love slashers and any from the 80s are like crack to me.  I can't get enough.  Even if the movie sucks I still find myself enjoying certain aspects of it.  I get even more enjoyment when I come across an 80s slasher that I had never seen before.  Sometime ago Vinegar Syndrome released a Rick Sloane double feature that included his first feature film.  The 1984 Movie House Massacre would later get retitled as Blood Theatre which is not as cool as Movie House Massacre if you ask me.  Either way, I was excited to check this one out.  Thank you Vin Syn for sending this one my way.

     The film follows the employees of the Spotlite Theater who recently acquired another location that was closed due to a killing spree but they were not told about that by the owner.  They attempt to clean and reopen the theater but they unaware that the killer from before still stalks the theater. 

 

 

     I have a weird love for slashers.  I have fun even with the bad ones.  With that being said, Blood Theatre was all over the place.  I love goofy and cheesy horror films so I can usually look through generic characters and plots to find value but Blood Theatre is a slasher that doesn't know what it wants.  The acting in this one is solid but definitely has room for improvement.  The characters are extremely clichéd and flat but the cast still tried their best.  Some of the performances fall short but a majority are still enjoyable to watch.  The story for this one is a little confusing and struggles to find what kind of film it wants to be.  In a few scenes we get items flying off the shelves or being thrown around the room that felt like it was setting up for a strong supernatural setting but that falls out the window in the last portion of the film when we get the standard slasher fair.  The film almost feels like two different movies flowing together inside a theater before meshing together at the end.  Honestly, I enjoyed the first portion of the film a lot more than the slasher portion.  The slasher portion was just thrown together with no thought applied to it whatsoever.  Finally, the film has several deaths but they use camera tricks and camera cuts with minimal effects.  The viewer doesn't really get to enjoy the typical slasher deaths that they come to love.  Overall, Blood Theatre is a slasher that misses it's mark.  The first 45 minutes was actually very entertaining but that goes down hill once the murders start.  It does get bonuses points for being set at a theater but not enough to redeem it.