blood rage

At this point in home video collecting history it's pretty hard to surprise anyone. Especially horror fans, who often wind up buying the same newly remastered title year after year just to get that rush of rediscovery again. In these desperate times it's nice to run across something that's a true rarity, pleasantly demented and absolutely worth the hype. But that's exactly what Blood Rage is: a latter-day slasher shot in Jacksonville, FL that's just as gory, goofy and spectacularly fun as anything in the most well-rounded geek's closet collection.

After witnessing his mother's make-out session at the local drive-in, young Terry goes on a violent rampage, chopping up another amorous couple a few doors down. But it's his twin, Todd, who takes the blame, which promptly sees the 8-year-old shipped off to a mental institution.

Flash forward ten years: Todd finally escapes from his unnecessary incarceration and heads back to their family apartment in Shadow Woods to confront Terry and his misguided mother with the truth. But Terry suffers another psychotic break, gleefully stabbing, slicing and dismembering friends and residents alike. And once again, it's the innocent Todd who's getting blamed for the body count.

Shot in 1983 but not released until '87, Blood Rage (which hit theaters and video under a number of other titles) missed the height of the slasher genre completely, eventually finding a cadre fans during the VHS era that reveled in its obvious creative deficiencies and outrageously bloody effects. Definitely inspired by the Fangoria crowd, director John Grissmer gives the people what they want - split skulls, disembowelings, quivering limbs - but also brings a surprising amount of gloss and visual polish. And thanks to some tight editing by Michael Miller (Raising Arizona) the film zips from one set piece to the next with sadistic enthusiasm.

Of course, there's a reason why Blood Rage isn't mentioned in the same breath as Halloween and Friday the 13th. Besides the MPAA troubles (eventually the film saw life in an R-rated version), the film is also often unintentionally laugh-out loud funny, particularly Louise Lasser's performance as the twins' mother. Faced with the news of her son's escape, her character responds by compulsively vacuuming under the beds, eating green beans on the kitchen floor, drinking a full bottle of wine and then drunk dialing a telephone operator. It's like a piece of hysterical performance art crammed into the middle of a horror movie.

The rest of the cast is amateurishly appealing, especially Mark Soper who takes on the dual roles of Todd and Terry more skillfully than one might expect. His surfer-dude approach to serial killing is constantly amusing, if not particularly terrifying. And the special effects by Ed French (who moved on to high-profile projects like Terminator 2 and American Sniper) are convincingly gruesome even in hi-def.

Arrow Video's 3-disc limited edition features a brand new 2K restoration of the "hard" home video version with all the gore and T & A intact. This is one of Arrow's best restoration efforts, with so much color and detail it looks like the film just unspooled from the back of the camera. Extras include a number of 10-minute interviews, including the aforementioned Lasser, Soper and French, producer Marianne Kanter, plus a quick conversation with Ted Raimi about his cameo in the film. A tour of the Jacksonville locations, VHS title sequence, and still gallery go along with a moderated audio commentary with director John Grissmer.

But besides the bonus DVD copy, the entire second Blu-ray disc is packed with alternate versions of the film, including Nightmare at Shadow Woods, the re-edited 1987 theatrical cut with footage not seen in Blood Rage. Not only that, but a composite cut does its best to blend the home video and theatrical versions into one complete viewing experience. There is also nearly a half-hour's worth of raw outtakes and alternate angles, plus a collector's booklet and newly commissioned cover art.