By Geno McGahee
“They treated me awful 20 years ago and now they have to pay.” – The Killer
We have a killer in a hockey mask holding a chainsaw on the cover of BLOODY MURDER. They are not hiding the fact that this film is heavily inspired by other horror films, primarily FRIDAY THE 13TH, but there are other films like SCREAM that were channeled here. It was pretty obvious that the makers of this film legitimately loved the genre. There was plenty of heart involved here, but not a lot of originality.
Julie (Jessica Morris) is a camp counselor at a summer camp that has a horrible legend of a killer that wears a hockey mask. Like I said, this is NOT original. There is a big difference between Jason Voorhees and the hockey-masked killer here, Trevor Moorehouse. Jason is a bad ass. This guy is pretty much a wimp.
Julie is just one of many counselors, but the story surrounds her and this legend of a killer, but when bodies turn up, the legend is dismissed. This isn’t some crazy unstoppable force…this is a whodunit, and there are plenty of possibilities here. At one point or another, everyone is pointed to.
The acting is pretty bad, but I did enjoy the performances of Morris, Peter Guillemette as “Patrick,” and Michael Stone as “Dean.” Everyone else sort of blended together and there is plenty of bad acting and bad writing, but there is a certain charm to this movie. When you look at the cover art, you have to assume that the makers are just stealing an idea to turn a buck, but they made this in tribute rather than flat out thievery.
BLOODY MURDER isn’t a great film, but if you like the FRIDAY THE 13TH films, you will appreciate this effort and production. It’s far from scary, but I found it really enjoyable. I recommend it.
Rating: 5.5/10 – Worth a watch!
