By Geno McGahee
In the early 2000s, the video stores were still operating and it was a good place to find the low budget horror films like DEATH VALLEY: THE REVENGE OF BLOODY BILL. The lower budget horror films of this time had a certain look and vibe to it and watching this film brought me back to that time. There was an immediate charm to this film, but it was not without its problems.
Darrel (Dean N. Arevalo) is on the run and he finds his way to the ghost town of Sunset Valley. He walks into the bar and when the bartender turns around, it is revealed that he is a zombie. Darrel makes another run for it and is now being chased by a group of zombies. He runs into Bloody Bill, the leader of the zombie group and pays the price. Immediately, I began thinking of CHILDREN OF THE LIVING DEAD, another film that followed this king of the zombies idea.
A group of college kids are carjacked by Earl (Gregory Bastien) and forced to drive to Sunset Valley. That is when they encounter the curse of Bloody Bill. Jerry (Matt Marraccini) has knowledge of this and begins telling the story of how the town was sick of the murders and brought Bloody Bill to justice, but a deal with the devil brought him back. I found it quite strange that every F word was silenced in this film. I bought this DVD a few years ago and finally got around to watching it and I must have bought some edited version, despite the R rating on the back of the DVD case.
There is a little bit of everything in this film. At one point, Sondra (Kandis Erickson), leaves the group, and stumbles upon a home. There is a young child that looks normal but has a demonic voice, as if she’s possessed and then some zombies attack. Bloody Bill isn’t far behind. I did like how the zombie held her down and just looked at her. I think the point was that he was eating her face or something like that, but he just held the head there. I think the director didn’t give him much instruction.
Bloody Bill and his gang of the undead go full on attack and it leaves Gwen (Chelsea Jean) alone to take him on. It leads to a big showdown and I thought that Jean was rather good in her tough chick role. The ending is a throwback to FRIDAY THE 13TH and since they’ve covered zombies, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, possession…why not throw in some FRIDAY THE 13TH too? It didn’t hurt.
DEATH VALLEY: THE REVENGE OF BLOODY BILL is a fun film that has its own style despite the countless borrowed ideas from other films. The heavy metal soundtrack, overacting and fun factor make it worth a watch. If you like films like MINER’S MASSACRE and CHILDREN OF THE LIVING DEAD, you’ll dig this. It was pretty good.
Rating: 6/10
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