Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Charly, Dias de Sangre (1990)

Over the past five or six months I've been really going on an "obscure to me" movie kick. Now, when I say "obscure to me" I really mean that these are films that barely have mention here in the United States. Every country produces movies for their native audiences each year, but only a portion of those actually find worldwide distribution. I'm sure even more films were made for the video market that had never dreamed some American kid would give it a view, but here we are. 26 years later, and here I view some supernatural slasher I'm sure the people in Argentina have forgotten about.

Charly, Dias de Sangre tells the basic story of Danni and his cousin, Charly. Charly has been having a tough time at school, and has been very introverted since the death of his brother when they were kids. Charly's uncle hopes to get him out of this mental slump, and asks Danni to try and get a lady for Charly. After getting some friends together, Danni and Charly bring them to Charly's family cottage off in the woods.

As the evening progresses Charly becomes smitten with one of the girls, and the two talk for the whole night. But they're not alone, as an unseen, heavily breathing entity is stalking the teens in the shadows. Soon truths are told about the house, and no one will be safe.

Charly, Dias de Sangre is a pretty routine slasher, but there's enough here to keep even the most seasoned gore hound watching. The opening sequence is the strongest in the film, but there's a decent enough flow to keep your attention throughout. While you're probably not going to recognize any of the Argentinean actors here, they all do their part in helping progress the story. Not any one of the actors particularly stands out, but they're serviceable fodder to get the "Days of Blood" the title promises.

The movie does suffer when it comes to actually laying out a cohesive story. While we are given background in regards to the death of Charly's brother, it feels as if there's portions of the script that were tossed out, or sequences of the movie that were deleted as if to make less sense. The film just kind of ends and we're left scratching our heads trying to figure out if anything truly supernatural was going on, or if Dias de Sangre is a look at how someone deals with grief. Probably not the later, so we're just going to say this is a daft slasher played up for the video market. 

With a brisk 75 minute run time and barely a lick of character or plot development, Dias de Sangre is one movie to throw on if you're just looking for mindless gore and scantily clad women.You won't see anything truly original here, but to be honest it shouldn't affect your enjoyment. There are far worse slashers that have received theatrical distribution here in the USA, so you'd be doing better to watch Dias de Sangre than the recent releases from any major studio.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Trash Bags

**This version is missing the first 2 1/2 minutes of random girls taking a topless bath.**

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Blood Salvage (1990)

As my years of watching and collecting movies progresses I find myself taking less of a chance on a "blind buy" as I used to. Recently I came to the conclusion that reasoning is completely stupid, and if I'm not willing to stick my neck out on some ridiculous movie (new or old) then what type of movie fan am I really? The answer is a shitty one.

To correct this genuinely lazy mistake I've taken to seeking out a few movies that I had never heard anything about, good or bad. Just crossing off more movies to say it's worth a look, or its Curse of the Blue Lights bad. This morning I gave the 1984 flick Dreamscape a watch, and that was pretty damned entertaining. Don't know why I never saw it before, but better late than never. In the same lot of tapes I decided to pick up this silly cover of a junkyard worker holding an eyeball in wrench.

Blood Salvage tells the tale of the Evans family, who attend a county fair in which their wheelchair bound daughter April is a contestant. Jake, a local junkman, takes a shine to miss April, and sets about to have his insipid sons conspire to damage the wheels on the Evans' Winnebago. As the family embarks on their trip back home the wheel magically comes undone, and the camper veers off-road. Along comes Jake to "assist" the Evans, and brings them all back to his home. Unfortunately for the Evans what they don't realize is Jake is a mad doctor who just so happens to be sell the organs on the black market!

Blood Salvage is an absurd movie; let's get that out of the way first. If you're expecting a thought provoking chill fest you're shit out of luck. This is a movie played strictly for laughs, more in the vein of Blood Diner than Hills Have Eyes. The company who released the film, Magnum, has not been my best friend when it comes to quality views. I keep beating the dead horse that is Curse of the Blue Lights, but then there's also the shit-show that is Street Asylum. After viewing those two films I was a bit reluctant, but I'm happy I did. This was the simple, no nonsense type of horror comedy I like. Not as heavy on the slapstick, but black humor in the dialogue and absurdity of the overall situation. The gore was also a fun aspect here, but not played for anything more than comedy.

Another aspect of Blood Salvage that elevated the viewing for me was the inclusion of some familiar faces in John Saxon as the patriarch of the Evans household, and Ray Walston as the seedy head of the black market organ trade Mr. Stone. The rest of the cast is more than acceptable, but my main gripe with the film comes in how predictable the whole thing was, right down to the last scene. Perhaps I'm just too jaded from seeing so many movies. I guess it's easy to blame myself, but honestly, maybe everything was predictable for the sake of adding levity to the plot. That's all a personal thing, and doesn't really detract from the viewing, but something I felt I should share for those who watch a lot of horror movies.

For those of you who look for something a little sillier in your upcoming horror viewings, I suggest giving Blood Salvage a watch. With an engaging plot, solid acting and great gore you’re sure to enjoy it. There are a lot of other crazy backwoods killer movies out there, but due to the humor involved with Blood Salvage I would say it’s one that holds up on repeat viewings more than most. Also, lookout for the random fucking cameo from Evander Holyfield. This must have been some paycheck, champ.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Trash Bags

Blood Salvage is currently not available on DVD, but copies of the VHS are available on Amazon starting at around $10.