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Blood Lake (1987)

"I got my beer, I got my sex partner, what else do I need?”

Blood Lake continues to exist because we all want to be like Little Tony. Fight me if you disagree.

Having a camcorder doesn’t necessarily make you a horror film director.  The same can be said of Blood Lake’s fake heavy metal-minded soundtrack. You need something . . . more; like a lake, a cabin, and a bunch teenagers doing naughty things.

Ah, fuck it.

Like waterskiing?  Do you like movies about psycho killers in cowboy boots and stupid hats?  Then this shot-on-video slasher relic is definitely for you.  For the sex teenagers at the center of this regional horror flick, it was supposed to be a relaxing vacation.  And, for about 50 minutes, Blood Lake is EXACTLY that, which makes this 82-minute flick a bit of a challenge to watch.  Mullets at play, man, mullets at play.

"homegrown horror doesn’t get much abysmal than it does floating upon the choppy waves of Blood Lake"


 

And then the Oklahoma bloodletting begins . . .

Light on atmosphere and heavy on amateurish acting with plenty of scenes of teenagers . . .

sleeping, Blood Lake arrives on DVD thanks to the combined efforts of Bleeding Skull and AGFA, who rescue the film from the original 1″ tape for this its DVD debut.

Blood Lake is a definitely a VHS relic.  It feels very amateurish, as if the film’s director Tim Boggs and writer (and main character) Doug Barry brought his camcorder with him while on vacay and decided to hit record.  The result is a very strange tale of relatively dull cinéma vérité as a game of quarters takes center stage for a group of long-haired party animals with nothing better to do while at a really big lake.

And then these same stupid teenagers start getting offed by the killer (Tiny Frazier), who prefers wearing his boots with one leg tucked in and the other out.  What a psychopath! {googleads}

Featuring “natural” performances from Angela Darter, Mike Kaufman, Andrea Adams, Christie Willoughby, and Travis Krasser as the scene-stealing Little Tony, Blood Lake is a flick so full of horrible dialogue that the damn script is easily memorized and turned into a one long (and I do mean looooooong) drinking game . . . that you may not want to play in the first place.  With little knack for pacing, the film rolls out across a weekend where teenagers arrive just wanting to have a bit of fun.

The run into something much worse . . . the lake.  For some unknown reason, there is a segment in this movie where the partying teenagers take turns on some waterskies behind a boat and, much to the groaning of us all, a 25-minute sequence of spills and thrills on the lake occurs and, as if that wasn’t enough, what follows is more random debauchery FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME.Blood Lake (1987)

Which makes me think that, maybe, this “movie” is all by accident.  It certainly feels like random vacation footage that, months later, someone edited into a stalk and slash low-budget killer thriller. With even the suspense shoehorned in, homegrown horror doesn’t get much abysmal than it does floating upon the choppy waves of Blood Lake.

Head back to the cabin if you dare. Blood Lake, featuring the seriously GRAND character of the foul-mouthed Little Tony, is back on shelves.

3/5 beers

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[tab title="Details"]

Blood Lake (1987)

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:
82 mins
Director
: Tim Boggs
Writer:
Doug Barry
Cast:
Doug Barry, Angela Darter, Mike Kaufman
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
A quick dip in the lake turns into a bloodbath of horror.
Memorable Movie Quote: "I got my beer, I got my sex partner, what else do I need?
Theatrical Distributor:

Official Site:
Release Date:

DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
April 9, 2019
Synopsis: A group of unhinged party animals, including adolescent horn-dog Lil’ Tony, embark on a weekend trip filled with Jet Skis, a keg of Busch, and an extended game of quarters. But look out! There’s a supernatural killer on the loose who wears cowboy boots and a silk shirt with a rose stitched on it!

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[tab title="DVD Review"]

Blood Lake (1987)

DVD

DVD Details:

Home Video Distributor: AGFA, Bleeding Skull
Available on Blu-ray
- April 9, 2019
Screen Formats: 1.33:1
Subtitles
: English SDH
Audio:
English
Discs: DVD Disc; single disc
Region Encoding:

Transferred from the original 1” master tape, Blood Lake looks as good as it is ever going to look, which probably isn’t saying much about a film that was shot on a VHS camcorder in 1987. The 1.33:1 full screen image is as pretty shitty as you can imagine.  Colors are never bright.  The contrast is never clear and the picture is one big ball of fuzzed out pixels.  Nothing is crisp and the black levels bleed like all the fake blood flicked at the screen in all the death scenes.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • There is a commentary track with director Tim Boggs and Bleeding Skull’s Annie Choi and Joseph A. Ziemba. It is well worth your listening pleasure.

Special Features:

Bleeding Skull and AGFA have given fans of rock and schlock SINema a solid deuce with this release. Fans get a Q and A with Boggs and Barry, a short film from Boggs, and the unseen investor trailer.

  • Fantastic Fest Screening Q&A
  • ASHES Short Film
  • Unseen 1987 Investor Trailer

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[tab title="Art"]

Blood Lake (1987)

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