#1380 Halloween 2020: Blood Theatre aka Movie House Massacre (1984)
If there is one fundamental thing wrong with horror, it’s the fact that the bulk horror – slashers in particular – is pretty much draw by numbers kind of a project, and as a genre adored by many wannabe rookie directors who direct one as their hobby project. While there’s nothing wrong with that per se, the projects are often plagued with the same kind of poor design choices, walking by the same beaten path, shoddy quality and overall lameness; I’ll eagerly give kudos for originality, even if the movie is shoddy, but this is very rarely the case.
Finally, when the team realises the quality of the movie is going to be kind of shitty, they dub their movie a horror comedy, which is the worst kind of weaselling out I can think of. The result is usually a movie that’s neither scary nor funny.
Enter Blood Theatre, the debut directorial effort of Rick Sloane. Some old geezer kills youngsters who try to get the old haunted movie theatre operating again. Everything here is just plain bad and no redeeming value can be found in anything. For young Sloane and his friends Blood Theatre must’ve been a nice activity and a good exercise to film making, but nobody other should be subjected to having to sit through it.
80s-o-meter: 30%
Total: 4%