Home   |   Reviews   |   Articles   |   Scripts   |   Autographs   |   About

The first movie made for the home video market. Might just scare you to DEATH!

Synopsis

A mysterious serial killer is killing several female co-eds on and off a college campus in Oklahoma and the only clues are gold medallions left by the bodies. A grizzled police detective sets out to find the killer, but is unaware that all the killings are connected to a Satanic cult.

DVD Release

Blood Cult was released twice by VCI Entertainment. Once on DVD-R as a standalone release and again on DVD in their Ripper Blood Pack. Other titles in the Ripper Blood Pack include the sequel Revenge(1986) and The Ripper (1986). The film looks pretty good considering it was shot on a Sony Betacam. Audio wise, the dialog seems a little bit muffled when compared to the music. As far as SOV films, Blood Cult has a great presentation. This review is from the Ripper Blood Pack.

Extras

Audio Commentary - Bunch of people on commentary and it flows pretty good. Christopher Lewis does a good job of keeping things rolling. There's a few moments of silence but it's not bad. It's quite easy to make fun of Blood Cult but everybody treats it seriously. Recommended.

Interview with Director Christopher Lewis (12:04) - Mostly consisting of Christopher Lewis saying that the movie was made to see if it was possible to shoot a movie on tv equipment. Seems to repeat himself though. Recommended.
Interview with Producer/Distributer Bill Blair (11:37) - Not the best speaker when compared to Christopher Lewis but Bill gives some decent information. Skip.

Cast & Crew Biographies - Text biographies for director Christopher Lewis and producer Linda Lewis. There's also cast biographies for Julie Andelman (Tina), Charles Ellis (sheriff), Bennie Lee Mcgowan, Jesf Hardt(doctor) and Jim Vance (Boyfriend). Biographies for Rod Slane (sound designer), David Powerl & Robert Brewer (special effects) follow the cast biographies. Skip.

Promotional Videos - Two Promotional Videos for Blood Cult. Think of them as just longer Trailers. (1:50 and 2:35) Recommended.

Photo Gallery (4:21) - Various behind the scene photos. Recommended.

Trailers - Trailers for other VCI Entertainment movies include City of the Dead, Don't Look in the Basement, Blood and Black Lace, The Bird with Crystal Plumage, Satan's Cheerleaders, Murder Rap, Forever Evil, Death Game and Ruby.

Thoughts

Blood Cult is touted as the first movie made directly for home video. While this might not be entirely true considering Boardinghouse and Sledgehammer were both made prior to Blood Cult. I will say that Blood Cult is miles ahead of Sledgehammer when it comes to production value. The film's horror sections come off pretty well with plenty of well done POV shots. The film falls flat with dialog and the film screeches to an absolute bore after the opening scene. The acting was a small step above bad. Theatre actor Charles Ellis plays the Sheriff and his dialog comes out as flat as it could be. There's certain scenes where he's obviously reading something from his hand.

The story follows a sheriff that's tracking a serial killer that's been terrorizing a college campus. The killer dismembers his victims and leaves a gold coin on their corpse. He apparently figures out the coin's symbol belongs to a cult when his college daughter (looks like she's in her 30's) gives him a book on the subject. Convenient huh? Well truth be told, the daughter is a member of the cult and she's been leading him into finding out about the cult. First off, I have no idea why she would do that considering most cults function a lot better when the police aren't knocking down the door.

Keep on the lookout for a few makeout scenes that seem to go on for way to long. There's also a scene where an old couple are talking with each other but the scene never advances beyond the establishing shot of their house. So we sit on a shot of their house for a good 2-3 minutes with a voice over of their conversation. I guess they just forgot to shoot their conversation scene.

I usually say this anytime I talk about a shot on video film but I think its worth it to repeat it. Shot on video films are not for everybody. If you are a fan of newer horror movies then you will laugh at the low budgetness and cheese that SOV have to offer. Now, Blood Cult was very profitable and it did help create a whole new sub-genre of horror. Low budget horror movies on consumer grade equipment was here to stay.

Conclusions

Blood Cult suffers from the same fate that most other low budget films suffer from. Advancing the story usually consists of various long and drawn out dialog sequences that will bore you to tears. While the POV shots are well done, there isn't nearly enough of them to help this film.

Rating

2/10

More Reviews
Looking for More Shot on Video goodness?
Sledgehammer

Support the site, buy the movie!