Blood Rage
Get a group of horror fans together around Thanksgiving and one of them will eventually say, “It’s not cranberry sauce.” This will elicit a chorus of similar replies and knowing smiles all around.
For those not in the know, the phrase originates with this film, a low-budget affair shot in 1983 but shelved until 1987 when it was released theatrically—minus much of its explicit gore—as Nightmare at Shadow Woods.
The story, set primarily in a Jacksonville, Florida apartment complex, sees Mark Soper play Terry, whose twin brother Todd—institutionalized since childhood for a brutal hatchet murder—escapes and returns to the family’s garden apartment home on Thanksgiving night. This causes Terry—who actually committed the murder—to embark on a killing rampage.
The line comes from a scene where Soper, as Terry, stands before a mirror after murdering several folks with a hatchet. Covered in gore, he touches the blood on his clothes then tastes it, remarking, “It’s not cranberry sauce.”
It’s indeed a memorable scene, in a surprisingly memorable film chock full of dichotomies. The execution careens between impressive and embarrassing. It reuses the same locations, but they feel authentic. The camera work feels tepid in its static setups but never amateurish as the exterior night photography maximizes shadows while the interior shots retain a claustrophobic sense of confinement. The violence shocks but the interstitial scenes vacillate between underwritten and awkward. The production design is non-existent, but the practical effects impress with vivid amputations, stabbings, and ample blood.
Soper’s dual-role performance transcends the material. He convinces as both the charming Terry and the awkward, terrified Todd, and he shines when Terry goes full-crazy, mixing equal parts charm and menace in moments like the aforementioned cranberry sauce line. He’s all but winking at the camera in these scenes, and seems to be having a great time with the part.
Meanwhile Louise Lasser, as Soper’s mother, seems to phone it in over a bad connection. She recites her lines as if reading them from cue cards, and emotes as if playing to the back rows of a cavernous theater. That said, director John Grissmer turns lemons into lemonade, leveraging her performance as deadpan humor, including a memorable moment where he inexplicably cuts to her sitting on the floor in front of her open refrigerator eating leftovers.
I can’t argue Blood Rage is a good movie, but I enjoyed it. If you’re a fan of low-budget, independent 1980s slashers, you’re in for a treat.
Viewing History
- Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - One Loudoun
- Thu, Nov 26, 2020 via iTunes
- Thu, Nov 25, 2021 via Blu-ray (Arrow, 2017)
In a 2015 commentary, moderator Ewan Cant prompts director John Grissmer for insight, but Grissmer responds to most early questions with one-word answers. As the film unfolds, he expands to single sentences. When asked how he achieved a memorable effect, he replies, “With a lot of work.” He regards the picture as a work-for-hire effort, scuttling my hopes he was drawn to the material’s doppelgänger plot given its similarity to his earlier picture, Scalpel (1977).
John Dalley, who now co-owns the picture, offers little insight, but speaks with enthusiasm that goes beyond mere salesmanship.
My most interesting take-away: producer Marianne Kanter—who plays a sanitarium doctor—mandated the nudity and violence, further diminishing Grissmer’s impact.
- Mon, Nov 25, 2024 via Blu-ray (Arrow, 2015)
The Nightmare at Shadow Woods version, which cut most of the film’s gory practical effects to secure an R-rating, may prove interesting to fans of the film, if only because the producers had to splice in excised footage to fill out the running time.
The biggest addition comes via an opening scene set at the pool. While this introduces the pool setting earlier, thus bookending the finale, the scene is chock-full of redundant exposition and belongs on the cutting room floor.
The rest of the additions come via lengthening existing scenes. The original cut moved at a gangbusters pace, cutting scenes as tight as possible, sometimes cutting into dialogue midway, such as the scene with the complex manager offering his help to the institution doctor and her orderly. In this cut, it begins with the manager stepping up and introducing himself, before offering to help. In the original cut, the introduction is excised, and the cut goes to him mid-sentence, offering to help.
It’s a subtle but important change. By cutting to dialogue in progress, the original version maintained a frantic pace, while the Nightmare at Shadow Woods version moves in fits and starts. Even with the original pacing, this version would suffer, however, as it lacks the gory payoffs for the film’s various setups. It’s like watching a magic act with no tricks.