Bloodstalkers (1978)

I couldn’t stop myself, so I bought Robert W. Morgan’s home-made DVD-R (signed and with a small booklet) of his classic Bloodstalkers, just because I felt that filmmakers like this deserves a lot more respect than they usually get. Many years back I got my hands on the same movie on an old VHS-tape (can’t remember if it was a Swedish x-rental or from one of the other Scandinavian members). I kinda liked it, but never watched it again and my memories of it became more and more foggy the older I got. So I guess it was time now, to watch it again…

Four city slickers, Mike, Daniel (played by I Was a Teenage Werewolf’s Kenny Miller), Kim and Jeri travels to the backwoods of America where Mike has inherited an old house. No one has been there for eight years and the place is dusty and in a terrible shape, but with some fixing up it could be a nice vacation house. But the local rednecks aren’t happy at all! They warn then for the “bloodstalkers” running around in the woods, which is connected to an old Indian legend about hairy, man-eating spirits roaming the wilderness. Kinda like Bigfoot. Not long after they arrive something is getting closer to the house, something hairy and angry…and merciless!

You can say a lot about Bloodstalkers, but one thing is for sure: the filmmakers clearly had ambitions with, maybe mostly, the story and characters. In parts it’s almost more of a drama with especially the two men being very complicated persons. Daniel is an overworked singer/entertainer and Mike a Vietnam veteran, with the first one always on the brink of having panic-attacks. If I will look beyond the very low budget and the shakey editing, it’s not a bad production. The actors are mostly doing fine and the script has a few entertaining twists which works if you feel for it, or just be disappointing if you’re in that mood.

Robert W. Morgan has balls enough to not show us what would probably have been the most violent scene, but instead gives us a man running for a long time in slow-mo. Alright, I want my gore, but the concept works good and the result is that we as an audience is even more perplexed of what the hell actually happen in the scene we didn’t see. The final twist is good, and reminds me of Rolling Thunder – but compressed to ten minutes instead of ninety!

Anther odd scene that goes on to long is when one of the characters has escaped from the house and trying to find help. Here we see him try to get help from various characters, one after another – and it never ends. The last one is in a church, and the staring contest between the hero and the person in the church goes on so long it’s absurd. The over-use of dramatic music makes a couple of the scenes annoying, even if the music itself is good.

Blood and gore? Not much. A chopped of hand and a lot of fake-blood is all we get, but better than nothing. Bloodstalkers is an interesting movie and the DVD-R that Robert W. Morgan released is well worth buying for collectors and fans of the obscure.