Rock and Shock is now long gone and in the books for another great year that featured some cool guests and some great vendors. One of the vendors that I had to visit at the site was Vinegar Syndrome who is a cult film restoration company that restores films from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. So with that being said, the film I chose for today is a film that was restored by the company by the name of Blood Beat. While on Christmas break from school, Ted (James Fitzgibbons) and his girlfriend Sarah (Claudia Peyton) decide that it would be a good idea to spend the holidays with Ted’s family in rural Wisconsin. The only problem is that when they get there, Sarah starts to have weird vibes that she has never felt before. Soon after that, she is possessed by a vengeful Japanese Samurai spirit who decides to take out all of the local townsfolk before setting his sites on Ted and his family. The film also stars Helen Benton as Cathy, Terry Brown (The Princess Diaries) as Gary, Dana Day as Dolly, Peter Spelson (The Psychotronic Man) as Uncle Pete, Franck Miley as Paul, and the film was directed by Fabrice A. Zaphiratos (La grande frime).
This has to be by far one of the weirdest films I have ever seen and not weird in the sense of weird happenings, but rather in the style. First of all it makes no sense that a Japanese Samurai spirit would be in rural Wisconsin and that was my first problem with the film, but I can suspend reality for the time. The second thing I had a problem with in this film is that is starts off making you think it’s going to be a film about the mother being able to see everything that goes on through her art. That would leave you to believe that something would happen between her and her son’s girlfriend. Instead, it all leads to the samurai being the focus of this supernatural slasher flick. The other thing that gets me is the corny special effects, but that actually made the film more interesting. They would have these beams of blue light around the samurai while the family channeled their inner Ryu with the red beams around their hands as they hadoukened the Samurai spirit together. Oh the other thing that gets me is when something bad happens, it turns into a 70’s Sabbath/Alice Cooper video with all the colors overtaking the screen (you know what I am talking about). Stylistically, it’s actually a pretty artsy film so I get why someone may want to restore this one for sure. I also loved how the climaxing scenes feature the classic O Fortuna (Carmina Burana) to help drive home the action. I thought that was a very nice touch for the film, but it probably won’t help the final grade. While I enjoyed watching the film, there were just way too many faults for me which is why I am giving the film an C for a final grade. This would’ve made an excellent Cheeseball Cinema film for sure.
Moshpits And Movies 