BLOOD STALKERS (1978)
Article 2491 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-29-2008
Posting Date: 6-7-2008
Directed by Robert W. Morgan
Featuring Ken Miller, Toni Crabtree, Jerry Albert
Country: USA

Two couples visit a cabin in the Everglades, but are warned that the area is home to some murderous hairy creatures known as Blood Stalkers.

John Stanley describes this one as “a thinking buff’s gore flick”, and I think he’s right. However, I wouldn’t have been able to tell from the first forty-five minutes of the movie, where the cliched plot, annoying characters and stupid dialogue (punctuated by seemingly over-serious moments of character development) made me think that Mr. Stanley was being ironic. It’s not until the monsters go on the attack that the movie comes into its own, and it’s at its best when it’s at its most ambitious; in particular, the climax of the night attack sequence is very impressive, with some masterful editing and great use of music. It’s good this part works so well; otherwise, the revelations near the end of the movie would have backfired in a major way, and the fact that some of the suspenseful scenes come off as a bit comic would have driven the final nail in the coffin. The movie is ultimately derivative of two different kinds of movies, one of which (the bloody revenge drama) isn’t necessarily in the horror genre. It’s uneven, but when it works, it works well.