BLOODSTALKERS (1978)

TOM’S REVIEW:

Bloodstalkers should serve as a lesson to any and all future creators of horror films: If you want a guarantee that people will watch your movie, include the word Blood in the title. No matter how bad it is, people will still rent it. And if those people happen to be a masochistic trio hell-bent on reviewing every horror movie ever made, your film will not only be watched, it will be scrutinized, analyzed, and immortalized within the pages of a much-beloved tome of horror criticism.

The story of Bloodstalkers begins with four middle-aged revelers motoring a sensible, wood-paneled station wagon down an isolated stretch of Florida highway. It seems that Mike, the pockmarked leader of the group, wants to visit the old Aiken place: a rickety, barn-like structure in the middle of the Everglades that his folks once used as a vacation home. Impressively, he’s convinced his wife and friends to join him. In need of directions, the group pulls off a gas station, whereupon the surly attendant informs them that the old Aiken place is now smack dab in the middle of Bloodstalker Country: a land of evil deeds, shadowy figures, and certain death. The gang, of course, ignores the advice and presses on, determined not to let the superstitions of ignorant locals hamper their fun in the swamp.

So far so good. Admittedly, the hints we get in the early going as to the identity and abilities of the Bloodstalkers are so enticingly vague that we develop a keen interest in discovering who or what they are. The problem is that the film never builds on this initial horror momentum. We do meet a few colorful characters, including a displaced Englishman incessantly mocked for his use of multisyllabic expressions, and a decidedly unaccommodating church choir director, both of whom serve up some memorable scenes. But in terms of lurid Bloodstalker lore, we are left high and dry, forced to sate our thirst for cinematic complexity with the antics of Mike, Danny, Jeri, and Kim.

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