Blood Theatre (1984)

 I decided to shorten this for my Letterboxd review, so I'll just add the complete review here, with something much less substantive there...

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I remember seeing this for the first time in one of those multi-film bargain basement DVDs, though this wasn't the intended rental from Netflix.

Late Sunday I had a little window before sleep, so I hit Tubi and revisited this mainly because of leggy Woronov as a secretary butting heads with a theater manager.

The actress that was saddled with the teen cheerleader just wasn't convincing, since she clearly looked too old for the part, the provocative Selena character was portrayed by an actress dubbed the entire film, and practically the entire cast basically worked this one film and that's it.

Sloane had some odd camera angles when shooting the faces of his cast, often low from the ground. The score sort of looped on repeat two pieces that eventually wore out their welcome with me. The supernatural, knife-wielding elderly killer wasn't particularly menacing and for whatever reason dies when stabbed; not sure the film did enough to lay out a strong rationale for his emergence. If he's the spirit of the original theater owner, why wouldn't he be played by the same guy from the beginning?

The supernatural kills including a violent wind and decapitation, along with some basic knife attacks filling out the body count, left much to be desired, and the ending with cops walking into the theater with the screen freezing seemed abrupt and not intended.

I did love the once obviously majestic movie theater, soon to be rendered extinct...it sure must have been quite a structure of splendor in it's heyday. Woronov was working the snark and her secretary's adversarial relationship with her boss and rival, Selena, at least brought some sauce in an otherwise bland product, though I realize this film could be an acquired taste. Woronov up on her boss's desk giving us all plenty of leg might be the best moment in the film to me.

I will say the opening where the original theater owner burns alive his girlfriend and lover and stabs his bored, unsuspecting ticket booth employee when she's just minding her own business seems to indicate something far more intriguing.

Selena interrupting another employee's date by opening her shirt, full-on breasts, while knocking popcorn buckets out of the hands of frustrated patrons while refusing to leave or shut up, as Woronov's secretary must pull her away is absolutely nutty. Prior to that Sloane actually shows the devil and angel above each shoulder of Selena advising her in this strange comedic moment.

The air woosh sound effect for opening doors among other things is just bizarre.

This might be an interesting curio for aficionados of mid 80s low budget Los Angeles filmmaking. 1.5/5