Blood Beat (1983)

It's Christmas in Wisconsin, and a killer Samurai is on the loose!  What....the....fuck.

So really what's this movie like?  Closest I could say is a low budget The Shining, set in the country side of Wisconsin, with a killer ghost samurai offing people.  This odd ball film which was mostly long forgotten back on VHS has been restored and given a wider release by the fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome.  Um, thanks I guess?

GHOST SAMURAI!

So we got a family gathering at their country home for Christmas, as well as some family time hunting!  Immediately the movie gives us big hints that something is off with some of the family, with the cast pretty much out right admitting that mom has psychic visions like it's normal.  Weird family reunions aside, the movie slowly has our family going on a hunting trip where we get odd flashing camera effects and suddenly we find a dead dude.  Guy's guts were slashed open, must have been just a hunting accident, no biggie!  Moving on.....

So the movie then has us suffer through a family gathering and bore you to tears, with such exciting highlights like the younger sibling's heated game of Monopoly!  In between random scenes of our dysfunctional family reunion, we see that the oldest son's new girlfriend has powers that connect her to our ghostly killer samurai.  She sees visions of him as he randomly offing people for no apparent reason, and really it's not even exciting to watch.  So it's just your average supernatural slasher film, big deal.  Of course it's not that simple, because whenever our young lady friend is possessed by the killer, she gets aroused.  She literally gets off, on the psychic kills the samurai commits.  Don't expect any answers, just watch a girl getting psychic pleasure as people are butchered by an undead Japanese warrior.

She's got the glow!

Bad acting galore, with next to no budget for the effects.  The entire film sounds like crap, and you often can't make out what people are saying as they are clearly too far away from any microphones so everything is muffled.  The soundtrack is hilarious in that it's full of public domain classical pieces that have no business being in such a shitty film.  The movie goes all out with the supernatural as we see magic powers being showcased by various family members, ghost samurai appearances, and the house itself coming alive and attacking it's occupants.  Without a budget to do these special effects justice, the whole thing just comes off as sad..  I think my mouth was open half the time in awe of what I was watching.  The story doesn't explain the psychic powers, or even anything related to the ghost samurai's true origin.  Stuff just happens and you accept it cause really it doesn't matter and doubt any explanation would improve a damn thing.  The sheer randomness I think gives the movie far more charm.  To sums things up, Blood Beat is about a blue glowing killer samurai spirit that stalks the woods of Wisconsin, getting a girl's rocks off.

"Special" effects