He's back to Rock!: Rocktober Blood (1984)

Rocktober Blood (1984)
rating:***
starring: Tray Loren, Donna Scoggins and Cana Cockrell

When I gave Rocktober Blood a whirl that one time, I wasn't expecting much other than the expectation that this might be a supernatural rock-and-roll slasher in the nature of "Trick Or Treat (1986)". Instead, much to my delight, it's a guilty pleasure in tradition of "New Year's Evil", only with more rock and more gore.

Billy Eye Harper is a hardrocker of high-pitch proportions who leads for the band "Rocktober Blood". With heavy metal masterpieces covering themes of murder and torture, it wasn't long before Billy loses it and murders a few of his crew one night, leaving his on-and-off girlfriend Lynn Starling to find the dismembered remains of her buddies and almost become a victim of his sudden killing spree. Fortunately for Lynn, a bumbling security guard catches Billy and gives chase, sparing her life.

Two years later, Lynn now sings for Rocktober Blood as Billy got sentenced to the electric chair under the charges of murdering at least twenty five individuals. However, it seems the ghost of massacres past isn't gonna leave Lynn alone as she sometimes sees a Billy-like figure menacing her to the point her buddies decide to break from the rock'n roll scene and invite her to a backwoods cabin for some R&R. Unfortunately, it soon becomes more apparent that Billy is back from the grave and out for revenge in his typical blood, guts and hard rock style!

Rocktober Blood didn't really try to add a lot to the slasher elements. In fact, it's most recognizable flaw would be that the pacing can get unnecessarily long and repetitive, most of the plot direction leading to numerous chases scenes and soapy nudity for the sake of soapy nudity.

The film is also loaded with a plethora of cheese and strangeness, with scenes involving killers withstanding being boiled alive in a Jacuzzi as they wait just to strangle a victim, or steam irons that cut throats. It gets even sillier by the time the film reaches its climax as our mysterious ghostly-or-not killer go up front a live crowd to rock and shock his adoring fans with live murder ala grand guignol, which I find odd since the crowd doesn't seem to mind that the dude singing in front of them should have been dead for two years.


But as silly as it goes, Rocktober Blood doesn't fail to entertain in terms that you are willing to be just as dumb and lively as the flick wanted you to be. With a nice selection of heavy metal rock soundtrack to go with some nasty gore and intense chase scenes, the movie also gives us one or two silly turns that either can do good or bad depending on your view, one of which had something to do with the supernatural elements. Without spoiling much, it was misleading and dumb, but admirable in its effort and no way unfamiliar to the slasher subgenre.

A little guilty pleasure of mine, Rocktober Blood can be one hell of a party film in all it's typical 80s "time capsule" glory, benefiting from metal heads and/or those with enough patience for mediocrity. Not the best metalsploitation, but it has its moments.

bodycount:
1 male had his throat cut with knife
1 female impaled to towel holder
1 female dismembered with axe
1 male gets the electric chair offscreen
1 female had her throat burned and cut with iron
1 female gutted with sword
1 female had her chest stabbed with a sword, heart removed
1 female beheaded with dagger
total: 8