Blood Shack

...it was actually made before the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The copyright on the tape I saw read 1980; the first minute into it my wife had it pegged as a Chainsaw ripoff, and a bad one at that. One has to wonder if Tobe actually saw this waste of time and was inspired to craft his masterpiece in the same dusty-and-weird-shot-setup-and-editing kind of way. Alas, that quirky yet brilliant cinematography is limited to a total of about 30 seconds, and like the other person who commented (now I know at least 3 humans have suffered through watching this) I was outraged at how much stock rodeo footage is mixed in ... not enough plot to fill 90 minutes? No problem -- Head to the rodeo! The only other gem in here is Daniel's death scene, which is not only stupid but serves to leave the plot ... totally hanging shortly before the credits roll. What a treasure.

This movie exists in a temporal reality all of it's own. I consider it more entertaining than THE TWO TOWERS and ATTACK OF THE CLOWNS combined, and found it's central idea (dismal dilapidated Sears catalog two-room house rotting in the sun somewhere outside Lincoln, Nebraska is actually a focus of evil) to be utterly beguiling. What could possibly be more horrifying than finding yourself trapped in the middle of flyover country with nobody but Daniel the shirtless caretaker, two annoying kids, and a woman wearing polka-dotted polyester pants to keep you company? THE PLOT: A young woman inherits a 'ranch' out in the middle of lord knows where which has a smallish house on it's grounds that has been the scene of mysterious events, ominously intoned by a shirtless man with the most hideous bared chest since Sonny Tufts retired. Meanwhile, the Lincoln County Rodeo is underway about seventy five miles away, and after being informed by his distributors that his 47 minute feature wasn't long enough, the director, his two kids and one of the actresses who appeared in the film gamely try to account for about ten minutes of additional screen time by rolling the camera out at the cow yard. There is even a shot of the two tykes cuddling with a cute little puppy. This is because puppies are cute, everybody loves puppies, and who can object to some shots of young children cuddling a cute little puppy? Meanwhile, back at the Blood Shack, some dork inexplicably dressed up like a Ninja keeps jumping off the roof, chasing people down, and poking them with what appears to be a large barbecue skewer. This Ninja Chooper guy can also drive a car, though Daniel the shirtless caretaker helpfully disposes of at least one of his murder victims by burying them, which is a crime or something like that. Thank goodness the local police officer suffers from Fat Cop Syndrome and doesn't care. Eventually the Chooper Ninja tries to take on Daniel, the woman with the polka dotted polyester slacks appears, Daniel kills him, and in an unintelligible voice-over the lead actress mumbles something that is probably supposed to wrap it all up. As one prior commenter noted, the addition of the rodeo footage is a brilliant non-sequitor, a diversion that has nothing to do with the story, does nothing to improve the film, and yet has a certain quality that adds to how utterly dirt poor of a production this was. No sets were built, no actors flown in from Paris or Iceland, no lights were used other than what may have been available, and the result is a film that amounts to less than the sum of it's parts. But ... After looking closely at the 57 minute home video VHS release of BLOOD SHACK I dug up, it appears as though every important American horror director from Tobe Hooper to Sam Raimi has seen this movie and used little bits in their own projects. Or rather found justification for what they had in mind here: The Blood Shack itself reminded me a lot of the cabin from the first EVIL DEAD film in that from the outside it's obviously about the size of two refrigerator boxes stacked next to each other, but go inside and you can chase people around from room to room. At 57 minutes I found it to be plenty long. Why anyone would want to restore a 125 minute version is absolutely beyond me. How much more rodeo footage did Shriek Show unearth? Or is that just a misread of "1:25", as in 1hr 25min. I sure hope so for the sake of the people who have bought the DVD ... Then again, maybe they could use the 125 minute version as an interrogation tactic down at Guantanamo Bay now that Senator Kennedy has made them stop using Wet Willies, or whatever it was they were doing. They are already reading from Harry Potter, so show them this: Even the most hardcore terrorist will start naming names after that third trip to the rodeo begins.

A classic of that little-known sub-genre 'rodeo horror', Blood Shack (AKA The Chooper) is just as inept as the hideously amateurish paintings under the opening titles suggest. Originally running at just under an hour, the film was padded out to seventy minutes to satisfy the distributor, director Ray Dennis Steckler adding filler footage shot at a local rodeo. The result is a ham-fisted mess of the lowest order - a boring, poorly acted, clumsily directed, shoddily edited and badly written turd of a movie. It even has a theme song that stinks. Steckler's wife Carolyn Brandt stars as Carol, who inherits a ranch, including an old abandoned house that is supposedly cursed: whoever goes into the building runs the risk of being attacked by a sword-wielding killer called The Chooper (unless you're a cute kid, in which case you can go in and jump on a dirty old mattress without danger). Several people ignore the local legend, enter the old house and die, their bodies discovered and buried by ranch foreman Daniel (Jason Wayne), who likes to wander around topless (or wear a cropped shirt that reveals his midriff). Meanwhile, neighbouring rancher Tim (Ron Haydock) keeps pestering Carol to sell her property (Sell me the ranch. Sell me the ranch. You will Sell!), and anyone who has ever seen an episode of Scooby Doo will immediately identify him as The Chooper, the man obviously trying to scare people away so that he can get the ranch at a snip (and he woulda gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for that pesky Daniel). The film features two shower scenes with Brandt, but no nudity, has two of the worst child performances I can remember (by Steckler's children Linda and Laura), sees Brandt sporting garish stars and stripes flares, has some truly diabolical lines of outdated dialogue ("The kids were really grooving", He told me his daughters dug me, and I dug them", "The whole scene was too heavy"), and is free of gore. Not to put too fine a point upon it, it's crap!

Proving that you can make a movie with a budget of about $20, Ray Dennis Steckler's BLOOD SHACK is a stark,minimalist film featuring a haunted shack that looks like it'd fall over if you breathed on it. The Chooper,however,is a killing machine. I liked this movie a lot.

Blood Shack (1971) ** (out of 4) Set in a small Texas town, a woman inherits an old ranch with an even older house, which apparently is "protected" by a murderer named The Chooper". Whenever someone comes close to the house this killer will jump out to kill them. This is the type of film that would get fourth or fifth billing at an all-night drive in but I must say that the film kept me somewhat entertained because of how silly it actually was. The budget couldn't have been more than a few hundred dollars and the screenplay really offers up nothing in terms of scares, shocks or even a twist ending. The movie really plays out like an adult version of Scooby Doo but I'm sure the cartoon had a lot tougher cases to crack. The film doesn't have much violence, no nudity and not too much else going for it but I guess that's part of the charm because clearly Steckler was going for something but what exactly is anyone's guess. This film is beyond strange and somewhat plays out like a dream. One of those dreams that seem real but you're still not really sure if you're dreaming or just in some strange world. If that doesn't make sense then neither does this movie so just go after it.

With the odd red-herring rodeo show and crazy ninjas jumping off buildings, you'd be forgiven for wondering what the hell's going on here. Still, any movie with the memorable line "I told ya he'd get ya, and now look at you, you're dead" has got to be worth watching at least once... right? guys?

Blood Shack is actually two films put together: 1. One story centers around a woman trying not to get killed by a madman hanging out at a shack in the desert. 2. The other film shows the sheer joy that can be had spending time at the rodeo on a hot summer's day. Sadly all the action in the film takes place at the rodeo. The filmaker(s) evidently ran out of story (or plot, or ideas etc...) about halfway through the film. So what we get is the protagonist will occasionally leave the crime scene and go to the rodeo where the viewer is treated (heh heh...) to scenes of bullriders frolicking about. These are the most frightening scenes in the film. The horror action is cheeeesssyyyy and not imaginative. Everyone sleepwalks through this flick. No surprises, NO budget, no action, no acting, whew... just cheese. Blood Shack is truly one of the worst films ever filmed. I still gave it a 4 though. I like the rodeo...

Blood Shack is in my list of top three worst horror films ever, alongside A Night To Dismember and S.I.C.K. I've seen tons of low budget horror films in my time, and most give you some form of minimal entertainment. Blood Shack gives you none. One of the most pointless and boring scenes is the rodeo footage. It seems to go on forever and is obviously only there to pad the film out. The plot is virtually non existent and the acting is limp. No tension, no suspense, and no gore. My advice: if you want a "so bad it's good" film, watch The Suckling, They Don't Cut The Grass Anymore or Don't Go In The Woods Alone instead! Those films are low budget trash that at least deliver some fun.

It's so bad your sides will split everytime you watch it. Classic lines like "i told you not you go in there, and now look at you, you're dead" combined with rodeo footage that has NOTHING to do with the rest of film means for anyone who's seen it, this film is tops. Recommended with a capital laugh!

This film looks almost like a home movie. The camera work looks almost like it was done with a Super 8mm camera, the narration sounded like it was done in a tunnel and some of the director's family were in it because real actors cost money. In addition, the film only runs at 55 minutes in its current form. According to IMDb, the theaters wouldn't show such a short film, so Steckler added some completely irrelevant scenes from a rodeo to pad it. I saw the shorter version and it still had many irrelevant rodeo scenes! Now such a cheaply made film CAN work (after all, the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD made a ton of money and was well made--and looked like it was filmed by high school students), but in 99% of the cases, it doesn't work at all--like with this film. The film begins with a stupid lady insisting her friends spend the night in a supposedly haunted house. They refuse and later, naturally, 'the Chooper' kills the lady that night. It seems this small house in the desert is cursed and evil befalls anyone who tries to live there. The caretaker of this ranch keeps telling everyone this, but time and again, people don't listen. Despite this and the fact that the house ain't worth more than $45, a relative of the past owner insists she wants to move in to the place. Of course, there are more murders and when you finally see what you think is the Chooper, he's just a guy dressed up kind of like a ninja who stabs people with a sword. It all ends very anticlimactically and frankly it was very boring but not stupid enough to be an unintentionally funny film. The lead actress' pants, by the way, were actually scarier to see than the bad guy at the end! It's just bad.