Sadly Over-hyped

Am I Missing Something?

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Well, here's a slasher film that comes from Sweden for a change - but don't expect it to be less dumb than any of its American counterparts. BLOOD TRACKS is a pretty lively film, with a huge death count, and lots of sex and cheap gore effects to appeal to the exploitation crowd. It has its failings - much of the climax takes place in the dark, stupidly, so that you can't see a damn thing, although this may be a fault of the print (along with the awful pan and scan job here in the UK) - but no more so than any other low budget horror yarn from the period. As well as this it's short, has a fast pacing and an interesting isolated setting in the form of the spooky mountains, which I always like the use of in a horror film (whether it be THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN or THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI!).The cast members are even more dumb than usual, with a group of people wandering around an old building at night and deciding to split up to search for a missing companion - yeah, that's clever. The female cast members are all vain and unlikable, and so are most of the men for that matter. It doesn't help that the truly hideous fashions and hairstyles have also dated badly since the time in which this was made. The dialogue sounds cheesy and overdubbed, although I do commend the film-makers for getting maximum use out of a piece of stock footage of an avalanche.The murders - despite being noticeably cut here in the UK - are all varied and kept interesting, as well as being short and to the point - there's little of that stalk-and-slash nonsense here. Characters are impaled, axed, burnt, shot, and fall foul of deadly traps. Of course, it's all done in the nastiest way possible. You can't feel too sorry for the truly stupid cast members, though, who decide to have sex in their log cabin while a family of murderers lurk around outside and occasionally peek through windows. Speaking of the bad guys, you almost feel sorry for them towards the end of the film! For some reason their faces have been dipped in oatmeal by the look of it. Although cheap and cheesy, I did get a kick out of BLOOD TRACKS, due to it being a straightforward celebration of death with minimal dialogue and lots of violent action.

Unquestionably one of the dumbest, dullest and most redundant slasher/exploitation hybrids of the entire 80's decade, "Blood Tracks" is a Swedish-American co-production that desperately attempts to cash in on the success of "The Hills Have Eyes" and other similar mountain-survival horror flicks, but tremendously fails. The most transparent problem of this film project is the lack of budget. The acting performances are weak, the choreography looks amateurish and – worst of all – three quarters of the film is shot without lighting. During practically all the death sequences, you find yourself staring at a fully black screen with only a bit of loud screaming in the background. The basic plot outline isn't too bad, actually – albeit very derivative – but in spite of this and the reasonably high body count, "Blood Tracks" is an insufferably boring and retarded 80's movie. The intro sequence is undeniably the best of the whole film, as a worried mother of three slays her alcoholic and abusive husband and flees into the snowy Colorado Mountains. Many years later (forty according the synopsis on the back flap of the DVD), a cheesy and ultimately gay rock band called "Solid Gold" journeys to the area, along with groupies and backing vocals, to record a video clip. Their atrocious music and annoying behavior quickly causes avalanches so immense they find themselves trapped and cut off from the world. The family from the intro, by now completely bewildered and having developed cannibalistic appetites, resides in a nearby abandoned factory and prepares for a luxurious smörgåsbord. The influence of "The Hills Have Eyes" is obvious, as it is even hinted at that the self-exiled family engaged in naughty inbred games, but they're not the least bit menacing or scary. The band members and their dim-witted entourage form the least amiable horror characters I have ever seen. They say imbecilic stuff (like "the snow is cold" and "hey, let's do it in the snow"), make stupid decisions and honestly deserve to die in the most painful ways imaginable. The Colorado filming locations – actually shot in rural Sweden – are beautiful to look at, but that's pretty much the only positive thing I can write about "Blood Tracks". They're quite a bit of sleaze and nudity, but none of the female cast members are attractive or sexy. If I remember correctly, even that dreadful similarly themed movie "Terror on Tour" was better than this.

I found this title about a year ago in a charity shop for 50p, I though at the time this looked interesting, how wrong was I.For a Slasher flick this is really poor, and fails on every possible level such as Acting? Crap!! FX? Shite!! Story? Poop!! Setting? Excrement!! A clear rip off to "The Hills Have Eyes" which is far more superior. In fairness to this stank Swedish meatball of a flick I do believe that I may have screened the CUT version as most of the gore seemed snipped, either that or it was edited using pruning shears, which for all I know may have been the case. I would however be interested in re-screening an UNCUT version if there is one. Hey, I'm sure it would still gobble cock but at least there might be a little gore to break up the monotony of porn flick acting and home movie FX.All in all I'd say stay well clear of this travesty.

This is the first Swedish horror movie I have seen and if I see any more I hope they are better than this. A rock group who are filming a video clip are destroyed by a group of animalistic hermits who have heretofore lived undisturbed in an abandoned factory. A "Structure Condemned Do Not Enter" sign is on the outside of the building so naturally they ignore it and barge in. This belongs in the subgenre of horror films that centre around rock groups - other titles include Song of the Succubus, Terror on Tour, Rocktober Blood, Trick or Treat, Monster Dog, Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare and Black Roses. The songs are by a group I've never heard of called Easy Action.