Thanks for the memories!

Fantastic!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Sometimes, I just sit and search through YouTube looking for a movie to watch while I work. Often, that search finds horrible films that I wouldn't be able to enjoy if I were truly paying attention to them. And sometimes, like with this movie, I end up taking a break from writing and find something I really enjoy.Directed by Peter Sasdy (The Lonely Lady, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Hands of the Ripper), this film was a UK/Canadian tax shelter affair. But don't hold that against it! Five strangers all wake up at the same time and have no memories of who they are, other than that they are all killers. They must travel to a Wild West town called Blood City.Once there, they will spend a year in servitude before they can become free. Then, they'll be able to own a business and work toward becoming immortal - free from constant worry of challenges to the death. They get there by winning twenty challenges. And there's only one law in Blood City - Frendlander, played by Jack Palance. It's no accident that the bad guy from Shane is playing this part. Palance might only be known to younger folks from his Oscar turn in City Slickers, but in the 1970's he was taking whatever parts he could get. And then he'd sink his teeth into them! He's fabulous in this movie!Keir Dullea (Black Christmas, 2001, The Haunting of Julia) stars as Lewis, who finds himself coming up against Frendlander over and over again. The real secret of the film? None of them are in this town at all - it's a virtual reality simulation to determine the best warriors in a future war. So basically, it's a combination of WestWorld and The Matrix.Samanta Eggar (The Brood) shows up as a scientist who falls in love with Lewis and inserts herself into the virtual reality experiment. Barry Morse is also in here, who you may remember as Lt. Philip Gerard from TV's The Fugitive. And Chris Wiggins is in this as well. He was Jack Marshak on Friday the 13th: The Series.If you're looking for this movie, you can find a horrible transfer of it on the Mill Creek Sci-Fi Invasion 50 Pack. That said, the set is pretty worthwhile, as you also get stuff like The Crater Lake Monster, Death Machines, Sergio Martino's Hands of Steel, Horror High, the Florinda Bolkan film Le Orme, The Raiders of Atlantis, R.O.T.O.R., Robo Vampire, one of the worst/best films ever Rocket Attack U.S.A. and more.This is totally of the doomed 1970's genre and the end - where Lewis chooses the fantasy of Blood City instead of the lies of modern life - still ring true today. I completely expected a ripoff of WestWorld and FutureWorld, yet was rewarded with something really good. It's slow moving, but if you understand that and can see a movie for what it could be versus what it is, I think you'll enjoy it.

An initial look at the storyline of Welcome To Blood City screams :'Westworld rip-off!' As it happens, it's not really much like Westworld at all. Welcome To Blood City has a few good ideas and a decent score by Roy Budd, but is rather hampered by lacklustre handling.A number of strangers, all suffering some form of amnesia, wake up in a barren desert wasteland. They cannot remember how they got there or where they came from, but in their pockets they carry an unusual card which tells them how many people they have killed (even though, as far as they're aware, they have never killed anyone in their lives). The bewildered group start hiking in search of food, water and shelter. Soon they find themselves in Blood City, a violent town which seems to be based on an alternate wild west. The leader/sheriff of the town, Frendlander (Jack Palance) explains to them that, as newcomers, they can either choose to become slaves for one year (if they choose this, they will be protected from being killed) or they can refuse to become slaves and go it alone (this is a much riskier choice, as they will be fair game to be killed by another citizen). It turns out that Blood City has its own complicated laws and rules, with credits awarded for fair-fight killings, and immortality awarded to anyone who can successfully carry out twenty fair killings. One of the newcomers, Lewis (Keir Dullea) is determined to fight the system, and sets about striking back his own way. Meanwhile, it is made clear to us, the audience (though not to the inhabitants of Blood City) that the entire thing is an artificial reality – a game, almost – in which various people are being tested for their mental and physical resolve under dangerous circumstances, so that the best ones can be employed as government agents and assassins back in the modern world.Certainly weird, Welcome To Blood City unfortunately fails to be similarly wonderful. It's a near-miss more than anything else, a good idea which doesn't quite make the transition into a good full-length film. The concept of a virtual reality scenario in which human guinea pigs are put unknowingly through a dangerous game is quite intriguing, and there are interesting moments throughout the film. Dullea is OK as the 'hero' and Palance does his usual shifty-eyed, furtive, twitchy turn as the sinister sheriff. Samantha Eggar is rather wasted in a dual role as one of the citizens of Blood City and a laboratory technician in the 'real' world overseeing the experiment. The promising plot doesn't really develop into anything unfortunately – it's an idea that never really gets beyond the 'idea' stage. The resulting film that stems from it doesn't reach the heights of cleverness, thoughtfulness or excitement that one might have hoped for. Worth a look for its intriguing possibilities, but ultimately Welcome To Blood City is a bit of a disappointment.

A group of people suffering from amnesia find themselves as slaves in a savage Old West town that's really a virtual reality program designed to test how ruthless they all are. To get ahead in Blood City, one has to kill others. However, willful and sarcastic new arrival Lewis (a fine and likable performance by Kier Dullea) refuses to adhere to the rules. Director Peter Sasdy, working from an offbeat and intriguing script by Michael Winder and Stephen Schneck, relates the compelling story at a steady pace, presents a chilling portrait of a harsh world where random violence and brutality reigns supreme, and stages the shoot-outs with real flair. The sound acting by the able cast keeps the picture buzzing: Jack Palance has a villainous ball as fearsome local lawman Freedlander, Samanthan Eggar likewise does well as sultry and manipulative scientist Katherine, plus there are sturdy contributions from Hollis McLaren as the sweet and fetching Martine, Barry Morse as the stern project supervisor, Chris Wiggins as the vile Gellor, Henry Ramer as amiable bodyguard Chumley, Allan Royal as the pragmatic Peter, and John Evans as nerdy technician Lyle. Moreover, the nifty premise predates "The Matrix" with its concept of a computer-generated alternate reality, there's a genuine weirdness to the film that makes it engrossing throughout, and the filmmakers leave a good deal of the plot for the viewers to figure out on their own (for example, we never find out who exactly is behind the virtual reality program). Roy Budd's strong dramatic score rates as another major asset. Worth a watch.

The opening of the story is a little disorienting, you have a city traffic scene and for a while, I was getting upset that the movie I was watching wasn't the one featured on the DVD sleeve. But then the opening credits offered the title I was expecting, so it was with an 'OK', this could be interesting, that the rest of the picture unfolded. Though nominally a Western, what you have here is an early sci-fi experiment in the concept of virtual reality with an 1880's back drop. The premise of 'Blood City' itself, the Project as it were, was to choose a leader for an elite corps of killers in the real world. By weeding out the losers, project designers attempted to identify someone who could lead a military unit to victory based on their ability to make rational decisions in stressful situations, as well as survive the ordeal. What surprises me is that the concept was tackled in film way back in 1977, thirty years ago, yet the timing only a couple short years after the end of the Vietnam War suggests that the search for ways of insuring victory in future conflicts was well under way.So much for theorizing. Except for the poor production values of the picture itself, I found the whole premise fairly fascinating. As the story progressed, the cut aways to the lab began to make more and more sense, particularly when Samantha Eggar's character began interjecting her own values into the game to affect the outcome. It would have been interesting to learn what became of the people who were 'killed' in Blood City, the story didn't take it that far. As for Lewis's (Keir Dullea) decision to return after being terminated, the film allows for a quandary. Apparently, subjects chosen at random for the experiment didn't have recourse for a return to their former life, even if they could remember it. Of course, we don't get to see what happens when the machines are turned off.One thing I was left wondering about was why the identity cards with the murder scores on the new arrivals was introduced in the first place. That idea didn't seem to have any bearing on the story that followed, even if it helped set up the plot. Was it the point to establish the remaining kills needed to achieve 'immortality'? If so, that idea was negated by the fact that new arrivals could attain immediate citizenship with their first kill. Anyone? I guess the reason I enjoyed the film as much as I did was because of it's way of asking more questions than it answers. Whenever I try to wrap my brain around the concept of virtual reality, a la "The Matrix" for example, it starts to make my head hurt. I don't even want to think about living there like Lewis.Hey, check this out - watch the scene where the camera cuts away from the dead Maxine for the last time - if you look real close, you'll see she opens her eye!