''Blood Song'' (also known as ''Dream Slayer'') is a 1982 American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as ...

directed Alan J. Levi, produced by

Frank Avianca Frank Sardo Avianca (September 16, 1936 – February 26, 2014), who performed as Frankie Sardo, was an American rock and roll singer, actor and film producer. Life He was born Frank Marco Sardo on September 16, 1936, in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New ...

and Lenny Montana, and starring

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including number one hits, "Venus" an ...

and

Donna Wilkes Donna Consuelo Wilkes (born 1958–1961) is an American actress. She began her career as a child actor in commercials before making her feature film debut in ''Jaws 2'' (1978). She subsequently had a supporting role in '' Almost Summer'' (1978), ...

. It follows a crippled young woman in a coastal Oregon town who is stalked by a hatchet-wielding psychopath from whom she once received a

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

. Based on a short story by Joseph Shink, ''Blood Song'' was adapted by Shink along with producers Avianca and Montana. The film was shot in the fall of 1980 in

Coos Bay Coos Bay is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon state lines. The Coos Bay watershed covers an area of abou ...

and Coquille, Oregon. While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the United Kingdom under Section 3 of the

Obscene Publications Act 1959 The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene mater ...

during the "

video nasty Video nasty is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that ...

" panic.

Plot

In 1955 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, a businessman finds his wife in bed with another man, and commits a double murder-suicide. His young son, Paul, witnesses the three deaths, and is traumatized. Twenty-five years later, in 1980, Paul is incarcerated at a psychiatric institution near Stanford Bay, a small town on the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

. One day, Paul manages to murder an orderly, and subsequently retrieves a beloved wooden flute given to him by his father before escaping the institution. Meanwhile, Stanford Bay teenager Marion is struggling to adjust to her

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...

: She survived a car accident several years prior—caused by her drunken father, Frank—which left her Paraplegia, unable to walk without the help of a leg brace. Marion's home life is troubled, with her father being verbally abusive to her and her mother, Bea. She dreams of leaving Stanford Bay once her fisherman boyfriend, Joey, obtains a job in Portland. Paul manages to hitch a ride with a truck driver. When the driver becomes annoyed by Paul's flute-playing, Paul bludgeons him in the head with a hatchet, killing him, before stealing his vehicle. He subsequently picks up a female hitchhiker, who he brings to a local motel in Stanford Bay. The two begin to engage in sex, but Paul strangles her to death after he fails to charm her with his flute-playing, and proceeds to dismember her body. Marion is concurrently plagued by bizarre dreams and visions of the murders, which she comes to discover are in fact wikt:premonition, premonitions. While in the hospital after her accident, she had received a

from Paul, which has given her extrasensory perception of Paul's actions in the present. Marion's psychic visions of Paul's actions increase in frequency and intensity, and she eventually runs into him in person disposing of the female hitchhiker's dismembered corpse on a rural beach, making her his next target. Marion manages to elude Paul, but he later discovers where she lives. He infiltrates her home, killing her father. Struggling to walk, Marion manages to flee her home to an adjacent sawmill, and is pursued by Paul. While chasing Marion, Paul impales a worker with a forklift, and then inadvertently crashes through a barrier, driving the forklift off the pier and into the bay. Later at the police station, Marion is questioned about her attacker, who she identifies as the "man she dreamed about." Unable to find any trace of Paul, the police assume that Marion is mentally ill and responsible for the murders herself. She is committed to the same psychiatric institution from which Paul had earlier escaped. While lying bound to a hospital bed, Paul enters her room posing as a doctor. She awakens, and screams in horror.

Cast

Production

''Blood Song'' was based on a short story by Joseph Shink, who adapted the screenplay with Frank Avianca and Lenny Montana. Montana cast Frankie Avalon as the killer based on his performance in an episode of ''Fantasy Island''. Per a 1980 report, Carol Lynley was at one time cast in the film. Principal photography began in late October 1980 on the Central Oregon Coast, including locations in

, Coquille, and North Bend, Oregon, North Bend. Jim Kimbell, an executive producer for Mountain High Enterprises, the film's production company, suggested Coos Bay as the filming location, as he had formerly lived there and felt it would be an ideal setting for the film. Filming sites in Coos Bay included the Coos Head Timber Company, the Pony Village Mall, Gino's Pizzeria, and the Charleston Small Boat Basin. The shoot was scheduled for a total of 22 days, under the film's working titles ''Premonitions'', on a budget of $1.2 million. Though uncredited, Robert Angus served as an additional director on the film.

Release

Critical response

AllRovi, AllMovie's review of the film was mixed, writing, "''Blood Song'' is dumb fun for those in the market for such and there is perverse enjoyment in watching Avalon's inexplicable performance, but don't expect chills or logic." Film scholar Scott Aaron Stine wrote: "As derivative as the script may be, ''Blood Song'' is surprisingly palatable," citing the script's "sympathetic" characters as key. ''TV Guide''s Fred Beldin wrote that the film "certainly earns points for pop culture dissonance if nothing more... the sweet crippled girl is inadequately developed, and the shock ending is a cop-out cribbed from every other hack slasher film that was selling tickets at the time. ''Blood Song'' is dumb fun for those in the market for such and there is perverse enjoyment in watching Avalon's inexplicable performance, but don't expect chills or logic."

Home media

''Blood Song'' was released on VHS in the United States in the spring of 1983. Though not prosecuted for obscenity, it was seized and confiscated in the United Kingdom under Section 3 of the

during the "

" panic, due to its violent content. In the 1990s, it was subsequently released by Coast-to-Coast Video under the title ''Dream Slayer'' with ”Slayer” on the cover stylised similarly to the logo of the Californian thrash metal band Slayer The film was released on DVD by BCI Entertainment as part of their ''Exploitation Cinema'' double feature line alongside the film ''Mausoleum (film), Mausoleum''.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0083660, title=Blood Song 1982 horror films 1982 films 1980s serial killer films 1980s slasher films American independent films American slasher films Films about paraplegics or quadriplegics Films about precognition Films based on short fiction Films set in 1955 Films set in 1980 Films set in Oregon Films set in Portland, Oregon Films shot in Oregon Films about telepathy Films scored by Robert J. Walsh Video nasties Films directed by Alan J. Levi 1980s English-language films 1980s American films