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Behind The Screens

by Jon Waterman
Volume 1, Issue 2
Volume 1, Issue 1
Special Features
D-VHS
Digital Projectction vs. 35mm
Multiple DVD Releases

FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Rocktober Blood (1/2 star)
review by Jon Waterman

Billy “Eye” Harper, the lead singer of this awesome hair metal band, goes crazy one night in the studio and begins to kill everyone he can find, especially his producers. The only one left standing at the end of the night is his former girlfriend Lynn Starling. She was able to escape his attacks, but just barely. Thanks to Lynn, Billy gets executed for his crimes and she goes on to become one of the biggest metal singers around. Years later, while preparing to embark on a massive tour called Rocktober Blood, Billy returns for revenge and finish the business he started. But is he real, or is Lynn slowly going insane?

It’s pretty easy to tell how horribly bad this movie is going to be from the opening credits (as if you couldn’t tell from the title alone). This is a film by “The Sebastian’s.” The Sebastian’s what? What of theirs made this movie? And more importantly, why? I could go on, but focusing on such petty grammatical errors (of which I’m sure I’m prone to as well) would take valuable time away from getting to the blood and guts of this extremely important review.

Beverly Sebastian (“’Gator Bait”) directed and co-wrote [with Ferd Sebastian (short for Ferdinand, “Flash and the Firecat”)] this low-budget B-movie failure. I’m all in favor of bad movies, and this one certainly had its moments, but there was a lot wrong with it, even considering what it is. For one, it’s directed like a stage play. All the action happens front and center. So, the camera never gets close enough to help along any tenseness or paranoia they’re trying to get across. After a while, it just gets boring.

Most of the legitimate action happens within the first ten minutes, after a five minute, lens-flare filled song by “Eyes” himself (played horribly by Tray Loren in his film debut). After the opening, no one gets killed for a very long time. What’s the point of that? People want to see blood and guts and gore and killings and so on. Give it to us. At least show us a little bit of the trial and definitely show us the execution. That could have been a great scene…if it existed.

Real rock band Sorcery provides the music for the band, fronted by Lynn (played by Donna Scoggins in her only on-screen appearance). Even though the music isn’t great, it certainly wasn’t as laughable as you would hope it to be. What makes it really bad is the terrible lip-synching and over-the-top acting during the songs. The movie, like the songs, could have been worse, in a good way. But for the most part, it’s still a wretchedly bad throw-away horror flick that should be good for some laughs amongst friends. If only they went the extra mile and really piled on some killings within that hour in the middle…. Overall, there was just not enough blood, not enough rock and way too much tober.

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