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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: December 3rd, 2024.
Director: Mats Helge (as Mike Jackson)
Cast: Jeff Harding, Michael Fitzpatrick, Naomi Kaneda, Zin Zan
Year: 1985
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Blood Tracks – Movie Review:
A year after Mats Helge directed The Ninja Mission, the Swedish exploitation auteur would helm the awesome slasher film Blood Tracks, a heavy metal horror film released on video by Vista where he would be credited as Mike Jackson for some reason. Also known as Shocking Heavy Metal (even if the heavy metal in this movie isn’t in the least bit shocking), it’s a fun combination of blood, babes, boobs and big hair that could only have been made in the mid-eighties.
When the movie begins, a woman stabs her husband in the back and leaves him for dead, taking off with her countless number of rugrats on the train and hoping to start a new life. Fast forward a few decades to that point in history we all remember, that being 1985, when heavy metal super group Solid Gold ruled supreme and were conquering the airwaves across the globe! Solid Gold are played by real life heavy metal group Easy Action (and featuring future members of Europe and Shotgun Messiah!) and are most assuredly not to be confused with the John Brennon group of the same name out of Detroit – make that mistake at your peril! They've arrived on the top of a mountain to film an awesome rock video where they make goofy poses, show off their huge hair and roll down hills a lot. What they don't realize is that they've brought so much fucking heavy metal thunder with them that they've caused a literal avalanche!
OH FUCK!
With no other option, the band and their hot groupie sluts decide to hole up in a nearby cabin where someone starts picking them off one by one. Thankfully, in between murders, people get naked and have awesome Swedish sex and talk on walkie-talkies. Remember walkie-talkies? Yeah, cellphone technology fucking ruined them for us, didn't they? It sucks. Walkie-talkies were way cooler than cellphones. At any rate, Blood Tracks is pretty great in its own amazingly dopey way - it's kind of a combination of The Hills Have Eyes and... a movie with a bad hair metal band stuck in the snow of the mountains of Sweden. Maybe it plays more seriously in Swedish (probably not) but in English it appears that the writers forgot to give some of the characters names and instead focused more on giving them giant poofy hairdos.
If you enjoy seeing guys dressed like Cinderella or maybe White Lion and dig chicks with boobs (duh) and who enjoy showing off those boobs, check this one out (especially now that it’s on Blu-ray and you don’t have to track down a long out of print European DVD). It's stupid, gory, and hilarious and best watched under the influence of whatever your particular vice may be. And dig that soundtrack! Bonus points are awarded to an awesome kill scene in which the bad guy throws an axe at a dude, hits him square in the head and sends him careening over a walkway to his death in the industrial complex below - those who get excited over 'dummy' scenes as some of us are apt to do will definitely get hard over this one. Be sure to sit through the end credits to take in an Easy Action power balled called 'In The Middle Of Nowhere.' Helge himself reportedly appears in this film under his Mike Jackson alias (it does appear in the end credits). It's also probably worth mentioning that Smirnoff and Philip Morris are both thanked in the end credits as well.
Blood Tracks – Blu-ray Review:
Blood Tracks debuts on region free Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome framed at 2.35.1 in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer that is newly scanned and restored in 4k original 35mm negative with the feature using up 26GBs of space on the 50GB disc. It looks very strong, showing nice detail and very good color reproduction. Detail is quite strong and there's good depth and texture here as well. No problems to note with any compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction issues, this looks nice and film-like throughout. The garish eighties color scheme is reproduced very well, shadow detail in the darker indoor scenes looks solid and overall, this is a pretty strong transfer.
Audio chores are handled by an English language 24-bit DTS-HD Mono track with optional subtitles offered up in English only. Audio quality is fine. There's a tiny bit of sibilance in one or two spots but otherwise the audio is clean, clear and properly balanced with a fair bit of depth to the score and easily discernable dialogue.
Extras start off with a commentary track featuring author and film historian Amanda Reyes, film historian Rickard Gramfors and special features producer Ewan Cant. They note that the movie is a Swedish/British co-production, how they each came to experience the movie for the first time, thoughts on seeing the movie all cleaned up as it is on this disc, what sets the movie apart from other slasher films made around the same period, details on the cast and crew that appear in the movie, how it connects to The Hills Have Eyes and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in concept but throws in elements from Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park as well, how well the movie exploits a few genuinely cool locations, Mats Helge's work on the film as a director and details on his life and career as well as his connections to Bergman, details on the cast and crew that pop up in the movie, how difficult it is to identify people in a movie where a lot of the characters aren't named, how the band sort of just disappears into the background and thoughts on the band itself, the heavy metal and horror boom of the mid-eighties, how the film was received upon its initial release and how some of the cast members feel about it in hindsight and plenty more.
Playing It Straight is a sixteen-minute interview with actor Jeff Harding where he speaks quite candidly about how he got into acting after doing school plays, getting his start doing live theater and then making the transition into film and television, how he wound up getting connected with Blood Tracks and taking the part without asking any questions, how the "whole thing was a party," being well aware of the fact that the might wouldn't turn out to be "good" while making it, thoughts on his character, what Mats Helge was like to work with and how he went to jail every year rather than pay his taxes, the film's shooting schedule, the popularity of Easy Action in Sweden at the time, working with some questionable individuals behind the scenes, attending a screening of the film, recollections from the shoot and how he feels about the movie in general.
I'm With The Band runs twenty minutes and talks with actress Naomi Kaneda about her background and career, how she got into acting after working for Pan-Am, getting her start in the business, some of the early roles she took, getting bit parts in B-movies in her early days, some of the people she worked with like Bob Fosse, how she got cast in Blood Tracks, what it was like on set, memories of shooting specific scenes for the movie, getting along with her co-stars, locations that were used for the movie, how diplomatic Helges was as a director, staying in touch with some of her co-stars, getting along with the members of Easy Action and the difficulties of trying to stage an avalanche.
Actress Harriet Robinson is up next in the twenty-one-minute Bang For Your Buck. This featurette sees her talking about how a number of husbands were quite distressed after seeing the film as they didn't know what their wives were up to, how she got into acting as a profession, growing up in Boston, getting work in England, landing the role in Blood Tracks, how and why she feels that making the movie was an adventure, the audition process, what the locations were like, Mats Helges' work on the film and how he cast his wife and kids in the opening scene, how nice Helges was as a person, memories of some of her co-stars, how cold it was on set, how much partying was going on at times and some of the projects that she was involved with once Blood Tracks wrapped.
This Is Going Too Far! is a twenty-one-minute interview with actor Frederick Offrein where he speaks about how he came to Sweden from The Netherlands, how he eventually found work as an actor after trying a few other business ideas, connections that had made early in his career, how he connected with Mats Helges and wound up in Blood Tracks, how much fun it was to make the film, memories of his co-stars, Anders Nillson's work on the movie and his career outside of Blood Tracks and his experiences working on other film projects in the Swedish film industry.
Up next is a twenty-eight-minute audio interview with actress Tina Shaw, conducted by Ewan Cant, that follows suit as she talks about how she came to be involved in the film while working as a model and professional belly dancer, how she met the producer of the film who asked her to go to Cannes and help out with the driving of his Rolls Royce, what it was like on set, working in Sweden for a couple of months and enjoying it a lot, thoughts on how the movie turned out, what it was like on set and how cold it was, dancing in the music video scene without any sort of choreography at all, having to do a love scene with one of the actors who she didn't get along with, filming her death scene, how really no precautions were taken during some of the more dangerous scenes and how she lost all of her personal photos shot on set when she had a fire.
From there, dig into the twenty-seven-minute archival featurette with Easy Action band members Peo Thyrén and Bo Stagman (a.k.a. Zinny Zan) who talk about their work on the movie while sitting around a table eating lunch. They talk about where their career was at this period in time, making the movie as a way to promote their latest album, meeting with Bill Aucoin (Kiss' manager) but not getting a deal with him, being inspired to make a movie after Kiss did it, working with Mats Helge, whether or not there was a proper script to work off of, working with a group of British girls on the film, why they aren't referred to as Easy Action in the movie, rewrites that were done to the script, how making the movie was an interesting and different experience for the band, how they wanted to have as much of their music in the movie as possible and writing the ballad used in the film more or less on the fly.
Finishing up the extras are the film’s original theatrical video trailer, a production still gallery, menus and chapter selection options. As far as the packaging goes, Vinegar Syndrome offers up some cool double-sided cover art and, if you purchase one of the first 6,000 copies from the Vinegar Syndrome website, a limited edition embossed slipcover designed by Suspiria Vilchez.
Blood Tracks – The Final Word:
Blood Tracks is as goofy and ridiculous as they come, but so too is it a really entertaining snowbound slasher with some good kill scenes and memorable characters that offers a tidal wave of eighties nostalgia for those of us who lived through the era. The special edition Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome offers the film up in a very nice presentation and on a disc loaded with extras. Recommended!
