Blood Rage



"Identical twins with brutally different personalities!"

Blood Rage is a 1983 Slasher Film, which is also known as both Nightmare at Shadow Woods and Complex.

In 1974, while at a Drive-In Theater with his mother Maddy, and his twin brother Todd, a young boy named Terry Simmons brutally murdered a fellow moviegoer, and framed Todd for it. Traumatized by witnessing what his brother had done, Todd fell into a catatonic state, and was placed in a mental institution, while Terry went on to live a normal life with their mother, even getting a girlfriend named Karen. Unfortunately for Terry, a decade after the murder, Todd starts to come out of his shell, and regains the memories of what really happened all those years ago; he subsequently manages to escape the asylum on Thanksgiving. This, coupled with Maddy's intention to marry her boyfriend Brad (who owns the sprawling apartment complex where they live) causes Terry to snap and go on a killing spree.

The film has a bit of a convulted history. While made in 1983, it was shelved until 1987, when a severely cut version of the film (dubbed Nightmare at Shadow Woods) showed up in a few theaters, while that same year the original uncut version of the film was released on VHS by Prism Entertainment. Some seventeen years later, Nightmare at Shadow Woods got its own home release, a DVD by Legacy Entertainment.

The film (the Blood Rage version, that is) is also known for being gory as Hell.

This film provides examples of the following tropes:

 * Eighties Hair
 * Acting for Two: As adults, Todd and Terry are both played by Mark Soper.
 * A Minor Kidroduction
 * An Arm and A Leg: Before slicing his head open, Terry cuts one of Brad's hands off.
 * An Axe to Grind: The prologue has a young Terry hack up a moviegoer with an old axe he finds lying around.
 * Auto Erotica: It's a horror film that features a Drive-In Theater, it's to be expected.
 * Ax Crazy: Terry.
 * Batter Up: After being told Todd is skulking around, Artie decides to look for him, arming himself with a baseball bat beforehand.
 * Big Eater: Maddy.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Blood Is Squicker in Water: After hacking open Gregg's throat, Terry shoves him into a nearby pool. Terry himself later falls into the same pool after his mother unknowingly shoots him to death.
 * Blood Spattered Innocent: Todd in the opening, when Terry smears some of his victim's blood on him.
 * Cain and Abel: Terry and Todd.
 * Cassandra Truth: Todd.
 * Cat Scare: Dr. Berman's assistant, Jackie, steps on one while looking for Todd. Plus there's Andrea and Gregg pranking Karen and Artie by pretending to be dead and the killer, respectively.
 * The Cavalry Arrives Late: Police sirens are heard approaching just after Terry and Maddy both die.
 * Chase Scene: Terry chases Karen around the apartment complex several times.
 * Death By Sex: The first victim, Bill and Julie, and Andrea and Gregg.
 * Death By Mocking: Also Andrea and Gregg.
 * Developing Doomed Characters
 * Did I Mention Its Christmas: It's only mentioned it's Thanksgiving once or twice.
 * Don't Go in The Woods: The apartment complex has a nature walk. It gets used.
 * Drive-In Theater
 * Driven to Suicide: Maddy, after realizing she killed Terry, the son she really wanted. Maybe.
 * Drop What You Are Doing: Terry, when his mother walks into the pool house after he corners Todd and Karen there.
 * The Eighties
 * Enfant Terrible: Young Terry.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
 * Evil Twin: Terry.
 * Fan Disservice: Andrea and Gregg's sex scene is interrupted when Terry appears and hacks them both up.
 * Fan Service: Julie's sexy negligee.
 * Fanservice Extra: The first victim's girlfriend.
 * Fight Scene: A brief one between Todd and Terry, in a pool.
 * Final Girl: Karen.
 * Flower in Her Hair: Maddy is never seen without at least one. Yeah, it's weird.
 * Foe Yay: Expected when your boyfriend turns out to be a psycho, right Sidney?
 * Fork Fencing
 * For the Evulz: Most of Terry's victims are completely random, and are killed for no discernible reason.
 * Giggling Villain: Terry.
 * Gold Digger: Possibly Julie.
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: Maddy, after being told it was Terry she shot to death.
 * Gorn: Oh, Hell yeah!
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Maddy shooting herself in the head; her blood is shown splattering on the floor as the handgun falls from her grasp.
 * Groin Attack: Karen briefly escapes Terry by hitting him in the balls with a phone.
 * Gross Up Close Up: Used for Brad's severed hand and mutilated head, and Terry yanking his machete out of the dead Julie's chest.
 * Half The Woman She Used To Be: Doctor Berman's death.
 * High Pressure Blood: When Brad gets his hand cut off.
 * Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: It's probably the best Thanksgiving horror film out there.
 * Hot Mom: Julie.
 * Hysterical Woman: Maddy.
 * I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Shadow Woods Apartments.
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice: Jackie's death.
 * Impromptu Tracheotomy: See directly below.
 * Improvised Weapon: Terry stabs Artie in the throat with a big fork, and as mentioned above, Karen attacks Terry's nuts with a phone.
 * Infant Immortality: While he kills her and her boyfriend, Terry leaves Julie's baby alone.
 * Irony: Todd tells a little girl there's a bad man on the loose, and to go home and lock the door, and to not let anyone in, no matter what they say. When Karen later comes banging on the door while running from Terry, the girl refuses to let her in.
 * When Brad gets his hand cut off, a preacher on the nearby radio says something to the effect of "an eye for an eye, and a hand for a hand".
 * Lady Drunk: Maddy.
 * Last Name Basis: Artie almost exclusively refers to Terry as Simmons.
 * Licking the Blade: Done by Terry once or twice.
 * Machete Mayhem: Terry's main weapon.
 * Made of Plasticine
 * Madness Mantra: By the end, Todd is reduced to yelling "I'm Todd!" while banging his head against a wall.
 * Menacing Stroll: Terry's highest level of speed.
 * Man Child: Todd.
 * Mommy Issues: Along with Todd escaping the asylum, Maddy announcing she is going to marry Brad also seemingly causes Terry to snap.
 * Ms. Exposition: Doctor Berman.
 * New Age Retro Hippie: A horny one appears as a viewer at the drive-in at the start of the film.
 * Offscreen Teleportation: Done several times by Terry.
 * Off With His Head: Bill's death.
 * Only in Florida
 * Peek a Boo Corpse: While fleeing from Terry, Karen stumbles across several bodies.
 * Pool Scene
 * Reaction Shot
 * Re Cut: The extremely cut down Nightmare at Shadow Woods.
 * Rule of Three: Terry cracks "It's not cranberry sauce..." in regards to his victims' blood at least three times.
 * The Scourge of God: Jackie gets killed shortly after deciding to take a marijuana break.
 * Screaming Woman: As Terry approaches her with his machete, Doctor Berman just stands there with her mouth hanging open.
 * The Seventies: The opening.
 * Shower Scene: Features both a male (Terry, washing blood off) example and a female (Andrea, washing off the makeup she wore to prank Karen and Artie) example.
 * The Shrink: Doctor Berman.
 * Similarly Named Works: There's a 1979 film by Joseph Zito titled Bloodrage. The IM Db page for this film actually uses the poster for that one.
 * Slashed Throat: Gregg's death.
 * Sound Only Death: Andrea's death.
 * Super OCD: Maddy has shades of this, what with her obssessive cleaning and all.
 * Take That: One of the film's taglines is "Not all the evil is on Elm Street..."
 * Thanksgiving Day Story
 * Theme Twin Naming: Todd and Terry.
 * Title In: 1974 - Jacksonville, Florida and Ten Years Later.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Julie. After finding her boyfriend's severed head, she, instead of immediately running away with her baby, decides to grab a big coat and struggle to put it on. Also, no one bothers to call the police or hold up somewhere, even though they know there's a potentially dangerous killer lurking about.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Artie, to Karen.
 * Weapon of Choice: A machete.
 * Word Salad Title