Bloody Nasty (1989)

Directed by:
Richard Gabai
Robert Strauss

Very difficult to find, this horror-comedy never received an American distribution deal. Some got to see a bit of footage in the documentary series THIS IS HORROR (which was shown on TV as Stephen King's World of Horror) but that was about it. The film promptly disappeared soon after. The only country that I'm aware of that did actually put this out on VHS (on the EK Video label) was the ever-reliable Greece, who seemed to get many films out on home video that were not released anywhere else. This is the version I was able to get my hands on and it has burnt in Greek subtitles throughout. In the opening scene, three people; Roy Flowers (Todd McCammon), Mona (Karen Russell) and ringleader Felipe (Jamie Jones), show up in a graveyard armed with a shovel. Felipe has Roy start digging up the grave of a notorious serial killed Luis Orlando aka "Blade" aka "The Butcher from Bogata" (Richard Rifkin), who claimed he killed because it kept him alive. After digging up the body, cutting off the corpse's finger and removing a ring, Mona and Felipe decide to kill Roy so they can split the money two ways instead of three. They hit him over the head with a shovel several times, impale him with a steel pole and then bury Roy in Luis' grave before taking off.

The airplane that Roy was supposed to be on explodes and the fiery debris - including the stolen right (!!) -rains down onto the graveyard Roy is currently buried in (gee, what a coincidence). Somehow this is enough to resurrect him. Back at home, Roy's mother (Catherine McGuinness) and sister (Allison Barron) get the bad news that Roy was killed in the plane crash. The awful, foul-mouthed, extremely irritating mom is too busy bitching about the bills, how dirty their home is and the fact her ex-husband's alimony checks keep bouncing to really even notice. Sis on the other hand is stricken with guilt because she had talked her brother into coming home and now he's dead. But no need to worry sis, he'll be there soon enough. Barry Hefna (Troy Donahue) shows up to inform the grieving family that since Roy used a credit card to purchase his plane ticket, the card's insurance acts as his own personal insurance (oh give me a break!) and hands mom over a check for 350 thousand dollars. And that helps to turn her tears of grief into tears of joy. She immediately moves into a nicer house, stocks up on caviar to celebrate their good fortune and calls her daughter and Roy's neglected nurse girlfriend Sylvia (Shannon Absher) "pussy ass weeping willies" for showing some grief and crying.

Roy starts the journey home and makes a pit stop at a mechanic's to have to him remove the steel pole still lodged in his chest. When he arrives, instead of a warm greeting, he's greeted with hostility by his mother, who is more concerned with him getting blood on the carpet and the possibility of having to hand the money back over than him being alive. The family agrees to hide his existence so they can keep the loot. Meanwhile in Miami, psychic Wanda Dance (Linnea Quigley) takes time out from her clairvoyant stripper routine to consult her crystal ball. After learning that Luis, her ex-boyfriend, is back amongst the living she decides to head on over to L.A. to see him. Naturally, Luis has taken possession of Roy, who slips in and out of the sadistic killer's personality. He starts speaking Spanish, acts cruel to his girlfriend and family, punches out his sister's boyfriend Danny (Gabai) and doesn't seem in full control of his body or actions, plus has no memory of what he's done when Blade has taken over. And it only gets worse from there.

Roy sneaks out to the motor home his girlfriend is staying in and slices her up with an electric carving knife. Instead of reporting it to the police, the family decide to wrap the body in plastic and bury it in their backyard. Wanda shows up dressed in a mesh body stocking and with luggage in hand looking to move in so she can be with her man, even though he'd previously made her eat the "cajones" of one of her lovers. When Roy / Blade discovers that his family is considering killing him, he ends up getting (and looking) even nastier. He sticks his mother's hand down the garbage disposal and cuts her tongue out, beats Donahue (who is trying to weasel his way into the family and help them win a lawsuit against the airline) to death with a baseball bat and does some other not-so-nice things. There's a séance / attempted exorcism, the sister repeatedly whining "It's all my fault," a scene of the mother listening to her daughter have sex and saying "Yeah, give it to her good, boy!" (yuck) and the expected T&A from Linnea.

On the plus side, some parts of this are fairly amusing, the unknown McCammon is pretty good in the lead and Quigley is hilarious in her supporting role. Unfortunately, some of the characters (particularly the mother and sister) are extremely annoying and unpleasant, it could have used more gore (given the title, I was expecting it to be nasty, after all!) and the finale, which includes long 'comic' scenes of the mother trying to figure out her fancy new car and garage door opener and then getting lost in suburbia while cursing up a storm - is God awful. Still, I'm not quite sure why this didn't get a U.S. release. There are certainly worse campy horror-comedies that did and many of them didn't even have the 80s direct-to-video drawing power of Quigley or Donahue. It's worth finding if you're interested in any of the actors and a maybe for fans of low-budget 80s 'B' movies. Songs on the soundtrack are from Gabai's band The Checks.

★★