Blood Hook starts as a young boy named Peter van Clease (Ryan Franke) watches on as his Grandfather (Donald Franke) does a spot of fishing on the lake near his house, unexpectedly Peter's grandfather is dragged into the lake by unknown means & never resurfaces... Jump forward 'Seventeen Years Later' & the now grown up Peter van Clease (Mark Jacobs) arrive back in the area in time for the local 'Muskie Madness' tournament in which whoever catches the largest fish wins a five thousand dollars, along with some of his city friends Peter returns to his grandfather's cabin in the woods which bring back painful memories for him. Shortly after they arrive people start to go missing, empty boats are found floating on the lake with blood stains inside & Peter is convinced whatever killed his grandfather is back for more...
Written & filmed under the title Muskie Madness it was changed to the admittedly better sounding Blood Hook after the untalented folk at Troma picked it up for release, directed by Jim Mallon this is maybe the only fishing based slasher film out there & after watching it I can see why the sub-genre didn't take off in it's wake. Unlike a lot of crap released by Troma (made by them or not) this is actually played pretty straight with no sense of irony at all, a slasher film based around fishing is just an idea I have a hard time getting to grips with. I mean who actually sits down & decides to make a horror film based around fishing? The first two thirds of Blood Hook are played as a murder mystery with the identity of the killer remaining unclear but at around the one hour the film reveals it's one & only surprise to then leave the rest of the running time to play out as expected with the teenage hero out on a mission to stop the killer & save his girlfriend. It really isn't as interesting as it sounds. At just over an hour & a half Blook Hook is very dull, the pace is alright with a steady stream of victims but nothing ever really excites or entertains in any significant way. I assume the character's were all meant to be quite quirky with a deranged Vietnam Vet, a crazy old timer, a guy with a metal plate in his head & an entire town obsessed with fishing as well as some annoying big city teens. Take away the central fishing gimmick & Blood Hook is forgettable horror thriller fare that worryingly is still better than the average piece of crap released by Troma please don't take that as any sort of recommendation since it isn't. The ending is quite funny in a silly way as Peter & the killer have a fishing duel & start casting hooks off at each other & why didn't the killer murder Ann like everyone else? Why just lock her up?
While filmed in a rather flat way with little visual style at least there's no shaky hand-held camcorder crap going on. With a low budget the makers obviously couldn't afford proper special effects, there's a row of three dead decomposing bodies, a severed hand & some blood splatter but not much else. It's amazing anyone gets hooked by the killer, I mean can't these people actually see the giant treble hook coming towards them or the deranged psycho in a boat about thirty feet from them? That's how close the killer would have to be, I mean he only uses a plain old fishing rod for Christ's sake. Another highly annoying aspect of Blood Hook that I have to mention is the sound, the high pitched hissing sound of those Cicadas drove me up the wall! Add to that the use of awful pop music (no wonder the killer wanted to murder someone every time he heard it) & the actual music on the soundtrack & certain parts of Blood Hook left me with a headache. The giant fibreglass Muskie featured in Blood Hook is apparently a local landmark in Hayward in Wisconsin where the film was shot.
Probably shot independently on a low budget the production values aren't too bad, at least it looks like a proper film. The acting isn't great, you can see why most of the cast have never appeared in another film.
Blood Hook is an odd film about a a serial killer fisherman who goes crazy when the wrong type of music is played, I can't say I liked it that much thanks to boring kills, dull character's & a predictable plot that doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you start asking questions about it. Better than a lot of crap from Troma but they hardly set particularly high standards, do they?
Written & filmed under the title Muskie Madness it was changed to the admittedly better sounding Blood Hook after the untalented folk at Troma picked it up for release, directed by Jim Mallon this is maybe the only fishing based slasher film out there & after watching it I can see why the sub-genre didn't take off in it's wake. Unlike a lot of crap released by Troma (made by them or not) this is actually played pretty straight with no sense of irony at all, a slasher film based around fishing is just an idea I have a hard time getting to grips with. I mean who actually sits down & decides to make a horror film based around fishing? The first two thirds of Blood Hook are played as a murder mystery with the identity of the killer remaining unclear but at around the one hour the film reveals it's one & only surprise to then leave the rest of the running time to play out as expected with the teenage hero out on a mission to stop the killer & save his girlfriend. It really isn't as interesting as it sounds. At just over an hour & a half Blook Hook is very dull, the pace is alright with a steady stream of victims but nothing ever really excites or entertains in any significant way. I assume the character's were all meant to be quite quirky with a deranged Vietnam Vet, a crazy old timer, a guy with a metal plate in his head & an entire town obsessed with fishing as well as some annoying big city teens. Take away the central fishing gimmick & Blood Hook is forgettable horror thriller fare that worryingly is still better than the average piece of crap released by Troma please don't take that as any sort of recommendation since it isn't. The ending is quite funny in a silly way as Peter & the killer have a fishing duel & start casting hooks off at each other & why didn't the killer murder Ann like everyone else? Why just lock her up?
While filmed in a rather flat way with little visual style at least there's no shaky hand-held camcorder crap going on. With a low budget the makers obviously couldn't afford proper special effects, there's a row of three dead decomposing bodies, a severed hand & some blood splatter but not much else. It's amazing anyone gets hooked by the killer, I mean can't these people actually see the giant treble hook coming towards them or the deranged psycho in a boat about thirty feet from them? That's how close the killer would have to be, I mean he only uses a plain old fishing rod for Christ's sake. Another highly annoying aspect of Blood Hook that I have to mention is the sound, the high pitched hissing sound of those Cicadas drove me up the wall! Add to that the use of awful pop music (no wonder the killer wanted to murder someone every time he heard it) & the actual music on the soundtrack & certain parts of Blood Hook left me with a headache. The giant fibreglass Muskie featured in Blood Hook is apparently a local landmark in Hayward in Wisconsin where the film was shot.
Probably shot independently on a low budget the production values aren't too bad, at least it looks like a proper film. The acting isn't great, you can see why most of the cast have never appeared in another film.
Blood Hook is an odd film about a a serial killer fisherman who goes crazy when the wrong type of music is played, I can't say I liked it that much thanks to boring kills, dull character's & a predictable plot that doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you start asking questions about it. Better than a lot of crap from Troma but they hardly set particularly high standards, do they?