You know, whatever. Fred Olen Ray has built an industry around his name based on bringing what he contends are awful films to the masses, reveling in the awfulness like a Smart Aleck kid who's snickering at some private joke -- If we don't get it that's because we aren't hip enough, an attitude that makes my liver twitch. I have never been in on the joke: Horror movies are inherently ridiculous to begin with ("The Satanic Rites of Dracula", anyone??) so the idea of deliberately starting out to make something silly and have it masquerade as a horror film misses the point.
This one isn't *THAT* bad, an exercise in Injun Horror telling the tale of a group of rather dis-likable idiots who go dig up forbidden tribal burial grounds at the behest of a wayward Professor without really even thinking twice about it. If you ask me, they got what they had coming to them, so the film is just a Freak Show where one is waiting to see how horribly & graphically the dimwits would be killed. And of course whether or not the girls would remove their shirts, which they do but not for very long. As for the censoring mentioned by other viewers, well, by 2005 we've seen girls without skin peeling their eyeballs off. Watching one of them have a fake skullcap sliced from her noggin may have been a huge deal to home video companies in 1985, but now is about as revolting as seeing an Alien pop out of some guy's stomach. Been there/done that.
Everyone knows how the plot goes: You just don't disturb burial grounds in general no matter what ideology or cultural background the dead people may have subscribed to, or you DIE. On that consideration the film delivers. But what I found interesting about this film was it's pre-political correctness sensibilities. It's an exploitation film, using the idea of a savage Injun warrior's long dead soul possessing the body of a dork who then goes on a killing rampage to avenge the desecration. For that matter it could have been the long dead soul of an insurance claims adjuster or maybe a nuclear arms inspector. That Mr. Ray chose to base the films on Injun hokum shows the distanced sensibilities of 1982 when nobody thought twice about making light of Native American cultures & using their traditions as the basis for entertainment. There is one really super cool shot in the film where the killer pops up from behind a truck to smack one of the guys upside the head, but if you think about the underlying racism of the image it sort of spoils the fun. If the whole movie wasn't so stupid it would be offensive.
What I really object to about the film, though, is it's attitude. The low budget is no excuse: This film has the cultural sensitivity of a Three Stooges short, using stuff like tomahawks, freaky Injun chanting ceremonies and the atrocity of scalping for plot points. I might cut Fred some slack if he didn't seem so pleased with his results and content to let low budget considerations make excuse for the fact that this movie has about seven brain cells in it's head. A fellow commenter stated that it would be nifty to remake this film for the iPod generation and I contend that you can't. At least not without adding positive Native American characters and helping the viewers understand why digging up their burial grounds is a bad idea. If they lack the basic human decency to know that instinctively we cannot help them. But these days you have to explain everything since kids are on the cell phones all day at school and don't learn anything like that on purpose. Most of them, anyway.
But there is a better example of the whole Injun Horror sub-genre made at about the same time & for as little money and less fuss: A film called GHOST DANCE from 1984 which is just as gory & horrifying but never feels exploitational, cheap or slack jawed for one second. It explores the Native American customs and traditions from which it gets the thrills & chills, and managed to do so without one goggle eyed rubber masked paleface made up to look like a totem pole & waving a tomahawk. C'mon ...
3/10
This one isn't *THAT* bad, an exercise in Injun Horror telling the tale of a group of rather dis-likable idiots who go dig up forbidden tribal burial grounds at the behest of a wayward Professor without really even thinking twice about it. If you ask me, they got what they had coming to them, so the film is just a Freak Show where one is waiting to see how horribly & graphically the dimwits would be killed. And of course whether or not the girls would remove their shirts, which they do but not for very long. As for the censoring mentioned by other viewers, well, by 2005 we've seen girls without skin peeling their eyeballs off. Watching one of them have a fake skullcap sliced from her noggin may have been a huge deal to home video companies in 1985, but now is about as revolting as seeing an Alien pop out of some guy's stomach. Been there/done that.
Everyone knows how the plot goes: You just don't disturb burial grounds in general no matter what ideology or cultural background the dead people may have subscribed to, or you DIE. On that consideration the film delivers. But what I found interesting about this film was it's pre-political correctness sensibilities. It's an exploitation film, using the idea of a savage Injun warrior's long dead soul possessing the body of a dork who then goes on a killing rampage to avenge the desecration. For that matter it could have been the long dead soul of an insurance claims adjuster or maybe a nuclear arms inspector. That Mr. Ray chose to base the films on Injun hokum shows the distanced sensibilities of 1982 when nobody thought twice about making light of Native American cultures & using their traditions as the basis for entertainment. There is one really super cool shot in the film where the killer pops up from behind a truck to smack one of the guys upside the head, but if you think about the underlying racism of the image it sort of spoils the fun. If the whole movie wasn't so stupid it would be offensive.
What I really object to about the film, though, is it's attitude. The low budget is no excuse: This film has the cultural sensitivity of a Three Stooges short, using stuff like tomahawks, freaky Injun chanting ceremonies and the atrocity of scalping for plot points. I might cut Fred some slack if he didn't seem so pleased with his results and content to let low budget considerations make excuse for the fact that this movie has about seven brain cells in it's head. A fellow commenter stated that it would be nifty to remake this film for the iPod generation and I contend that you can't. At least not without adding positive Native American characters and helping the viewers understand why digging up their burial grounds is a bad idea. If they lack the basic human decency to know that instinctively we cannot help them. But these days you have to explain everything since kids are on the cell phones all day at school and don't learn anything like that on purpose. Most of them, anyway.
But there is a better example of the whole Injun Horror sub-genre made at about the same time & for as little money and less fuss: A film called GHOST DANCE from 1984 which is just as gory & horrifying but never feels exploitational, cheap or slack jawed for one second. It explores the Native American customs and traditions from which it gets the thrills & chills, and managed to do so without one goggle eyed rubber masked paleface made up to look like a totem pole & waving a tomahawk. C'mon ...
3/10