Blood Games (film)

Blood Games
VHS cover art
Directed byTanya Rosenberg
Screenplay by
Story by
  • George P. Saunders
  • Jim Makichuk[1]
Starring
Edited byRick Mitchell[1]
Music byGreg Turner[1]
Production
company
Distributed byRCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video[1]
Release date
  • 1989 (1989)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Blood Games is a 1989 American exploitation film directed by Tanya Rosenberg and starring Gregory Cummins, Laura Albert, and Shelley Abblett.[2] The film concerns the plight of a stranded all-girl baseball team.[1][3]

Plot

After Babe & the Ball Girls, a team of female softball players, trounces the local team, their travel bus breaks down in the woods. Attempting to hike to safety, they end up getting lost and the group is set upon by disgruntled fans of the losing team. They are beaten, raped and some murdered. They desperately fight back with baseball bats and guns.

Cast

  • Laura Albert as Babe
  • Ross Hagen as Midnight
  • Ernest Wall as Vern
  • Julie Hall as Stoney
  • Luke Shay as Mino Collins
  • Gregory Cummings as Roy Collins
  • Shelley Abblett as Donna
  • Don Dowe as Holt
  • Rhyve Sawyer as Wanda
  • Paula Manga as Louise
  • Sabrina Hills as Connie
  • Randi Randolph as Ingrid
  • Sonjia Redd as Shorty
  • Lisa Zambrano as Mickey
  • Doc Willis as Ronnie

Reception

From contemporary reviews, Variety referred to the film as an "attractively packaged but uninteresting entry for vid fans" noting that Tanya Rosenberg's direction was "below par" and that the "cast is attractive but never convincing as athletes. Acting is generally poor."[1] Michael Weldon wrote the film suffers from having too many slow motion scenes, but declared it was "not as bad as it could have been".[3]

From retrospective reviews, John Kenneth Muir wrote in his book Horror Films of the 1990s that the film was "a horror movie that is more than just watchable. It's compelling, entertaining and scary. And, yes, entirely exploitive."[4] Muir compared the film to I Spit on Your Grave, stating that Blood Games "panders in true exploitation movie fashion" with long locker room and shower scenes but also with the way it exploits women's bodies it also makes a point that they are exploited creatures.[5] In discussing the chick flicks of the horror genre, author Philip Green wrote that Blood Games is "also the most visually erotic of the movies in this genre",[2]

Home media

In the 1990s, Blood Games was released on VHS.[6]

In 2020, a 2K restoration of Blood Games was released on Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Lor (1994). Variety TV REV 1991-92, review March 18 1991, 'Blood Games'. Vol. 17. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0824037960. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  2. ^ a b Green, Philip (1998). Cracks in the Pedestal: Ideology and Gender in Hollywood. Univ of Massachusetts Press. pp. 171, 240. ISBN 1558491201. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  3. ^ a b Weldon, Michael (1996). "review 'Blood Games'". The Psychotronic Video Guide To Film. Macmillan. p. 64. ISBN 0312131496. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  4. ^ Muir 2011, p. 60.
  5. ^ Muir 2011, p. 59.
  6. ^ VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 1996. Visible Ink Press. 1995. p. 219. ISBN 0-7876-0626-X.
  7. ^ Orndorf, Brian (May 31, 2020). "Blood Games Blu-ray Review". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved December 26, 2023.

Bibliography

External links