A psychopath plays his blood song to his prey before killing them in 'Dreamslayer', an average run of the mill slasher from 1982.
The film intros us to our killer Paul early on. We see that 25 years prior, he witnessed his father murder his mother and her lover before killing himself. The trauma of that night led to Paul being institutionalized at a mental health facility. He decides that it's time to escape, so he kills an orderly and gets out of the hospital with his wooden flute given to him by his father before he died. We then meet our main character Marion who is physically disabled thanks to an accident caused by her alcoholic father. She required a blood transfusion, and unlucky for her, it was Paul's blood that was given to her! As the film goes on, and Paul murders many people, Marion starts to have weird visions and dreams of the murder. It appears that having his blood inside of her has given her the ability to see his actions. It all comes to a head when Marion ends up encountering Paul in person, making her his next target.
I purchased this movie on VHS years back under the title 'Dreamslayer', but it is also known as 'Blood Song' - a far more appropriate name given the music themed plot with Paul playing his flute to an annoyingly familiar tune each time he commits a murder. Some of the gore was well done given it's very low budget of a little over a million dollars, and despite not being able to see much thanks to the low quality of tape/film. The dark scenes are almost unwatchable, and sadly no release of this one of DVD has been able to restore it in any way. It affected the rating of the film for me, that and the silly concept that getting blood from a psychopath can give you visions and dreams of the person.
The acting wasn't all that bad. Donna Wilkes lead the way as our heroine Marion who battles her recovery, her alcoholic father, and a serial killer with a sense of fear but also silent strength. Frankie Avalon in a role unlike anything he may have ever done, was effective as the creepy and deranged murderer Paul. It was also great to see Antoinette Bower as Marion's mother, she of course played Jamie Lee Curtis' mother in 'Prom Night'.
Overall, 'Dreamslayer' isn't a terrible entry to that early 80's horror grouping. But outside of one really well done axe murder scene, it doesn't add anything special that we haven't seen before.
4/10.
