User reviews

"Blood Hook", Terror of the fresh water fishermen. It's a typical slasher movie of the 80s. A group of kids go somewhere. They meet an assortment of strange characters. One by one the characters get killed off in a bloody way. Bad acting, a poor plot, and ridiculous situations permeate this movie. All the usual stuff for a rip em up movie such as this. This blood and guts spilling movie takes place on a fresh water lake among a group of fishermen during a fishing tournament. That may be unique, I don't recall seeing a fisherman slasher movie before. Someone kills off people with a huge treble hooked lure. That's what makes this movie a little different. Fishermen might get a kick out of this one. This is something to watch with your fishing buddies after a day of fishing. Sometime when your not in the mood for a really serious movie anyway. Another thing different about this movie is that Jim Mallon directed it. This is the same Jim Mallon that directed Mystery Science Theater; a show that pokes fun at badly made movies. "Blood Hook" would be a prime candidate for that show. I saw "Blood Hook" on a DVD I rented called Troma Triple B-Header containing three movies, "Blood Hook", "Blades" and "Zombie Island Massacre". Low budget, low quality, simple stuff. I got what I expected and a few unexpected laughs to go along with it.

Giant Musky Bait = Murder Weapon = Cheesy Fun.

This is the cheesiest of all 80's slasher attempts. It's even cheesier than Slash Dance or Killer Workout.

I put off watching the flick for years. I guess there was a reason for that. When I finally popped the tape into my ancient vcr, I giggled under my breath, but couldn't bring myself to a full laugh.

The synth score is really catchy and adds an uneasiness throughout the film, even tho you know there's absolutely nothing eerie about it.

Only die hard cheese fans will find something enjoyable about someone casting a large musky bait onto someone until they die. Very sappy.

Is it worth a watch? Hell yeah. Grab a beer, kick back, and prepare to see something like you've never before seen.

It is kind of funny that someone who would later be one of the forces behind a television show that made fun of bad movies would have one on his resume. Not that it is all bad, for a Troma movie it does have its moments. This one is not as goofy as a lot of Troma movies get, in fact it is one of the more straight horror movies I have seen from them. The only thing odd is that people are being killed with a fish hook and reeled in like fish. And no the people are not being killed by a giant fish (though that would have been rather good). This one instead is a basic slasher with the mode of death being the only real unique touch to it. Unlike newer Troma movies this one is a real movie too. They had a movie advertised on my copy of this called "Tales from the Crapper" and it basically looked like a tape of Girls Gone Wild. So this one looks great by comparison. Like a lot of slashers you don't know who the killer is and they try to fool you, but in this case once you know the killer the movie goes on a bit too long after. It runs about 10 minutes more than it should. Though this is not a cinematic classic it is not all bad especially considering it is a Troma picture.

BLOOD HOOK starts off ultra-silly, as people disappear thanks to a killer with a nasty fishing lure. It's quite a ridiculous premise, but then you see that it's a Troma release and it all makes sense. Not the plot, mind you...just the company behind it all.

With a ludicrously over-the-top plot with bad acting, dialogue strewn with fish humor, BLOOD HOOK begins in a boring and clumsy manner, manages to become somewhat watchable before quickly fizzling at the end. The killer has a creative, albeit silly, reason for murdering, so some points given there.

This is not an atmospheric horror. It's a comedy with horror trappings. So proceed with caution.

This might actually be the worst movie I've ever seen! Nothing in this flick was good, this is a case of bad acting, crappy plot, lousy script and pathetic effects. It must clearly be the worst movie ever under the Troma-brand! Is this really a Troma-film? It got no Troma-feeling at all! I relate Troma-films to crazy movies with raw humor, nudity and good old trashy gore, this movie got zero humor, no nudity (apart from a glimpse of side-boob) and really lousy gore scenes.

I ended up pulverizing the DVD-disc after seeing this piece of garbage, just to be sure to never ever see it again!

The 80's were filled with tons of cheap, underground slashers following the craze of Friday the 13th and it's many "clones". But this fairly unknown low-budget movie may be the better of the "lost" slashers of the decade.

In sleepy Hayward, Wisconsin, folks are holding the annual Muskie Madness fishing tournament where it seems that someone is reeling in more than just fish off the lake. Someone with a big fishing hook is catching people!

Written and directed by Jim Mallon, best known for his work on the classic TV comedy Mystery Science Theater 3000, Blood Hook is a truly amusing little venture into the slasher conventions. You have all the elements - silly teens, rock music, bloody murders, backwoods weirdos - all used to put a tongue-in-cheek spin on the slasher genre.

The joy of this film is its nicely campy feel and it proves to be amusing because it doesn't take itself seriously. After all have you ever seen a killer thriller where the murderer literally fishes for his victims? This true low-budgeter gets by on it's dark humor, and it's a real effective style! Too bad it's an underground flick. At any rate, this quirky memorable little gem is well worth finding.

*** out of ****

Okay if someone were to say this movie was "brilliant" or "exception", i would have to say they should get a CAT scan. This movie, however, if extremely silly, goofy and full of laughs. The dialog alone is enough to get people laughing.

Jim Mallon and Kevin Murphy of MST3K fame, worked on this movie.

The idea of a giant fishing-lure killer, using his victims as food for minnows is hilarious and off the wall.

Watch and love this b-movie gem

7 out of 10

A bunch of obnoxious out-of-towners at a Wisconsin fishing competition become catch of the day when a local war-veteran with a metal plate in his cranium is sent kill crazy by the combined frequencies of bad rock music and cicadas (!?!!?!). By casting a triple-hooked doohickey (I think that's the correct fishing term) with superhuman accuracy, the maniac skilfully 'lands' each victim before stringing their corpses together, ready for grinding up to feed to his minnows.

With such a nasty method of dispatching victims, Blood Hook should be a wonderfully gory film, featuring plenty of gruesome make-up effects as the hooks tear at the victims' skin; however, the death scenes actually prove frustratingly tame, the hooks never shown puncturing the flesh, the actors simply smearing blood on their skin as they pretend (unconvincingly) to be pulled to their death. The only time we witness anything slightly graphic—the addition of a fresh corpse to the catch line—the effects are woefully unconvincing.

With such pathetic gore, plus horrible characters, terrible dialogue, only the briefest smattering of nudity, a terribly uneven tone that makes one wonder whether this is supposed to be a comedy or a horror, and an inconclusive ending in which the killer appears to escape (unless I have matters confused, which is quite possible since I was really struggling to stay awake by the end), Blood Hook is a total waste of time—much like the inexplicably popular pastime of fishing!

I set myself ready for a funny/cheesy acting, however the dialog is so bad, its like a 7 year old wrote the script. The females are trashbags. The acting is dumpy (expected) but the premise is just goofy (method of killing) Its unfunny and annoying. The song that they repeat is something you never want to hear again in your life, because they abuse the LIVING **** out of it. I honestly dont know how I made it through this movie.

I'm all for cheese slashers too, but this one is pure trash.

I still don't know why I was hooked after even five minutes...

This is one of those movies where the trivia and recommendation far outweighs the entertainment of the feature. For starters, I only just learned of this movie's existence yesterday when I was catching up on the podcast: Shockwaves, specifically episode 98. During that podcast's first half, the hosts discuss what they've seen in horror that past week. Here, they hilariously described this weird-ass 80s "comedy" horror.

In an actual complex and incoherent script, during a small town fishing contest period of time, someone is killing off people for really a dumb reason with an incredibly odd choice of weapon that wouldn't work. I guess that's the part of comedy this was meant to be.

Despite the hilarious recommendation from the Shockwaves guys and the aforementioned (hilarious and actually interesting) trivia on this, I can't extend a recommendation. Some scenes are, honestly, funny and I did laugh out loud a couple of times, but for the most part, this low-budget wannabe doesn't garner a single repeat watch from me.

Going real fishing is absolutely more exciting.

***

Final thoughts: THAT all said, I highly recommend the Shockwaves podcast. Normally they don't all chime in at once and make me (and themselves) laugh out loud at the craziness of a movie, but this episode 98 was certainly a fun one.

Not regular murder but fishing and gutting humans and turning them into bait. What a twisted premise. Several very bangable chicks keep their clothes on.

Not so good movie of a fisherman killing babes and bros with a fishing hook but it's worth watching once.

What better then a Movie involving a Musky fisherman going around killing people...lol..... This movie is a must see for any who fishes for Musky. Even some of the names in the movie will make some laugh. Finner, Fenner. The annoying family from Oak Park, Illinois is my favorite.... As old man Luedtke says, the lake isn't a playground. They even got the Giant Musky from the Freshwater hall of Fame in the movie... Definitely a must see for every Musky Fisherman out there. Besides the two guys from MST3000 did anyone else go on to anything else? Makes one want to go for a trip to Hayward and go fishing. I think they even cover most stereo types from the 80's.

Even after so many times, it always remains somewhat worrying to witness a movie opening with the logo of Troma Studios, you know the orange-type of city background with the announcement in yellow letters "Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz Present…" Even if they were only responsible for the distribution of this film, the two aforementioned gentlemen and their company are not exactly known for their fine and sophisticated contributions to the world of horror cinema; what with outrageous and ineptly made low-budget trash landmarks such as "The Toxic Avenger" and "Mother's Day".

But maybe it's just because of the fact they weren't involved in the actual production that you don't really have to worry too much. "Blood Hook" actually is a light-headed, easily digestible but overall pretty dumb late 80's slasher effort from the same director that would, ironically enough, later gain fame as the creative genius behind "Mystery Science Theater 3000"; a TV-phenomenon mocking the allegedly worst films ever made. The story of "Blood Hook" revolves on a twenty- something dork and four of his even less interesting friends spending a little holiday in the fisherman's town where he witnessed his grandfather suffering from a severe heart attack and drowning in the lake all these years ago. Synchronously with their arrival in town, there's the bizarre occurrence of a series of blood fish-hook inflicted murders. "Blood Hook" is one of those movies that desperately attempt to make one or even multiple characters look exaggeratedly suspicious, although – if you've seen a lot of slasher movies already – you just know it's a weak and ineffective red herring. I mean, they can't seriously expect us to believe that the stereotypical crazed Vietnam veteran is the culprit. Actually, "Blood Hook" is a film that takes itself surprisingly serious in spite just being an 80's slasher in which people are getting impaled by an over-sized and ludicrous looking fishing hook! You don't really expect to find ambitious character trauma analysis or slowly developing love stories in a flick like this, right? At least I don't.

There are a handful of delightful gory highlights, like when the maniac literally fillets one of his victims after already having shoved a pole through his throat and chin! There's also ear-amputation, grueling disembowelment and strangulation for us, sick puppies, to enjoy. The identity of the killer, as well as his main motivation, is of minor importance, but I'm already happy to announce that we're dealing with a totally demented lunatic who goes around using inventive methods and stores the bodies underneath a pier. The acting performances are decent enough (far better than you would expect at least), the make-up art is okay as well and there even are a few attempts to build up suspense. It's really too bad about some boring overlong sequences and the inexplicable lack of nudity, otherwise this would even be one of the better late 80's slasher efforts. There's space left widely open for a sequel that never came. With all the other and far more inferior trash that I've watched already, I wouldn't have minded a sequel actually.

"We found this ring"! Don't even mention the body parts in the fridge. "Sheriff won't do anything without a body"! Except those are actual body parts.

Whoever wrote the script should be embarrassed.

The actors should be ashamed.

The people who claim to "like" this movie and rate it anything over a 2 should be slapped repeatedly until they either repent or are in a body cast.