The Curse of Mama's Skull: Hollywood's New Blood (1988)

Hollywood's New Blood (1988)
rating: *
starring: Bobby Johnston, Francine Lapensée, Joe Balogh

Sometimes you just wonder, as a slasher fanatic or completists, how many slasher titles out there are waiting to be found, but had we taken consideration of those movies that shouldn't be found? When a movie's considered rare, it's never a guarantee that they're good; in fact, it might be a status that is for their own good.

Hollywood's New Blood is a good example of these movies, a rarely seen indie backwoods slasher film about an actor's seminar camp being attacked by a trio of butt-ugly hobos who may be related to the accidental explosion of a family's house (with the family still inside, of course) for a movie's stunt many years ago, because one of the actors just had to bring back human skull he found on the woods, which happens to be the skull of the hobos' dear ole' mummy. Oddly, 77 mintues is still too long for this movie, as the extremely thin plot could have been done as a short film, but instead, they decided to stretch it out to a feature film, with long extended scenes of the three killers, revealed after 5 minutes into the movie, shambling in the woods as they make way to the cabin, as if the movie's pacing problem isn't already a problem...

Other problems with this movie include the uninspired soundtrack, the lazy camera work, horrendous gore effects and kill scenes (there are kills, but no gore all in all), and, well, the point that the villain wasn't, and never will be, interesting. These supposed avenging brothers came into the movie looking like drunk vagrants who may just had strolled into the woods, so do forgive me if I can be a little harsh to them, but last time I checked, hobos with no shotguns were never scary...nor are they intimidating. (haha, Hobo with a Shotgun reference...) Much more are the cast; oh God, ironic is it enough that these people are supposed to be aspiring actors who are trying to be better at their jobs, but does that really mean that they have to stink? And who brings back a human skull nonchalantly as if he's picking up sea shells on a beach?!

The movie slugs down even at the end, with a lame, lifeless fight and a final shot that looks like a skull being smashed into a guy's face, (whether this killed him or not is never explained), the film's ineptness really shines through the celluloids, thus making Hollywood's New Blood one of the more-deserving title to be forgotten. If you managed to find one, I really advice you, reader, to just forget it. Do not answer your curiosity, as it ain't worth every cent you got in your lint-covered pockets and it's best to pretend you didn't see it.

Bodycount:
1 female throat cut offcamera
1 male gutted with hunting knife
1 female killed with garden shears
1 male nifed to death
1 male had pieces of him sliced off with hunting knife
1 male gets a knife pushed deeper into his gut against a tree
1 male gets a dart to the eye
total: 7