sean-conner-1
The concept of the film is interesting.Based on the true Berserker warriors who were part of the Viking invaders. However the movies spoiled by plot holes eg..why would the door be used when the girls hiding in the cabin,when there's a Window with no cover of any sort!?Also, how could they not here the girls(Chris) screams when the couple were quietly making love!? The acting was fairly overacted in parts.The police Officer gives the best performance. The fog gives the film a creepy feel and the atmosphere is probably one of the best aspects of this rather cheesy film.Josh's character has some good levels.We get to see a bit of a back story on what he'se been through and why he's such a jerk.The best part of the movie is Greg Dawsons(Josh)backside!!
HumanoidOfFlesh
A group of teenagers head out for an adventure into the woods,trying to spook each other with stories of fabled Viking warriors who used to wear the skins and snouts of bears and go berserk in order to frighten their enemies.Soon,the teens are disappearing,being dragged away to gory deaths by a hairy,half-seen being."Berserker" by Jefferson Richard is an average slasher flick.It offers some bloody deaths and lots of boring bumbling in the woods.The funniest thing is that whenever there's a kill scene,we see the bear.The pace is slow,the editing is bad and the final fifteen minutes are completely laughable.There is a pretty steamy sex scene in the woods but it is inter-cut with a death scene to make both scenes look tacky.There is very little gore,so I was slightly disappointed.Overall,"Berserker" is one to avoid unless you want to see every 80s slasher film.4 out of 10 and that's being kind.
RareSlashersReviewed
*Contains spoilers, Agatha Christie fans look away*Oh no. Just when I thought I'd seen the worst killer in the woods film with CAMP BLOOD. I found this little beauty glaring back at me on a tatty looking stall at my local car boot sale. I had mixed emotions about this after examining the cover. It looked a little, well, how can I put it, 'shoe string budgeted' to say the least! But I've survived DREAM SLAYER and even VIOLENT SHIT intact, and the tagline did state that "...The screaming suspense would start clawing at my nerves."(!) So I boldly went where I bet many have been disappointed before.A Berserker is an age old Nordic legend, from Viking times(so it says 'ere). Berserkers were kept tied in chains and used as the first line of assault during raids. Because they ate human flesh they were cursed by the God Odin and forbidden a restful death. So to this day they're blood kin reincarnates them. Now present day America and a group of fun loving college kids set out to explore a remote woodland. As they joyfully embark on their carefree mission, they have no idea of the horrendous surprise that fate has in store for them. (Pretty much like I had no idea of the horrendous disappointment that fate had in store for me inside this shoddy video box!)The plot sticks close to the general slasher sense of things for the most part. For example there's the classic over cliched 'campfire tale' scene, where low and behold one of the group jumps out to give everyone a good old scare. But there is one question that is playing on my mind since watching this dribble. And it must be bugging the hell out of you too. Who is it that's actually killing everyone? The berserker or the bear? I'm afraid that I could not work it out for the life of me. Ok so it was near on 3am when I watched this. And I was pretty tired. But It all seemed to make no apparent sense. The Berserker is most definitely up to no good at the end of the film, and judging by the movie's name it's meant to be about him. But if that's the case however, (and I have to give the killer's identity away to discuss this, but believe me you're not missing much!)why do we see the murderer waking up from his sleep after the first two student killings? He must be either a very fast runner or he's been talking to Arnold from the PSYCHIC KILLER fame and mastered out of body travel. And if that's so, why wern't we informed? I can picture it now, the first ever slasher flick where the killer attacks whilst asleep in bed...Excellent!One of the better points was a remarkable HAL HOLBROOK lookalike who goes by the name of John Goff. He is a fairly talented actor who some of you might have seen along with George 'Buck' Flowers playing small parts in Carpenter classics such as THE FOG, THEY LIVE and more recently BODY BAGS. Buck also earned a role in the late eighties dorm slasher CHEERLEADER CAMP. Surprisingly enough the two of them together wrote the screenplay for the 1976 slash-a-thon DRIVE IN MASSACRE. And I was even more puzzled when I found out that another BERSERKER cast member - Joeseph Alan Johnson - wrote 1988's arctic splatter epic ICED!Another thing worth(?) mentioning is the soundtrack. It looks pretty obvious that director Jeff Richard had a couple of mates who were in a rock band at the time, and he let them record the songs for his film. They've done the job exceedingly well. Sorry I'm joking, They're terrible. Here are a couple of the lyrics from one of the songs that the track listing shows as being called 'Cool Dude': "STOP telling me what to do about this, STOP telling me all about that. I don't wanna hear it, cos that aint where it's at!" It then breaks into the worst chorus in pop history which goes something like: "Cos I'm a coooool dude" Etc! Lately, if i ever get depressed I've simply fast forwarded to that scene and turned my TV up to the max. You'd be surprised how soon it cheers me up!Rounded up I can safely say that Berserker is marginally better than CAMP BLOOD. But still, that's hardly anything to boast about! There's no gore and the body count isn't exactly huge either. I'd never heard anything about this feature before I spotted it whilst out and about. And after watching it, I can understand why it was soon forgotten...
brandonsites1981
Some teens head up to cabin for a weekend of fun and hot sex (even out in the middle of an open forest), but come under attack by what appears to a viking berserker. Or is it really a bear? Poorly crafted and made slasher film even by the standards of this genre, features inept acting and direction, despite somewhat intriguing premise. Looks like it was made on a budget of about $100. Disappointing effort from Prism Pictures. Rated R; Sexual Situations, Violence, Nudity, and Profanity.