Woodyanders Troubled young guy Wesley Stuart (hysterically overplayed with eye-rolling aplomb by a then unknown and scrawny Gerald McRaney of "Major Dad" and "Simon & Simon" fame) suffers from terrible nightmares and experiences periodic blackouts. Meanwhile, people around Wesley keep turning up dead. Could Wesley possibly be a deranged psycho? Man, does this choice chunk of fetid grindhouse cheese possess all the right cruddy ingredients to qualify as a prime piece of entertaining dime-store trash: The plodding (mis)direction by Joy N. Houck Jr. (who also co-wrote the talky script), a wonky droning synthesizer score, the hopelessly tacky stylized cinematography that boasts plenty of jaw-dropping "groovy" dated touches (dig the ghastly solarization and that funky psychedelic whirlpool optical that flashes on the screen whenever Wesley flips out), the choppy editing, the total dearth of suspense, the sub-par gore effects, an agonizingly awful appearance by the dreadful rock group The Bored, and the grindingly predictable story all give this clunker a certain endearingly wretched charm. Moreover, McRaney's hammy histrionics are an absolute gut-busting hoot to watch. Evelyn Hendricks as Wesley's overbearing shrew of a mother Agatha likewise ravenously chews up and spits out her own fair share of the scenery (and sports a set of terrifyingly unsightly jagged teeth that are without a doubt the single scariest thing in the entire picture!). Fun junk.

tavm This was another of those cheap low-budget horror movies I remember seeing in newspaper ads or television commercials on late night as a child in the '70s and wondering what they would be like. The version I watched on YouTube was a little faded and washed out but I saw clearly enough to understand what was going on and enjoy a little. I say a little since with the running time being about ninety minutes, there's not enough time to give too deep characterizations as to motive for the various murders that happen here. As the lead suspect, a young Gerald McRaney is pretty adequate in one of his earliest roles (though he must have considered himself the luckiest man with the women he kissed here). There's also a nightclub scene with a local rock band called The Bored that has a few sixties moments like having some frames printed in negative form with some painted colors added. (and can you dig the cyclone-like special effects that depicts McRaney's "migranes"?) Despite the tagline being "Keep telling yourself, It's only a picture, only a picture...", I don't think the few gore scenes were all that scary, in fact, they looked a bit fake. So on that note, Night of Bloddy Horror is no great shakes though it's not completely boring either. P.S. The theatre that was playing this movie in the late '70s (and perhaps the late '60s as well when this was first released) was the now-defunct Joy's Robert E. Lee one which had four screens during a time when most cinemas in our area had just two. The movie house I just mentioned was perhaps one of 200 owned by one Joy N. Houck, Sr. whose son, Joy Jr., was this film's director. By the way, my neighboring city New Orleans (where Joy Jr. was born) was the location used for filming.

Coventry I could think of approximately a dozen other and more appropriate titles to name this film, but "Night of the Bloody Horror" certainly isn't one of them. Okay, I realize the creators just picked out of bunch of appealing key words that are likely to raise an interest among horror fans, but any movie title should at least be a bit relevant, don't you think? None of the main events - not even the finale – happen during the night, the film honestly isn't that bloody and it definitely isn't horrific. But still I suppose you can't be overly harsh or negative-minded when watching "Night of the Bloody Horror". This is the third film directed by Joy N. Houck Jr. that I've seen (alongside "The Brain Machine" and "Creature from the Black Lake"), and I can already make some vast establishments & generalizations regarding his entire repertoire. First of all, the good man clearly never experienced the pleasure of working with a halfway decent budget! All three films that I've watched were obviously made on a shoestring budget and therefore lacked proper editing, adequate lighting & photography and convincing make-up effects. On the other hand I also have to admit that the films don't really suffer that much from their own cheapness. They're all spirited and enthusiastically made mini horror-productions that attempt to cash in on contemporary classic genre titles. "Psycho" heavily inspires this film and it nearly goes over the top in trying to equal the same sinister atmosphere as Alfred Hitchcock's classic milestone. The script introduces Wesley Stuart; a thirty-something bachelor who clearly has a whole lot of issues to deal with. He has an uncanny & dominating mother (don't they all?), he spent 13 years in an asylum for accidentally causing his younger brother's death and regularly suffers from excruciating headaches that are illustrated through cheap 'n cheesy blue spirals. When two of his girlfriends are found brutally murdered (after the strange headaches caused a temporary blackout), the police automatically assume that Wesley resumed his old murderous habits again. "Night of Bloody Horror" is an okay time-waster, but it naturally doesn't feature any surprise elements or genuine thrills. The finale is embarrassingly predictable and the murders are substandard. The biggest problem, to me, is that Wesley Stuart is such a boring and faceless protagonist! Half an hour into the movie, I was still thinking: "Wait…who's this guy again? Oh right, he's the main character!" Gerald McRaney apparently went on to have a very successful career in television, but he totally lacks the charisma to play the lead role here. Another dreadful thing to endure here is the overload of needless and annoying padding material. In order to lengthen the film a bit, Houck Jr. adds pointless collages of Wesley's relationships and – even more irritating – endless footage of a rock band playing in a local redneck bar. The band's name is The Bored, by the way. Well, they surely inflect their name on to the viewers. "Night of Bloody Horror" isn't really worth checking out, except maybe if you're a very tolerant fan of no-budget horror.

callanvass This is a pretty terrible Horror film, that's quite boring, with cheesy gore effects, and a routine story. All the characters are so,so, and while I did like the twist ending, it was basically the only bright spot in the film, however Gerald McRaney gives an amusing show as Wesley. With this title, You'd probably expect this to have a lot of blood, well it Doesen't, and Evelyn Hendricks is amusing as Wesley's mother, plus it's incredibly cheap looking, and very amateurish as well. It's poorly made and written, and there is an unintentionally funny moment, when Wesley is getting drunk, and his friend, asks him to leave, so he smashes the bottle, and threatens to slash his throat with it, as that cracked me up for some reason, plus not much happens, and the death scenes are really quite dull. The blood is laughable looking, as it clearly looks like red paint, and I got this in a horror DVD horror set called Back From The Grave, with a bunch of other horror films, plus it was hard to pay attention in some scenes because it wasn't all that interesting. This is a pretty terrible Horror film. that's quite boring, with cheesy gore effects, and a routine story, and I say avoid it. The Direction is pretty bad. Joy N. Houck Jr. does a pretty bad job here with so,so camera work, and keeping the film at a dull pace. The Acting isn't much better. Gerald McRaney is amusing as Wesley, and is OTT, he was fun to watch, and was quite likable, he did good. Gaye Yellen is not very good as the love interest, she wasn't convincing, and overacted at times, especially near the ending. Herbert Nelson is not very good as the Doc, he just says his lines, and stands around with a strange look on his face, as I didn't buy his performance. Evelyn Hendricks is decent as the mother, and went totally OTT at the end. Rest of the cast are terrible. Overall avoid!. * out of 5