Easy Action was an 80s metal band that was chosen to be in “Blood Tracks”, a slasher film about a metal band and their entourage trapped by an avalanche and hunted by a family of outcasts. Released in 1985, with an 89-minute runtime, the film is one of many 80s slashers. The movie opens with an abused woman killing her husband in self-defense. She takes her young children and flees. Then, the movie jumps forward 40 years to the year 1985 where a heavy metal band is looking for locations for their next music video. They unknowingly stumble upon the hiding place of the now feral family from the film’s opening. An avalanche traps the band and film crew, and they are slowly picked off by the family of freaks. The first few kills are not very gory, and I felt that the promise extreme kills on the back of the case was false advertising. After a slow start, the kills start coming faster and more extreme, well some of them. Even at the end, some of the kills feel phoned in.
With a glam metal band as part of the story, the soundtrack isn’t bad, especially if you like high vocals and distorted guitars. The audio for dialogue sounds like the entire film was recorded in a studio with bad voice actors. I later found out that the entire film was dubbed in a studio because of bad on set audio. The picture quality was not amazing nor terrible. Vinegar Syndrome performed a 4k restoration from the original 35mm negative, but I did not see the full detail due to watching it on Blu-ray. The case comes with reversible cover art.
Other special features include audio commentary from multiple film historians and a producer, the original trailer, a photo gallery set to an 80s ballad, and a slew of interviews. First up is a 15-minute interview with actor Jeff Harding. He shares gossip and stories from the shooting of the film. He also fills in information that was poorly conveyed in the script. Apparently, the idea for the physical deformities of the villains was supposed to be frostbite scars. He also tells of how the band, Easy Action, put on a concert for the crew on the final day of filming.
There is 19-minute interview with actress Naomi Kaneda. She was a stewardess who wanted to become an actress. The band taught her vulgar Swedish insults, pretending they meant something else, and convinced her to say them to the director. The first time they tried to trigger an avalanche for a shot, they detonated explosives, but it didn’t start anything.
21-minute interview with Harriett Robinson. She talks of how much fun she had and that the director buried bottles of vodka in the snow and would pull them out and have the actors and crew do shots. She described the band as being goofy guys who made the shoot fun.
21-minute interview with actor Fredrick Offrein. Fredrick’s origin story is interesting. He was a co-founder of a chic Swedish nightclub before leaving and starting a competing club. To differentiate himself, he had a 35mm projector and would host movie premieres, attracting celebrities to his club and that ended up being his “in” to the movie business.
28-minute audio only interview with actress Tina Shaw. She talks about how there was almost no music on set, except for her Walkman with portable speakers and she only had one cassette. She also talks about having a sex scene with a band member. Neither of them wanted to do it because they didn’t like each other.
27-minute interview with some members of Easy Action. The interview is filmed in a restaurant and one of the band members shows up late. They wanted to do a movie because a record executive told them he wouldn’t work with them unless they were bigger than the band Europe. It’s a casual interview with the clanking of silverware in the background the whole time.
Once again, Vinegar Syndrome put a lot of care into this release and there is no shortage of special features. The interviews are interesting, and the filming of the movie itself sounds like a wild, unforgettable time. Unfortunately, “Blood Tracks” is not that entertaining. There are a handful of graphic murders surrounded by many almost bloodless kills. The script is bare-bones, and the audio is distracting. Not even a whole host of special features can win me over for this one.