TUBI CONTINUED… SATAN’S BLADE (1984) ** ½

Satan’s Blade kicks off with a neat opening sequence that would make for a fine short film.  It has a cool double twist and really sets up the movie with style.  Sure, everything that comes after this sequence is a bit on the uneven side, but overall, it’s a shade or two better than your average low budget slasher.  

A couple comes to a mountain resort where there has just been a double homicide.  The crazy lady who runs the place thinks it’s the work of the local legend, an insane mountain man who stalks the woods with a big ass hunting knife.  Meanwhile, a gaggle of hot-to-trot coeds also come to the resort looking for a good time, and one of them even tries to seduce our married hero.  Will he be able to keep it in his pants and save his marriage?  Or will the killer ruin his chances to score?  

Satan’s Blade contains lot of scenes of cars driving on mountain backroads while dubbed-in dialogue fills in the character’s backstories.  Although this process is technically crude, it’s rather economical from a storytelling point of view.  It doles out vital plot information, and once the car finally gets to its destination, the audience is caught up to speed with everything it needs to know about its characters.  

In fact, the whole movie is kinda cheap and crude.  There are visible boom mikes, long scenes of people walking slowly through the snow that pad out the running time, and less than stellar acting.  However, that all sorta adds to the fun.  Heck, there’s even some legitimate laughs to be had, like when our recent law school grad hero tries to seduce his wife using an unending series of lawyer-related innuendos.  Couple that will a good amount of T & A and a handful of decent kill scenes and you have yourself an A-OK slasher.