Craig J. Clark
This week, we’ll be focusing our posts on holiday movies, including several that we feel are worth putting into your holiday viewing rotation this year. Follow along here.
The annals of holiday horror include such standbys as killer Santa Clauses (Christmas Evil, the Silent Night, Deadly Night series, Christmas Bloody Christmas) and killers of Santa Clauses (Don’t Open Till Christmas), with assorted Krampuses, homicidal snowmen, and other mischievous creatures (Gremlins chief among them). There’s even a proto-slasher in the mix (the original Black Christmas), but it’s safe to say the occasional eccentric performance aside (“Garbage Day,” anyone?), none are as bone-deep bizarre as 1983’s Blood Beat’s samurai spirit, with its residual leftover hatred from Japan’s defeat in World War II.
The brainchild of Fabrice-Ange Zaphiratos, who was born in Vietnam in 1957 and moved to France at age four, Blood Beat came about when he relocated to the US in his early 20s to pursue his ambition of becoming a filmmaker. Instead of settling in New York City or Los Angeles, though, Zaphiratos landed in Wisconsin farm country, which served as the setting for the supernatural slasher he wrote under the influence of certain substances, as he cheerfully volunteers on the commentary for Vinegar Syndrome’s release. “For many people, the film, then, is very strange,” he says. No kidding.
While it’s set around Christmas, Blood Beat doesn’t go overboard on the decorations or other seasonal indicators. There’s nary a Christmas carol on the soundtrack, which is otherwise filled with buzzy synthesizer music composed by Zaphiratos and his brother, plus classical recordings chosen for their affordability. The budget also didn’t allow for the creation of fake snow when Mother Nature declined to deliver the real stuff as the crew hoped. They lucked into the main shooting location, however, which looks lived-in because it was the actual home of Helen Benton and Terry Brown, the unmarried couple who play Cathy and Gary, the unmarried couple at the center of the film’s obscure psychodrama.
Following the lead of countless other Christmas films, Zaphiratos opens Blood Beat with a scene of Gary hunting and proudly showing off his kill to Cathy, who turns away in horror from the dead deer. (Then again, she is prone to migraines and known for having visions.) Later, Gary’s shown cleaning the deer in the front yard in graphic detail, a bloody operation interrupted by the arrival of their children, Ted and Dolly, and Ted’s college girlfriend Sarah, who has come along to spend Christmas break with him. Just because she wasn’t invited doesn’t mean she’s unexpected, though, as the initial moment of tension between Sarah and Cathy makes plain.
One of the challenges faced by Zaphiratos was his inexperienced cast. Blood Beat is the only screen credit for Benton, and the same goes for Claudia Peyton and Dana Day, who play Sarah and Dolly. Meanwhile, James Fitzgibbons, who plays Ted, waited 25 years for his second credit. In fact, the actor with the longest IMDb listing is Brown, who took bit parts in a number of Hollywood films. All acquit themselves about as well as can be expected under the circumstances, though, and their willingness to let themselves look foolish is endearing.
This lack of self-consciousness is key because the story takes some whiplash-inducing turns. These include the reveal that Sarah, like Cathy, has latent psychic abilities, which come to the fore when she tags along on a hunt and spooks the deer the others have in their sights. Even more inexplicable is the way she’s possessed by the spirit of a vengeful samurai warrior (embodied by a suit of armor Zaphiratos found in a Chicago antique store) that brings her to climax whenever it’s out and about slicing people up. (Zaphiratos misses a trick, though, by not having the spirit attack the family Christmas tree when it invades their home.)
One of the hallmarks of Zaphiratos’s commentary is his embarrassment about certain aspects of the production, including his own music and the ending, which he admits is “not well written.” He also harps on the visual effects, which were done by a lab in France when he returned there to complete post-production. What he may not appreciate, however, is that the primitive “glow” effects added to shots of the samurai are an integral part of the film’s charm. “Better” special effects wouldn’t make for a better Blood Beat, just a less distinctive one. What this film has going for it is the idiosyncratic touches that could only result from a foreigner on American soil strapping on a second-hand samurai suit to become one of cinema’s most unlikely supernatural heavies.
After it was presented at the film market in Cannes, Blood Beat quietly debuted on video in 1983, and might have remained in relative obscurity if not for the restoration undertaken by Vinegar Syndrome in 2017. Because the camera negative wasn’t stored properly, the image has mold and moisture damage, but that feels weirdly appropriate. A film like this should look like somebody found it in their crawlspace and pulled it out to see what the hell it is.
The best way to experience “Blood Beat” is Vinegar Syndrome’s comprehensive Blu-ray, but that’s hidden away for their semi-annual Partners Only Month. In the meantime, it’s streaming on Tubi (and a few other places) because of course it is.
