This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This obscure '80s slasher starts off in a promisingly mean-spirited style with a bank heist in which the staff, a pair of women, are cruelly shot in cold blood. Making off with $50,000, the two bank robbers—Trish and Ruth (Mary Seamen and Meg Greene)—head to a rented mountain cabin where they stash the cash and wait for cohort George, an ex-employee at the bank, to arrive. As Trish gets ready to take a bath (Seaman providing the first spot of gratuitous nudity in a film that doesn't skimp on the T&A), she is shot and killed by Ruth, who intends to take all of the loot for herself. Things don't go as Ruth plans, however, when she is stabbed in the back by an unseen assailant. Soon after, the police arrive on the scene, investigating a report of gun shots, where they find the two dead girls and a bloody symbol daubed on the wall. So far, so fun, despite the questionable performances and shoddy production values.It's a shame, then, that the film drags horribly for the next forty minutes, with the arrival of two groups of vacationers at the rental cabins, which are still open for business despite the grisly multiple murders the night before (a group of girls even move into the very same cabin in which the killings took place, the bodies having been removed and the walls scrubbed clean. Who needs forensic evidence anyway?). The girls' neighbours are two married couples who have come for a few days of relaxation, fishing, skiing and drinking, all of which proves extremely tedious for the viewer (the dreadful 'drunk' scene is particularly embarrassing to watch). Only the girls stripping to their nightwear makes this part of the film bearable.Thankfully, things pick up a bit for the last half an hour, starting with that mainstay of the slasher genre—the shower scene—followed by the massacre of the group of girls by the still unseen knife wielding maniac (best kill: a big-breasted topless blonde getting stabbed in the tit!). When Stephanie (Stephanie Leigh Steel), who has been out for a walk while her pals are being attacked, finds her friends' bodies, she runs to the neighbouring cabin to find help, the killer not far behind.Anyone familiar with the genre will have no problem guessing how things play out from here, although the identity of the maniac is unexpected, probably because it doesn't make any sense.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for the lo-fi synth score that really adds to the atmosphere.

Welcome to the longest 80 minutes of your life. Distinguished by catastrophic acting, editing, cinematography, music, sound, lighting, makeup, pacing, plotting, dialogue and characterisation, L. Scott Castillo Jr's slasher is so bad it's bad, reaching an Edward D. Wood Jr plateau of tosh. It couldn't secure a release until 1984 – four years after it was shot.The legends speak of a "Mountain Man" who, frustrated at society encroaching on the hills and pushing him further into the wilderness, regularly comes down from the peaks to take it out on poorly-clothed teenagers. This season there are two groups: The lusty spring break chicks and the two sensible couples. Their worlds collide when hottie Stephanie (Stephanie Leigh Steel) inexplicably falls for nerdy Tony (Tom Bongiorno), and this sets in motion a series of horror movie separations, giving the killer his chance to pick them off, one by one. The plot isn't sufficient to fill the running time. We get endless shots of Stephanie wandering the wilderness, accompanied only by a drab piano-and-flute score. At times it's like we're watching bored actors waiting around on location. The killings ramp up in the final third, but are tame and lacking invention in their execution. There is one diverting nightmare sequence, although it is memorable for its dodgy makeup more than its creepiness. This is one of those cheapo horror flicks where, thanks to the desperate acting quality and the appalling script, the alleged friends barely seem to know each other. The relationship between Tony and his wife Lisa (Elisa R. Malinovitz) is laughable. Their dirty talk scene – packed with lame courtroom metaphors (he's just qualified, you see) – is an avalanche of cringe. Let's be relative. Comparing Satan's Blade to bigger budget horror movies of the era isn't fair. But films like The Mutilator and Sleepaway Camp – low budget contemporaries with which Satan's Blade bears resemblance – at least had fun deaths and biting humour respectively. And the final 'twist', involving a cameo from our esteemed director, is a total dud. It makes sense when Hitchcock does it, but Hitchcock he ain't. In a very awkward interview on the disc, the director states that film is "a business, not an artform". Don't worry, Mr Castillo, there is no danger of mistaking this film for art. Arrow Video (the version I watched) is scraping the barrel here with a curio that only the most dedicated slasher aficionados should indulge. It's also worth mentioning that this is a very rough print. Crackle and hair is authentic, sure, but the print is woefully damaged at times, with distorted sound and a multitude of unwanted historical artefacts. Actually, "unwanted historical artefact" might be the best way to describe the film.

A man terrorizes a ski lodge in the wake of being possessed by an evil spirit. Director L. Scott Castillo Jr. makes neat use of the bleak and isolated wintry landscape, takes time to develop the characters, generates a reasonable amount of tension in the harrowing last third, pulls out the sadistic stops for the shockingly brutal murder scenes, tosses in some tasty gratuitous female nudity for trashy good measure, and tops everything off with a surprise bummer ending. Thomas Cue's sincere script offers a cool supernatural spin on the slice'n'dice formula. The acting from the game, but variable cast is decidedly hit or miss, with Tom Bongiorno as the amiable Tom and Stephanie Leigh Steel as fetching coed Stephanie in particular giving perfectly serviceable performances in their respective roles. The gradual pace may prove to be a bit difficult to endure for less patient viewers, but it's the slow burner approach that in the long run helps add substantially to the overall eerie and desolate atmosphere. The hefty body count rates as another major plus. Terry Kempf's competent cinematography boasts a few nifty fades. Martin Jaquish's wonky synthesizer score does the shuddery ooga-booga trick A fun low-budget fright flick.

For once, I won't give a plot summary. It really isn't worth me trying to decipher the mad series of events that leads to the slaughter of everybody in a snowy mountain lodge, because the director doesn't care. He only wants to cut straight to the raspberry jam and nudie shower scenes, of which there are plenty. Amazing though, that despite all the action the film would turn out to be as boring as this, with a LONG period of boring talk before the 'fun' starts and even then, the slashing and stabbing is strictly amateur hour. The BBFC didn't help either with it's apparent decision to cut over 3 minutes from the film back in 1987, which makes some parts of it unwatchable. Though I doubt it would have been any better, it's hard to review a film when so much has been lost.Does your copy of the video have a picture of a skeleton on it? Well prepare to be disappointed, there's nothing here related to the undead, supernatural or otherwise. It's just a ploy to get you to buy the film by putting on a nifty front cover! Shock, horror! Who would have thought a reputable company would be capable of something like that? I would also like to know why the screen flashed red for about ten seconds before the movie began. I thought there was something wrong with my TV. I drove all the way down to the repair shop for nothing. Oops sorry, I know I'm droning on but to be honest, this paltry offering doesn't give me much to talk about, so I'm doing the best I can. Anyway, I'm off. Er.. final comments?! Stick with Freddy and Jason and.. don't do drugs, kids!! Can I go now?! 1/10