It's certainly frustrating to think about how so few no-budget horror films have the towering tenacity, the overarching ambition of glass-ceiling smashing splatter mad-hatter Michael J. Murphy's quixotic, pseudo-legendary psychodrama, 'Bloodstream' (1985) a feral, celluloid creep-out for the discerning, late-night curry crowd, a righteously frenetic cinephile wet dream while demonstratively lacking the polish and production value the extra 75 quid might have given the final product; bravely defying logic, the narratively febrile filmmaker Murphy goes off-piste, frequently taking the road less traveled and proceeds to up the cinematic ante at any given opportunity, not only shooting the main story arc of disgruntled director Alistair Bailey's grisly, not entirely unjustified revenge, the hyperbolic 'film-within-a-film' milieu works tremendously well for much of the film's 1 hr 23 minutes duration, an especially laudable feat considering the profound budgetary privations he would have to so consistently surmount. The penurious, perhaps naive, eternally hopeful neophyte horror impresario Alistair Bailey is a marvelous cipher for any number of equally frustrated genre filmmakers similarly thwarted by the malign machinations of a duplicitous producer, in this case the fabulously despotic William King who contrives by wholly devious means to contractually steal the film away from the apoplectic Alistair and later release 'Bloodstream' for a considerably increased financial reward, the ceaselessly ruthless and entirely parasitical King making for an eminently despicable nemesis! Without pausing for B-movie breath we are headily plunged into a vibrant kaleidoscopic craziness which proves singularly fascinating, this fractured, chaotically macabre movie melange, brusquely cutting from one lurid, gore-spattered non sequitur colourfully represents the increasingly disturbed mind of paranoid filmmaker Alistair Bailey, uncomfortably bringing Peeping Tom's equally deranged 16mm camera wielding maniac Carl Boehm to mind as he so methodically undertakes his brutal retribution, every grim, bloody detail of his transgressors death being captured unflinchingly on film. There's a coruscating rawness to Michael J Murphy's 'Bloodstream' which evokes the very ragged best, or delirious worst of Roberta Findlay/Ted V. Mikels psychotronic drive-in madness, its low brow, high cholesterol celluloid is blissfully bad for your health! The 'acting' is deliciously monotonous and frequently hilarious which merely increases the illicit frisson of watching an unrepentantly trashy film replete with such a withering disdain for good taste, outsider cinema like this by all rights should be celebrated for their idiosyncrasy and rewarded with a lovingly restored Blu-ray/DVD.

Michael J. Murphy made some berserk movies. I mean, Invitation to Hell is something. And this is perhaps stranger, made after Murphy got screwed over on the profits for that movie and Last Night and put 400 pounds worth of cash into this one, in which director Alistair Bailey is fired from a project by notorious VHS distributor William King, who is using his footage and not paying him. That means that Bailey feels entirely justified in wearing the disguise from the movie and filming his own sequel in which all the murder is real.

The depression that the director goes into also makes him watch too many movies - I feel attacked - and that means that we get a possession film, a post-apocalyptic movie, a zombie film and several more ripoffs including a very close to Naschy werewolf film, as well as a killer willing to see dogs on fire to prove a point. It's also the rare slasher that has a killer that uses a gun, which is interesting.

I mean, this is a movie that starts with a man tearing his own face off and has a secretary willing to screw her boss over to the point that her new boyfriend kills him. And I realize that these shot on Super 8 wonders aren't great, but man, they have heart. And intestines. And eyeballs.

B grade horror made with a micro budget. Murphy was the British Dholer. He just loved making movies. Never getting the success he craved not the success he deserved.

This is my forth Michael J Murphy movie. Every movie I have seen I just look at it and wish the guy had been given a budget.

So a nasty film distributor has taken the lead characters movie and is selling it around the world for a huge profit whilst the filmmaker gets nothing. Axe comes to mind. This could be Fred Friedel's life set to celluloid. Or Romero with his seminal classic Night of the Living Dead. Taken off him for peanuts and it was a major international success. What would you do.?

This film maker decides to take revenge making his own new horror movie with the previous cast and producer as his victims. It sounds awesome and if he had the budget it would have been a movie we would have seen at the movies. As it is I guess this was straight to video fare.

I love Low budget movies where they are a triumph over adversity and it is just that way with this movie. If you love low budget shlock this is for you.