Bloodtype Online

    Have you ever seen "The Last House on the Left" before?  What's that?  Did you say yes?  Well I'm sure if you're a fan of Last House then you've probably witnessed the countless remakes and rip-off's of the film as well.   Now anyone that knows me, can attest to the fact that I really dig Last House rip-off's.  I can't really explain why, maybe it's the fact that if you take the main theme of the movie and put it into a hundred different scenario's it can still be pretty effective.   To be honest I think there are films out there that certainly weren't as revolutionary Last House, but actually hold up a lot better than the film itself.   I have to say though that upon hearing about director Terrence Williams "The Hood Has Eyez" that the last thing on my mind would be a Last House rip-off.  But alas that's what it was, and just like all of those other rip-off's I talked about, I dug this one too.

    The basic premise of "The Hood Has Eyez" is a very simple one.  A group of school girls are hanging out one day before school.   Easily you can see that one is the good girl and the other two fall into the "bad influence" category that we all know and love.  Well they convince the good girl Kimmy that it would be a good idea to blow school off for the day, so that they can all go and party.   One of the girl even manages to take Kimmy's homework and tell her she can have it back if she comes with them.  So all is good and well right?   WRONG, dead wrong.  See while making a stop through the ghetto they accidentally run down a girl in an alleyway who is only in her bra and panties.   Once they get out to help her they realize that they are in a bad situation when held up by two Mexican gangsters with guns.  From here we are led with the group of school girls and their friend Jerry to a wooded area where all hell would break loose.

    I have to give credit to director/writer Terrence Williams because this film is just down right sleazy, nasty, and vile.   It's basically the type of subject matter you'd be talking about when mentioning the video nasties, or films that used to show up regularly on 42nd street, but with a more modern twist to it.   I can't tell you just how mean spirited this movie can be at times, and there were moments of general shock on my face during some of the more violent scenes.  I can't say that very often and believe me I watch a lot of films of this nature.  

    Although the film itself is grossly unoriginal, that's not what it's out to do.  This movie is trying to offend you or simply put, piss you off.   A few years back I saw another film just like this, but it actually ripped off "Last House on the Left" a bit too much and it was called "Chaos".  Not only was "The Hood Has Eyez" much better than that film, but this film gets it as far as trying not to steal the whole deal so to speak.  It's like Williams sat down to right this and said, "I'm going to rip-off Last House, but I want to take it somewhere else", which I respect.   Also, let me clarify that being a "Last House rip-off" is NOT a bad thing.  It's not meant to belittle "The Hood Has Eyez" or to ridicule the movie whatsoever.   If most movies could be as good as the carbon copies of Last House, there'd be a lot better movies floating around out there.

    The acting in the film isn't really anything special although I thought that Cydne Schulte (Kimmy) and Antonio Royuela (Psycho) were pretty good respectively.   But the thing that makes it work is the fact that they are the only two in the movie that are really given any real meat to work with. 

    The effects in this one were also noteworthy because they made the film.  It seemed to me that director Terrence Williams understood that the effects would have to be good for the film to work, and that's something that certainly helped it along the way.  

    Bottom line is, "The Hood Has Eyez" is a much better film than I expected and even though it is low budget, you have to admire what they were going for in this one.   Also, I'm a sucker for sleaze and this one delivers the sleaze in boatloads.  So if you are thinking it might be time to check out a low budget Indy shocker, I'd say this is the one you should see.   Recommended.

Rating - **1/2

-Ed Demko