Review of Varsity Blood

A pack of small town jocks and cheerleaders with a dark secret head out to a remote farmhouse for a raucous Halloween pasture party, only to find themselves up for slaughter by someone dressed as their high school mascot, an Indian warrior wielding a lethal fighting ax and a bow and arrow.

What It Got Right:

• The Cover Art. This might be a trivial thing to some people, but for slasher fans, we love our cover art and this isn't bad. Granted, it's more like CGI pics of bodies stacked on top of one another rather than art, but it's trying.

• The Kills Had Heart. You could tell that this production knew that they needed to at least put a little effort into the kills, and they did. They could have easily cheeped out and did off screen kills but they didn't. Actually, come to think of it, they didn't have one off screen kill.

• Some Boobs. Like the kills, this production understood that there needed to be at least some attempted at the traditional and always fun '80s slasher gratuitous nudity. Now, could they have done better? Absolutely, the scene that they gave us was rather uninspiring, but they did make an attempt which is better than a lot of other so-called slasher movies. They could have easily added some nudity to the shower scene in the beginning of the movie, but sadly it was just a tease. Overall, they did make an attempt to supply the movie with a little nudity and that's a plus.

• The Killer's Scooby-Doo speech. Absolutely hilarious! They leaned into the cheesiness with this and it worked for me. I loved every line that came out of this actor's mouth. Pure gold.

What It Got Wrong:

• The Characters. This group was so painfully frustrating to watch. They were just a very unlikable group of people with a few blah characters thrown that were supposed to be decent. Towards the end I was actually starting to root for the Christian girl "princess" and was hoping that she would somehow become a badass and take the killer down in the end. Sadly, those ambitions were pitched.

• The 40+ Minute Gap Between the First Kill and the Rest. I almost turned the movie off at least twice, but curiosity got the better of me, and also I really wanted to see these characters get killed.

• The Kills and the Nudity. I felt that both of these things were greatly lacking, and should have been more of a priority for this production. All movies that are looking to call themselves slashers need to make these two aspects a major priority.

All in all, it's almost passable and it's not insultingly bad. It tries to be a slasher, and I can appreciate that, but in the end, this mostly amounts to a bunch of missed opportunities.