Berserker

Berserker (1987)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Jefferson Richard

Starring: Joseph Alan Johnson, Greg Dawson, Valerie Sheldon, Buck Flower, John F. Goff

From: American Video Group

My love for you is like a truck, BERZERKER!

Of course that is what I thought more than once while watching this wacky horror picture. It was nice tracking this down after knowing of it for a few years. After all, it's a sextet of teenagers in the woods vs. the spirit of a berserker warrior of Viking culture possessing a Scandinavian decedent and kills people with bear claws while wearing a bear pelt AND a bear snout, which is only partially accurate to history as far as I know. Nice for me was that it features George “Buck” Flower w/ a Swedish accent, “that guy” actor John F. Goff... and Bear the Bear. Now Bart is a familiar animal to me from many pictures of this vintage.

It is easy to nitpick this... for something only 85 minutes long, it does drag at times. There aren't that many deaths, they aren't all that original anyhow and I know some won't be happy with what most of the victims have in common. Be that as it may, personally this did provide entertainment-even if it wasn't in the intended ways the filmmakers preferred. The teenagers were funny tools, especially Josh... he not only smoked pot while driving his truck w/ everyone jammed in it, he also slammed down a Miller Lite while doing same! Their clothing (including cut-off shorts), hair, usage of boombox... it screamed “1980's.” If that wasn't enough, there is homoeroticism! After all, two of the three males are in a musical montage seen shirtless and pouring Miller Lite on each other; what am I supposed to think?

Speaking of music, when it isn't a synth drone, it is... bad hair metal created for the movie. As I dig hair metal, I could chuckle at the goofy examples produced by a bunch of no-names. More unexpected was what can be best described as a Yacht Rock instrumental. I know this won't tickle many people like it did me, but at least it does have some decent (if not groundbreaking) ideas-such as having the wilderness be foggy at night, or having the movie's big sex scene intercut w/ one of the film's kills. Although, the moment that made me laugh the loudest: a digetic sexy saxophone while two characters were making out! Josh stuck in a tape into a boom box which happened to have a sexy sax solo; I don't recall such a cliché being introduced into a movie that way before.