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Fantastic!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Although marketed as a slasher, "City of Blood" is a gritty and tense political thriller with some slasher elements. It is atmospheric and stylishly directed. The outstanding Joe Stewardson is a grizzled medical examiner being strong-armed by the government to sign a death-certificate of a black leader killed in police custody. Meanwhile, a series of killings of prostitutes are traced to a 2000 year old traditional club.This is one of my favorite Darrell Roodt films along with "Place for Weeping" and "The Stick". More so than any other director, Roodt captures the fear that was presumably setting in for white South Africans in the 1980s as apartheid began to (thankfully) crumble amidst increasing violence and opposition. A chilling and under-appreciated film.

Story Synopsis: South Africa is rocked by a number of brutal killings where prostitutes are bashed in the head with a spiked club. Joe Henderson, the country's chief medical examiner (who is a bit of a basket case after his wife leaves him & takes their kids out of the country) believes that the killings are politically motivated by blacks after examining a symbol left at the site of each murder. But the case takes an unusual turn when an immensely old skull that is at least two thousand years old & has identical puncture marks to those of the dead hookers is found in the 'God's Acre' district. Henderson, who is so stressed that he begins to have a liaison with a prostitute, discovers that the killings are caused by an underground black leader who uses witch doctors as assassins in order to clean up the country & to instil terror in the white population. Meanwhile Henderson is placed under immense pressure by his superiors to cover up the accidental death of one of South Africa's most feared activists by signing a false death certificate, something that his own conscience prohibits him from doing.Film Analysis: City of Blood is a rather obscure thriller that was made in South Africa at a time when the country's apartheid system was giving it some serious pain by way of international sanctions. It would not be long before the system would collapse but in 1987 was already showing signs of self-destruction.The film seems to have some form of bizarre identity crisis – director Darrell Roodt doesn't seem to know exactly what kind of film he is making. City of Blood jumps genres very often with an ease that is quite disturbing, making it difficult to comprehend. One considers this a horror film but the horror element is extremely slight & takes a relative back seat to the other elements which include drama & political thriller. Roodt has the characters often making grandiose statements about the state of things in the country, most often bending the narrative severely out of shape. Not to mention the inclusion of a hero who is not fully coherent but who seems to be a relative basket case, talking to himself in bed, having affairs with prostitutes & so on.The other problem with a film like City of Blood is that Roodt stuffs up the horror element. It is almost impossible to fully understand the complete story given Roodt's haphazard plotting & technical inconsistencies (such as an irritating lack of continuity with one jarringly noticeable scene where the hero's jacket disappears twice while he is driving his car). It is never clear whether the killers are ghosts or simply witch doctors using black magic to teleport from one place to another.Having said that, City of Blood does have a certain dream-like atmosphere which goes a fair way in papering over some of the inconsistencies. Roodt does things like having characters obtain information through dreams, as well as having the hero's wife intriguingly appear at certain intervals as a sort of ghost, having the effect of making you wonder exactly what is going on in the hero's mind. Not to mention a semi-dream sequence between two lovers in a forest which leads to the discovery of the old skull. The ending where the hero commits suicide after signing the certificate is a sad compromise given his mental state & the massive pressure placed on him by the politicians.Joe Stewardson plays the hero, making the character of a weary semi-bureaucratic type his own & getting into it with commendable precision. Ian Yule makes an effective sidekick as the chief of police. Actor turned scriptwriter Greg Latter (who wrote the script for CYBORG COP, one of the 1990s' DTV cult classics) makes an appearance as one of the government agents pressuring the hero to sign the paper.

This South African lensed feature is often mentioned when discussing rare genre entries with enthusiasts and has become highly sought after, due to the fact it has never seen light of day on DVD and is impossibly hard to find. Released in the early eighties, the movie has a title and plot structure that would lead you to believe that it could sit comfortably alongside the multitude of horror films from this period as an intriguing cycle addition.It opens superbly in ancient Africa with two stylishly shot stalking sequences. A masked killer pursues and kills two tribesmen in the forest with a spiked-club. The scene utilises superb and energetic cinematography with an excellent guise for the bogeyman and an authentic choice of weapon.Next up we fast forward to present day SA and we are introduced to our protagonist Joe Henderson (Joe Stewardson). Joe is a medical examiner who is suffering depression after losing his wife and child. Meanwhile, it seems that there is a masked killer on the loose, stalking the streets at night and butchering prostitutes. His choice of weapon is the ancient club from the opening, which leads authorities to believe that there is a ritualistic slant to the murders. As more bodies are discovered, Joe becomes obsessed with uncovering the killer's identity. But in a politically unstable environment can he keep his sanity long enough to catch the butcher? If you read this or any of the other synopsises listed anywhere on the web, you can understand why this feature has become such a trophy for slasher fans to track down. The plot description boasts all the right ingredients that make it sound as if it stands amongst the many other rare entries that are fun to seek out on eBay, usually at extremely high prices.Prepare to be disappointed though, because City of Blood is not a slasher movie. In fact, I am convinced that this was just a fraudulent ploy to broadcast a political view to unsuspecting audiences. As soon as the credits have rolled, we are led down a winding path of jumbled inconsistency that makes for an uncomfortable and ultimately coma-inducing runtime.So OK, everything starts brilliantly after the aforementioned opening, but thereafter things go downhill quicker than a boulder on a skateboard. Instead of sticking to the (rather intriguing) story involving the ritual masked killer, things turn sour when a subplot is introduced involving a political prisoner and a bogus death certificate that has been requested by the prime minister in order to cover-up the murder of the aforementioned inmate. Henderson, a delusional depressive on a one-man morality crusade, declines the order to forge the proof of death, and so a political battle launches involving black power groups and government officials.South Africa under Apartheid was a heavily publicized and key period of the last century with long lasting global effects. Even though I have a Masters Degree in History, I studied Romanov-era Russia and I am not going to pretend to be an expert on this subject matter. In fact, I don't want to be, as it's not something that I was ever particularly interested in. I am however a fan of slasher movies and when I am in the mood to watch one, I know what I want and I know what I should expect. Now I'm sure that there are many cinematic views from equally as many angles on the complex struggles that occurred during these times. It seems the modus operandi here, however, was to use the slasher undertones (the genre was extremely popular at the time) to forcibly and fraudulently convey a message to an audience that would be otherwise uninterested. You know at General Election time when you see pop idols standing with politicians and looking like they know everything about the party's manifesto? But deep inside, you know that they're just doing it for the paycheque and the publicity and couldn't care less about the plans for the economy? Well it's the same kind of methodology that's being used here. Once the political aspect is introduced, the killings are thrown straight in to the backseat in terms of screen time and instead we are supplied with a multitude of flat unattractive characters. None of them have any kind of explained back story or development and they ramble incoherently about topics unfamiliar to almost everyone outside of the government houses of SA. By the 45 minute mark, if you haven't already fallen asleep, you will be absolutely furious. Furious that you have been tricked in to parting with your pennies for a falsely-advertised slasher flick that's just an overlong talk-a-thon that would feel more at home playing on the Discovery Channel's graveyard shift. Don't be fooled in to thinking the killer will re-appear either. He turns up only once or twice throughout the overlong runtime and when he is unmasked later in the feature, his motivations are political (surprise) and he's not even a character that we've been introduced to previously.All in all City of Blood is a failure. A failure as a horror film and a bore-marathon as a drama. Riddled with unappealing and ugly characters, a tedious plot and a lack of clarity in its direction, it would be better off placed in a box and floated out to sea, never to be seen or heard of again. I was considering putting it on eBay where copies sell for almost £100 when they appear, but I am a nice guy and couldn't live with the guilt of putting another genre fan through this torturous excursion.If you're looking to track down a rare slasher on eBay, let me warn you to avoid paying premium prices for this shocker. Despite the intriguing premise, this is nothing but a long, insulting reservoir of boredom with *no* redeeming features aside from the excellent opening. Don't waste your time or money...

Two Africans are killed 2,000 years ago by a pair of African witch doctor-looking men. In the present day, a white South African medical examiner is investigating the deaths of prostitutes who are killed by a weapon that leaves five holes in their skulls. Somehow he connects this to tribes in Africa that had lived 10,000 years ago.He also refuses to sign a blank death certificate for an African hero. Government officials, including the prime minister, try to pressure him to do it, while a black couple hopes that he will not.He hallucinates his wife (not sure what that was all about), and seemingly hallucinates late- night drives and conversations with prostitutes that turn out to have been real.What the ancient Africans have to do with anything, or why the prostitutes were being killed, is beyond me. Perhaps a South African audience would have understood this movie better.As others have said, it's a snoozer. Lots of scenes of nothing happening, and the lead actor is a mumbler who isn't particularly charismatic.