Berserker (1987)

Plot Outline: Six young adults camping in the woods tell each other stories of the Viking berserkers, who would dress in the fur of slain bears and wear their snouts as masks. Then, a big hairy monster starts to kill them one by one. Is it the big grizzly bear we keep seeing wandering about? Or is it a berserker?

The Review: Well the clue is in the title. Anyway even by the low standards that the slasher genre lives by, this is weak stuff. The film looks quite poor and grainy for a start (maybe just the DVD transfer though). The continual use of dry ice attempting to look like fog and mist to 'crank up' the tension is a bit annoying and overdone. When something is shrouded in mist and fog, usually it creates a bit more atmosphere but not when used in every scene! Despite it's intriguing plot, the film runs like clockwork and once we see the stereotype teenagers head off to the woods, you know you've been here before. We are never really given much of the berserker to chew on either, despite being the killer as the title suggests. We are given a healthy dose of the legend explaining that they were crazy and what berserker used to do but we never see the berserker, well...go berserk. He just stalks people and jumps out at them like any other slasher in a mask does. And I honestly don't see the point in showing us the bear going around the woods. I mean the title of this film is Berserker not Bear so only a complete retard would think for one moment that it is actually the bear killing everyone. The final battle between the bear and the berserker looks quite ridiculous and is quite pointless too. At least it saved us the "heroine defeats the killer" plot used so often. The acting isn't great either but since when was slasher film acting any good? There is a pretty steamy sex scene in the woods but it is inter-cut with a death scene to make both scenes look tacky. That's about it really. There is very little gore although the film looks to have been cut. George 'Buck' Flower (a horror veteran) gets more lines than usual but is saddled with a terrible accent and we also get to see his hairy chest (ewwww). Not a pretty sight, considering we'd just seen Valerie Sheldon in the buff. I know which I'd rather see.

Final Verdict: Berserker sounded great and could have become a little slasher gem but the lack of the berserker on-screen is disappointing and 'Gentle Ben' the bear doesn't have any need to be in here. One to avoid unless you are have a burning desire to see every 80s slasher film (much like myself.)

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