It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

IMDb does it again. They list this film as "1987" despite the fact that the MPAA copyright date clearly says, "XMLXXXV." That's Roman numerals for 1985! Also NONE of the images used they include are actually part of the actual movie! IMDb.com, always trying to outdo Censorpedia's inaccuracy.Now that I've release that from my system, I'd first like to state that I've never been a big fan of going postal films. They never seem bold enough to take a stand as to whether the mass shooter is justified in his actions, tragic victim of circumstances, mentally ill or just plain evil. But 'Blood Wednesday' is just goofy enough to work.Not "goofy" as in a dark comedy, but goofy as in there are A LOT of elements in play here.Our dangerous loner is Harry. Right from the opening scene it's obvious Harry is mentally ill. He looses his job as an auto mechanic after he simply forgets how to put an engine back together. Something he's done many times before.Harry is hospitalized and an attractive doctor Dr. Johnson first speaks with Harry's ex wife whom wants nothing to do with him. So he's left in the custody of his older brother Ben who doesn't really care about him either. Ben just abandons him in an abandoned hotel. It's this old haunted abandoned hotel which gives 'Bloody Wednesday' its real unique edge. The audience themselves doesn't know where reality ends and Harry's insanity begins. Is the hotel really haunted? Is Harry really having an affair with Dr. Johnson? Just because Harry's clearly crazy doesn't mean these things aren't true. The viewer is left to decide for themselves.Most of the ghosts in the hotel are nice. The friendly bellboy warns Harry about a haunted room which stopped being rented out after two suicides. But when Harry actually talks with their ghosts he's discovers their deaths weren't so simple.Harry also talks with his teddy bear whom tells him to kill. When a gang of street thugs break in, Harry holds them at gun point while the bear weighs judgment on whether they should live or die.Harry also starts an affair with Dr. Johnson. Or does he? She denies it. But later lets him sleep on her couch. And Harry's ex wife later says she knows about the affair and wants to blackmail Dr. Johnson. So was it real after all?The same gang of muggers see Harry admiring an Uzi in a store window and ask, "What are you going to do with a machinegun?" Gee what would a mental patient want a machinegun for? Harry answers, "Use it." The thug later steals the Uzi and gives it to Harry just of laughs. Wow, what a nice guy! He steals a $10,000 gun and just gives it away? Harry's first fatality is an elderly security guard whom one of the hotel ghosts says murdered him. Has Harry just committed a cold blooded murder? Or has he merely brought justice to a tormented soul? Harry's next victim is his ex wife, simply because the teddy bear tells him to kill her.The final shooting rampage is so over the top it's comical. Harry merely enters a dinner and fires non stop with his Uzi for three full minutes, releasing hundreds of rounds! He then loads another clip and fires hundreds more! While he's clearly using a 25 round magazine he only reloaded after hundreds of shots! This is just plain silly. Also, since this all takes place over the course of six minutes, why are all the victims just standing there waiting to get shot? There's no rush for the back door or people hiding under tables or pleading for mercy! They just stand still for six full minutes! The ONLY diner who actually does anything is the one man who shoots Harry dead with one head shot from his own gun. Why was he waiting six minutes to shoot back? All in all 'Bloody Wednesday' has its moments. The story is a gripping one you'll want to follow. The big question is why Harry goes postal. He isn't angry at life or society. The climax just seems tacked on as a way to end it with fan service.

Amateurish tale of mentally disturbed man (Elmendorf) whose brother (Perry) agrees to allow him to stay at a derelict hotel until its sold while he seeks treatment from psychiatrist (Baker), talks to his teddy (voiced by well-known Hollywood little person Billy Curtis) and takes advice from a street thug (O'Haco) on how to hurt people. A series of bizarre confrontations with apparent apparitions occur, and culminate in Elmendorf's character acquiring a 9mm uzi and a sudden Rambo-urge to "use it" (quote, unquote).Academy Award winning wordsmith Philip Yordan produced and scripted this low-grade thriller, that includes some of the corniest dialogue I've ever heard uttered. "Make me a cripple, Ben" is one of my personal favourites, though there's also a cracker monologue delivered by O'Haco about being paid $4 hour and needing to mug fat people to pay for his $15 a night steak habit. It's unintentionally laughable.Inept on almost all fronts, from the yamaha sound system soundtrack to the abominable acting, the most believable scene in the movie is when one of the hoods wets himself. Some minor credit can be paid to the bathroom strangulation scene, where some creative camera angles are used and the overall result is pretty effective, but that's a rare moment in this film. If you do persist, then the climax will be your reward - the expression on his face is priceless.

Beware of 80's horror movies of which the DVD-cover repeatedly 'warns' you about the extremely graphic content and/or shocking images of the film… Nearly always, this is just a method to divert your attention of the fact that it's a very incompetent and cheap production. In this case, it's even worse, as "Bloody Wednesday" turns out very boring and not bloody at all! The only "graphic content" is found at the beginning and ending of the film and that actually is twice the same sequence! (Oops…that was a spoiler!). The "story" of Bloody Wednesday revolves on a thirty-something loser called Harry! Harry has got some serious issues… He has legal conversations with his teddy bear (I'm serious!) and he walks into church services naked, singing Hallelujah-praise the Lord! When Harry is fired for the umpteenth time, his brother hires his as a janitor for an abandoned hotel where he then loses his mind completely. I suppose this movie was meant to be a psychological portrait of a man unable to function in modern society, constantly trying to fool the audience by showing events that are whether real….or the imagination of a sick man. No matter what this film tries to achieve, it fails… There's absolutely no structure, not a single idea is elaborated properly (the hotel-suicides, Harry's desires towards his female doctor…) and the inexperienced star Raymond Elmendorf lacks the required talent to play a demanding role like this. Most of the time, he weakly imitates a combination of the characters Jack Torrance (from "The Shining") and Norman Bates (from "Psycho") but he hasn't got personality himself. The total lack of violence and sleaze is unacceptable and there's absolutely no trace of twisted humor in the script…Or maybe it was so lousy that I didn't even notice it. I find it rather surprising that this turkey was written by Philip Jordan, as his other 80's trash-horror films are a lot more entertaining (Night Train to Terror, The Unholy…). In case you want to see a good and truly raw drama handling about urban-insanity, keep your eyes open for Abel Ferrara's "The Driller Killer" but do avoid this garbage at all costs.

Up there as one of the worst films I've ever seen. The most shocking thing was the performance of Ray Elmendorf in the lead part, closely followed by everyone else in the cast and crew. Unintentionally funny, I found myself laughing out loud in parts...FBI man: Did you point this broomstick at the plane?FBI man 2: It's not illegal to play with broomsticks, but I wouldn't recommend it.WHAT?? I was in stitches! Logic goes totally out of the window when Harry is sacked from his job for taking an engine apart and finding it won't go back together because 'it doesn't fit'. For some reason his brother decides to put him in a closed up hotel, where he can go even more insane than he already is. Here he starts seeing ghosts, dreaming about his doctor, and being terrorised by a group of Hollywood rent-a-punks. All this just to build up to a mass murder in a burger bar because 'society, his friends, and his family have all let him down.'Mind numbingly awful, annoying synth trash music, and it's attitude towards to mental illness is questionable at least.