In the late 80’s and up into the early 90’s there were quite a few metal-inspired horror films. Movies like Trick or Treat, Black Roses and Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare all had varying degrees of “success.” One film that may have slipped under the radar was 1990’s Shock ‘Em Dead. I can’t say I’m surprised by this, it’s not a great movie, but thanks to the fine folks over at Slasher // Video we can now re-visit (or visit for the first time) Shock ‘Em Dead on Blu-ray!

Angel Martin (Stephen Quadros) is a nerdy, would-be guitarist working at a little pizza shop. Angel gets a call from a friend letting him know that a local rock band is looking for a new guitarist. Not wanting to miss his big opportunity, Angel asks his boss Tony (Aldo Ray) if he can leave early for the day to go audition. Tony says no and Angel gets very angry and quits in a fit of rage and takes off to audition for the band.

Things don’t go well at the audition. Turns out Angel isn’t much of a guitar player. Not only is he bad, but he’d be best described as terrible. He’s so bad in fact that the band’s lead singer rips him pretty hard. Angel rushes out of the audition very upset.

Embarrassed and heart broken, Angel goes back to the pizza shop to try and get his job back. Tony will have no part of it. Angel already burned that bridge. Tony tosses Angel out of the pizza shop and a strange voodoo woman (Tyger Sodipe) from the neighborhood approaches him. The voodoo woman invites Angel back to her house and offers to help him.

The deal is simple – in exchange for his soul, Angel gains the rock star status he wants. His nerd look is turned in and exchanged for the always classic 80’s hair metal look. He also lives in a huge house full of women. And of course he’s super talented. With his newly gained talent, Angel heads back for another audition and quickly earns a place in the band.

Angel finally has the life he’s always wanted. That’s when he realizes there’s a catch – in order to survive he must kill others and live off their souls. Sounds pretty metal if you ask me.

Aside from having to survive by killing others, Angel also starts a bit of relationship with the band’s manager, Lindsay (Traci Lords). This is problematic because Lindsay is already dating the band’s bass player. But we all know how bassists get treated right? So of course she’s more than willing to jump ship to the new guitarist!

Shock ‘Em Dead was directed by Mark Freed, who also co-wrote the film with David Tedder and Andrew Cross. It’s amazing that three different people worked on this script and this is the best they came up with. It’s a pretty bad movie. The acting is garbage, the story doesn’t make much sense, the special effects aren’t very special and the music is trash.

The saving grace is Traci Lords in one of her early non-porn roles. She’s actually pretty good, especially given the material she had to work with. It’s pretty easy to see why she was able to carve out a very nice career for herself.

This was the second to last movie Aldo Ray ever made. That’s kind of a bummer. I understand his career took a dive after the 50’s but he was still quite respected. So to go out on something like this is a bit of shame. On the other end of the spectrum Troy Donahue has a cameo as a record executive and that seems fitting.

The most interesting thing about Shock ‘Em Dead is that Quadros is a martial arts expert in real life. He’s also done choreography for a handful of movies and he’s served as a commenter for things like K-1 and Pride Fighting. I would have never guessed that Angel Martin was so highly respected in the world of martial arts. The more you know.

The Blu-ray from Slasher // Video isn’t of the greatest quality but like their other releases you know this up front. The movie contains a label on the front of the case letting the viewer know that this was sourced form the best material available and it is not HD. You’re pretty much watching an old VHS. Which is disappointing but at least they’re honest about it. This release also contains a few special features, including a director’s cut of the movie which is just all the boob shots from the film cut down to one clip. That’s kind of funny.

Despite it’s wide array of flaws, I do kind of like Shock ‘Em Dead. There is something charming to movies like this. As silly and dumb as it is, somebody did make it and that’s sort of cool.

Shock ‘Em Dead is now available on Blu-ray from Slasher // Video.