''Bloody Wednesday'' is a 1988

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Mark G. Gilhuis and starring Raymond Elmendorf, Pamela Baker, and Jeff O'Haco. It is based on the events of the

San Ysidro McDonald's massacre The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was an act of mass murder which occurred at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984. The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, fatally shot 21 people ...

Premise

Harry is an auto mechanic going through a nasty divorce. When he gets fired from his job, he begins to lose his mind and walks into a church nude. Harry is subsequently committed to a mental hospital. After his release, he decides to stay in an abandoned hotel, where he begins having hallucinations. As his life degenerates, Harry begins to plan a shooting massacre at a local fast food restaurant.

Cast

* Raymond Elmendorf as Harry * Pamela Baker as Dr. Johnson * Navarre Perry as Ben Curtis * Teresa Mae Allen as Elaine Curtis * Jeff O'Haco as Animal * Linda Dona as Pretty Lady * Herb Kronsberg as Walter Burns * Murray Cruchley as Lou Cramer

Release

''Bloody Wednesday'' was shot in 1985 but released on September 8, 1988, on VHS. On April 19, 2016, the film was finally officially released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by Film Chest. A

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

release has yet to be announced. The movie gained poor critical reception and is nowadays known as

b-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

cult classic.

Differences between the real massacre and the movie

The name of the killer is Harry instead of the real James Huberty and Harry uses a revolver instead of a Browning HP used by Huberty. The

Uzi The Uzi (; he, עוזי, Ūzi; officially cased as UZI) is a family of Israeli open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine guns and machine pistols first designed by Major Uziel "Uzi" Gal in the late 1940s, shortly after the establishment of the ...

used in the film was fully automatic while Huberty's Uzi was semi-automatic. James Huberty was taken down and killed by a police

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

sniper, while Harry is fatally shot down by a restaurant customer. The real-life massacre took place at a

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

restaurant, while the massacre in the movie takes place at a nameless cafe. The actual massacre lasted for 77 minutes, while the massacre in the movie lasts for the final five minutes. Five children (under age 18) were killed in the actual massacre, while no children are seen in the movie.Tranvestitism - Transvestitism, Satan Worship, Mind Control and Mass Murder: The (Later) Films of Philip Yordan
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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bloody Wednesday (Film) 1988 films 1988 horror films 1980s crime thriller films American crime drama films American horror drama films American crime thriller films American horror thriller films Crime horror films American independent films Crime films based on actual events Horror films based on actual events Films set in San Diego 1980s English-language films 1980s American films