Surprisingly clever --- SPOILERS
I know everyone seems to hate this movie, but for some reason I dug it when I saw it during its initial release and revisiting the movie all these years later, I still liked it. Here's why......(sorry, this is going to be long winded)
1.) This is not a ripoff of Friday the 13th even though everyone wants to give it that label. To me, personally, it comes across as a tribute to the horror genre in general. That gives the film a sense of heart IMHO since it was written w/ such fondness for the genre.
It's fair to say that Friday the 13th was the genre defying movie of the 80's. Scream gets that title for the 90's. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre possibly opened the door for a movie like Friday the 13th by giving birth to the backwoods sub-genre of horror in the 70's. Bloody Murder manages to incorporate all three eras into its story.
Trevor Moorehouse has a chainsaw like Leatherface. He kills people straggling along on back roads (the opening & ending scene). One of the main characters is named Tobe.
As for Friday the 13th, that's obvious w/ the camp setting. There's an endless amount of references to the series. One of my faves is that the character of Jason has supposedly ran off to the city (IE: Jason Takes Manhattan). There's an endless amount of references to the movies that followed in Friday the 13th's success. There's talk of Trevor Moorehouse and an Indian Burial Ground (Twisted Nightmare). The characters watch Sleepaway Camp 14. Trevor Moorehouse is an urban legend whispered about by locals that turns out to be true (Madman). The killer is someone the other characters trust (Betsy Palmer in the original Friday the 13th), yet hockey masked Trevor Moorehouse is ready to take over for the sequel at the end. The killer escapes from a mental asylum (The Burning) / a rafting oar plays a big part in a major plot development.
As for Scream, one of the main characters is named Drew. I dug how Drew turns out to be the hero and survives vs being one of the first to die as in Scream. The Randy inspired character from Scream is also one of the heroes of the movie and even gets the girl at the end. The characters speculate as to who the killer is w/ the Randy ish character coming up w/ this whole elaborate scenario as to how it might be Dean or Julie's flashback thing when she thinks its Drew.
2.) The movie has a sense of humor about the genre.
-Julie finds the dead body of Doug and starts running off hurriedly only to run into Tobe who's face is covered in paint (thinking its initially blood).
-Doug's role is nearly non-existent in the movie other then to die. It takes a while before the other characters even notice he's missing. Even when they suspect he's been killed, it's a non-issue for the other characters since Doug doesn't really play a role in how the story develops.
-Doug is by far the best looking person in the cast (at the time). The others look more like everyday people. Whoever played Doug is strictly in the cast, because he's good looking. He gets killed while handling a lot of balls. --- Hellraiser had a highly sexual edge to it. Pinhead (who is played by Doug Bradley) is costumed in a sexual way. Hellraiser was made by Clive Barker, who is gay. Doug, balls, etc. Get the humor in it all?
-One character is killed while the others are watching a slasher movie. The slasher movie drowns out the screams of the character getting killed.
-Jason is killed by a chainsaw wielding Travor Moorehouse. Jason even screams in fear of Trevor. IE: Leatherface vs Jason.
3.) There's obvious parallels to Hide & Go Shriek. I think it's fair to say that Shriek tried to break the mold while working in a fairly conventional sub-genre of horror. Like Shriek, there's an above average amount of people who survive Bloody Murder. The killer switches up identities like the killer in Shriek. The final girl hasn't obeyed the rules of the genre like Bunky's character in Shriek in that she did drugs and said she'll be right back (Bunky's had sex often).
W/ that said, Bloody Murder tried to break the mold in its own way in that.....
-There's two killers who aren't connected to each other. One has a clear motive. The other doesn't.
-It was a tribute to the slasher sub-genre ever before that kind of style became popular.
-The nerd is the first one to grab a gun to take on the killer at the end while the final girl's boyfriend stands there and just watches as the scenario unfolds
-The survivors include the nerd who gets the girl, a final girl who just kind of stands there (usually, they become a badas* during the finale) and a supporting female character who isn't white & is the one who truly fights it out w/ the killer. There also happens to be another random female survivor for good measure.
-The boyfriend not only doesn't get to take on the hero role, but he gets dumped by his girlfriend, left behind by the others and killed during the closing moments.
-More male characters are picked off then female characters.