Trivia: The film's composer, Rick Wakeman, was originally offered a percentage of whatever profits the film made but he had decided to opt for a fee instead as he felt the film had no chance of being successful. The film ended up being the biggest grossing horror movie in Japan.
Quote: "Man, this guy is so burned, he's cooked! A fucking Big Mac, overdone! You know what I mean? And, it's a miracle that he's still alive. If it was me, I'd prefer to be dead. No way I'd want to be this freak. He's a monster, man!"
The Burning is yet another of the dozens of slasher movies made after the huge success of Friday the 13th and it is abundantly clear that the movie was heavily inspired by Friday the 13th (even borrowing Friday the 13th's special effects artist Tom Savini). And while some Friday knockoffs are duds, The Burning actually kicks ass. It is based on the urban legend of Cropsey, a maniac who supposedly massacred children at a summer camp on Staten Island. I decided to check out the film after watching Madman (review here), another slasher made around the same time based on the Cropsey legend. I must say that The Burning blows Madman out of the water. The Burning is a classic slasher movie with some great kills, a great weapon (pruning shears.... brutal!), and some great characters, including a performance by a young George Castanza (Jason Alexander) as Dave, the horndog counselor who talks about jerking off way too much. The film is also the first movie the Miramax pictures put out, even being partially written and produced by Harvey Weinstein (the horndog producer with multiple sexual assault allegations).
Quote: "Lore of the campfire telling of his horror, Lost in the woods with the madman and the stars. Don't laugh at the tell, heed if you call him. The legend lives, beware the Madman Marz. The legend lives, beware the Madman Marz."
Trivia: Paul Ehlers's son Jonathan Ehlers was born during the shooting of the movie. Paul received the news that his wife was in labor while filming a scene in full Madman Marz make-up. Paul went immediately to the hospital and held his newborn son for the first time while still wearing some of his Marz make-up and overalls covered with fake blood.
Madman is a film from the early days of the slasher film heyday. While Halloween started it all, it was 1980's Friday the 13th that really taught filmmakers that an insane amount of money could be made on a small budget by having a masked person hack away at teenage kids. Following Friday the 13th came hundreds of ripoffs. Some of them better and some of them worse. Unfortunately, Madman is one of the latter. On paper, Madman has everything that should make it a solid early 80s slasher: a mythology built around the killer, secluded camp woods location, brief nudity, gruesome kills, and a dope score and theme song. However, none of it really plays on the screen. The acting is bad. The story is drawn out. The killer looks silly. There are plot points that have nothing to do with the story and only distract. I first saw this movie a dozen or so years ago and remember really wanting to like it. The intro had all the makings of a potentially great film: a black and red still screen with the great theme song playing. However, I remember nearly falling asleep during this first viewing. Luckily, this was another Joe Bob Brigg's Last Drive In movie, which gave me the perfect opportunity to rewatch it. Joe Bob (of course) goes way in depth on all the finer points of the movie. Unfortunately though, the movie is just as bad as I remember and generally I agree with Joe Bob on this one, so I'll keep this review short.
Quote: "Wait a minute, who am I here?" "Jerry?" "That's right. Jerry Blake. Thanks, honey."
Trivia: Director Joseph Ruben originally wanted Jerry Blake to whistle the Barbra Streisand song "The Way We Were," but the rights to the song proved to be too expensive.
The slasher movie craze began in the seventies but really amped up in the early 1980s following the release of Friday the 13th. By the time the mid- to late-eighties hit, there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of slasher movies. So the difficulty for slasher movie directors became how to continue to make successful movies in a genre so over-saturated? Some movies chose to go with the given formula and just amp up the violence or add in comedic elements (which usually fails). Others, like The Stepfather, chose to go a different route. The Stepfather adds a surprising depth to its characters while playing on an old cliche, the abusive/crazy stepfather. While it has a great performance by Terry O'Quinn and has one of the greatest openings in a slasher movie, The Stepfather leaves a lot to be desired. The first five minutes and last fifteen minutes are exciting, but unfortunately that leaves nearly seventy minutes in the middle where the film is more or less stagnant.
Quote: "I'm going to commit murder at midnight. I'm going to kill someone you know. Someone close to you."
Trivia: During the first call made by the killer it is mentioned that the voice modulation makes him sound like 'the phantom' this is a reference to the titular character from 'Phantom of the Paradise' (1974)
New Year's Evil is another of the dozens of slasher movies released in 1980 that was trying to capitalize on the success of Halloween. Of the movies made that year, it is neither great nor terrible. If you're an old punker like me then you'll like that the movie's setting is more-or-less a punk rock show (although it appears the filmmakers only had a cursory understanding of punk rock). There are a few great songs, but "Dumb Blondes" played live by Made in Japan is by far the best one. While the plot is a bit rambling and the big reveal a let down, the killings are consistent, keeping my attention and making it an overall fun film to watch.
Trivia: The movie is based on the legend of Sawney Beane and his family, a feral clan who inhabited and roamed the highlands of Scotland, in the early 1400s. They captured, tormented and ate several transients. They were eventually captured and the executions of the Beane clan all allegedly involved grotesque tortures, inspiring the aspect of the film that the Carter family become as brutal as their attackers when they seek revenge.
Wes Craven had made a name for himself within the exploitation genre with his 1972 film, The Last House on the Left, a brutal rape-revenge movie that did surprisingly well at the box office despite its extreme content (it made $3 million over its $87,000 budget). Despite the film's success, Craven found it difficult to make a second movie as producers and distributors were nervous about working with "the rape" movie guy. However, five years later, in 1977, Craven was finally able to make what is in my humble opinion, his best movie, The Hills Have Eyes. I was stoked to discover that this movie was the second film in Joe Bob Briggs' Dinners of Death Thanksgiving horror marathon on Shudder (the first was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
Tagline: There's Horror in the Halls... Lynching in the Lunchroom... Murder in Metal Shop.
Trivia: The film was shot in England with actors adopting American accents to give the impression that it took place in the USA. Furthermore, in the UK, April Fool's Day ends at noon. In the UK, if one plays a prank after noon they are deemed the "fool". The filmmakers were unaware that America doesn't follow this tradition and April Fool's Day is in fact an all-day event.
Yes! It's been a while since I have found a new eighties slasher of such wonderful insanity! Slaughter High has everything that made the slasher genre great! It has a basic teenage revenge plot, a ton of creatively carried out murders, a decent amount of nudity, great (ie terrible) score, and a dash of half baked comedic moments. And to really up the ante, the movie is also a holiday movie that focuses on April Fools Day (which was the original title for the film but had to be changed when the other April Fools came out the same year). Okay, the movie isn't perfect. The ending is actually pretty awful. Apparently the filmmakers were short of about fifteen minutes when they made the film and had to tack a chase on to the end of the film that seems to go on and on and on forever. But slashers usually have lame endings and who watches them for the endings anyways? Plus, this was filmed in England with English actors, so it's fun watching them try to pull of American accents. So sit back, and enjoy the insanity.
The movie begins with the school hottie luring the school nerd into the girl's restroom to have sex with him. This is an eighties movie, so of course it is a trap. While there, she tricks him into stripping down and then a dozen or so student assholes bust in to film him naked. If that is not enough they electrocute him with a car battery before dunking him in a toilet. The bullies (although I think with the electrocuting, terrorists might be a better term) get in trouble and according to bully logic decide they need to get back at the nerd so they mess with some chemicals he's working with in the chemistry lab causing the place to burn down and severely burning him. Fast forward around ten years and the bullies are all grown up when they are all invited to a reunion for just them at the high school. I repeat the reunion is just for the ten of them (not suspicious). You can guess where the rest of the movie goes from here... someone is killing them one by one. It's the nerd. He kills the last one after a final fifteen minute chase scene of the hottie.
Let's get down to brass tax. The killings. I remember someone on Twitter posted a few months ago about how Black people are actually rarely the first ones killed in horror movies. While I had trouble coming up with specific movies, the first person killed in this movie is in fact the black janitor who is oddly enough living in the high school as the caretaker and was not part of the bullying (weird). Anyways, this movie has some pretty great death scenes. During one memorable scene, one of the jerks chugs a poisoned beer that causes his stomach to explode spilling his guts on the floor. Another person has their bath water turned to acid causing a cool face melting scene, looking very much like the face melting scene from Raiders of the Lost Arc. A car engine fan is lowered onto a person's head. There's an electrocution while a couple bangs. After the first slashers of early 1980s, filmmakers needed to get creative with their killings, and this movie goes for the gold.
Speaking of couples banging, there is a fair amount of sex and nudity in the movie. The big sex scene is amazing, not for its sexiness but for its absurdity. So while all their friends are being killed and while the girl's boyfriend is out trying to fix a car to save everyone, some girl decides to bang the guy's best friend. If that isn't odd enough, she also chooses this moment to confess that she is pregnant. Also, earlier in the film, another of the girls gets blood all over her so she goes to take a bath. Why is there a bath in a high school? Don't worry about it. What this does mean is both gratuitous nudity and the chance to melt her in an acid bath. And just to balance the nudity, the movie also has some full frontal male nudity.
A few last side notes before I get to the odd ending. The film's score sounds like it was done entirely with a Casio Keyboard in the best possible way. There is also a great eighties metal song that was written for the movie that says something about April Fools Day and revenge. Also, apparently in England, April Fool's Day ends at noon, a plot point in this movie that will make no sense to American audiences.
I already mentioned the unnecessary chase scene but haven't yet talked about the insanity the follows it. Chase scene, kills girl, classic slasher stuff. But afterwards, our killer begins to see the ghosts of the bullies who are now here to haunt him. Apparently, a supernatural warning not the retaliate against bullies? The supernaturalism comes out of nowhere, but wait, the killer wakes up and he is an a mental institution. Oh, so he was crazy and it was all just a dream. Phew. But wait, no. He rips off the face of his nurse, so it wasn't a dream? Or it was? Eh, who really cares. The main thing to get is that the movie has some dope kills, laughs, and nudity.
Quote: "You filthy pig! You and that WHORE! You both belong in the snares of the devil!"
Trivia: Alphonso DeNoble, who played the Spages' fat pervert landlord, wasn't a professional actor at the time. He was working as a bouncer at a gay bar and director Alfred Sole persuaded him to play the role. Before his death in 1978, he got acting jobs in two other low-budget horror films.
I think my wife summed up this movie best when in the middle of it she exclaimed, "This movie is insane." This movie really is insane. The movie is a murder mystery with lots of comparisons that can be made to the Italian Giallo horror movies of Dario Argento (despite the director having never seen Argento's films). The movie begins with the senseless murder of a child in a church, a moment that sets the darkly religious atmosphere that will carry on throughout the film. Adding to the bleakness of the film is that the dead girl's 12 year old sister seems to one who killed her. The movie has no hero or anyone really to root for and instead is a sad look at the destruction of an already dysfunctional family and weight of the guilt and repression that the Catholic Church puts on its adherents. The filmmakers do an incredible job building the tension throughout the film until, two thirds into the film, they reveal the true identity of the killer. From there, the movie seems to fall apart into a confusing mess. While surprising, the killer and its motive are disappointing leaving the movie feeling anti-climatic. Despite its faults, this 1976 movie is one of several films that helped to pave the way for the slasher films that would dominate the early 1980s (although not banned in the UK as a Video Nasty, it was investigated).
Starring: Marcienne Dwyer, Matt Dellapina, Chris Hill
Quote: "That guy could have been a haunted house actor... or he could have been a deranged killer who just happened to wander into our campsite."
Overview: Ruin Me is a Shudder original but lacks a lot of the originality and technical expertise that are characteristic of most of the other Shudder Originals. This movie plays out more like a SciFi Channel original than a Shudder original. That is not to say the movie isn't fun to watch, it was just a bit of a letdown for me. However, there is some good slasher gore, a lot of twists and turns, and some really interesting characters. Plus, like the Scream movies, the movie takes a look at the horror genre itself allowing the film to get real "meta," which is always fun for a horror fan.
Quote: "That judge in the orange skirt... Make yer pee pee harder than a ten pound bag a' nickel jawbreakers, you know what I mean?"
Trivia: Many of the extras were cheerleaders from Bakersfield High School.
Overview: Whoa. Okay. Cheerleader Camp. Where do I begin? Cheerleader Camp is another one of those films following in the footsteps of Friday the 13th. However, the novelty of killing horned up teenagers at a camp began losing its appeal by the mid-1980s so the films following had two options. Some films chose to up the ante with regards to violence and gore. This option was largely made non-existent during the late 1980s with the rise of the Satanic Panic and its attacks on violent films. The other options was to shove some comedy into it and make it as goofy as possible. This movie is very much an example of the later. Stupid? Yes. Silly? Yes. A fun way to spend ninety minutes? Ab-so-lutely!
Quote: "I always knew he'd come back. In this town, Michael Myers is a myth. He's the Boogeyman. A ghost story to scare kids. But this Boogeyman is real. An evil like his never stops, it just grows older. Darker. More determined. Forty years ago, he came to my home to kill. He killed my friends, and now he's back to finish what he started, with me.
Trivia: On the tv, a newscaster can be heard describing the events of the original film as "the babysitter murders". This was originally the title Carpenter wanted for Halloween (1978).
After more than thirty five years, and a bunch of really bad sequels, John Carpenter is finally back with his brilliance attached to a Halloween movie again... and all is right once again in the universe. I felt that this sequel was the strongest Halloween since the original two, which makes it a bit confusing why there is so much animosity on the internet in regards to the movie. Jamie Lee Curtis, reprising her role as Laurie Strode, does a great job of demonstrating the emotional and psychological turmoil that a final girl would have to continue dealing with decades later. Carpenter has also rewritten a new iconic synth-heavy score for the movie and even Nick Castle has come back to reprise his role as Michael Myers. What this movie offers is not a reimagining of the Halloween story (like Rob Zombie's movies) or even building on the legend like many of the 80s and 90s sequels did, but instead it is a return to basics. It is a straightforward sequel following the events of the first movie without any Michael Myers backstory, supernaturalism, or extra elements added. It is simply a story of Michael's bloody return to Haddonfield as he attempts to finish what he began and Laurie's attempts for survival and revenge. Bloody and gory as hell, this is the sequel the originals deserved.
Quote: Drunk dad to son: "What? You think you're better than me? Just because you have a suit and a good job?"
Trivia: The first film produced by the website 5secondfilms.com. Founded in 2008, creators of the site produced one 5 second film every weekday until 2013. This feature film is based on one such short, a fake trailer.
I saw this movie on Shudder the other day but was hesitant about watching it, having not seen the first two movies. However, there is no other movies. This series begins with the third movie. Created by the guys at 5 Second Films, a website who made weekly five second movies, is a horror slasher comedy spoof that is actually really funny! The characters do a great job of portraying California fraternity dude bros that are caught in the midst of a massacre by a villain known as mother face. The dialogue in this movie is especially a strength with some great quotable moments. And although it is a comedy spoof, they do a good job of including over the top blood and gore. Beyond just a dumb comedy, this movie is also an impressive dissection of the 1980s horror slasher genre that picks apart each cliche element. Oh, and it has some really funny commercial bits in between.
Quote: "No, of course you don't forget. How could you? You never looked into his face, did you? You never saw his eyes. You never saw that- that nothing, no expression, blank. My memory goes back twelve years to the night I offered... I'm gonna show you- show you something. Look."
Trivia: In the infamous laundry chute scene, Jamie was originally stabbed in the leg but the shot was cut from the film by the MPAA because it was deemed "too disturbing" (as Jamie exits the chute, a bloody wound is visible on her leg). Danielle Harris still owns the prosthetic leg.
I'm starting to doubt if I should really watch the sixth Halloween, because they are getting worse and worse. This movie is more of the same except with the late-1980's watering down that horror movies in general, and slashers in particularly, went through. I'm not an expert on the issue, but I have been noticing a trend in the chronology of horror movies. The first half of the 1980s had horror movies become more gratuitous in both nudity and gore. These movies focused primarily on teenagers (or college kids), were lower budget, contained less of a plot, and had a much darker feel to them. 1987 seems to be a high water mark because after this the nudity and gore in horror movies seemed to be toned down. Then, movies focused on children as the protagonists in their stories, the budgets go bigger, the plots more convoluted, and they had a lighter and sillier atmosphere. The reason for this, I believe, it two part. First, outside influences such as the moral majority and the increasing power parent groups were gaining (like the PMRC) were putting pressure on politicians, movie studios, and the MPAA to censor movies. The second reasons involves the inside influences of the movie studios and producers themselves. The beginning of the 1980s had shown that horror could be incredibly profitable and these people wanted to see these profits continue and one way to do that was by appealing to the largest audience possible. Movies became watered down, nudity rare, and mommy and daddy could feel fine letting little Johnny watch Freddy Krueger make puns. I have gone on a long enough rant... Here's a five word review, inspired by @5WHorrorReviews on Twitter: Michael's back, but who cares?
Quote: "You haven't spent five minutes with me and now you're telling me I'm wrong for the part. Why? Because I haven't got a staple to my navel like that centerfold? Because I wouldn't pirouette into bed with you and skate on your face? I mean, what the hell are you looking for anyway and what do you want from me? I mean, who the fuck is Audra anyway?"
Trivia: The climax as originally filmed had Patti performing her stand-up comedy routine on a stage with the bodies of her victims. This scene was eventually changed in a reshoot to Patti pretending to perform her routine in the asylum in front of the inmates instead.
Curtains is yet another movie to capitalize on the slasher craze of the 1980s except this time the filmmakers hoped to target an adult crowd instead of the teenagers that the Friday the 13ths were attracting. In creating the film, director Richard Ciupka hoped to create a more cerebral arthouse thriller and constantly battled with the producer, Peter Simpson, who wanted a more classic slasher film (much easier to market). They battled back and forth before Ciupka up and quit in the middle of filming, leaving Simpson to finish directing the second half of the film himself. This struggle for creative control resulted in a disjointed and very bizarre film. The movie meanders, scenes do not connect to one another, and the ending is unpredictable because it is so lame (I kept guessing at who the killer was and what their motive was... I was really disappointed when I finally found out). There are numerous parts of the film that are great but as a whole it does not work. Ciupka would ask that his name be taken off the credits and replaced with the name of the main character from the movie.
Quote: "Can you touch her in all her secret places?"
Trivia: This film was shot at night in an actual abandoned hospital.
Hospital Massacre (aka x-Ray aka Ward 13 aka Be My Valentine, Or Else), filmed in 1981, was another of those movies created to capitalize on the Slasher film craze of the early 1980s. The movie has all the great death scenes that the genre is famous for and even has a scary location, the hospital. But Hospital Massacre has something else that the other slashers didn't have: a playboy playmate. Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton is really what sells this movie and sets it apart from the 1000s of other slashers that came out at the same time. That's not to say that the kill scenes, comedic moments, and characters are not top notch, because they are, but the topless Playmate is what this movie banked on... and yes, of course, she does get topless.
Quote: [The Angela Rap]: "Angels are pretty, angels can fly, and here is the angel that'll make you die! You got no style and you got no cares; all ya do is fight and swear. So say your prayers and make amends, cause ya life story is about to end."
Trivia: The script originally contained more elaborate deaths for the characters, which had to be changed for budget reasons. Herman was to have a flaming poker shoved into his crotch, with Angela proclaiming it "A wienie roast!" Also, Tawny and her entire news team were supposed to die in a fiery explosion after Angela cut the brake lines to their van.
Yesterday's movie Aerobicide inspired me to continue with my true cinematic love, the slasher film. It is with joy and some regret that I conclude the Sleepaway Camp sage with Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (I read somewhere that their was a fourth one made a decade or so later but it is more or less just a bunch of clips from the first three movies strung together with shots of bikini girls thrown in to attempt a new narrative... I don't know if this film really exists but if it does, I will watch it). Sleepaway Camp III was filmed just six months after Sleepaway Camp II and contains all the things that made that movie so great: great kill scenes, perfect one-liners, a bit of nudity, and a comedic take on camp slasher genre. Once again, Angela is back at camp incognito, but this time it is at an experimental camp where they combine troubled youth with privileged children (the campers are supposed to be 16 or 17 but I bet the average age between them is closer to 25).
Lyrics (Credit Scene):
I'm a woman on fire and fright, and it frightens me.
I'm a woman on fire tonight, I'm out of control.
It's bigger than both of us, it's lightening and thunder.
That strikes at the heart of us, we run to each other.
...you'll know how I burn, burn for you.
Trivia: The director found it very hard working with the director of photography because "He had no respect at all for me and fought me all the way on every single thing we shot."
Holy. Crap. This movie is the worst movie in the best possible way, and I mean that as a huge compliment to the filmmakers. What they have made here is something magical that could only come from that wonderful decade, the 1980s. The movie has absolutely everything going for it: An obscene amount of gratuitous closeups on breasts, butts, and crotches! Several extremely long and extremely poorly choreographed fight scenes! A mysterious killer using the lamest killing instrument in horror history! Overacting! Underacting! Even more crotch shots! A fantastic disco/aerobics soundtrack, Even more breast closeups! A meandering plot that makes little to no sense! Even more butt shots! This is a slasher gem par excellence! It's on Amazon Prime, stream this movie immediately!
Quote: "You know the part in scary movies when somebody does something really stupid, and everybody hates them for it? This is it."
Trivia: Victor Salva has always said the Creeper legend is complete fiction but the scene where Trish and Darry witness the Creeper dumping a body down a well by an abandoned church was inspired by the case of Dennis DePue, a former Michigan Property Assessor who murdered his wife and was seen by witnesses near an old school house with a bloody sheet.
Jeepers Creepers came out the year I graduated high school and was really big with a lot of my friends but I never gave it a chance. After watching it seventeen years later, I'm kind of bummed that I missed out on a fun film with an incredible beginning. The film does lose a lot of steam towards the end and the more the show of the creeper, the less creepy he gets, but it is still a pretty unique and entertaining movie. I also really like that the two main protagonists are brother and sister instead of boyfriend and girlfriend, which has been done to death in teen horror flicks (the director Victor Salva chose this to avoid sexual tension and instead focus on them trying to survive). I also am fascinated by mythologies and Salva creates a really interesting one with the Creeper. We have a modern myth in the vein of Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil.
Quote: "That guy is harmless. He is just some douche bag in a costume, acting like a retard because it is Halloween."
Trivia: David Howard Thornton who portrays Art the Clown has previous mime experience, which he utilizes in his performance.
Terrifier is the Art the Clown spinoff from the 2013 anthology All Hallows' Eve. While this movie also suffers from some of the same problems as All Hallows' Eve (no character development, very little plot, and a reliance on shock rather than substance), it is able to capitalize on the scares of one of modern horror's great villains. Art the Clown was what we wanted throughout All Hallows' Eve but since it was an anthology we only got tastes of him until the end. In Terrifier, the clown is here mutilating his victims throughout the film. David Howard Thornton, who plays Art, does an incredible job of creating a menacing individual. Some of the scarier moments in the film are those when Art is just staring at individuals. It's the makeup, the costume, the mime routine, and the facial gestures that Thornton is able to deliver that make the film fun to watch. However, the shocking moments largely fall flat.
Quote: "The old way... with a sledge! You see, that way's better. They die better that way."
Trivia: According to John Larroquette, his payment for doing the opening narration was a marijuana joint.
What is it about this film that makes it such a beloved movie? Ask anyone for their top five favorite horror movies and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre almost always makes it onto the list. Almost forty five years after the movie came out their are still screening it at midnight movies to sold out audiences. The title is absolutely perfect but really misleading. Despite being a brutal film, there is very little blood in the movie. Every moment in the film is carefully built to create a realistic but terrifying atmosphere. Set in the middle of nowhere, Central Texas, I believe that a family like the murderous family in the movie exists. The cast of unknown actors, their pithy dialogue, the low quality film (looks a lot like a documentary), and especially the voice over at the introduction (claiming this is a true story) all help to make the film seem real. That is part of Hooper's genius. He has an uncanny ability to make the unbelievable, believable.
Quote: "The Lord works in mysterious ways, little lady. He ain't such a bad fella. My son does get himself in all sorts of trouble, though, don't he? Anyway, blood is thicker than water. I'm sure he's gonna be a real comfort to me in my old age. Now, how many people know you're here?"
Trivia: Dean R. Koontz wrote a novelization of the screenplay under the pseudonym Owen West. The book contains a lot of backstory added by Koontz. Because of this, and the fact that the book was released before the movie due to a delay in post production, it is often mistaken that the movie is based on the book, but the book is in fact based on the movie.
The Ken Theater, the local independent one screen theater here in San Diego is showing a midnight showing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and to get me in the spirit, today's movie is another of Tobe Hooper's films that I have not seen yet: The Funhouse. This movie has a lot going for it and deserves to be up there with some of those other classic carnival movies: Freaks, Carnival of Souls, and Killer Klown from Outer Space (a damn classic if there ever was one!). It has some really great characters, some great killings, a really frightening villain, and the carnival setting of the film lends itself to the off kilter feeling of the film. The movie takes a lot of time to really get going but is definitely worth the wait.
