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.
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: "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: "Demonic beasts. Whatever happened to the good old simple love song? "I love you." That's what good words use. Nowadays they have to write some sickness. It's just absoultely sick and bizarre, and I'm going to do my upmost best to try and stop it now."
1986. The height of the Reagan Era and the Satanic Panic. It was at this time that parents specifically and society in general were in a moral frenzy that their children were being brainwashed by Satanic cults using heavy metal music, comic books, and really anything else that was cool to turn them into devil worshippers. Two years earlier, a kid committed suicide and the blame was put on Ozzy Osbourne and the subliminal messages that he supposedly put in his song. 20/20 ran weekly exposes warning parents about devil worshippers and pinpointed various heavy metal bands that were associated with Satanism. This would build toward the culmination of the jailing of the West Memphis Three; three innocent high school kids that were imprisoned (one was even on death row) for nearly twenty years for the murder of three children based on the evidence that they were "goth" or "metal" kids (The Last Podcast on the Left does a great show about them). Of course, this whole charade was bullshit that was brought on by fear campaigns by groups hoping to further their own religious and political goals. Or in the case of the media, to simply sell advertisements (shame on you 20/20). Trick or Treat is meant to be a parody of the insanity of that time.
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: "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: "Please the killer is out here, he's following me... a man in a clown costume..."
Trivia: The short films on the VHS tape are actually old films made by the director, Damien Leone, years earlier such as The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifier (2011).
This film is a three part Halloween anthology where all the stories revolve around a terrifying clown. I decided to give the film a watch to prepare for this spinoff movie that came out recently about the clown called Terrifier (I'm watching that one tomorrow). All Hallows' Eve has a couple great stories, a interesting overarching story, and a truly terrifying clown. Also, despite its small budget, the filmmakers are able to create effective effects and gore. However, the film ultimately lacks originality in its stories causing them to be largely forgettable. This seems to be a problem with anthology films (which is why after more than 100 movies, this is the first one I have watched). It is rare to find anthologies with stories as memorable as Creepshow or Tales for the Hood. Also, the second story about an alien seems to have been an afterthought of the director, filmed in order to fill the third slot necessary in the anthology. Not a bad movie, but not great either.
Tagline: ...when Halloween night stopped being fun!
Trivia: The bulk of this film was shot at the home owned by cast member Carrie Snodgress.
This movie left me pissed off at both the movie and myself for wasting 90 minutes of my life on it. Here's the plot: Some kid does all kinds of Home Alone pranks on a babysitter for 80 minutes while a man in drag races across town to murder him. The guy in a dress gets to the house and is killed by the kid. That's it. It is a tedious test of patience as you watch prank after prank after prank wondering when the hell is this bit going to end? Crap... now I'm getting pissed off at myself for spending another five minutes to write this review... I'm going to go have a beer and watch Texas Chainsaw to cleanse my horror palate.
Quote: "Hey, I got a town full of beer bellies running around in the dark with
shotguns! Who's gonna be next? Somebody's wife? Somebody's kid? I can't
stand by for that."
Trivia: In the original script the opening shot was of a long hospital corridor
suddenly blowing up and throwing Loomis from the explosion, in a
reference to the end of Halloween II
(1981). In order to show how Loomis survived. it was later decided the
film should not have any connections to the predecessors and the
explosive opening was never shot.
Alright, I was up in Hollywood at a hotel waiting to see my friend's band open up for The Weirdos (if you haven't yet, do yourself a favor, find and listen to their album Weird World) while I watched this film. Maybe I wasn't in the right head space when I watched it but I could not get into this film.
It takes place ten years after Michael tried to kill Laurie at the hospital and he's been in a coma since then. Somehow both he and the world's worst psychiatrist turned detective Sam Loomis survived Loomis blowing up the room they were in. Oh, and Laurie died in a car crash sometime over the past ten years (they couldn't afford Jamie Lee so they had to do something to explain her away). While being transferred to another hospital, Michael wakes up after hearing Laurie had a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). From there it is the usually, Michael killing randos on his way to get Jamie. He throws a guy into a power voltage thing causing the power to go out throughout town. Eventually he gets to Julie's house. There is the cat and mouse games with Julie, her babysitter and her babysitter's boyfriend. Eventually Michael is killed. Then End?
Capitalizing on the enormous, albeit surprising, success of the first Halloween, movie producers convinced John Carpenter to come back to make Halloween II. Whereas the original Halloween was the first highly watched slasher film (Black Christmas had already created and defined nearly every aspect of the genre a few years before), by 1981 there were a dozen slasher films being shown in the theaters. One of the more popular ones was Friday the 13th which included a ton more blood and gore (thanks to Tom Savini). This meant that horror audiences wanted blood and Halloween II had to deliver. This is what really sets the sequel apart while building on the original -- gore.
I am embarrassed to say that this if my first time watching the original Halloween. I have seen Halloween 6, Halloween H20, and Rob Zombie's Halloween remake but never seen the original Halloween movie. What is even more embarrassing is that for some reason I thought Wes Craven did this movie and put a #WesCraven hashtag on twitter. For these sins I cannot apologize enough and after writing this will immediately begin my penance of saying 10 hail Snake Plisskens.
This is the movie that launched the slasher horror genre and with good reason, it is an incredibly well done movie. The movie refines many of the elements that will go on to define the slasher film: it begins with a murder that happens in the past, it has a masked or unknown killer, there are POV shots from the killer's perspective, sex and drug use, and of course teenagers being slashed to death. Most of this actually happens in the first five minutes.
I've been watching a lot of seasonal horror films lately. I swear it is not intentional. But, well, here's another one. April Fool's Day. This was another great film with a strong cast of characters, brutal deaths, and a couple twists in the end that left me both shaking my head and smiling. April Fool's Day is about a group of nine friends who go to a part on their friend Muffy's remote island. Upon arriving each of them is mysteriously killed off one-by-one by an unknown killer.
Looking at the cover and title, I expected this to be a funny goofy horror film like Jack Frost. What I got was actually an extremely dark and gritty film. The film is about a boy who sees his family murdered by a man in a Santa Claus. Afterwards he goes to live in a convent where he is abused by a mother superior. When he leaves at eighteen he finds a job at a toy store and unfortunately is forced to play Santa Claus one year. After seeing a couple have sex, he snaps and goes on an axe murdering rampage.
Black Christmas was a surprisingly well done and thoroughly entertaining film. Made in 1974, this film establishes many of the tropes that will be used in later horror films. The film tells the story of a sorority who begins to receive disturbing calls during the Christmas break from a person (or persons) calling himself Billy and addressing a mysterious Agnes. Meanwhile a series of murders are happening within the sorority and simultaneously outside in the local town.
The film includes great performances by Margot Kidder (who does an amazing job a playing a drunk college girl), Andrea Martin (the manager from Hedwig and the Angry Inch), and John Saxon (the father from the Nightmare on Elm Street films). Also, the schoolmarm character is great with her bottles of Sherry hidden throughout the house (at one point she even fishes one out of the back of a toilet to use as mouth wash).
