Quote: "So you're telling me, that my pizza place is built on a gateway to hell?"
Trivia: The opening credits have a strong resemblance to the opening credits of "night of the demons" (1988).
I really liked this movie! Somehow the movie came out this year without me hearing a thing about it. It wasn't until I was flipping through Amazon Prime Video that I came across the movie and recognized Chance the Rapper's face on the cover. Chance is surprisingly a really good actor and brings a lot to the film. The film also boasts a handful of other likable actors: Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), Paul Scheer (The League), Chris Parnell (SNL), and Hannibal Burress (The Eric Andre Show), among others. The world that writer/director Austin Vesely creates in the town of Kingfisher is also really fun and seems inspired by the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is a world where humans, ghosts, werewolves, and witches all interact. The movie has been criticized for being schlocky and a stupid B-movie, which it surely is. But what's wrong with that? Beyond the campiness, the movie also offers some insightful social commentary on American society at large. A bit disjointed, the movie is nonetheless a fun ride that I recommend.
Quote: "These damn machines will be the death of us all some day!"
Trivia: Dick Maas was fired halfway of the production because of continuing arguments with producer Matthijs van Heijningen about casting. However, he kept on working during that day and was rehired the day after, because Van Heijningen couldn't do it without him.
Shudder recently put up two of Dutch director/writer Dick Maas' horror movies, Amsterdamned and The Lift. I chose The Lift. I chose wrong. About 170 movies in and this was one of the worst movies I have watched yet (Demented Death Farm Massacre was by far the worst). The movie's description reminded me of Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, a movie that I watched on a goof that ended up being a interesting and fun movie. However, this movie lacked the inventiveness and humor that that movie had. I'm really behind on writing about the movies I have been watching so I'm going to make this one short.
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).
Quote: "Are you really mourning your loss of humanity? I don't understand. Who in the hell would want to be human? God Almighty... In all of my travels, I've only ever known a human to be an ocean of shit."
Trivia: According to Kevin Smith, most of the budget was used to obtain the rights to use the song "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac.
Like a lot of nineties kids, I fell in love with Kevin Smith's comedy movies: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy. Something about them seemed to captured the feeling of the mid-nineties and I couldn't help but relate to the characters hilarious struggles to understand who they were and what their place was in the world. My admiration for Smith's comedy is one reason why I was so taken aback by how dark of a movie he was able to create. I knew Smith was capable of creating a serious movie (I had enjoyed his Red State) but didn't know that he could create such a disturbing picture. The movie starts out innocent enough with an expected kidnapping but then goes from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds. The visuals and special effects of turning Justin Long into a Walrus are much more disturbing than one might have thought (the idea sounds funny in theory but becomes a nightmare in practice). Michael Parks (Bill's pimp dad in Kill Bill Vol. 2), Haley Joel Osment, and even a surprise part by Johnny Depp add to the enjoyment of the film. The movie is part Stephen King's Misery and part David Cronenberg's The Fly and is guaranteed to cause either disgust or laughter, but probably both. Either way, Kevin Smith has created a true nightmare that will make it hard to ever look at Justin Long the same way again.
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 never loved me. You just loved how much I loved you. I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING. You gave it all away."
Trivia: Throughout the entire movie, no one's name is ever mentioned and not a single character is ever referred to by any name, the way they are listed in the end credits is by their given role in the story.
My friend recommended this one to me having thought the trailer looked like "something I'd be into." He was right. And I can say without a doubt, this is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time! Like many of Aronofsky's films, it is not specifically a horror movie, but has so many horrific moments that the horror label is not totally incorrect. Director/Writer Darren Aronofsky is an absolute genius when it comes to creating disturbing visuals and building tension in his films and this film is probably his best (much more intense than the finale to Requiem For a Dream even). There are two scenes in particular that reach such an intensity that they made me physically anxious just watching them (One involves the ripping apart and eating of a baby). While the movie itself is nothing more than an allegory for another very familiar story, it is told from a new perspective and with such potency that the allegory was missed until the story had been almost completed. Many of the characters' identities and the film's metaphors also don't sink in until later. I won't get into what the film is an allegory for until after the synopsis, other than to say, this is my favorite version of this story. Some critics, Rex Reed in particular, seemed to have missed the point of the film, but I'll address them at the end of this review.
