Friday Flashback: The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) : Drilling Its Way Back Into Your Heart...

Back in the early eighties, there were loads of formulaic slasher films. And I'm guilty of seeing pretty much every one of them. I fondly recall the first time I saw Slumber Party Massacre, with it's pulsating electronic score and deranged nut-job wielding a power drill. It wasn't exactly brave new cinema, but it was a fast-paced, tight little film with a short running time so as not to bore you to tears while you wait for the red stuff to start flowing.

After an opening scene in which the paper boy delivers a fresh newspaper divulging the fact that escaped killer Russ Thorn is on the loose, we focus on eighteen year old Trish Devereaux (Michelle Michaels), who has invited her basketball team friends over for a slumber party since her parents are leaving town for the weekend. Her parents have charged their neighbor, Mr. Contant, to keep an eye on the house (and the girls, of course!) while they are away, to which he readily agrees to do.

At school in the locker room (after steamy showers and lots of gratuitous T & A shots), Trish's bitchy friend Diane (Gina Hunter) cuts up the new girl on the team, Valerie (Robin Stille) and the other girls add in their hateful two cents as well.  Trish wants to ask Valerie to the slumber party, but Valerie overheard the nasty comments and rushes out of the school.

Here's where I find myself having to mention what incredible bitches teenage girls are. Back in the day, it wasn't outright called bullying, and there was much less focus on it back then - but let's be frank when we say it most certainly was bullying, and this is a prime example. Just because someone is different (in this case Valerie was better than them at sports and is noticeably prettier) isn't a reason to be a cunt.  Regardless, it happens all the time, and this film is true-to-life in that respect.

While all the planning for the party is underway, our lunatic occupies himself with some practice kills by laying waste to several poor unfortunate folks before heading over to the Devereaux household.  Thorn, with wild, spastic eyes and dressed to kill in head to toe denim, gears up his weapon of choice - a power drill - and powers his way through bone and tissue - which of course means lots of blood and guts for us gore-hounds.

Finally making his way to the girl's party, Thorn proceeds to drill his way through the cast (which at this point include some peeping tom boys from school and the unlucky Mr. Contant) until there are only a few girls left - one of which is Valerie, the scorned girl from the gym who happened to live across the street from Trish.

No new ground is broken throughout Slumber Party Massacre, but humor abounds and the old-school feel of the film really reeks nostalgia. It's a fun 77 minutes, with no time lost on developing secondary story lines or explaining why Thorn has chosen the girls. It's just pure, early-eighties, slasher-film fun!

There are an ungodly amount of cliches in SPM. Catty teens who bad-mouth the new girl, parties (in this case, slumber) with no parental supervision, the creepy neighbor next door, the lone girl stranded in an empty school hallway or dark garage, underage drinking and drugs, the escaped lunatic with a penchant for young lovelies, etc...etc.  But to my surprise (and perhaps yours), it bears the stamp of two women: Director Amy Holden Jones and writer Rita Mae Brown.

Jones, an ardent feminist, worked with both Scorsese and Roger Corman in her career, and Brown (an even more staunch feminist) has found great success as an author, in particular with a series of "cozy" mysteries starring a cat: 'Sneaky Pie Brown'. 

It is said that when Brown wrote SPM, it was intended to be a parody of the slasher film, but the producers ended up playing it straight. But it still has some genuinely funny parts (such as when the girls eat pizza out of the box on the dead delivery boy's chest) and it helps the film be a little more original and likable than you'd imagine it could be. The two women even inject a dose of their own feminism into the film when the girls actually chase after the killer. We love tough girls!

If you've never taken a chance on it, I'd say you could do far worse, so give it a chance for some good old-fashioned 80's fun.

Friday Flashback: Silver Bullet (1985) : Full Moons and Private Justice

In honor of the blue moon tonight, I deemed it appropriate to reminisce about what else than a werewolf film.  Based on the Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf, Silver Bullet is a classic 80's werewolf flick that sometimes seems more like a coming of age movie than a horror film.

 Not exactly frightening, it's still a fun ride and does have several recognizable actors in it.  Starring The Lost Boys alum Corey Haim (back in the day, before he was part of the dynamic duo of Corey (Haim) & Corey (Feldman), Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables), Everett McGill (Twin Peaks, The People Under the Stairs), Terry O'Quinn (LOST, The Stepfather), and the ever-popular Gary Busey (does he really need an introduction?). 

Haim stars as Marty, a pre-teen paraplegic who has a souped-up wheelchair and a penchant for pulling pranks on his older sister.  Said sister is Jane, who narrates the film (as an adult thinking back) and is expected by her parents to help Marty at every turn. 

They live in the small community of Tarker's Mills, where something strange is afoot (literally).  A series of grisly murders has put a pall over the town, causing a curfew to be set in place and folks to hide in their homes after dark.  Local authorities, headed up by O'Quinn as Sheriff Haller, are at a loss, unable to explain why it appears like a monster is picking through the town for its evening meals.

When Marty's friend Brady is killed, a group of townsfolk decide to go all vigilante and take off into the woods to look for whomever or whatever is gruesomely murdering people left and right.
As the audience, we are well aware that the culprit is a werewolf.  If we couldn't have figured it out, the ominous music that plays every time the wolf is circling its prey gives it away. 
When several of the justice league are taken down by the wolf,  Reverend Lowe (McGill)  takes it upon himself to try to get the town to stop taking matters into their own hands. He begins to have disturbing dreams about the savage deaths of community members.

Marty's Uncle Red shows up at the height of the murders, pissing off his sister by acting like the drunken fool he apparently is.  But Marty adores Red, and the feeling is obviously mutual, with Red presenting Marty with a brand new set of wheels.  A cross between a wheelchair and motorcycle, the two dub the gift 'Silver Bullet', and though Marty is told to be careful and not go anywhere alone due to the gravity of the town situation, Marty doesn't listen too well and goes off on his own with the Silver Bullet.

While setting off fireworks near a local covered bridge in the dead of night, Marty is startled by the werewolf, who has shown up uninvited for a midnight snack.  But Marty is able to shoot a firework rocket into the wolf's eye, maiming it.  As Marty speeds away on his bike, it's obvious that we are soon going to know just who the werewolf is - with an injury to the eye he or she will be easy to pick out.

Which is exactly what happens.  As Marty tries to convince Jane and Uncle Red that there is a werewolf in town, we are privy to his identity - which lends a whole new aspect to the movie.  And when the trio discover who the werewolf is, things again shift and it's all about ending the wolf's wrath. 

Silver Bullet is no Dog Soldiers.  Nor is it An American Werewolf in London.  It's not Ginger Snaps or The Lost Boys - and it's not even The Howling.  But it is a fairly decent film with above average acting and some supremely cheesy moments that many fans of the 80's have a sentimental love for.

There does seem to be an unusual amount of graphic violence at times, and more blood than the film really deserves.  Silver Bullet should have absolutely been rated PG, as it just doesn't have the chops to be an R-rated horror film. But with Stephen King penning the screenplay it's my feeling that he amped up the gore and made sure it wouldn't be "just another kid's scary movie".
At this point in time, it seems fairly campy, but that's part of the fun of it.  While I used to think the werewolf special effects were really good, I realize now that they are relatively mediocre. But they are actually not too bad for practical effects for the time, and the plot has a bit of mystery that keeps it interesting till the end.  (But I have to say, for a really cool werewolf, you need to look to The Howling, four years Silver Bullet's junior)

Friday Flashback: The Burning (1981) : I Think I Need My Hedge Trimmed...

Based oh-so-loosely on the urban legend of Cropsey, The Burning is a film near and dear to my heart for its campy appeal and just as campy location.  Everyone knows my favorite killer-camp film is Friday the 13th (1980), but coming in right under F13 and its part 2 sequel is this little beaut.  It surprisingly even made the Video Nasty list, which I have to truly hesitate to agree with...

Well known for being the film debut of such talents as Jason Alexander, Holly (blink and you'll miss her) Hunter and Fisher Stevens, The Burning takes the simple idea of revenge for a prank to new levels.  Not exactly brimming with brilliance, it still packs a punch in the gore department and the characters are somehow as endearing as they are annoying. 

Five years prior, a bunch of teens at a summer camp pull a prank on the camp caretaker, Cropsy (Lou David).  The joke includes a fire-lit skull, and when things go bad, the cottage that Cropsy is in catches fire and so does the poor caretaker.  Horrified, the boys look on as Cropsy breaks the door of his cabin down and staggers down to the lake, consumed by fire and presumed dead. 

As in all good slasher films of yore, we know damn well that Cropsy isn't dead and he'll be back to seek vengeance from the little turds.  And as expected, five years later Cropsy is finally released from the hospital (damn, he must have a great HMO to allow him such an extended stay!) and is on the rampage disguised as The Invisible Man in a trenchcoat, dark shades, and a hat to cover his horrific disfigurements.  He freaks out and murders a prostitute (because the first thing he wanted to do before his revenge scheme is get laid - can you blame him?) after she shrieks in terror at his less than pretty looks. 

He then makes his way to Camp Stonewater (not the original camp, because apparently it burned to the ground), where he begins to do that sneaky, stalking thing that killers do so well. 

Meanwhile, the teen boys at this camp have bigger fish to fry.  They too, are trying to get laid, and are busy doing stunts like peeping into showers and convincing pretty girls to make passionate love amongst the poison ivy.  Alfred (Brian Backer) seems especially horny and goes through the entire film gawking at girls and getting in trouble for things he doesn't do.  He has few friends and seems creepier than he is, prompting counselor Todd (Brian Matthews) to give him the speech all awkward kids get about trying to settle down and act normal and only then can friends flock to your side and will you get girls to touch your willy.  Yeah, Todd would say that - he's the token hottie here. 

Adding to Alfred's troubles is Glazer (Larry Joshua).  If Todd is the token hottie, Glazer is the token asshole.  He makes it his mission to not only pick on Alfred endlessly, but to bed Sally (Carrick Glenn) - who may or may not actually like the guy.  Alfred's semi-quasi friends, Dave (Jason Alexander, with hair) and Woodstock (Fisher Stevens) try to keep Glazer away from Alfred while setting their sites on the other girls at the camp.  Boys will be boys.

Michelle (Leah Ayres - who is Jean-Claude Van Damme's honey in Bloodsport for those that can't place her face), another counselor, comes to the rescue one morning when Sally is disrupted in the shower by Alfred, who swears he was just trying to scare her.  Michelle has no choice but to believe it, and is already too busy with hearing the details of another counselor's plans to have sex with chump-of-the-week Eddy (Ned Eisenberg). Michelle is also counting the minutes till she can resume kissy kissy with her man, none other than Todd.  Because the beautiful people have to stick together.

Packing  their gear for an overnight canoe trip downstream, all the older campers revel in the joy of chasing the girls away from the confines of the camp. Michelle warns Karen (Carolyn Houlihan) to think twice about being with Eddy, but she goes off with him alone regardless.  Karen, still unsure of her feelings for Eddy, teases him by the lakeside by getting naked to skinny dip, but then once in the water she backs off.  Eddy basically calls her a dick tease (which she most certainly is - who gets naked and skinny dips alone with someone if they had no intention?...well, you get my drift) and yells for her to get the hell away from him. 

Sally, in turn, has made the tumultuous resolution to have sex with the ever-persistent Glazer (whom I would not touch with a ten foot pole). They pack themselves into a sleeping bag in the woods not far from the campsite and attempt to procreate.  Glazer ends things prematurely but Sally gives him a second chance and Glazer heads back to camp to get some firewood to keep his lady warm (since he apparently can't keep her warm in other ways).

So what do we have now?  Several people alone in the woods in various locations.  Prime hunting opportunity for our pissed off killer, whose weapon of choice is decidedly different:  garden shears.  He stalks around, and one by one finds each camper alone and offs them in fairly surprising ways considering all he has to work with.  Poking, slitting, slashing, gutting...you name it.  He puts those shears to better use than any landscaper has ever done. 

Alfred swears to have seen creepy Cropsy on several occasions, but no one believes him until the next morning when Karen and all their canoes turn up missing.  They build a makeshift raft and a few of the campers head down the river to their ultimate doom.  The scene of the raftees (is that a word? I just made it up) getting murdered is pretty famous, and the screen goes red every time Cropsy makes another kill. Neato.

The final fifteen minutes of the film are my least favorite.  I really dislike extended chase scenes and when Todd goes off in search of an AWOL Alfred it really becomes tedious.  I could almost fast-forward to the big revelation in lieu of watching Todd explore abandoned mine shafts and Alfred climb down about a dozen rocky cliffs.  And let's face it, any revelation in this film is a moot point.  We already know Cropsy is the killer, and when they try to shock us with a minor plot unveiling, it falls utterly flat.  Yeah yeah, we say. 
More blood, please!

But all in all, The Burning is a fun flick for any random Saturday night.  You could do a lot worse than seeing Jason Alexander in a pair of too-tight shorts and Fisher Stevens with a slight shear problem. 
Tom Savini is responsible for the gore effects, and as usual, comes through quite sufficiently. 
What I do find rather humorous here are the musical cues stomping in unsurprisingly every time Cropsy is stalking a camper or ready to make a kill.  Even Friday the 13th's cues were more suspenseful than this one, sorry.  Sometimes you have to shock people (like when we kept hearing the da-dum, da-dum for Jaws but in the most pivotal scene they left it out and the shark scared the hell out of us coming out of the water, remember?)  Rick Wakeman's score is a good one, but the placement and editing is poor.

Thought to be (and is, most certainly) a direct rip-off of Friday the 13th, The Burning still stands on its own as a classic slasher film from one of the best years in horror-based film.

Friday Flashback: Intruder (1989) - Death Amidst The Frosted Flakes

Just coming in under the wire in 1989, Intruder is a film that seems forgotten in the deep sea of slasher films of the 80's.  It top-bills stars like Sam and Ted Raimi as well as Bruce Campbell, but to be fair both the Raimi's parts were abbreviated and Campbell has nothing more than a cameo at the end.

Does this make you want to seek this film out?  Well don't do it for all the big star action - just do it because Intruder has some interesting kill scenes, as well as some long lost groceries you might have forgotten about. (As in, when did Tony the Tiger start to appear on Frosted Flakes? Because he is not on the box here. Whaaat?)

When this came out, I honestly do not remember hearing about it, and missed it on VHS and apparently also on DVD.  I recently had $75 worth of bonus points on Amazon so I sought to expand my ever-growing DVD collection with some 80's classics that I didn't already own.  Hence my purchase of the likes of Dead and Buried, Castle Freak, The Burning, and this gem.  However, I bought this one sight unseen. 
Wikipedia mentions that the working title for the film was The Night Crew, which truth be told is a far superior title than the perfunctory "Intruder".  Meh.

Intruder has a really simple plot, as many 80's horror films do.  A group of employees at a grocery store are closing for the evening and are stalked, maimed, and slaughtered by an unseen (human) predator.  It's not much for brilliant plot devices or stellar acting, but it does boast some interesting kills and has a certain classic slasher feel to it. 

Jennifer (Elizabeth Cox) is closing her register and chatting with fellow check-out girl, Linda (Renee Estevez - yes, she's related to the other ones).  Ex-boyfriend Craig (David Byrnes) stops by to harass Jennifer and bitch about her not answering his calls an ENTIRE YEAR after their break-up.  Craig (which is far too genial a name to be a bad-ass) is made out to be a biker/ex-convict type that is quickly moving into stalker territory. When a fight ensues between Craig and another bloke coming to her aid, Craig takes off into the vast core of the supermarket (who the hell knew it was so darn huge?) and basically disappears.  A search party results as everyone splits up to find the renegade chump.   And by the laws of the slasher film, one by one everyone is extinguished in a ridiculously violent way.

Even though they do end up finding Craig and send him on his merry way with threat of police intervention, the group is still in a foul mood after they hear the manager's plan to sell the store and that they are all losing their jobs.  The manager's brother and co-owner Bill (Dan Hicks) tries to ease the gang's depression by explaining how distraught he is as well, and that it wasn't his idea to sell the store.  They are directed to mark down all the stock and while doing so, Jennifer gets several prank calls from Craig in the process. The manager calls the police but they are slightly more Keystone Cop than NYPD Blue, and only warn them to keep an eye out for Craig.

Though Renee Estevez as Linda gets top billing here, she is the first person to be offed by the mysterious assailant.  Sam and Ted Raimi meet equally as quick and bloody deaths as their characters are deemed unimportant as well. When Jennifer manages to admit her feelings for one of her co-workers (whose name escapes me), they get their groove on and plan a date for later.  However, upon investigating someone going out the back door of the store, Bill happens upon Craig sneaking peeks in the window.  Craig, in turn, hits Bill over the head with a hammer.

The unseen killer (is it Craig?) continues to pick off employees one by one, and a motive is still pretty unclear.  But there are some amusing deaths to keep us interested, including a meat hook to the jaw and a head being sawed in half by a bandsaw.  Not much for keeping kill trophies, the killer leaves parts of bodies strewn around the market, which Jennifer finally happens upon and realizes something is amiss.  By this time she is close to being last (wo)man standing and is determined to make it out alive, as all good final girls strive to do.

A rather formulaic film, Intruder hearkens back to all those 80's films you've seen before.  There really isn't anything new, but you'll certainly delight in seeing a man beaten about the face and body with a severed head.  I know I did.  I don't think I've seen that anywhere else, and it's almost worth the price of the film just to experience it.  I felt the need to rewind and watch it again a few more times.

I also had to rewind to see the Bruce Campbell cameo at the end.  It completely bypassed me on first viewing, and it's no wonder - it must be all of one minute long.  Director Scott Spiegel (who he himself is gutted like a fish in a cameo as a bread man here) apparently went to high school with Sam Raimi and Campbell, which has to be the only reason those high level stars are slumming it in this one.

It does boast the amazing special effects talents of Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead, etc.), to which we can all bow and declare ourselves unworthy.

I'd have to say most people will not be surprised by the outcome of the film, and probably won't claim it as "one of the best they've ever seen", but it will capture the attention of anyone who likes to reminisce back to their youth, or anyone that hasn't seen a severed head get top billing before.

Dead And Buried (1981): Potter's Bluff Is My Kind Of Town!

Upon recommendation from a review by James Gracey of Behind the Couch, I opted to check out this quiet little gem that has been sitting under the radar since its release in the most fabulous year in horror ever: 1981.
It was also right under my nose on my Netflix queue, and though it was slowly working its way up to the top, I did some rearranging and here we are.

Directed by Gary Sherman and based on a short story written by Alex Stern and Jeff Millar, Dead and Buried was adapted for the big screen by Ronald Shusett and the late, great Dan O'Bannon (Alien, The Return of the Living Dead, etc.) and tells the story of local sheriff Dan Gillis (James Farentino) and the residents of a small coastal town called Potter's Bluff. 
Did I ever mention how much I love horror movies based near the ocean?  Well, my love of Jaws should prove that on merit alone, but I am a big fan of seashore terror.
Moving on...

When a visiting photographer is seduced by a local woman, it turns out she wasn't trying to have sex with him after all: she was luring him to his death so a mob of villagers could beat him senseless, tie him to a post, and set him on fire.  What is terribly unnerving about this though, is that the townsfolk all whip out their cameras and start taking pictures as the screaming man burns to death. ("Say Gasoline!!") They plant his body in his van and make it seem like an accident - kind of like a criminal would do on an old episode of Charlies Angels or Kojak.

Only thing is, the poor soul doesn't die.  Yet. 
While Sheriff Gillis discusses the case with coroner/mortician Dobbs (Jack Albertson in a role far from his jovial, Fizzy-Lifting drinking Uncle Joe in Willy Wonka), the gravely wounded photographer is offed in a most unpleasant manner while at the hospital under the care of a nurse who happens to be the very woman responsible for the earlier seduction and the victim's ultimate demise. 

Something is not quite right in Potter's Bluff. 

The sheriff begins to notice that visitors to Potter's Bluff are ending up dead, and how. Anyone that stops over, gets lost, breaks down, needs directions, or even comes there on purpose is pretty much doomed.  As Gillis attempts to figure out what is going on, we as the audience are given a good, hard, jolting dose of reality when the photographer shows up very much alive and working in the town as a gas station attendant.  (What?!)
No burning car or untimely death is going to keep Freddie down! (Speaking of Freddys: Robert Englund himself has a role here as one of the townsfolk!)

When Gillis takes it up with Dobbs, he gets a rambling speech about how much skill it takes to get a body ready for burial and how much of a talent he is to the business.  It is an awkward moment and we are meant to be aware that something is off with the undertaker.When is that not true? Those creepy undertakers anyway... (sorry, Shawn!)

After the good sheriff runs someone over with his car in a moment of unbridled stupidity, he is aghast when the man he hits retrieves his severed arm from the grill of the police cruiser and runs off.   This furthers his speculation that there is something very wrong in his little town.  A pathologist in town (because all small towns have their own pathologist!) runs some labs on a piece of remaining flesh from the car bumper and informs the sheriff that the person he hit has been dead 4 or 5 months, that there is no way that tissue from that arm is alive. 

Utterly beside himself, Gillis has a background check run on Dobbs, only to find out he lost his previous pathology job due to performing unauthorized autopsies.  Hmm...
When he tries to get some comfort from his wife, she brushes him off and acts too busy to discuss it.  When she leaves, Gillis finds a book on witchcraft, among other things, in her dresser drawer.  We are then witness to her teaching a classroom of kids about zombies. Yeah, that's where your tax dollars are going, people!

With all the pieces to the puzzle still not quite fitting together, Gillis finally deduces that Dobbs is quite possibly responsible for the deaths of the out-of-towners and comes to the conclusion that he has been luring them to Potter's Bluff for years to be guinea pigs for his morbid fascinations.  Only thing is, what he finds in addition to those truths may ruin his entire existence and everything he holds dear.

Albeit a tad slow, especially in the beginning, Dead and Buried has a  lot going for it.  Great, spooky atmosphere with lots of fog banks (crucial for coastal horror) much in the same vein as The Fog, interesting characters which you actually begin to care about, and a twist ending that if close attention isn't paid will go completely past you.  While the film would have benefited from a quicker pace and better acting by minor characters, it's still a creepy little installment in the seashore horror sub-genre.

Halloween Festival of Lists: October 26: TWENTY-SIX 80's Films That Jump-Started My Love Of Horror

 I grew up in the 80s.  Which is not to say I was born in the 80's.  I was a teenager and went to high school in the 80's.  So that is when I truly hit my stride as far as horror.  While 1979's When A Stranger Calls scared me to death by the time it hit Showtime in the early eighties, I watched things like Evil Dead, Pumpkinhead, and Halloween II, III and IV at their first run.  Yes, I was a lucky dog.

I fondly recall going to see Psycho II at the drive in...it was the second feature playing that night after Vamp.  I remember being terrified at my babysitting job not by watching House of the Devil....but by watching When a Stranger Calls - which I still think is one of the scariest opening twenty minutes in film.  And I remember the first time I saw Children of the Corn.  I was pleasantly appalled at the blatant disregard for religion. And my first Fulci film? I have no words. 

It's exceedingly difficult to pick out a group of films from the 80's that defined my formidable teenage years, and I'm sure I left out a lot of crazy-good movies....but here goes nothing.  I've discussed or reviewed several of them at one point or another, and the ones I haven't, I'll leave for another day. 

Onward:

A Nightmare on Elm Street

April Fool's Day

Cat People

Children of the Corn

Friday the 13th

The Lost Boys

The Fly

Cujo

The Serpent & The Rainbow

My Bloody Valentine

Creepshow

The New York Ripper

Christine

Xtro

The Howling

Silver Bullet

Mausoleum

Hell Night

The Funhouse

The Thing

The Hitcher

The Stepfather

The Fog

Night of the Comet

Pet Sematary

Psycho II