Friday the 13th Part III (1982 film)

Copyright: Paramount Pictures

So, we have here the third installment of the Friday the 13th series, and was one of the earlier films in the short-lived 1980s 3-D boom that took advantage of third installment titling (Friday the 13th 3-D, Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, etc.).  From what I've read, the original idea for the film was to have the survivor from the second film check herself into a mental institution, only to have Jason, who survived his injuries, stalk her through the building, killing anyone in his way.  This was somewhat complicated, though, by the fact that the plot is very similar to Halloween II's, and the fact that the actress, Amy Steele, didn't want to come back.  So, they changed the storyline to focus more on the area around Crystal Lake.

Following the events of the second film (not shown in 3-D), Jason ends up walking through some laundry outside a grocery store near Crystal Lake.  The owner's wife sees him, thinking it's her husband, and calls out for him.  Her husband surprises her, knocking over one of the posts the clothesline is hanging on, then picks it up (giving us our first 3-D trick) and sets it right.  Then, he heads to the store, finds a pet rabbit in the produce and scolds it, then starts opening products and helping himself.  His wife catches him in the act, scolding him for eating more than he should (instead of, y'know, eating the profits from the grocery), then tells him to take the rabbit back to its cage.  The grocer finds the rabbits dead in their hutch, then almost gets attacked by the culprit... a snake strikes.  The guy runs back to the house and straight to... the bathroom?  Needless to say, shortly after this sequence of events, Jason makes short work of the grocer and his wife, then moves on.

The rest of the film is about a group staying at a cabin on Crystal Lake, with the lead girl, Chris, coming back for the first time after two years.  Everyone seems to be having a good time... not realizing that, from a nearby barn, Jason Voorhees is watching them.

As I mentioned, this film has a few of the old 3-D "tricks" that you come to expect.  Stuff comes flying at the screen, or lifted into shot, or just stuff flying or dropping into your face.  We get the laundry pole, the snake strike, some popcorn, some yo-yos and juggling balls, plus a few more macabre items.  The tricks do work, for the most part (though I still sometimes have difficulty with the snake when watching the 3-D version).

This also marks the first occasion that Jason starts wearing his hockey mask.  Before this, we had the "fashionable head bag" (so named in Horror Hound Magazine and I still like using it).  We also get a looks change of a different sort... in the second film, under the head bag, we saw that Jason had a lush, full head of red hair.  Probably realizing that his hair didn't match that of the child Jason we saw in flashbacks and at the end of the original Friday the 13th, they decided to give Jason a bit less hair here... quite a bit less, actually, as he's completely bald behind the mask in 3.  This was also, originally, intended to be the last film of the series, at least until they decided to do an official send-off in part 4.

A pretty fun ride, with some interesting effects, especially considering the 3-D stuff.  I give this one a 4 out of 5.  I'm going to try to bring you Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter next, but I might have to jump ahead to Halloween and come back to that one later on.  Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988 film)

Copyright: New Line Cinema

Halloween's closing in, and we have this year's Nightmare entry.  I believe this was the first Nightmare I saw in the theater, a drive-in in this case.  If you ever get a chance to go to a drive-in, I highly recommend it.  Getting to watch a film in the comfort of your own car is pretty fun.  They're sort of rare nowadays, but if you look, you should be able to find one.

So, on to A Nightmare on Elm Street 4!  This is the second of the Dream Trilogy, with Kristen and her friends from the previous film returning to deal with Freddy, alongside a new group of friends.  The film starts with Kristen dreaming bout the house again, and a little girl drawing in chalk on the front porch.  Going inside, and being trapped there, she calls in Kincaid and Joey for help.  The two, not too pleased with being drawn into her dream, show her that the place is abandoned, and Freddy's furnace is cold.

Unfortunately, their assertions prove invalid, as Kincaid awakens in the trunk of a car in an old junkyard.  Freddy arises from his grave and dispatches Kincaid, then goes after Joey, as well, in his own dream.  Kristen knows what's happening, and tries to warn Alice and the others about the undead killer.  But, with Freddy tearing through the group, can Alice stop his rampage as her own set of dream powers increase in strength?

This film was really good.  It has a nice pool of victims, good special effects, a pretty good storyline, everything worked out for this one.  Patricia Arquette was west to reprise her role as Kristen here, but she had to bow out due to a pregnancy (she had to leave another role in a different film for the same reason).  The new Kristen, Tuesday Knight, did well with the role, showing the right amount of paranoia at times.  She was also in The Fan and The Babysitter.  Playing Alice, the heir to Kristen's experience and Freddy's new target, is Lisa Wilcox.  She's also been in Watchers Reborn, the Fear Clinic series on FearNet, and the recent film The Church.

Another excellent entry in the Nightmare series, and a pretty good entry in my list of articles.  I give it a 5 out of 5.  Next up, I'll be tackling the third and fourth entries in the Friday the 13th series.  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987 film)

Copyright New Line Cinema.  Ever notice Freddy's eye always bulges out on these posters?

Before we get into today's article, a bit of an announcement.  My originally schedules Week 4 event (1981 Week: Revisited) is going to be postponed until a later date due to schedule slip.  I am way behind on posting several of my other articles, as well, so I decided to just shift my focus to the month's end.  And so, we go from one slipped schedule over to rectify one from last year!

When I was working out last year's October, I had rewatched this and Friday the 13th 3D in anticipation, but never got around to rewatching the third Halloween.  Even worse, I never posted my reviews of the two films I had watched, which just isn't right.  I reviewed the Elm Street series documentary, at least, but I should have been more on the ball there.  I always pride myself on, if nothing else, keeping my Big Three reviews consistently posted, and I flubbed the ball there last year.  So, time to correct that!

Nightmare 3 follows the story of Kristen who, after a seeming suicide attempt after a Freddy nightmare is locked away at the Westin Hospital.  She's put together with other similar cases, all teenagers having problems with nightmares and seemingly suicidal.  Supposedly safe within the facility's walls, Freddy starts focusing in on the small group, picking them off in ways that look like suicides.  It's up to newly hired therapist Nancy Thompson, a survivor of Freddy Krueger's night time attacks, to help them harness their dreamland abilities and take the fight to Freddy himself as the Dream Warriors.

Returning as Nancy Thompson from the first film is Heather Langenkamp.  She also plays herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and is appearing in an upcoming Hellraiser film, Hellraiser: Judgment.  Patricia Arquette made her film debut as Kristen Parker.  She wouldn't return for the fourth film, but she did go on to star in a lot of other films, including True Romance, Ed Wood, Stigmata and the television series Medium.  Laurence Fishburne plays Max, an orderly at the Westin Hospital.  He's made a lot of movies, including Event Horizon, The Matrix series, Predators, and the television series Hannibal.

This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first time Freddy lets his sense of humor out.  It's sadistic humor, of course, but it helps!  You also get a bit more creativity in the kills.  In the original films, he more or less relied mostly on his glove to kill off someone (outside of the sheet hanging and blood fountain in the first film, of course).  Here, you get puppeteer Freddy, faucet handle Freddy, TV Freddy and the ever-popular Freddy Snake.

This film starts the Dream Trilogy, as I call it.  Three films with an ongoing storyline and characters to tie them together.  After the slight "oddball" that was Freddy's Revenge, it's nice to see Freddy get back to doing what he does best: invading dreams and causing carnage.  I give this film a 5 out of 5.  Next up, we'll be checking out A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!

Don't Go in the Woods (1981 film)

Just don't do anything!  That's the lesson I've gathered from this week.

The last of our Don't Week coverage is a film that I saw at the video stores but never got to see until last night.  I purchased it just so I could review it here, so had no real idea what I was going into, outside of the description of someone stalking travelers in the forest and picking them off one by one.  Boy, did I get my money's worth with this one!

The film starts with an idyllic, perfect shot of a forest stream... the lovely trees, the babbling water, the... submerged camera..., the... screaming girl?  Yes, our first victim comes in within seconds of the start of the movie, and she doesn't last very long at all.  We cut from her to a group of four who are backpacking through the woods.  This is our main group, and we get shots of them interspersed with random other people running afoul of... someone or something that's stalking them.  It soon becomes clear that the woods are not a safe place to be.

This one was an alright time.  The acting could've been a bit better in places.  The dialogue seemed a bit forced at times, there were certain parts where it was hard to tell what was going on, even a couple places where it seemed like someone should've seen an obviously placed dead body.  Another spot was near the end, where, in between shots of the search party sent to find the killer, we get scenes of a  guy in a wheelchair struggling up the hill trails set to wacky music that just made me shrug my shoulders.

The film was alright, the acting not so good, the setting was beautiful.  I give the film a 3 out of 5.  It was a fun time, and I'm tempted to watch the commentary on the DVD soon, but for now, this is the last of Don't Week, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

Don't Go in the House (1979-1980 film)

Can't tell any of the fiery death that awaits in there, can you?

So, here we are, at the second to last article for Don't Week.  It's been an interesting journey, through zombies and madness, but there's a small light at the end of the tunnel.  But is it a light we want to approach, or is it something a bit more dangerous?  We find out here, not all lights are safe!  We meet Donald, a mother's boy with a dark secret.

The film starts at a waste disposal facility, where Donald is watching the flames in one of the furnaces.  One of his co-workers sees him and pulls him away from the open furnace door, warning him to wear his mask, then moves to another furnace and starts raking the coals, not realizing an aerosol can is inside, in the middle of the flames.  As it cooks, it suddenly explodes, coating Donald's coworker with flames.  Donald stands there, watching the flames dance over the asbestos suit, as others run in and put the flames out.  Later, Donald's boss, Vito, grabs him in the locker room and asks him what his problem was, why he just stood there, until Donald breaks free of his grip and rushes out.

Donald leaves, driving home and calling out to his mother that he was home and making her tea.  After putting it all together, he brings her tea up to her room and finds her dead in her chair.  At first, Donald reacts with sorrow, then starts hearing a voice in his head, telling him that he's free, he's now able to do everything his mother would never let him do.  He starts by putting on music and cranking up the volume, then jumping on a chair downstairs in the living room before lighting up a cigarette and putting it out on a small, white statue.  Suddenly, Donald's mother's voice comes calling from up the stairs, scolding him, so he hurriedly puts everything back.  The other voice returns, telling him that it'll protect him, that it'll help him.  He goes back up the stairs to his mother's room with a lighter to burn her... just like she burned him to punish him for so many years.

The film follows him building a special room in the house... a room with metal walls, where he'll take women to burn the evil out of them, just like his mother did to him.  But will his insane plan, born of his trauma, bear fruit, or will he cave under the weight of his madness?

This was an interesting one, and I was glad to add it to my collection.  I saw it in one of my Horror Hound magazines and looked it up online, wondering what the film was about.  When I conceived the idea of Don't Week, this was definitely one of the films in the forefront of my mind.  This was definitely a good addition to my site.

Playing Donald was Dan Grimaldi, and he brought the perfect blend of slight creepiness and insecurity to the role.  This was his first listed film role (he'd done stage acting beforehand), but he's been in a lot of stuff since, including playing the Parisi twins on The Sopranos.

All in all, I give this one a 4 out of 5.  It was entertaining, but it wasn't the best film out there.  For my next article, we'll get kicked out of the last remaining area left after the other titles... Don't Go in the Woods!  See you there soon!  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!

The Boogeyman (1980) and Return of the Boogeyman (1994) - Joint Review

So, sorry for the extremely long delay in posting this.  I'm going to do my best to salvage the rest of the month, and to cover what I meant to cover in the weeks following.  This was intended to go up the third and fourth of this month, but due to the convention I went to, plus an unexpected allergy, I was down for a little bit and then got sidetracked with other things, so everything got pushed back more and more.  But, I'm ready to finish off the week!

So, this post finds us with a supernatural slasher, 1980's film The Boogeyman, and its 1994 sequel, Return of the Boogeyman.  There was another sequel in there, The Boogeyman II, but I didn't get a chance to see that one.  The Boogeyman took a bit of flack from critics for supposedly cribbing stuff from Halloween and The Exorcist.  Were there similarities?  Maybe a few.

The film begins with two kids, Willy and Lacey, as they watch their mom getting a bit intimate with her boyfriend, whose head she covers with the panty hose she's wearing.  Seeing the kids watching through the window, she yells at them and the boyfriend grabs Willy and drags him to his room, tying him to his own bed and gagging him as Lacey watches on.  Soon afterwards, Lacey brings a knife in and cuts Willy free.  Willy and Lacey sneak up to the room where Mom and the boyfriend are still making out, him still wearing the panty hose on his head.  As Lacey watches in the mirror, Willy creeps up and stabs the boyfriend in the bed.

Twenty years later, the children have grown up into not-so-adjusted adults.  Willy hasn't spoken a word since that night (and has secretly been collecting sharp knives in his top drawer).  Lacey is married, with a little boy, but her guilt over the incident is starting to carry over into her everyday life.  Trying to find refuge in both religion and psychology, she freezes up during dinner when she spots a mirror.  A later encounter with the original mirror unleashes a murderous force on anyone in its vicinity.

I'm sort of on the fence with this film.  On the one hand, I was entertained by it, which is the goal of any movie out there, but I felt that it could have been more.  The climax is exciting, but not a lot happens leading up to it.  The rest of the film just felt like... buildup.  Other than the boyfriend getting stabbed, there aren't a lot of killings leading up to the finale, which causes the film to sort of drag on.  The film's villain felt less like a boogeyman and more like Death in Final Destination, except more outgoing and manipulative of events.  Some may say it's just a product of its time, but many films before and after it gave a better feeling to me than this one did.

Adult Lacey was portrayed by Suzanna Love, the wife of the director, Ulli Lommel, at the time, and also co-wrote the script with him.  She was also in The Devonsville Terror, BrainWaves and the original sequel, The Boogeyman II.  Her brother, Nicholas Love, played her brother, Willy.  He was also in Jennifer 8 and The Dead Pool.  Probably the most famous actor in the film is the late, great John Carradine, playing psychiatrist Dr. Warren who Lacey turns to to try to exorcise her mental demons.  His list of films is extremely long, with a few excerpts being The Monster Club (with Vincent Price), House of the Long Shadows (with Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing), The Howling, and many more.

All in all, I give this film a 3 out of 5.  It was alright, but it could've been a lot better.  Now, the reason I decided to cover both of the films together is that they are extremely similar.  So similar that the sequel uses a lot of footage from the first film!  I figured I'd combine the film reviews like I did with Mystery of the Wax Museum and the original House of Wax last year.

So, The Return of the Boogeyman deals with a new woman, Annie, receiving psychic visions of the first film's events, along with flashes of current happenings.  The psychic visions take the form of the footage from the original movie.  In a way, it reminds me somewhat of the sequel to the original The Hills Have Eyes, which featured a LOT of flashbacks to the first film, as well.  Even the dog flashed back in that one!  Getting back to this film, Annie's been seeing what she calls the Faceless Man, really the Boogeyman from the first film still with the panty hose over his head.  A psychiatrist, Dr. Love, is trying to help her sort out her visions.  We only get one new kill in this film, with all the other deaths happening in footage from the first one.

There are some surface flaws that keep this movie down, most of which is the narration of the previous events.  Lacey gets a new name, Natalie, from Annie as she looks to the past, and the aunt and uncle her and Willy were staying with are referred to as her parents (even though we see her mother in the flashbacks to the opening scenes of the film).  A lot of this could be explained as Lacey considering her aunt and uncle as parents since they did raise her and her brother; also, the name change could be chalked up to what she thought Lacey's name was, like a miscommunication in how her psychic link works.  However, these explanations are never given and that leaves a bit of confusion: one wonders if the original names were forbidden from use in this one, even though the same guy directed it.

All said, this is a rather mediocre effort.  I hate to do it, but I give the film a 2 out of 5.  The presentation of the original film again (something that was also done in The Boogeyman II, apparently) wrapped up in very little new footage just didn't work for me.  So, that concludes my reviews of The Boogeyman films.  If I get a chance to see The Boogeyman II (aka, Revenge of the Boogeyman), I'll be sure to add it to the site.  Until next time, take care and this is Red Hawk signing out!

My Bloody Valentine (1981 original)

It happened once, it happened twice.  Cancel the dance, or it'll happen thrice. - Valentine heart poem

Happy Valentine's Day!  The past few years, I've been wanting to review this one, but I just never got around to it.  Either I was still somewhat burned out from the previous October run, couldn't find the movie itself to review, or else just let it slip past.  Well, this year I decided to sit down, rewatch the film and crank this review out.  I hope you enjoy it!

The film takes place in the mining town of Valentine Bluffs.  For the past twenty years, the town has avoided holding the annual Valentine's Day dance they had originally had.  The reason for this avoidance is Harry Warden (Peter Cowper).  One Valentine's Day, he and four other miners were trapped in a methane explosion-induced cave-in when their two mine supervisors decided to leave early for the dance.  After they finally got dug in after six weeks, they found Harry, the only one left, completely insane.  The next year, he took his revenge on the two supervisors and vowed to continue killing if the dances continued.

In the present day, our group of miners consists of T.J. (Paul Kelman), Axel (Neil Affleck), Hollis (Keith Knight) and others are looking forward to the renewed dance along with their assorted girlfriends.  T.J. and Axel are old friends, feuding somewhat over the same girl, Sarah (Lori Hallier).  But, with the dance coming in a matter of days, the deaths start up again and the sheriff and mayor start to wonder if Harry Warden's back again.

When this film was first released, it had a good 9 minutes or so of footage cut out for content, due to blood and gore.  When Lionsgate got the rights to make the 2009 remake, they also were able to rerelease the original with all of the gore reinstated.  The working title of the film was The Secret, an apt name as the director and producers wanted to keep as much of it secret as possible.

My thoughts: This was a pretty good film.  It's one of the several horror films that came out in 1981 (so many I was able to cover a whole week's worth of them a couple years ago and still have plenty left over!).  The special effects were great, the acting wasn't too bad for the type of film and time period and the suspense was high.  The film keeps you guessing on who the killer really is, one of my favorite types of films.

I give the film a 5 out of 5.  A good story, a lot of suspense and some good makeup effects all add up to a perfect score in my book.  I hope you had a good Valentine's Day, faithful readers, enjoy yourselves and have a good rest of the weekend.  Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!

Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1981)

I told the others, they didn't believe me. You're all doomed. You're all doomed. - Crazy Ralph

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!  Since I missed out on posting this review last October, I'll be bringing it to you now.  When the first Friday the 13th proved particularly successful, the studio decided to make a sequel.  Originally intended to focus on other Friday the 13th superstitions, when the jump scare at the end of the first proved highly popular, they decided to refocus their efforts on what they knew would work: Jason Voorhees.  And so, they resurrected the little guy, aged him up and sent him in against a whole new crop of camp counselors.

After a rundown of events from the end of the first film, it picks up two months after with the survivor living on her own and appearing to be stalked (a parallel to what happened to the actual actress, who quit acting for over 20 years after this film).  After this opening scene, we start to meet the main characters for this film, a group training to be camp counselors.  It's five years after the events of the first film, and the owner of the training camp, Paul (John Furey), is opening the first business on the lake.  The locals are upset that someone's operating near Crystal Lake again.  Crazy Ralph is up to his old tricks again.  And what's the large figure stalking the counselors in the trees?

This movie was fun.  The kills, while not as inventive as what was to come, were still pretty good.  We get machetes to the face, a double spearing, and a really amazing wheelchair stunt (that seemed a bit cut short, maybe for the rating).  The special effects were good, make-up was great, there was just one problem.  When Jason's unmasked, he has a nice, full head of red hair.  In every other film in the series, Jason has very little to no hair, but for some reason, they decided to give him a full head in this one.  Between this one and the third, Jason loses that full head of hair, even though it takes place within hours of this one.

My thoughts: It was an interesting follow-up to the first film, and a worthy successor, but not the best in the series.  This wasn't my first full Friday the 13th film (that was part 6), but I did like it.

I give the film a 4 out of 5.  Sorry for the delay in posting, but at least I got it posted up within time.  Soon, I'll have the original My Bloody Valentine up and posted, after two or three years of delay.  Happy Friday the 13th, Happy Valentine's Day and this is Red Hawk signing out!

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Mommy?  Why can't Jesse wake up like everybody else? - Angela

So, we come to the first of what would have been last October's big finale trilogy.  I like to finish the month's articles with a look at the big three franchises, a tradition I started with my original site.  Today, we'll be looking at the second installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street film series, Freddy's Revenge.

Did you ever notice how there's usually at least one film early in a series that doesn't quite fit in with the others that come after it?  Usually, this will be the second or third film.  Puppet Master 2 didn't quite fit with the earlier film, or later established canon.  Halloween III: Season of the Witch was an effort on John Carpenter's part to move away from using the Shape again by basing the series off of different aspects of Halloween (it didn't work).  We'll look at the oddness of Friday the 13th: Part 2 tomorrow.  And so, we have this film, the oddball of the Nightmare series.

After a nightmare of Freddy Krueger stalking him and a pair of girls on a school bus, our protagonist, Jesse (Mark Patton) wakes up screaming as his parents and sister eat breakfast.  Seems the family just moved into Nancy's house from the first film (which was empty for five years!).  At school, he runs afoul of, then later befriends, tough guy Grady (Robert Rusler).  But at night, he keeps dreaming of Freddy who, instead of trying to kill him, asks him to help him kill others.  Jesse's obviously not on board with the idea, but will Freddy give him the option to say no?

So, this film has Freddy killing people differently from how he did in the previous film, as well as the rest of the films to come: rather than striking in their dreams, he uses Jesse as a conduit to manifest in the real world.  From what I read online, the script started as a standalone film not connected to the first Nightmare on Elm Street, but New Line waned a quick sequel so they changed things to put Freddy in.  Wes Craven bowed out because he wanted the first film to stand alone.  They also almost lost Robert Englund due to a pay dispute, but the replacement for him, seen in the shower sequence, didn't bring any life to the character.

My thoughts on the film: while different from the others, and sort of a black sheep with some fans, I did like this one.  There was some suspense built up, and the mind games Freddy plays with Jesse's girlfriend, Lisa (Kim Myers), are up there with some of the stuff he pulled with Nancy.  However, in my opinion, Freddy works best in dreams and the next film brings him back to his roots, and also introduces the more wacky, fun-loving, sadistic Freddy we're used to.

I give this movie a 3 out of 5.  Good acting, great special and make-up effects, but overall, just too different from the others for my taste.  Tune in tomorrow for my coverage of Friday the 13th, Part 2, where we get to see, as Horror Hound magazine called it, Jason's "fashionable head bag".  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!

Jekyll & Hyde... Together Again (1982 film on DVD)

Original film poster

Will the driver of the hearse please move your vehicle away from the rear of the hospital.  It's making the patients nervous. - Hospital Announcement

One of my all-time favorite comedies finally comes to Happy Horror.  At one point, before it came to DVD, I thought about doing an ultra-detailed summary of this film, my thinking being that, since it was only available on VHS then it'd be extremely difficult to come by.  But I found out it was released to DVD, picked it up off of Amazon and am now ready to bring it to you here.

Just about everybody knows the story of Jekyll and Hyde, how a scientist devises a drug to bring out his more base, animal side, only to have said side go out of control.  This film brings the story into the modern day (well, as modern as 1982 can be!).  Dr. Daniel Jekyll is a brilliant surgeon, the best that Our Lady of Pain and Suffering can offer.  As we begin, our star is being watched over closed circuit TV by Hubert Howes, one of the richest men in the world and in desperate need of the world's first full body transplant.  Unfortunately for Mr. Howes, Jekyll takes the opportunity to announce that he's giving up surgery in order to research man's inner nature, and how to tap into man's animal instincts to promote healing, without the need for surgery.  Jekyll's boss, Dr. Carew, swears to Howes that "He'll be standing over you with a knife."

Jekyll, however, throws himself into his research, knowing that he can help more people than ever before.  However, a combination of a late night experimenting and an interesting interruption by the name of Ivy Venus leads to Jekyll distractedly pouring one concoction over another, botching his work.  Vowing to continue the next day, he lays his head on his desk and falls asleep.  His breathing draws in a drink straw into his nose, the straw ends up in the powder of his experiments, and he ends up inhaling a small quantity of it.  Jekyll immediately wakes up, notices what he did, says, "Uh-oh..." and starts convulsing, going through the initial transformation into someone - or something - else...

I saw this movie shortly after it came out, making me about 5 or 6 at the time.  A lot of its humor flew over my head then, but I still thought it was a really funny movie, and that opinion hasn't changed at all about it.  Directed by Jerry Belson, who directed Student Bodies and provided the voice for the Breather, the film does a good job of spoofing the drug culture of the time.  Working in the film is an incredibly talented group of actors.  Leading them is Mark Blankfield, playing Jekyll and Hyde, and he did a phenomenal job.  The two characters do seem absolutely different from eachother, and when Jekyll tries to overcome the effects of the drug later, it really looks like he's fighting with himself.  He was one of several actors on the short-lived Fridays, along with Michael Richards, where Blankfield played a pharmacist character similar to Jekyll.  He also played in Robin Hood: Men in Tights as Blinkin, the blind servant, and in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, as well as The Incredible Shrinking Woman.  He's such an amazing comic talent, I'm surprised he didn't make it bigger over the years.  Bess Armstrong played Jekyll's semi-spoiled fiance (and daughter of his boss, Dr. Carew), Mary.  Besides this film, she played in High Road to China and Jaws 3-D, in addition to numerous made-for-TV roles, and also playing on My So-Called Life.  Playing Dr. Knute Lanyon, plastic surgeon, is Tim Thomerson.  Most famous for the Trancers and Dollman films, he's had a memorable career, making at least one film every year for thirty years, usually more.

This film has a lot of drug humor in it, obviously.  It's a pretty funny film, and one I recommend with the highest regards.  5 out of 5.  Sorry the month of horror comedies has been such a bust, I'll get back to that world soon.  After one more review, we go into May with a build-up to the new Godzilla movie coming out May 16th.  Until then, take care and this is Red Hawk signing out!

Student Bodies (1981 film)

"I didn't do it!  I didn't do it!  I never do it!" - Toby

So, my first horror comedy review!  I came across this one a couple of years ago and picked it up on Amazon.  I had an idea to do a month of horror comedies even then, but it never came to pass, really, until now.  This film was billed as the first comedy horror film (though Young Frankenstein predates it by 7 years).  It is the first film to spoof the then-burgeoning slasher genre.  So, how does it stack up?

The film opens with a card that reads, "This motion picture is based on an actual incident.  Last year 26 horror films were released... None of them lost money."  After that, we fade in on a view of a suburban house.  After the opening credits, a caption tells us it's Halloween... accompanied by a turkey's gobble.  The screen fades out, then fades back in with "Friday the 13th".  Another fade set brings us closer to the door with "Jamie Lee Curtis's Birthday" on the screen this time.  From here, we take on the viewpoint of the killer, aka The Breather, who creeps up to the house's glass door and peeks in through the mail slot.  We switch to the babysitter, Judy, who's talking to her girlfriend, Toby, on the phone.  Toby warns her not to be irresponsible but she just laughs it off.

Finishing their talk, Judy hangs up, only for the phone to ring again.  This starts a series of phone gags that work pretty well, if go on a little long.  Her boyfriend shows up and as they head upstairs for sex, the Breather sneaks over to a rolltop desk and, after perusing a variety of weapons, picks... a paperclip.  Surely, someone's dying horrifically!

The film was interesting, to say the least.  It does successfully lampoon the slasher films of the time pretty well, with a running on-screen body count, the hidden killer who we only hear his breathing and has a preference for unorthodox weapons, not to mention a victim pool of horny teenagers who are never quite prepared.  The film also throws in more twists than M. Night Shyamalan could think of!

When I researched this film, I was surprised to find that many of the cast did not go on to other things.  Kristen Riter, who plays good girl heroine Toby, only has one other credit: the music video for the J. Geils Band song Centerfold.  Playing the Breather was head writer (uncredited due to union rules) Jerry Belson, going under the name Richard Brando.  He was also a writer on Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again, a film I'll be covering this month, as well.  Cullen G. Chambers had a minor role as blind student Charles Ray, who's introduced with his seeing eye dog driving his car.  He's also been in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Deep Impact, and he has an uncredited role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as Secretary of Defense.  Playing Malvert, the creepy janitor, is a double-jointed comedian who was known as The Stick.  He gave an interesting performance here, and I'd like to see what his stage act was like.

I give this film a 3 out of 5.  It could have been a bit better, but it could have been a lot worse, as well.  I just felt that it didn't deliver on all the cylinders it could've, but it was still fun to see.  Thanks for joining me for this, and I hope you enjoy all I plan on bringing you this month.  Until next time, take care, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

April Fool's Day (1986 film)

Happy April 1st, everybody!  I hope my readers didn't get pranked too badly (or do any dangerous pranks or jokes of their own).  Today, we have an article I've wanted to write for the past few years, the original 1986 film April Fool's Day.  I always thought this was something of a forgotten classic, until the 2008 remake, that is.  So, let's have a look!

The film is about a group of wealthy (barring one or two exceptions) college kids getting together for Spring Break at their friend, Muffy St. John's, house on her family's private island.  On the ferry ride over, two of the friends get into an argument, one of which gets a knife thrown into his stomach, who ends up falling off of the boat.  Several people jump in to try to help him, but it turns out to be a prank.  One of the rescuers, Buck, stays in the water to try to tie off the boat, but ends up between the boat and the pier, severely injuring him.

After Buck gets taken back to the mainland for medical attention, Muffy greets her guests and they get settled in.  The guests find various pranks and jokes set up at dinner and in their room.  The next morning, however, finds one of their number missing.  And why is Muffy acting so weird all of a sudden?

The film was an interesting exercise.  Barring the faked knifing and Buck's accident, there's very little gore to the film.  What it lacks in blood, however, it does make up for with tremendous suspense.  The acting is well-done, and the characters are believable, if somewhat hard to identify with, not having a similar background, myself.  The ending itself was somewhat controversial, but without spoilers, I can't go into it.

Deborah Foreman plays hostess Muffy well.  She handled the weird mannerisms of the character really expertly.  At one time considered a promising, up and coming actress by ShoWest, her career sort of stalled out.  She did appear in one of my all-time favorite horror films, Waxwork, as well as Lobster Man from Mars, Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat and Lunatics: A Love Story.  Her breakout role was in Valley Girl opposite a young Nicholas Cage.  Ken Olandt made his film debut here (after a number of TV roles).  His biggest movie role was in 1987's Summer School, but he went on to act in 1993's Leprechaun alongside Jennifer Aniston and Warwick Davis.  Griffin O'Neal portrays Skip, Muffy's cousin.  Son of Ryan O'Neal, he also played in Assault of the Killer Bimbos and the third Ghoulies film.  Clayton Rohner played Chaz, another of Muffy's guests.  He also starred in Destroyer (alongside the aforementioned Deborah Foreman and Anthony Perkins) and The Relic (aka the Film That Light Forgot, as I've nicknamed it).

I give this film a 3 out of 5.  It was enjoyable, much of the cast went on to bigger things, but it wasn't completely perfect.  So, now for my big April event.  Throughout the month, I'll be reviewing various horror comedies.  I may not get as many sequential days as I did in October, but I will be doing quite a bit of posting.  Take care of yourselves and this is Red Hawk signing out!

Friday the 13th (1980 film)

Did Christy ever tell you 'bout the two kids murdered in '58? Boy drowning in '57? Buncha fires. Nobody knows who did any of 'em. In 1962, they was gonna open up... the water was bad. Christy'll end up just like his folks, crazy and broke. - Enos, the Truck Driver

Here we have the second of our Big Three.  It's kind of funny that I post these in reverse to when they came out, but it wouldn't do to have my review of Halloween two days before!  While it's true that Halloween set up a bunch of the conventions to slasher films, I think that Friday the 13th refined the process a bit.  It ups the ante on the amount of kills in the film, it adds a "Prophet of Doom" in Crazy Ralph (possibly the first Prophet character ever), and it hides the identity of the killer throughout all of the film, until the very end.  The "through the killers eyes" camera does well making you wonder if we're just seeing a regular shot like in any normal film, or if we're seeing what the killer sees.  There have been times in the film where I wondered, myself.

The film opens on Camp Crystal Lake in 1958.  After a gathering of the campers to sing, two of the counselors, Barry and Claudette, sneak off to have an intimate moment together.  Heading up the stairs in an equipment shed, they're making out when they hear a stair creak.  They get up and turn to the stairs and see someone watching them (we see this through the unseen person's eyes).  Barry starts to explain himself when he receives a stab to the gut.  Claudette panics and heads to the back of the loft, trying to keep something between her and the unseen assailant, but to no avail.  After this opening sequence, and the credits, we head to the present day (as present as 1980 is, at least), with Annie, the newly hired cook for the about-to-be-reopened Camp Crystal Lake.  When she asks directions in the local diner, all eyes turn to her like she said something foul.  Once given a ride (and encountering Crazy Ralph, who warns her that she's doomed if she goes up there), she heads for the camp...

Getting to see this again was fun, though the experience was slighly marred from watching it during the day.  Lots of shadows do not really lend themselves to daytime viewing, especially when all you see is a flashlight beam!  I did enjoy the film, as I said it was an interesting viewing.  Tom Savini worked on the special effects and make-up for this film, and even did a little stuntwork.  The only scene I really have a problem with is where the counselors kill a snake in a cabin.  Other than that, a great watch and a great piece of slasher film history.

Adrienne King played Alice, who's talked into staying at the camp for the summer to help out in restoring it.  She almost didn't take the part, but later decided to, and she also reprised her role in the sequel.  Following her appearance in these, she had some issues with a stalker, and so she dropped out of filmmaking for a number of years.  In 2008, she was at first offered a role in the Friday the 13th remake, but then was told they weren't going to have any previous actors appearing in the film.  She did go on to play parts in Walking Distance and Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming.  Kevin Bacon plays counselor Jack who's brought in to help restore the camp, as well.  He's had a long and storied career, with appearances in Animal House, Footloose, Flatliners, Tremors, The River Wild, Hollow Man and the TV series The Following.  Betsy Palmer played Mrs. Voorhees, a role she reprised for the second film.  She also was a regular panelist on I've Got a Secret, and has starred in The Fear: Resurrection and Bell Witch: The Movie.

Altogether, a true classic that still is as effective today as it was when it first came out.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  Tune in tomorrow for the last of the Big Three... it's Halloween on Halloween!  As always, take care of yourselves, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984 film)

Whatever you do, don't.  Fall.  Asleep. - Nancy

Welcome to the first of the Big Three reviews.  I will be covering the original films for the three biggest horror franchises of recent times: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween.  These three films are synonymous with horror, due in large part to the efforts of their major antagonists: Freddy Krueger, Jason and Pamela Voorhees and Michael Myers, aka The Shape, respectively.  While other icons of horror, such as Leatherface, Chucky, Pinhead and Jigsaw, to name just a few, have "carved" their own nich (no pun intended), it's these three film series that stand out above and beyond the others.  Let's start with our celebration of the very first A Nightmare on Elm Street.

I never got to see the first three of this series in the theater, having to wait until they came out on video to see them (or, in the case of the third film, cable).  The first one, I remember watching it when I was probably 8 years old with my mom and my cousin who was living with us at the time.  I enjoyed the movie then, but I remember my cousin having a couch cushion in her lap and every time something scary would happen, the cushion would come up and hide her from what was happening.  Needless to say, she was not a horror fan!

The basic premise of the film is this: The teenaged children of Elm Street in Springwood, Ohio, all start dreaming of the same strange sweater-clad man with burns on his face and a knife glove on his hand.  This mysterious figure stalks them through their dreams, inevitably leading them to a boiler room.  As far as the teens know, these are just strange dreams, but when Nancy's friend, Tina, meets a seriously gruesom end, Nancy begins to wonder if her death isn't more than what it appears to be.

As I said, I enjoyed this film as a kid and it's only gotten better since.  The pacing is good, there's some very fine acting, the special effects are amazing... everything lines up for this film.  From the arm stretching gag to Freddy's face coming off to something simple like a burn makr on Nancy's arm, everything came together well.

Heather Langenkamp played Nancy, our main lead of the film and the one who realizes that the scarred killer in her dreams is really stalking her and her friends.  Her first film was The Outsiders, and she's gone on to reprise the role of Nancy in the third Nightmare on Elm Street film, as well as playing herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare.  Other than the Nightmare series, she also did a cameo on Shocker and was in Star Trek Into Darkness.  John Saxon makes his second Happy Horrorween appearance (his first was in Blood Beach) as Lt. Don Thompson, Nancy's father.  Besides Blood Beach, he was also in The Night Caller (aka Night Caller from Outer Space), Queen of Blood and Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 classic Mitchell.  Robert Englund plays mystery man Freddy Krueger.  This was his first outing as the madman, of course, and hadn't developed Freddy's later characteristic joking manner (though he does play around with his victims somewhat).  Englund's become known primarily for his horror roles in such films as Eaten Alive, Galaxy of Terror, Phantom of the Opera, and the host of Shadow Theatre, one of my favorite horror showcase shows.  Johnny Depp made his film debut here, as well.  He went on to major stardom with such films as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows and tons of others.  Also look for cameos from Lin Shaye (Dead End, 2001 Maniacs) as a high school teacher and Charles Fleischer (Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, voice of Roger Rabbit) as a specialist in sleep disorders.

All in all, a fun viewing was had, and I gladly give this film a 5 out of 5.  Tomorrow, we go back to the woods to Camp Crystal Lake.  It's Friday the 13th!  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out.

C.H.U.D. (1984 film)

What are you, kidding?  Your man has a camera.  Mine has a flamethrower. - Captain Bosch

My original plan coming into the month was to cover the two Dr. Phibes movies yesterday and today, and to cover C.H.U.D. on the 10th.  Well, coming into the month, I couldn't find my copy of C.H.U.D., so I put in the substitution of It's Alive.  As today grew closer, I started looking for my Phibes films.  I found the first one... and I found C.H.U.D. in a place that I could've easily found it if I'd looked hard enough.  However, Dr. Phibes Rises Again proved to be elusive to my search efforts, so I came up with the alternate plan of running a classic article yesterday and a new one today... and with C.H.U.D. found, I knew exactly what to use.

So, on to C.H.U.D.!  Before today, I've had very little contact with this film.  I saw bits and pieces of it once, several years ago, but nothing really stuck with me then.  I am, however, very familiar with the "sequel", C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the C.H.U.D., it's one of my favorite films from my childhood.  So, going into the movie, I didn't have any expectations other than the usual hope to enjoy myself.

The movie opens on a woman walking her dog down the middle of a deserted New York City street as the camera pans down to a manhole cover that starts moving mysteriously.  Once the woman walks within reach of said manhole cover, a green, scaly, clawed hand reaches out and grabs her leg, pulling her and her dog into the hole and leaving nothing but her shoe on the street.  Next, we meet George Cooper, a photographer whose contact, Derrick, keeps trying to contact him for shots of a specific homeless woman he's been following.  We find he used to be a fashion photographer, as his girlfriend, Lauren, tells him she set up a photo shoot the next day for her to model and him to photograph her.  Finally, we meet Bosch, a captain of the police force who's troubled by the recent disappearances in his precinct.  Investigating another missing person's report, he goes to pay a visit to A.J. Shepherd who runs the local soup kitchen.  A.J. tells him that twelve of his regulars have gone missing.  What connection do the twelve disappearances have with the homeless woman George knows, and what connection does Bosch's superiors have to it?

This film was an interesting viewing for me.  It had a lot of action to it, especially near the ending of the film.  The acting was well-done, the sense of danger was high, and there were a few surprises in it for me.  The make-up was good on the C.H.U.D.'s, with them all looking somewhat different, and what wasn't done well was semi-hidden with quick flash cuts of their faces.  The shots of their hands look a little bit fake, but who knows what mutated skin would look like in this kind of situation?

We got a nice assortment of actors in the film.  John Heard played George Cooper, the photographer whose connection to the city's underground homeless leads him into contact with the hidden menace.  A very prolific actor, he's been in a LOT of films and television shows, sometimes multiple in the same year as of late, but some of his most noted are Cat People, the first two Home Alone films and Awakenings.  Daniel Stern played A.J. Shepherd, aka The Reverend, the man running the soup kitchen and one of the first to realize the homeless are disappearing and the government's covering it up.  Mr. Stern was also in the Home Alone films, as well as Little Monsters, Leviathan and Otis.  Kim Greist played George's girlfriend, Lauren, his support system and someone who gets drawn unwittingly into the situation.  She was also in original Hannibal Lector film Manhunter, Throw Momma from the Train and Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.  Also watch for John Goodman in an early film appearance (his fourth) as a policeman in a diner.  He's graced the original version of Happy Horror in Wolfgang Nibori's review of Fallen, and also been in Arachnophobia and Matinee.

A pretty fun movie, with some good acting and some good special effects to it.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  Tomorrow starts my coverage of the Big Three film franchises, with Nightmare on Elm Street.  Thanks to everyone who visited the site for my Haunted Airman coverage, you gave me the highest pageview count I've had yet.  Take care of yourselves, watch out for moving manhole covers, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

Ghost Story (1981 film)

Dance with me, you little toad. - Eva

Our final entry for 1981 Week was a bit of an unknown to me.  I first came across Ghost Story when I was looking through a book on Hollywood special effects, and a couple of the photographs showed makeup effects from this film.  I hadn't heard about it before then, and I rarely heard about it since, outside of a random TV Guide listing.  But, thanks to the magic of Netflix, I was able to rent this somewhat forgotten gem and bring you my opinion on it.  Needless to say, I had no idea what to expect!

The film is about four men in their 80s, lifelong friends, who get together and tell each other scary stories.  This group, who call themselves the Chowder Society, have a collective secret, one they've never talked about but haunts their dreams.  But, when the son of one of the group dies, the Society's members, with the help of the remaining son, must come to grips with their past or face the vengeful wraith their actions produced fifty years before.

What a way to close off 1981 Week!  There's something to be said about going into a title 'blind', so to speak.  When all you really have to go on is a small descriptive sentence to waht the film's about, and a couple of production stills etched in your memory, sometimes you just have to take a chance, and I'm glad I did here.  In addition to the make-up effects, we get some great acting from the Chowder Society (all known celebrities), an intriguing story, a well-done fall effect (no Pumaman-esque diagonal or sideways dropping here!), all really well-done.

Besides being based on a book by Peter Straub, the cast is probably one of the biggest selling points of the film.  (Due to such a wide variety of films, I'll only touch on certain genre examples for each one.)  We have Fred Astaire, the great dancer, playing Ricky.  He was also in The Towering Inferno, as well as in a number of films that showcased his dancing skills and acting ability.  Melvyn Douglas played Dr. John Jaffrey.  He also played in the original 1932 The Old Dark House (with Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton and Gloria Stuart), The Vampire Bat, and 1971's Death Takes a Holiday.  Douglas Fairbanks Jr. played Edward Charles Wanderley.  John Houseman played Sears James.  He was also in the original Rollerball, The Fog, Scrooged, and his last film was the original Naked Gun.  Alice Krige played the role of Eva in this film.  She went on to play the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact (a role she reprised for the Voyager series), Sleepwalkers, Reign of Fire, and Silent Hill.

An altogether great viewing experience for me.  I had fun with this one and am suprised it isn't more well-known.  I hope to remedy that here.  I give it a 5 out of 5.

Thanks for reading my 1981 articles.  It truly was a great year for horror, one I may revisit another time.  For now, we have our last "lost" article tomorrow, and then the final countdown to the Big Three horror franchises.  Until then, take care of yourselves, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

The Burning (1981 film)

Right now he's out there. Watching. Waiting. So don't look; he'll see you. Don't breathe; he'll hear you. Don't move; you're dead! - Camp counselor

Tonight, I bring you a movie that I'd never seen before, and never even heard of before reading Horror Hound Magazine.  That movie: The Burning.  I can't believe I'd never seen or heard of this film before.  I know I normally reserve the post summary paragraph for this, but I have to say, I really enjoyed this one, and can highly recommend it.  On to the summary!

The film starts with a group of five kids at Camp Blackfoot plotting vengeance against the camp caretaker, Cropsy.  It seems that Mr. Cropsy has been terrorizing the kids at the camp for years and these five decide to pull a prank on him to get even and make themselves legends.  Unfortunately, the prank goes wrong and Cropsy and his cabin go up in flames, Cropsy himself running out more or less a fireball, landing himself in the water.  Five years later, Cropsy's released from the hospital... and ready for a little revenge of his own.  Him and his garden clippers.

As I said above, I loved this film.  It's been a while since I've seen a good, new (to me) slasher film, and this one had quite a bit going for it.  First, it had a unique killer in Cropsy.  This film was written before Friday the 13th Part 2, so the idea of a deformed killer stalking a summer camp was pretty unique, plus I can guarantee I've never seen a killer use garden shears as a weapon exclusively.  Second, it had a phenomenal cast of characters, with four or five current well-known actors getting their start here.  Third, Tom Savini did a phenomenal job on the effects and makeup.  And fourth (and this is my own humble opinion), this is a highly underrated film that's fallen into the cracks of larger (and just as good) franchises.

Brian Backer played the somewhat creepy peeping tom character Alfred in the film.  He went on to play in Fast Times at Ridgmont High, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, and most recently 2012's Vamps.  Larry Joshua played the bully, Glazer, who terrorized Alfred for spying on his girl so much.  He's had a long career, since 1978, with appearances in Dances with Wolves, The Shadow and Spider-Man.  Jason Alexander played Dave, the camper who can get you anything you want, and was pretty funny in the film.  The Burning was his first film.  He's also been in Pretty Woman, Jacob's Ladder, Coneheads and was one of the main actors on the sitcom Seinfeld.  Fisher Stevens played Woodstock, one of Alfred and Dave's group of friends.  This was his first film, as well.  He went on to play in the two Short Circuit films, the series Early Edition, Awake and a few episodes of Lost.  Holly Hunter also holds The Burning as her first film.  She went on to play in Raising Arizona, The Incredibles, Always and she won an Oscar for The Piano.

Really, I cannot recommend this movie enough.  If you've seen it before, then get reacquainted with it.  If you haven't, and this style of movie is up your alley, then I think you'll be in for a treat.  I give it a very well-deserved 5 out of 5.  Tomorrow marks the end of our 1981 Week with another overlooked film of that year: Ghost Story.  Until then, stay safe, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

Blood Beach (1981 film)

This never would've happened in Chicago. - Sergeant Royko

I remember my mom renting this movie shortly after it came out, but she didn't watch it all the way through.  I think I saw it a few years later on cable and remembered enjoying it, and so I thought I'd look it up when it came time to decide what movies to watch for 1981 Week.  Was it as good as I remembered it being?  Well, we'll find out!

The movie's about a creature in the sand at the beach that sucks people under and eats them.  The only telltale sign of its presence is of a bit of sand falling into a cone shape nearby, sort of like an ant lion's nest would be.  The police, initially thinking they have a normal missing person's case on their hands with the first disappearance, soon discover something weird's going on when a girl buried in the sand complains about something biting her and her friends bring her up to find her legs all bloody and cut up.  The police, along with the harbor patrol, start searching the beach for the creature, as the crowds stay away in droves.

Sorry for the disjointedness of the summary up there, I just don't like to give away too much plot, so I just wanted to touch up on the important stuff.  So, now my thoughts.  The movie was fun, though the DVD was somewhat marred by low volume on voices, plus a lot of muffling.  There were a couple technical issues in it, too, but nothing that really detracted from the film itself.  (Hey, I sometimes like seeing a boom mike hovering into frame!)  The film did well for its budget, and the reveal of the creature near the end was interesting.

David Huffman played Harry Caulder, the head of the local Harbor Patrol.  He was in Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby and St. Helens, a dramatization of the eruption of the titular volcano.  He was tragically murdered when he tried to stop a thief in Balboa Park.  Marianna Hill played Catherine Hutton, daughter of the first victim and Harry's ex-girlfriend.  She was also in Schizoid, Messiah of Evil and The Godfather: Part II.  Burt Young played the (rather abrasive) Sergeant Royko, a Chicago transplant to the LAPD.  A character actor, he's been working pretty steady since 1970 in such films as Carnival of Blood, the Rocky series, Amityville II: The Possession, Circle of Fear, and even a part on an episode of Tales from the Crypt.  Last, but certainly not least, is John Saxon as Captain Pearson.  The IMDb lists him as being in over 200 films, including A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 3 (we'll be looking at 1 in a few days), From Dusk Till Dawn, My Mom's a Werewolf and Nightmare Beach.

A fun film, with only a few problems to it.  I give this one a 4 out of 5.  Tune in tomorrow for a true classic, where a deformed killer stalks teenagers and counselors through the woods of a summer camp.  It's... The Burning!  (Did you expect me to say something else?)  Until then, take care of yourselves, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

Great White, aka The Last Jaws (1981 film)

Only the greatest movie poster ever!

Gentlemen, absolutely nothing is going to happen. - Wells

Here we have another film that I actually hadn't heard of until I read Horror Hound Magazine, first in an article covering horror films that hadn't received a DVD release yet, then mentions in the 1981 tribute issue I mentioned yesterday.  From what I read, this movie was only in theaters a short time before Universal (owners of the rights to the original Jaws) filed a lawsuit against the makers of this film for being too much like theirs, resulting in the film being pulled from screens all over the United States.  Upon reading that, I started wondering if I'd ever get a chance to see the film.  Luckily, Amazon came to the rescue!  Thanks to them, I have my own copy of the film to bring a review to you.

The film is, of course, about a Great White shark terrorizing the coastal town of Port Harbor.  Our heroes this time are a writer, Peter Benton, and a shark hunter, Ron Hammer, who try to take the fight to the great white.  Naturally, there's an authority in town who doesn't want to hear about a shark attack, William Wells, as it would be bad for the upcoming wind-surfing regatta he had planned.  Will our heroic duo be able to stop the shark in time, or will the town become a shark's smorgasbord?

The film was interesting.  Other than the fact that it features a great white attacking people near a city near the ocean, it doesn't really seem to have that much in common with Jaws to me.  Ron Hammer is, however, definitely similar to Quint, but no other characters match up that well to anyone else from Jaws.  The events are different, the characters and victims are different, just about everything feels different, outside of the shark.  But Universal decided, since Great White was making some big money when it hit theaters that it had to give them a cease and desist.

James Franciscus played Peter Benton, and he played the part really well.  He was also in The Cat o' Nine Tails, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and the Judgment Night episode of The Twilight Zone.  Vic Morrow played Ron Hammer, and he did really well channeling his inner Quint.  Vic Morrow was a really well-respected actor, and he died tragically on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie.  When filming a sequence late at night with a pair of child actors, the three of them were killed in an accident with a damaged helicopter.

I enjoyed this film.  The effects and the acting were good.  The shark was more visible here than in the original Jaws (they must not have had the same troubles Spielberg had with his mechanic shark), edited in with some shark stock footage where appropriate.  I give the film a 4 out of 5.  Tomorrow, we have another beach movie, another forgotten classic of 1981: Blood Beach.  Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... you can't get to it!  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!

The House by the Cemetery (1981 film)

Yes, it's possible.  It's a typical example of the local architecture.  There are probably hundreds of houses like it in the area. - Norman

Day 2 of 1981 Week and we have an... interesting one, to say the least.  I can't remember if I saw this film at the video store when I was younger or not.  I kind of remember the box art, but it could have been from another, similar movie.  Either way, my interest in the film was peaked when I saw the art in Horror Hound's 1981 Horror Tribute article.  (The issue in question, btw, was #29, May/June 2011.)  I happened to have picked up the Pure Terror 50 movie box set not too long ago and this film happened to be in the set, so I considered myself lucky.  It also played a factor in the reason I decided to try a 1981 week in the first place!

The basic story is that a family of three, Norman and Lucy Boyle and their son, Bob, move into the titular house by the cemetery.  A colleague of Norman's has committed suicide and Norman's determined to step in and finish his work.  Bob keeps seeing a little girl that nobody believes is there, Lucy seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Norman seems somewhat oblivious to it all.  As weird sounds start permeating the house and the history of the place comes to light, can the family be saved before the past comes back to haunt them?

I came into this movie with an open mind.  I wanted to like it, I really did, and for the most part, I did.  It was directed by the great Lucio Fulci, of Zombie fame, and it had some good gore effects (including the ever-present worms and maggots that are so prevalent in Italian horror) and make-up and the scenery was beautiful.  That being said, there were several problems I found in this.  First off, there were several plot holes left in that might have been addressed in the film's original Italian, but I'm not sure.  Why did several people recognize Norman, even though he claimed to have never been there before?  Why did the babysitter, Ann, decide to remove the boards blocking the cellar door one night?  And how did Norman and Ann seem to know eachother, if my reading of their eye contact is correct?  My other major gripe is my complete and total confusion over what happens in the ending.  No spoilers, but it comes out of nowhere and left me scratching my head in befuddlement.

The cast was really good in this film.  Playing Lucy Boyle was Catriona MacColl, a British actress who starred in two other Fulci films, City of the Living Dead and The Beyond.  Anin Pieroni plays the baby sitter, Ann.  She also played in Dario Argent's Inferno, and in Fracchia contro Dracula, her last film.  Giovanni Frezza played Bob Boyle, son of Norman and Lucy, who seems to have an invisible playmate.  His last film before seemingly retiring from acting was Demons.

So, all in all an interesting movie with good actors and special effects but, for me, a bit too confusing with unanswered questions.  I have to give this one a 3 out of 5.  Join us tomorrow for an Italian take on Jaws with... GREAT WHITE!  Take care of yourselves and this is Red Hawk signing out!