Tourist Trap (1979)

I love old roadside attractions, which we have a few of here in Oregon.  From the Enchanted Forest to the Prehistoric Gardens, from the Wildlife Safari to the Oregon Vortex and House of Mystery, I enjoy just about anything like that.  When the House of Wax film came out in 2005, it reminded me of some of those old attractions I saw in the past.  Flash forward to earlier this year when I found out there was another film that House of Wax resembled more than the original Vincent Price film.  I'm proud to bring you that film today.  From Full Moon founder Charles Band comes: Tourist Trap!

The film starts with a young man, Woody, rolling a tire down the road in search of a service station.  Upon finally finding one, he heads in but finds everything abandoned.  Hearing a noise from the back, Woody goes to investigate.  Coming upon a spartanly decorated room with a figure laying on a cot, he hears the noise, clearly a voice, and goes to check on the figure.  Suddenly, it jerks towards him, showing itself to be a mannequin.  The door slams shut and locks suddenly, but one of the windows opens, so he approaches it, only to be rebuffed when the window slams shut, as well before he gets to it.  He backs away towards another window, only to be surprised by another mannequin crashing into that one, its head falling into the room and starting to laugh at him.  Woody then moves to another door, but this one's booby trapped as well, this time with a hideously ugly, armless, hairless mannequin laughing with a high-pitched voice.  Woody grabs a pipe laying in the room and bashes a hole in the door, reaching through to unlock it when something grabs his arm as the mannequins keep laughing, the furniture starts shaking and a cabinet starts letting fly with a bunch of bottles and a knife.  Finally, another pipe flies into his side, killing him and causing his blood to drain out.

The rest of the film follows Woody's girlfriend and three other friends as they go looking for him and decide to check out an attraction called Slausen's Lost Oasis, with the help of the owner, Mr. Slausen himself.  But is he as helpful as he seems?  The group's in for a twisted evening.

The movie was pretty good, with some interesting special effects for its time.  I still don't know how they had that stuff flying out of the cabinet and into the viewers faces.  The makeup on the film was done by Face Off judge Ve Neill, and it was done really well.  The mansion where a good bit of the action takes place is amazing, too, and all of the mannequins lining the halls and filling the rooms lend it an extremely creepy vibe.

Chuck Conners played Slausen, the museum owner who typically feels like he's both friendly and creepy at the same time.  Best known for westerns like The Rifleman and Branded, this film was one of his attempts to get away from being stereotyped.  He did a really good job here, showing his versatility.

This was definitely a good film.  While not up to par with special effects nowadays, it does still work and provide a nice, creepy vibe to it.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  Next up, we'll take a look at the movie inspired by this film but given another film's name... 2005's House of Wax, costarring Paris Hilton.  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) & House of Wax (1953)

Go to some nice, warm place, and I don't mean California! - Florence in Mystery of the Wax Museum

Welcome to the Week of Wax!  A week's worth of films that center around that infamous entertainment duo, museums and wax figures.  While today I love a good wax museum, in my youth I was a bit scared of them.  There was a trip we took to Newport, Oregon that was intended for us to go through a museum called the Wax Works there.  Well, we get there at opening time and in the entryway was a mermaid sitting on a growling, animated sea dragon.  That was a bit too much for my young mind and I ended up sitting in the ticket booth while my mom and her friend went through without me.  I've since gone through the museum, and the neighboring Ripley's Believe It or Not multiple times.

So, since I sort of tripped up on my postings this week, I thought I'd do a twofer article and compare 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum with its remake, 1953's House of Wax.  They have the same storyline, the same characters, almost, and both starred a famous actor as the genius museum owner.  This way, I can avoid repetition between articles because the two films are extremely close.

Here's the general storyline: a genius wax sculptor (Lionel Atwill in 1933, Vincent Price in 1953) has a museum which focuses more on beauty than grotesquery, with such historical figures as Joan of Arc and Marie Antoinette.  In both, he receives promising news from a possible investor, but his business partner, who's had the wax figures insured, decides to take a shortcut to riches and sets the figures on fire.  The sculptor tries to stop him, but ends up beaten unconscious and left for dead.

Later, a surprisingly alive sculptor reopens a new museum with a more grotesque bent, countered by the beauty works he's more known for.  But for some reason, his new Joan of Arc looks a little too real!

Both films feature excellent performances, especially from their lead actors.  Lionel Atwill played Ivan Igor in his film.  He was also in Doctor X (with Museum costar Fay Wray, who was better known for the original, classic King Kong), The Vampire Bat and his other well-known role, Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein.  The other major part in Wax Museum was Glenda Farrell who played constantly wise-cracking reporter Florence.  I really enjoyed her jabs and jokes.  Turning to House, we have the great Vincent Price, one of my all-time favorite classic horror actors, as Professor Henry Jarrod in the role that solidified him as a great horror actor.  Other notable (or soon to be notable) actors were Charles Buchinsky (aka Charles Bronson of Death Wish fame) as Jarrod's assistant Igor, and future Addams Family star Carolyn Jones as Cathy Gray.

Both films are equally good, but the role of best is determined buy what your looking for.  If you want more of a mystery, with some great comic relief, the older film is for you.  If you want a more serious horror film, then House of Wax is your ticket.  I hereby grant both films 5 out of 5.  We're rushing through the week, so stay tuned for more!  This is Red Hawk signing out!

Halloween (1978 film)

I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil. - Dr. Sam Loomis

Greetings, Happy Horror faithful, and I hope you had an excellent Halloween!  We had a great one here, breaking our previous records for trick or treaters by five kids, and getting alot of compliments from people coming to the house.  The night before, I decided to watch Halloween as soon as I got home from work.  I should have worked this review out right after that, but I didn't, and didn't realize just how busy I'd be all day for Halloween, so now I'm extremely late in getting this done.  But, as I always say, better late than never!

So, Halloween!  The film that started it all for slasher films (outside of Psycho, of course).  In 1978, John Carpenter (no relation to me) was hired to make a film about babysitters being stalked by a mysterious killer, when the producer suggested theming the film around Halloween.  Made on a $300,000 budget, the film was made over a period of twenty days and filmed around the South Pasadena area.  Despite the theme, the film was actually made in April, which produced quite a few problems production-wise.  How did they do?

The film centers around the figure of Michael Myers (billed as "The Shape" in the end credits), a young man who killed his sister when he was 6 years old and was institutionalized for 15 years, only to escape the hospital he'd been living in 15 years later.  Arriving in his hometown of Haddonfield, he spies young Tommy Doyle and his babysitter, Laurie Strode, and fixates on them, following them around town and generally scaring the daylights out of them in general.  Come the night of Halloween, Michael starts doing more than stalking them...

This movie has come to be known as the progenitor of modern horror, or at least the slasher genre.  It features everything that the genre has come to be known by: a masked killer following and stalking several teenagers, then getting them alone and ending their lives in relatively gruesome ways.  It also seems to start the tradition of the "final girl", the survivor of the film who proves to be more resourceful than her friends (or, some would say, just more lucky).  John Carpenter mixed and wove together the elements that brought the characters to life.

The cast brought together for the film was excellent.  Donald Pleasence played Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael's psychiatrist and hunter, a part originally offered to Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (who, according to Wikipedia, later told Carpenter that declining the role was the biggest mistake of his career).  Pleasence played Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, Dr. Kobras in Pumaman, as well as The Devonville Terror and Escape from New York.  Jamie Lee Curtis made her film debut here as our heroine, Laurie Strode.  She became known as a "scream queen", going on to star in such films as Prom Night, Terror Train and The Fog.  P.J. Soles played one of Laurie's friends, Lynda, who heads to the house another friend is babysitting at for a romantic tryst with her boyfriend.  She was also in the original Carrie and cult film Rock 'n' Roll High School.  Nick Castle played The Shape in most of his appearances.  He went on to direct The Boy Who Could Fly and The Last Starfighter, as well as Tag: The Assassination Game.

A true classic film, marred only by the one thing I'm guaranteed to dock a film for, so I give it a 4 out of 5.  Thank you for bearing with me throughout this whole month, and for being patient with my delayed article posting.  I'll be back soon with another article, but for now, I'll be taking a short break.  Thanks again, 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.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974 film)

I think we just picked up Dracula. - Franklin

So, today we have a true American horror classic in Tobe Hooper's 1974 original masterpiece, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.  I only saw this film the second time today, right before I'm reviewing it for you.  The first time I saw it was on a movie rental after the original remake came out, I wanted to see what the original was like after seeing the new one (something that happened when we saw House on Haunted Hill, as well).  I was blown away by the film.  It's not all that graphic, really, but it's dark, it's gritty, and it's intense.

The story could be the blueprint for just about any slasher film.  After reports of grave robberies, a group of friends travel to the cemetery where the robberies happened, hoping that Sally and Franklin Hardesty's grandfather's grave hasn't been disturbed.  After making sure it was okay, they decide to head out to the remains of their grandfather's house, picking up a very creepy hitchhiker along the way.  After ditching the hitchhiker, they finally make it to the old homestead.  After their friends Kirk and Pam find out about a local swimming hole, they decide to go check it out.  Then, they don't return...

This film has earned its place as a masterpiece of the genre.  Several slasher film cliches have found their start here.  The masked, possibly mutated killer; the use of power tools as a murder weapon; the group of friends in an abandoned area being stalked by a killer.  The budget for the film was less than $300,000 and they used the money they had well.  The actors they used were also largely unknown, local talent who more or less used the film as a launching point into Hollywood.

So, on to the casting.  Marilyn Burns played Sally Hardesty.  Other than this film and a cameo appearance in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D film, she was also in Eaten Alive and Helter Skelter.  She definitely delivered in this film, especially in the scenes where her character seems to be losing her mind.  Playing her brother was Paul A. Partain, who also did well in the part.  He had a cameo in Texas Chainsaw: The Next Generation and also played in Race the Devil with Peter Fonda.  Edwin Neal played the Hitchhiker who they pick up.  I was surprised to see, when I looked him up in my research, that he went on to play Lord Zedd from the second season of Power Rangers on.  He's also become a top voice acting talent, voicing three characters on DC Universe Online, The Lord of the Rings video games, Metroid Prime 3, as well as a record-setting 26 voices in the Gatchaman anime.  Gunnar Hansen played Leatherface, the mask-wearing killer, here.  A native of Iceland, he cameoed in the Texas Chainsaw 3D film, as well as Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Mosquito and Freakshow.

A 5 out of 5 from me.  If you're in the mood for a piece of horror history, then you will definitely find something to enjoy in this film.  I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane.  Tomorrow will be my first redo of a past article, where I'll be bringing you the sequel to this one, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (don't worry, I'm not doing a Chainsaw Week!).  Until then, take care of yourselves, and this is Red Hawk signing out!