Category: 1984

#641 C.H.U.D. (1984)

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Starting off as a very b-movie, C.H.U.D. finally picks up the pace after 45 very sluggish minutes and gets eventually so good that i’d easily watched another 15 minutes of it. As entertaining as the movie was towards the end, there’s no way around that it’s just very unorganised mishmash that could’ve used some streamlining in the production department, and as it stands now, it’s just too little, too late.

A shoelace-budgeted work of a few devoted film makers, C.H.U.D. still earns a tipping of a hat as a valiant effort.

And in case you’re wondering: The acronym stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.

80s-o-meter: 87%

Total: 63%

#640 Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers (1984)

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The sixth installation in the Cheech & Chong line of movies is their attempt at Mel Brooks’ style of historical comedy, but the few and far between jokes it has to offer are idiotic and can be seen approaching miles away.

While the duo’s movies have always taken sometimes hilarious pride of being stupid, but charmingly so, The Corsican Brothers lacks that certain charm of its predecessors, and is so dreadful that even the die hard fans of the comedy duo deny it from ever happening.

The Corsican Brothers was the last traditional movie from the duo, followed only by the short mockumentary Get Out of My Room, released the following year.

80s-o-meter: 7%

Total: 0%

#638 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

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Taking place in some alternative comic book reality, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is intentionally campy movie that deserves praises for trying out something so completely different that it’s hard to explain in one sentence.

Although the movie has become something of a cult classic, personally the calculated weirdness here never manages to really entertain.

80s-o-meter: 71%

Total: 35%

#477 Halloween 2016: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

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The Halloween 2016 gets kicked off with with what could be the most famous horror movie series of the eighties, and a confession: I’ve actually never seen any of them before.

Eighties is a decade well known for its slashers that spawned a seemingly endless number of sequels like the Halloween or Friday the 13th series. The movies were usually crafted out with the teenage audience in mind with more emphasis on gruesome kills and tits than imaginative script. Although best known from the movies made in the eighties, the slashers really have their roots firmly in the 70s, and the genre was pretty much just refined on the eighties with very little progress. So, already by 1984 the genre was almost totally drained out by formulaic slashers designed to to tap on the same money vein by giving the audience a carbon copy of the same generic slasher.

The Nightmare on Elm Street tries something different by reimagining the formula and by placing the antagonist to lurk its victims in their dreams. In this world even the safest of places like a class room becomes a place to be potentially killed and trying to stay awake at any cost becomes an essence. It seems like an enormous leap of faith to go along with the story but the concept is very effective and not at all any more hard to believe than the other movies in the genre, on the contrary.

It’s easy to see why The Nightmare on Elm Street was a breath of fresh air when it was released in 1984. Now, over 30 years later the movie feels much better matured than the other slashers of the era and should definitely be part of your 80s movie to-do list.

Oh, and it’s also Johnny Depp’s first movie.

A Nightmare On Elm Street successfully mixes supernatural thriller elements to the action slasher genre, is deservedly a milestone of the eighties horror, and a must see.