Category: Horror

#745 Halloween 2017: Evil Dead II (1987)

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Sam Raimi is back with the second installation of the Evil Dead, this time around with a heftier budget. While Evil Dead II is not a remake, there’s a strong feeling of dejavú with all the events unravelling here: Ash being locked in the cabin, getting haunted by evil creatures spawning out the depths of the Necronomicon.

The gritty underdog home made feeling of the first movie is gone and while some of the effects are inventive, they all seemed more fresh in the original one. There’s also a forced comedy approach here that makes Evil Dead II much less a scary movie than the first one. To me it seems the first part played its hand better in this sense, being more scary and haunting in its imagery, and making you laugh occasionally, but in an uneasy, somewhat nauseated way.

On a positive note Sam Raimi’s fresh ideas with the camera movement are even more present in the sequel and Bruce Campbell furthermore shows he is an excellent physical actor really going all stakes in with his portrayal, and having become synonymous with the series for a very good reason.

While the sequel is weaker than the first movie, this is the movie most people refer to when talking about Evil Dead series. If I was to choose, I’d go hands down with the first movie, but the few iconic moments shown here – like Ash arming his stubb with a chainsaw – still warrant viewing the sequel as well.

80s-o-meter: 83%

Total: 60%

#744 Halloween 2017: The Evil Dead (1981)

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The movie that kick-started Sam Raimi’s career, Evil Dead first became a cult classic that gained so much fame in the following years that it’s concerned a genre classic these days.

The Evil Dead is a ludicrously gory show with the amount of blood, ooze and excretion taken to cartoony levels. The movie cannot be taken too seriously, but it isn’t listed as a comedy either, and it’s void of the slapsticky elements seen in its sequel. I actually much prefer it this way.

Considering the otherwise no name cast, Raimi found a perfect companionship in Bruce Campbell, whose distinctive over the edge face acting become synonymous with the series. Although the movie now has been widely accepted as a central part of the movie scene and has lost some of its shocking factor, Evil Dead is by no means a movie for everyone. But, it’s a movie every true horror fan should watch at least once in their lifetime.

80s-o-meter: 76%

Total: 75%

#743 Halloween 2017: The Hunger (1983)

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A poetic a vampire movie that never actually mentions vampires aloud, The Hunger is an artistic – and also somewhat artsy – take on the subject.

The first theatrical feature of the director Tony Scott who had earned his chops earlier directing commercials, The Hunger is a visual treat. If you enjoyed Bladerunner, chances are you will find a lot to love in the dusty and smoky, even somewhat surreal interior shots seen here. The masquerading work that turns David Bowie from a 30-year old youngster to an almost mummified old man, plus the shots towards the end of the movie of fragile old bodies to chunks of dust are extraordinarily well made and presented smartly in the screenplay. The soundtrack is also refreshingly original, consisting of haunting classical tracks and numerous unique effects that suit the atmosphere perfectly.

The Hunger is first and foremost a drama with an erotic touch, and secondly a horror movie. The visuals play a huge role creating the atmosphere that make the movie entertaining, and had they executed in a subpar manner, the plot alone wouldn’t make much of a movie here. There are certainly moments that wander into style over substance, self-indulgent territory, but even so The Hunger has that uncanny quality of sticking with you long after the end credits have rolled.

80s-o-meter: 82%

Total: 80%

#742 Halloween 2017: Return to Horror High (1987)

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A confusing horror comedy, Return to Horror High shows some limited promise from time to time, but soon starts to stumble as it tries to be too clever for its own good. The endless stream of flashbacks and dreams wrapped up in a snappy movie-within-a-movie concept makes the movie tiresome to follow.

Among the totally no-name cast can be seen one young gentleman called George Clooney in his feature film debut role, cast in a side role of a cop getting killed in the very first minutes of the movie. Talk about an unfortunate casting choice!

The movie has a lot of good underdog kind of vibe to it that I usually root for, but the plot is just much way too unsatisfying to get sucked into. It’s a shame because this budget movie is shot and produced in a professional fashion, and on the surface the movie seems crazy enough to warrant a cult movie status.

80s-o-meter: 83%

Total: 61%

#741 Halloween 2017: Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)

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A step up in production values from its predecessor, Slumber Party Massacre II continues the story five years after the events taking place in the first movie.

If the first movie loaned a lot from Halloween, the sequel is all about re-enacting The Nightmare on Elm Street. There are dream sequences with the killer – this time around dressed in black leather and boasting a drill attached to an electric guitar – haunting the protagonist in her sleep.

The whole comedic aspect is present much stronger with the sequel, but it carries the humor and absurdity a bit too far away to the point that it’s nowhere scary anymore. The novelty of the whole concept wears thin towards the end, and Slumber Party Massacre II ends up a fairly tame experience.

80s-o-meter: 91%

Total: 61%

#740 Halloween 2017: The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

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Another day, another early eighties slasher. If you’ve seen the other movies of the era, you pretty certainly know what to expect next and there aren’t too many surprises here.

That being said, The Slumber Party Massacre might be one of the better ones in the genre, and although it’s offerings fall more to the humor section rather than the horror, it’s still a fairly solid show.

If you have a really bad craving for a eighties slasher, you can’t go wrong much with this one.

Those looking for some originality and genuine scares should probably steer away.

80s-o-meter: 74%

Total: 59%

#739 Halloween 2017: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

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Released 12 years after the original movie shocked the world, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 brings back the whole sadistic, cannibalistic family to the silver screen in a splattery, comedic package not unlike Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste, released one year later.

Directed by Tobe Hooper, the production values have amped up and what the sequel loses in its snuff atmosphere, it gains in professional set design, tight action scenes and quality makeup. The tone of the movie has changed quite a bit as well, changing from nerve wrecking, documentary like tension to action, comedy and guts.

Dennis Hopper is seen as Lieutenant ‘Lefty’ Enright who dives right into the role with the right kind of madness and intensity. Bill Johnson makes for a good dumb, often hilariously confused chainsaw wielding Leatherface often seen in delightfully violent entrances to the scene through some solid walls and doors. A lot of work has gone in the set design of the underground lair, which is a chaotic mix of a slaughterhouse, wax cabinet of mummified corpses in macabre poses, hoarded items, and endless, stuffy corridors filled with color lights.

The sequel is an exercise in bad taste that amps up the madness levels to the max, and the insanity depicted here gets so overboard at times that watching the movie feels suffocating like being locked in an asylum. It’s a movie that’s definitely not for everyone, but obviously that’s the way Tobe Hooper wanted to design it.

80s-o-meter: 82%

Total: 80%

#738 Halloween 2017: Curse II The Bite (1989)

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Curse II: The Bite joins Halloween III, C.H.U.D. II and House III as horror sequels that have absolutely nothing to do with the original. It’s also joins the endless list of sequels that fall behind the original.

While I don’t usually bother to comment any technical details, I have to say I was distracted by the overall look and feel of the movie. Although shot in New Mexico, the movie just somehow gives a strange vibe of being instead an aussie movie shot in the Outback.

The movie changes from showing good potential to a slight disappointment multiple times, until the last 15 awesome minutes of the movie. Without giving away any spoilers, this is one of the most intensive and visually stunning effects rumble I’ve seen, good enough to warrant watching the movie and definitely pay off the time invested in watching the movie, with interest.

The Curse series spawned even two more similar, independent sequels, released in 1991 and 1993 respectively.

80s-o-meter: 85%

Total: 74%

#737 Halloween 2017: The Curse (1987)

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Consider the Halloween 2017 featurette – biggest one so far – now officially kicked off with The Curse. It’s one of those titles that had managed to stay under the radar for me and I had no idea what to expect. I really liked the setting, characters and the whole, believable elephant in the living room family hell setup that prevented the protagonist to seek for help, and as a whole the movie played out like a good Stephen King novel.

It was only afterwards when I read about the movie that I learned the movie is actually and adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Colour Out of Space.

The script is smartly written, giving the main characters solid, well-founded motivations to act the way they do in the given very unexpected situation. Considering the movie was done in the golden era of the Hollywood makeup and prosthetics, the FX work here feels weak, and the transformations which could’ve provided some endless possibilities are handled with a few boils glued on their faces. The other effects like the eery spoiled crop and the disintegrating house are executed exceptionally well.

Although the dragging ending steals a few points from the total score, The Curse is still one of the most positive surprises of the year.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 82%

#730 DeepStar Six (1989)

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It’s all rumours, but the story says someone got a whiff that James Cameron was making an underwater aliens style movie and all of a sudden three major studios were preparing a movie in a similar setting. Surprisingly none of them are too bad, and while DeepStar Six doesn’t have the visual fidelity of The Abyss nor the thrills of Leviathan, it is still a movie with decent production values, and plenty of entertainment.

While Leviathan copy-pasted the Alien / The Thing successfully to the underwater theme, the decision to make DeepStar Six a monster movie seems forced and uninspiring; the enchanting, well established deep sea base would’ve provided many other more realistic and tangible threats. The monster is fairly well made and animated, but there’s absolutely nothing iconic or memorable about it. An Alien or Predator this isn’t.

The fairly unknown cast performs fairly well, but without surprises. Miguel Ferrer is a delight as the edgy and hysterical Snyder who’s the only one in the crew who seems to realise the actual weight of the situation.

80s-o-meter: 84%

Total: 79%

#727 Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)

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Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is one of those movies made shoddy and stupid by design in order to make them cult classics. There’s a constant stream of low quality, weirdness, dumb jokes, prostitutes, tits and chainsaws, but not really anything much more.

The problem here is that the movie is smart-alecky without being witty and never takes anything seriously enough to have any kind of substance to make watching of the movie interesting. The few chuckles the movie provides now and then aren’t really enough to justify watching this 80 minutes of nonsense.

I’m not quite sure for whom the Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is made for. Those interested in having a b-movie night with some friends know there are a lot of crappier, more entertaining, unintentionally hilarious movies out there to enjoy.

80s-o-meter: 84%

Total: 22%

#705 From Beyond (1986)

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From Beyond wastes no time getting to the meat of the movie; its special effects. Quite literally, within just two minutes from the start we’re presented with first creatures from another dimension gnawing the flesh out of a human cheek. After seeing too many horror movies that really take their sweet time to get to the point, the shock beginning of From Beyond works well.

The movie is loosely based on a short story of just seven pages by H. P. Lovecraft and stars Jeffrey Combs, whose kooky, eccentric assistant character draws a resemblance to his earlier role in Re-Animator. That same intensity fits this movie quite perfectly.

The sadomasochist and sexual themes presented here feel uninspired throughout the movie, but otherwise From Beyond is a morbid and creepy ride that showcases some very inventive FX work in the very best tradition of the 80s.

80s-o-meter: 87%

Total: 72%

#698 Night of the Comet (1984)

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A low budget horror action movie that’s become something of a cult classic, Night of the Comet is a collection of good and bad, still outperforming its modest budget.

First and foremost Night of the Comet gets its mood just right: The feeling of the apocalyptic Los Angeles void of all its inhabitants is captured efficiently with smartly framed early morning shots. The kick ass soundtrack no doubt adds a lot to the overall feeling, and this awesome collection of songs is a sought after collector item.

It’s therefore unfortunate the plot itself doesn’t quite match the superb setting. Far too many events and reasons are left vague and unexplained, and the whole zombie approach feels totally uninspired and unnecessary.

Ultimately and very regrettably the cult status and the positive vibe of the movie have a promise of something much greater than Night of the Comet can deliver.

80s-o-meter: 84%

Total: 70%

#687 Nightmare Sisters (1988)

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What do you do when you have some leftover 35mm film from your previous movie you just finished? You could haphazardly come up with a story and shoot another movie in four days.

Well, that’s what the team behind this movie did anyway. A direct to VHS movie release that soon disappeared from the public eye, Nightmare Sisters has since become something of a cult classic, famous for bringing three cult b-movie actresses for scenes of full frontal nudity that borderline soft porn. The early 90s versions shown on cable networks featured a cut of the movie with the most raunchy scenes cut out, and those rumoured cut out scenes present on current releases naturally added to the cult status of the movie.

It’s a strange mix of sub B-movie plot and FX (all the actors did their own makeup, which mostly consists of a set of plastic fangs purchased from a novelty store), paired with a solid production work in the camera and the lighting departments. The end result looks quite professional and not shoddy at all, but as a movie .. well .. it is pretty lame.

With a plot good enough maybe for a 30 minute short movie, the editor has really struggled in the cutting room to meet the 80 minute mark. Every scene is about two to three times as long as they really need to be, and there are very obvious fillers all over the place. Given all this, it’s still a surprisingly fluid experience.

80s-o-meter: 88%

Total: 41%

#685 Microwave Massacre (1983)

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An exercise in bad taste, Microwave Massacre is an indie horror comedy about Donald, a disgruntled construction worker growing tired of her wife’s cooking first wasting her wife, and then consuming her among all the other people he manages to invite to his house.

And a true exercise it is as the movie deliberately and unshamedly aims to be as bad and politically incorrect it can be. Most of the sexist jokes are kind of useless, but some of the other dialogue that just consists of a one liner after another are funny in a face-palm shake your head kind of way.

A line like ‘I’m so hungry I could eat a whore’ as Donald chops a prostitute with an axe is as high brow as this movie goes.

Microwave Massacre is a movie so stupid it hurts to watch and you definitely have to be in a right mood for it. As a good kind of bad movie it’s just about as good – or bad – as they come.

80s-o-meter: 61%

Total: 64%

#681 Dead & Buried (1981)

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On the surface Dead & Buried seems like a yet another early 80s slasher but as the events progress further the movie gets some elements of mystery and thriller that really make the story much more interesting to follow.

Towards the end it becomes obvious Dead & Buried is a very untypical movie of the era, and more close to some classic black & white era spook stories. I like it. The movie has a lot of style and ambiance to it that is only broken up occasionally by some of the clumsier special effects.

The movie seems to suffer a little from some identity problems, but once it finds its own voice Dead & Buried is well worth your time.

80s-o-meter: 48%

Total: 76%

#673 Fright Night Part 2 (1988)

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The big success calls for the inevitable sequel, so enter Fright Night Part 2.

The sequels rarely perform better than the original, usually either offering more of the same, or taking the franchise to a weaker direction. This is the case here as well.

Part 2 continues four years after the events in the original movie. In a hilarious theme that follows the movie through its running time Charley (William Ragsdale) has been going to a therapy sessions where he has been convinced that vampires don’t really exist. This all changes when a juvenile group of vampires appears to haunt him.

This group doesn’t really cut it as a memorable antagonist, bringing down every encounter and the eventual showdown with the enemy quite a notch. Mood wise the movie still gets it quite right, and the few effects there are, are quite inventive.

80s-o-meter: 92%

Total: 80%

#672 Fright Night (1985)

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A surprise vampire hit of the 1985, Fright Night gathered a strong following when it was first released and it still enjoys something of a cult status.

It’s a fun movie with an excellent execution, and while the plot isn’t anything to write to home about, Fright Night more than compensates it all with its superb mood and great special effects.

The performances are solid. The cowardous TV vampire killer has-been played by Roddy McDowall is a memorable hero against his own will, and Stephen Geoffreys is simply hilarious as the geeky oddball friend turned into a vampire.

Fright Night’s reputation has preceded it, and as good as it is, it’s not quite epic enough to get the label of being the best horror comedy of the 80s. But it’s close.

80s-o-meter: 94%

Total: 90%

#659 Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

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Based on the off-Broadway musical comedy, which is based on the 1960 film of the same name, Little Shop of Horrors is a delightful little black comedy horror musical. That’s a mouthful.

Musicals, especially the movie adaptations are far more often misses than hits, but similarly to the musicals on stage, the movie adaptations really gain from having big and strong production quality to them. Little Shop of Horrors gets this part right; the pseudo 1950s American city streets build into a massive studio work well as a magical, movie-like backdrop to the scenes, and the (funny) musical numbers as composed, arranged and performed with exceptional professionalism.

The same goes for the antagonist plant. Its lifelikeness is exceptional, and it just might be the best animated puppet even seen on the silver screen.

80s-o-meter: 68%

Total: 82%

#654 Just Before Dawn (1981)

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Just Before Dawn is one of those kids hiking in the woods and getting chopped by a serial killer movies – but it’s one of the slightly better ones.

The plot you already know if you’ve watched any of these kinds of movies, but clearly some thought has gone into making sure the movie is not just a carbon copy of the others, and things are kept more interesting for example by giving the movie a slightly different pacing.

Like most of the movies in this genre, this slasher cannot really be recommended. But, if you really must watch one of these, Just Before Dawn might just be the ticket.

80s-o-meter: 61%

Total: 59%