by David Byron
I can cram as much praise as possible into these few paragraphs, but, ultimately, words can't really encapsulate the experience of actually seeing Hellraiser. This humble reviewer isn't normally one for a lot of gore, yet with Hellraiser, all of the violence and viscera are but the proper pigments for the canvas. It just feels right, fitting together into a beautiful visual package that is a delight to behold. If you haven't yet discovered the pleasure of Clive Barker's Hellraiser, rush to your preferred video retailer. You won't regret it.
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Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives! / 1986
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Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives! / 1986
Directed by Tom McLoughlin
Cast: Thom Matthews, Jennifer Cooke, Ron Palilllo, C.J. Graham
***
Damn you, Horshack. Just when Jason was finally lying peacefully in his grave, Tommy Jarvis and Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter" have to go and accidentally stick a lightning rod in his chest. Which isn't good because, in case you didn't know, lighting causes deceased mass murderers to come back to life.
Ignoring the fact that A New Beginning ever happened (which is a good idea for everyone involved), Jason Lives once again features Corey Feldman's The Final Chapter character of Tommy Jarvis all grown up. Seeking a little closure, Tommy (now played by Thom Mathews) heads to the cemetery to dig up Jason's grave. Horshack helps him, Horshack dies and Jarvis makes the mistake of thinking a small town sheriff in a horror movie will actually help him instead of calling him a loony and throwing him in jail.
But that's part of what makes Jason Lives the best of the Friday the 13ths after the original. It's the only one that doesn't take itself too seriously, that actually dares to poke a little fun at itself and adds some of the self-awareness and in-jokes that would make Scream so popular ten years later.
The first of the newly resurrected Jason's victims are a pair of camp counselors trying to find Camp Crystal Lake (now called Forest Green to avoid the stigma of being the horny teen murder capital of the world). That's right, for the first time since Part 2 someone is actually dumb enough to open another camp for children in Jason's stomping ground.
As the hopelessly lost couple search for the camp, they come upon Jason standing in the middle of the road. "I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly," says the girl to her boyfriend (Tony Goldwyn, in his first movie). Of course, he gets out the car anyway and is promptly killed, but it's the kind of tongue-in-cheek tone that makes this the most fun
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movie in the entire series. As the last two Friday's tried to veer away from the formula of the first three, Jason Lives embraces that formula, poking fun at it without ever crossing the line into parody.
This time Jason's smorgasbord of carnage also includes actual campers. That's right, Jason has the chance to hack up a few children in addition to the sex-hungry teen counselors. One of those sex-hungry teen counselors (Jennifer Cooke), who happens to be the daughter of the sheriff, falls instantly in love with Tommy Jarvis because he's cute. Apparently, this is a very small town. A cute guy, even if he is a former mental patient raving about a killer who's been in the ground for the greater part of the decade, is apparently still quite the catch.
She helps spring Jarvis from jail and, after a quick stop at the local occult bookstore (what, all small towns have stores with books that tell you how to kill undead mass murders), the duo heads for a showdown with Jason.
With this entry, Mr. Voorhees finally completes his metamorphosis from half-retarded backwoods psycho to unstoppable zombie butcher. He no longer feels pain. He can no longer be killed. He no longer runs after people. He simply depends on them to fall down and I'll be damned if they always don't do just that.
The cast also isn't too shabby, at least by Friday the 13th standards. Thom Mathews isn't quite as good as he was in Return of the Living Dead, but he's passable as Tommy. David Kagen is also pretty good as the sheriff while Tom Fridley (John Travolta's nephew) is funny as the horniest of the horny teens.
Though the movie could've done without the padded body count of some insurance salesman playing paintball in the nearby woods, this is still the most enjoyable of the Friday the 13th flicks. By mocking the film's themselves but still giving the audience what it wants with sex, violence and the most terrifyingly unstoppable incarnation of Jason, this one proves that all the hockey-masked killer had to do to finally make a decent movie was simply lighten up.
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 / 1986
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Cast: Bill Johnson, Bill Moseley, Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, James Seidow
*** The original landmark film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is considered by most to be a horror masterpiece. It spawned an entire series of films including a horribly butchered third sequel, a ludicrous fourth entry, a remake, and most recently a prequel. But there is one film in this franchise which undoubtedly stands out amongst the pack. The cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Upon its initial release fans of the first were a bit befuddled. The original Chain Saw was a dark, realistic, and visceral experience whereas the sequel was an uber-gory black comedy. I remember back in 1986 folks were crying foul and complaining because they wanted this movie to be as nightmarish and gritty as its predecessor. But director Tobe Hooper had other plans.
We're officially introduced to the Sawyers after Drayton "The Cook" (an unforgettable Jim Siedow) wins a chili making contest. Yep, the old family is still in the meat business, and they're busy turning the rest of the world on to their secret recipes. A couple of hard shell peppercorns later, we find Drayton's boys, Chop Top (Moseley) and Leatherface (Johnson), in pursuit of a local radio DJ (Williams) who has come into possession of a recording of one of their killings. Having an audio record of their exploits doesn't sit well with the killer clan, so before you know it the blood splattering and power tool wielding are in full killer swing.
That's the story in a nutshell. Tobe stated many times that he wanted to do something different with this telling of the tale. And different it was. Chainsaw 2 may not have been what people were initially expecting it to be, but it has stood the test of time and is probably more loved now than it ever was then. After a couple of decades it is clear that Hooper's (then) newly chosen path was right on the money. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 has been floating around the home video circuit in various forms for many years. There are hundreds of bootlegs for sale that had the fabled Joe Bob Briggs scene and the parking garage slaughter. As fans, we're blood hungry. We want to see the missing bits we've all heard or
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read about. The trouble was that the only way to do so was by hunting down said blurry poor quality boots. Things looked even more dismal after Chainsaw 2 hit DVD a few years back with barely a single extra on it. Fans were pissed. Would we ever get the goods? It seemed as if there would never be an official definitive edition. Until now.
Fox's Gruesome Edition is a fan's wet dream. We get the unrated cut of the film along with several deleted scenes including the ones mentioned above. On top of that, we're treated to not one but two feature length commentary tracks. The first is an interesting listen as Tobe Hooper chats it up with filmmaker David Gregory. There's a lot of Chainsaw history spoken about here, and fans won't want to miss a single moment. And while that track may be good, the second one featuring Michael Felsher, Tom Savini, Caroline Williams, and Bill Moseley is the money shot. Holy shit, what a good time! Moseley shines here, slipping effortlessly in and out of his Chop Top character much to everyone's delight. Again, this track is nowhere near as informative as the first, but it is twice as entertaining. If you're going to watch the movie repeatedly (and I know you are), check out both of these commentaries. This, my friends, i
s DVD paydirt!
But wait! It gets better, and no, I'm not talking about the still galleries or the theatrical trailer. Wise ass. Supplemental material producers Michael Felsher, David Gregory, and Chris Roe have given us yet another gift in the form of a ninety-two-minute making-of film entitled It Runs in the Family. Now we're talking! Family features tons of behind-the-scenes footage as well as current interviews with the cast and crew. It's impossible to watch this and not feel the fondness that everyone involved with both the movie and this making-of feel for the subject matter. You'll be amazed by how much heart and warmth could go into a flick that's so very evil. To quote old Lefty (Dennis Hopper) himself, "BRAZOS!"
If you were hungering for a be all, end all compendium for this movie, look no further. If it's out there and it's worthy of mention, it is on this DVD somewhere. Get rid of those old fourth generation bootlegs. Use that old MGM disc as a coaster. Go ahead, double dip fearlessly!
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This is the cure for your aching banana! Slashers & Splatterpunks
Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer / 1989
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Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer / 1989
Directed by John McNaughton
Cast: Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Becky Arnold
*** It sounds like a bad TV movie. Or one of those grind-house ripand-renders. Or at the very least like something you don't waste time reading or thinking about. Bear with me. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a stinging chiller with a provocative past and a potentially bright future.
It came from Chicago. First-time feature director John McNaughton started shooting this graphic tale of a mass murderer back in 1985. He had a cast of talented unknowns -- drawn mostly from Chicago's Organic Theater Company -- a meager budget of $120,000 and four weeks to get the job done.
MPI, a local video firm run by the brothers Waleed and Malik Ali, financed the project. They wanted a horror film. McNaughton provided something more: a raw, transfixing character study that plumbs a twisted mind. At the Chicago International Film Festival in 1986, the film drew interest from distributors, but they were quickly scared off after the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) slapped Henry with an X rating. An X on a film means that major theater chains won't show it, most newspapers won't advertise it, and nobody makes a buck.
So Henry sat on the shelf until last year, when MPI's publicity director, Chuck Parello, persuaded Chicago's Music Box Theater to do a few midnight screenings. A similar arrangement was made later in New York. Those who didn't walk out -- many did -- were usually impressed. Documentarian Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line) invited Henry to the 1989 Telluride Film Festival, in Colorado, where Morris served as guest director. Reaction was divided but not indifferent. Henry now has a real chance at finding an audience, though one roadblock remains. The MPAA refused to modify the X rating to a more salable R when the film was resubmitted uncut last May. Waleed Ali says the MPAA didn't even suggest changes. "They told us they wouldn't know where to cut," he says. "The film is too disturbing."
Rejecting the MPAA decision, MPI decided to release Henry
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without a rating on a city-by-city basis, starting in Boston late last month. It's a risky move and a significant one for American independent films. MPI is battling a system that, in effect, blocks the distribution of films that don't meet ill-defined moral standards. (Scenes in Angel Heart and Scandal were snipped to dodge the MPAA's kiss of death.) If this defiant, uncut Henry wins over theater owners and audiences, a blow may be struck for other challenging films that don't deserve to be censored or lumped with snuff flicks and pornography.
It's ironic that those drawn to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer by its title alone are likely to be the most disappointed. The movie doesn't shy away from gore: Bodies are kicked, punched, slashed, shot and dismembered. But half of the sixteen murders take place off-screen. There's more mayhem in any of the R-rated Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween movies. Those films offer supernatural villains and cardboard victims; they're easy to shake. Not so Henry. The film is no masterpiece, but it is spare, intelligent and thought provoking.
McNaughton and co-screenwriter Richard Fire based their fictionalized script on Henry Lee Lucas, a convicted serial killer who confessed to murdering more than 300 people over two decades. Watching a segment about Lucas on TV's 20/20, McNaughton was struck by Lucas's low-key charm, a trait he felt explained how a killer could get close to his victims. The film's initial glimpse of Henry (Michael Rooker) shows him thanking a waitress. "Real nice smile you got there," he says, before hopping in his car to search for a victim.
McNaughton takes his time showing Henry in the act of murder. As in Joseph Ruben's Stepfather, Terrence Malick's Badlands and Hitchcock's classic Shadow of a Doubt, the intent is to demonstrate how madness can wear an ordinary, even pleasing face. At first, we see only the aftermath of the crimes: corpses arranged in horrific tableaux while the soundtrack echoes with the victims' death throes. Rooker, who later acted in Sea of Love, Eight Men Out and Music Box, is extraordinary as Henry. Polite and soft-spoken, he uses only an occasional steely glint to betray the rage simmering beneath Henry's bland façade. It's a scary, resonant performance, and a great one.
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Henry shares a drab Chicago apartment with a prison buddy named Otis, skillfully played by Tom Towles. The plot trigger is the arrival of Otis's sister Becky (Tracy Arnold), a topless dancer from the South who wants to find a respectable job and send for her daughter; her husband is in jail on a murder rap. Otis treats his sister with barely concealed contempt and incestuous lust -- though the gentlemanly Henry aims to see he doesn't follow through on the latter impulse.
As the three share meals and conversation, McNaughton crams in a heap of background. Becky was abused sexually by her father; Otis has a yen for a high-school boy to whom he sells marijuana; Henry, at fourteen, killed his mother, a hooker who dressed him as a girl and forced him to watch her in bed with johns. In less skilled hands, this psycho-babble might sink the picture. But McNaughton wisely refuses to condescend to these stunted characters or reduce them to their dossiers. His tone is disengaged but not dispassionate. Arnold, in a heartfelt performance, makes Becky's need to connect palpable. Sensing nothing of Henry's current murderous proclivities, she sees him as a lifeline.
Otis wises up when Henry snaps the necks of two tarts they take parking. Shocked at first, he gleefully joins Henry on his killing spree, soon surpassing his mentor at conscienceless brutality. In the film's most terrifying scene, the one that prompts the walkouts, Henry and Otis attack a suburban family and videotape the deed. "Take her blouse off," Henry tells Otis, who is grabbing a struggling housewife. "Do it, Otis. You're a star." Cinematographer Charlie Lieberman, a find, turned a camcorder over to Rooker to shoot this scene as Henry would. The video footage -- grainy, unfocused, crazily angled -- makes the carnage joltingly immediate. It's a stomach churner. Later, Otis replays the murders at home in slow motion, savoring even the moment when he tried to have sex with the woman he just killed, only to be stopped by Henry. Some thread of morality still exists in Henry; none remains in Otis.
As the film builds to its shocking climax, McNaughton exposes a world stripped of standards. "I love you, Henry," says Becky as she drives off with him to what she hopes is a new life. But for Henry, love is a trap. He must remain affectless, impersonal. The film, to its credit, does not. Henry makes you squirm, a sane reaction to the sight of innocent people being slaughtered. The movie doesn't cop
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out by pretending Henry has no connection with us and our apathetic, debilitated society. Far from glorifying Henry's fury, McNaughton rubs it in our faces. Sure we recoil. That's the point.
Henry is hard to take, but its intensity is not something the MPAA needs to protect us from. McNaughton has made a film of clutching terror that's m
eant to heighten our awareness instead of dulling it. At the end, Henry is still out there among us. And he's no B-movie monster in a hockey mask. He could be the guy next door. This film gives off a dark chill that follows you all the way home.
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Halloween II / 1981
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Halloween 2 / 1981
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, Charles Cyphers, Leo Rossi, Lance Guest
*** Back in 1978, an independent horror film directed and written by John Carpenter (along with Debra Hill) called Halloween (review) became a surprise hit worldwide. Costing only $320,000 to make, the film grossed over $45 million and counting, becoming one of the most successful independent films ever made. The story of an escaped mental patient and who stalked and murdered babysitters through dark lighting, a creepy music score, and visual shots rarely seen in horror films at the time proved that film could have a lasting impact on its audience. But with success, others began to copy and emulate Halloween in their own vision to create success of their own. In 1980, a little horror film called Friday the 13th was released. Unlike the tamer Halloween, Friday the 13th displayed guts and gore in the most violent way possible, using special effects to create a barrage of violent images. The slasher sub-genre was officially born, causing movie studios to create films that could be just as gory to gross out their audience into creating huge profits. Prom Night, Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine, and even Friday the 13th Part 2 continued the trend to varied levels of success.