Tag: 1981

The Prowler (1981)

Posted on by fenrisfil

1981 was the year the slasher film firmly established itself as a horror genre. Friday the 13th part II introduced us to an adult Jason Voorheese. We also had “The Burning” and “My Bloody Valentine” and tonight’s horror movie “The Prowler”. While The Burning aimed for the Friday the 13th style holiday camp bloodbath, The Prowler followed in the wake of “Prom Night” (1980) by targeting a small town graduation dance. The movie is directed by Joseph Zito, who would go on to direct Friday the 13th Part IV (The one where Jason actually gets killed). Neal Barbera and Glenn Leopold write, João Fernandes provides cinematography, Richard Einhorn provides the music and Tom Savini does the effects.

In 1945 the town of Avalon is shaken by the brutal murder of a pair of lovers at a graduation dance. The victims are impaled with a pitch fork and decorated with a single rose. In the aftermath it is decided to no longer hold graduation dances. This lasts for 35 years until the community is finally convinced to let the dance happen. Unfortunately for the celebrating school leavers, someone is not happy about this turn of events. While embarking on a killing spree following the original killers M.O. one of his potential victims manages to escape and sound the alarm bell. The police deputy, who is left in command after the Sheriff goes on a fishing trip must track down and stop this Prowler before he takes another victim.

Some People Take Rejection Badly

This is a fairly early slasher film (At least if you ignore proto-slashers like “Bay of Blood“). Because of this, it’s hard to appreciate the impact this film would have had on release. A lot of the slasher tropes in this film were still relatively fresh. The effects for the kills would have been especially impressive. Thanks to the great work of Tom Savini, those effects actually hold up pretty well by modern standards too. The movie has a moderately low kill count. Six stalked kills by the psycho (All coming in pairs), with the first pair being decades earlier. This is followed by two more during the struggle at the end, both shot. These are fairly evenly spaced out maintaining the pace and tension.

The plot though is a little weak and somewhat muddled. There’s never any explanation given for why the killer is the killer. It’s implied his first kills are because he was jilted while fighting in WW2. This new spree though seems to be simply from a hatred of proms. This is a remarkable level of hatred towards the idea of young lovers. Even 35 years after his heart was broken and despite having apparently had a fairly normal life, he is still so enraged by the graduation ball that he wants to slaughter a load of random kids. It’s a hard one to buy. He deliberately avoids killing his work colleague though, so he’s not purely psychotic. It’s definitely odd.

What The Fork?

There’s a lot of unanswered questions that come with his movie. The most obvious one is why a pitchfork? The only answer I can think of is simple because they thought it was a cool. That and it would help the killer stand out. He uses a bayonette just as often and that one makes more sense given the WW2 soldier gimmick. On top of this there is a lot of oddness that seems to me to be attempts to throw red herrings our way about the identity of the killer. But these are all very ineffective and just end up throwing random things into the story. For example the whole Major Chatham red herring.

Had he turned near the end in place of the random character that does, it would have tied this up nicely. Instead we get a whole scene with a Major Chatham watching two of the lovers from the prom get it on in a basement. I can’t help but the film’s makers were really certain the viewers would think Chatham was the killer. Even despite being very old and frail and obviously not his own daughters jilted lover. His entire role in the film ends up just being that of a peeping tom. Apparently that’s more important to him than finding out who killed his daughter. It’s even stranger when you remember that it was meant to be Chatham that stopped the school having a prom for so many years. Seems like he enjoys it plenty.

Conclusion

One final bit of weirdness with the film is at the end. After a rescue moment with the final girl (Trying to avoid spoilers here). The girl and her somewhat random rescuer spend a lot of time staring at each other while dramatic music plays. The scene is awkward to watch. Perhaps this is the effect of having seen so many slasher movies. Obviously I knew the killer wasn’t finished off yet. The pair silently stare at each other for what feels like forever, while the girl makes a variety of facial expressions and then… well, you can probably guess. It’s a slasher film after all. This was just a bad scene and a shame because the final act had been pretty solid until then.

So overall, I did quite like this slasher. Tom Savini needs a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. He’s raises the level of any horror film he does the effects for and this is no exception. The plot though is all over the place, but the pacing is at least good. The film only started to drag once (When the Deputy is trying to get a lazy motel worker to contact the vacationing Sheriff). The killer is still pretty original, even 44 years later even we still don’t know why he used a pitch fork. Overall, this is a solid 6/10. Not a universal recommendation though. Instead it’s a strong recommendation for slasher fans and a “Don’t go out of your way for it” for everyone else.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Posted on by fenrisfil

The 1980’s was the era of the slasher film. They didn’t originate there, but the stars aligned in favour of the horror sub genre in that decade. First of all special effects were finally able to provide impressive looking gore and blood. Secondly, as the decade went on the VHS market gave a massive boost to low budget movies. Finally, there was a big push for censorship and outrage over these films and that of course made teenagers determined to watch them! But before everything became somewhat cliched, there were a handful of movies that truly defined the genre. One such movie was “My Bloody Valentine” from 1981. A cult hit in it’s day that inspired the band with the same name and influenced many slashers that followed.

My Bloody Valentine is directed by George Mihalka and written by Stephen Miller and John Beaird. The movie stars Paul Kelman and “T.J.” a young man returning to the town of Valentine Bluffs after a period away. He is determined to win back his old girlfriend “Sarah” (Lori Hallier) from his former friend “Axel” (Neil Affleck). All the young men in this town work in the local mine (Owned by T.J’s father. Despite the name, the town hasn’t celebrated Valentines day since a massacre occurred on that day many years ago. Local legend is that should they do so the killer will return. Despite that plans are afoot to hold the first Valentines dance for 20 years. However, it seems “The Miner” isn’t going to let that happen. Police Chief Newby (Don Francks) is tasked with finding the killer before it is too late.

Heart of Coal

Slasher films from the 80’s are two-for-a-penny. That makes it all the more harder to stand out. So the first thing to note here is that the makers of this film found two unique elements for the setting. The first is Valentines Day and the second is the use of a mine. The former provides the killer with his calling cards (Hearts in chocolate boxes) and the later with the killers look (A miner outfit complete with mask). Someone would have made a valentines horror eventually, but they got there first and that is what matters. It’s not just the concept that makes an 80’s slasher stand out from the crowd though. You need some creative gore and My Bloody Valentine provides plenty. Scenes include such things as a body found in the tumble dryer of a laundromat.

The plot isn’t the smartest horror story you’ll ever come across, but it does provide at least one swerve. The rest is essentially the standard slasher affair. Early on we are given the old legend of a killer out for revenge due to some mis-deed. The killer is supposedly out of the picture, but then the killing starts. In some ways the movie reminds me of proto-slasher “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” (1976), which was primarily based around the night of the school prom. The big difference is this movie can take full advantage of the advancements in gore effects that came with the the turn of the 1980’s. Following quickly on the heels of Friday The 13th. The truth is you probably couldn’t have made this movie two years earlier.

End Of The Line

Acting quality isn’t the most important thing in a slasher, but most of the cast here do a reasonable job. The cast is a little more mature than most slashers, young adults instead of straight teens. However, that only contrasts it with later slashers, in 1981 the sub-genre was still forming. I wonder if in reality this film isn’t that original, it’s just it was following an older set of tropes than later slashers. When the movie first came out, a solid 9 minutes of gore was removed to avoid the dreaded “X” rating. Three minutes of those nine were later restored, but we can only speculate on the rest.

Overall, this is a solid slasher that has managed to maintain comparative originality in a saturated genre. The plot is fairly generic, but the gimmicks work well and the movie is well executed and memorable. This is just about worthy of a 6.5/10. A pretty high score for a slasher and well worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Wolfen (1981)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s horror movie is cult 80’s Werewolf movie “Wolfen”. I came across this via a cult movie facebook group and being a fan of Werewolves it was a no brainer to check out as part of my October Challenge for this year. The movie is based on the Whitley Strieber novel “The Wolfen” from 1978 (Strieber also wrote “Communion” and “The Hunger”, both becoming cult movies in their own right. If you know about “Communion” you will be aware that Strieber claims to have been a victim of Alien abduction himself, though that abduction is alleged to have happened several years after writing “The Wolfen”.

Huff and Puff

The movie is directed by Michael Wadleigh, who is mostly famous as a cinematographer for live music documentaries. Most notably he directed the Oscar winning Woodstock documentary. This however is his only feature film which makes him a peculiar choice. Similarly the screenwriter David Eyre had only penned one previous movie, the Western “Cattle Annie and Little Britches” (1980). No lack of experience for the movies star though, Albert Finney who had a very high profile career in the 70’s.

The main support comes from Diane Venora, though there is a smaller supporting role for Edward James Olmos, who plays a Native American suspected of knowing something about the attacks. Omost was always able to shine even in small roles and he does once again here.

One of the first things of note is the James Horner soundtrack. The thing with Horner in this period is his soundtracks largely were interchangeable. This movie is in between “Battle Beyond the Stars” (1980) and “The Wrath of Khan” (1982) and the soundtrack is incredibly similar to both, despite this being a Horror and those Sci-Fi Space Operas. However, even if similar it’s still good and even the more grandiose themes actually fit with this particular horror, so I’ll give the similarities a pass.

Wolf-Vision™

In regards to effects and gore, this movie has become quite dated. The visual effects to show the “Wolf Vision” are reminiscent of Predator and given this movie is from several years earlier it’s entirely possible Wolfen influenced the later more famous movie. However in Predator those effects actually mean something (The Predator seeing heat), while here it’s literally just to let us know we are seeing the monster’s point of view. It’s not like the visuals reflect how a wolf would see things (Which would mostly be smells).

The gore meanwhile is somewhat lacking for an 80’s movie, but advancements in that department were fairly new and this movie was probably in production before those techniques had really spread through the industry. The movie features a lot of dismemberment, but each time it is done by showing the victim about to be hit, then showing some nearby pavement and someone off camera obviously throws the fake limb to the floor. It’s actually sort of funny. Still, despite that, the film mostly practices a “What you don’t see” approach and that part works very well for it.

Wolfen Down Your Senators

Despite being from 1981, this is a movie that definitely belongs among 70’s horror and the backdrops, filming style and especially the “Technology” has 1970’s written all over. Really everything outside of the Soundtrack fits better in the Seventies. Not that this is a problem, since the tone of the story is more in line with movies from that decade anyway. It actually feels more like a Drama or Science Fiction Film for the most part. Reminding me a lot of the Quatermass movies/shows and I think Finney would have made a great Quatermass has the opportunity came up.

It’s important to note thishis isn’t your standard Werewolf story. The Wolfen aren’t technically Werewolves, they are an entirely different species of intelligent, supernatural wolves that have lived secretly among mankind for centuries. This is actually a “Man shouldn’t mess with Nature” story, with strong ties to the Native American community.. These it’s worth noting are changes from the book, Wadleigh is an environmental activist so it’s not a big surprise to see him rework the story in this manner.

Bark At The Moon

Really for a first time director, Wadleigh did a pretty good job and his inexperience likely lead to some of the more creative choices, including the Wolf-Vision™. But is this a great Werewolf(ish) movie? Not really. It’s hard not to compare this to “American Werewolf in London” and “The Howling”, both of which also came out the same year. But while those were ground breaking and have been heavily imitated since, Wolfen’s paws are firmly in the past. This is a 70’s movie at heart for good or ill.

However as I mentioned this isn’t really a Werewolf movie, so it deserves some slack in that regard. The movie definitely has a lot of charm to it too and I can see why it became a cult favourite. The performances and music are above average, the visuals are mixed bag of good and bad and the plot is unique but not especially compelling. This just about hits a 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.