Tag: 80’s Horror

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.

The Keep (1983)

Posted on by fenrisfil

For tonight’s movie I’m looking at the 1983 supernatural WW2 horror “The Keep”. This is from Oscar Nominated director Michael Mann. He got his nomination for “The Insider” (1999), he also gave us “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “Thief” (1981) and was the first person to bring Hannibal Lecter to the big screen in “Manhunter” (1986.) The Keep is one of Mann’s lowest rated movies, so stands out as a bit of an anomaly in his filmography. It’s also one of the films from the 80’s to feature a Tangerine Dream soundtrack (There are about 20 in all). Mann ‘s screenplay is an adaptation of F. Paul Wilson’s novel by the same name . Alex Thomson provides cinematography and it’s worth mentioning this was made only a couple of years after he performed that role for “Excalibur” (1981). I can definitely recognise a similar style.

The Keep is set in 1941 in Romania following the commencement of Operation Barbarossa. Captain Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow), arrives at an uninhabited citadel known as ‘the Keep’ with the aim of taking control of the Dinu Pass in the Carpathian Mountains. The fortress isn’t quite what it seems and after some greed soldiers accidentally release an ancient evil the troops begin to get killed in horrible ways. Sturmbannführer Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne) is sent in to get to the bottom of it, assuming rebellion by the locals. As the mystery thickens he is forced to bring in Dr. Cuza (Ian McKellen) a Jewish profess that has studied this structure. However, he has his own agenda, as does the creature that lurks within the Keep.

Tangerine Dream and the Dry Ice Machine

I can see why this film was poorly received. I can also see why it has become a cult favourite over time. It is a strange film, definitely lacking in places, but for the most part it looks and sounds great. I say “For the most part”, because there are definitely some very dated looking effects in here. But the cinematography is excellent and Thomson seems to excel with filming fog/smoke. The creature actually looks pretty cool in his various forms, perhaps most impressive earlier when he was largely smoke with a burning face. Meanwhile the Tangerine Dream soundtrack gives everything a dreamlike feel, something a lot of the cinematography leans into. The music doesn’t always fit though, but it’s always pushed to the forefront, like this is a music video.

Between the music taking center stage, the great, but somewhat surreal visuals, the over the top gore, the occasionally clunky dialogue/acting and the very weird plot this could almost be a Giallo horror. For those new to my horror reviews, that’s an Italian style horror. It was at its peak in the 1970’s and very likely Mann was influenced by it for this 1983 movie. Now, while I said the gore was over the top, there actually isn’t that much of it. It’s just when there is gore it is bodies cut in half and heads exploding. Those effects though are not quite up to it, so in some cases, frankly, it looks silly. Not a deal breaker though. At least, not if you’ve seen as much 80’s horror as I have.

Greatness Doesn’t Always Come Right Away

The Keep includes some very strong cast on paper. However, I can only really single out Gabriel Byrne for his flawless execution of Nazi villain Erich Kaempffer. That said, he actually only gets a handful of scenes and none asked too much of him. Ian McKellen on the other hand put in one of his worst performances (I’ve seen) as Dr. Cuza. It’s worth noting, this was only his second feature film (Though he had plenty of other acting credits) and his first “Priest of Love” (1981) also received criticism for his acting. It just goes to show, some of the best actors didn’t arrive on the scene ready for success. It took time. McKellen was already a successful stage actor, but it took a while to adjust to movies. By the mid 90’s he was nailing it.

But perhaps it’s not fair to blame McKellen. The dialogue here just wasn’t that great. The directing in a lot of the scenes didn’t get the most out of the actors either. But the plot too is an issue. When you have a slow, dream like aesthetic and an hour and a half run time it’s hard to fit a plot with any real complexity in and do it justice. Here we have many characters that could have been interesting, a mystery with it’s own backstory (None of which ever really gets explained) and a series of events that requires a lot of moving parts to get to the end. On top of that, you have an entire platoon of Nazi’s to kill off. As a result, despite the many slow paced scenes, the movie feels rushed. They should have either simplified or gone for a longer run time.

Conclusion

If I were making it, I would have tried to simplify things a little so the plot doesn’t trip over it’s own legs so much and the remaining characters got a bit more development. I can’t help but think John Carpenter would have nailed this story as a director. It’s almost like it was designed for him, but Michael Mann got it instead and it is what it is. Ultimately though, I did enjoy this movie. As it stands, this is more of a spectacle than a story. Your mileage may depend on how much you enjoy Tangerine Dream and dry ice machines. Apparently that is exactly what I enjoy and so I’m going to rate it at a slightly generous 6.5/10.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.