Category Archives: 1981

1980s, 1981, B+, Grade, Horror, mystery, Review, review-movie, slasher, Thriller, Year

Review: Friday the 13th Part 2

Leave a comment
Director(s)Steve Miner
Principal CastAmy Steel as Ginny
John Furey as Paul
Adrienne King as Alice
Steve Daskewisz as Jason
Release Date1981
Language(s)English
Running Time 87 minutes

Friday the 13th Part Two is one of the few horror sequels that manages to take what was interesting and effective in the first movie and add to it substantially.The story is better paced than the originals with kills being effectively spread throughout the movie to keep the tension and excitement more constant. Characters are given time to develop and become people who you can root for. Jason is actually the villain (even if not adorned with his iconic hockey mask) and adds a certain level of brutality to the kills that was missing before. This is a sequel that has everything a fan of the original could want and more.

The movie opens up with a quick recap of the end of first movie which is then revealed to be nightmare Alice is having/reliving as a result of her trauma . Within a few moments she’s unceremoniously killed by Jason with a cut to the title card. Normally the death of a previous final girl in such a mean spirited fashion (coughs in Halloween 5) gets me upset , but Alice was such a non factor in the first movie (one of my major criticisms) that it almost feels nice knowing that we’re getting someone new. After the title card, the story picks up 5 years with the reopening of a camp on the shores of Crystal Lake. Cue title card.

The first thing the story does that’s a marked improvement over its predecessor is clearly establishing a crew of characters with identifiable traits. Paul, the camp owner, is a well-mannered guy trying to do good for his students and those that they’ll interact with. Ginny (our final girl), his girlfriend, is a fun loving, witty, child psychology student. When the final act starts and and her back is pushed against the wall, you really appreciate how well her characters strengths are set up earlier. She’s resourceful and tenacious in a way that places you squarely in her corner. The main set of campers that are set to be slaughtered by Jason are, for the most part, likable and fleshed out just the right amount. Performances feel genuine and the staffers feels like young adults just messing around with one another. Characters get to interact with each other over elongated periods giving the audience a reason to care about their ultimate fates.

Likewise, there’s some thought given to developing Jason. He’s not just some hulking monster in the woods waiting to kill nubiles. His actions feel purposeful and the way the film subtly (and not so subtly in one particular scene) builds up his psychology and way of life raises a lot of interesting questions. Unfortunately, not all of those questions get answers that feel acceptable, the biggest being how Jason is alive despite being “dying” decades previously. The whole driving force behind Pamela’s murder spree in the first movie is her belief that Jason had died because of negligent camp counselors. If he hadn’t actually died, then that means he was just living out in the forest relaxing. If this was the case, then why didn’t he act to help his mom when she was struggling? The film would like to have you believe he witnessed her death and took revenge; that’s what the opening sequence with Alice was supposed to indicate. It’s just that that requires uprooting the basis of the whole story or coming up with a convoluted headcanon to explain what’s going on. This is a problem that’s endemic with the franchise. It rarely knows what it wants in the moment, so there are a lot of retcons/oddities in the plot that make otherwise interesting moments confusing. That being said, I think the good outweighs the bad and got over the issue on my third play-through.

Now one thing that the first installment got right was the kill scenes due to the practical effects magic of Tom Savini. Despite not being able to get him on the second movie, the kills and their respective brutality are still on display (even if they don’t reach the same consistent heights). In fact, one of my favorite kills in the franchise happens early on and it might be one of the most mean spirited slasher kills I’ve ever seen. It’s just brutal and demonstrates (as if we even needed it) that Jason has absolutely no qualms with who he murders.

Unfortunately even though the movie makes huge strides in improving and refining the slasher formula , there’s more than one oddball moment that feels out of place with the realism and sense of urgency that’s being set up. For example, there’s a moment where a group of characters makes a gruesome discovery only to be stopped in the act. However, the spectacle they came upon is never mentioned by anyone else despite its potential importance in saving future characters lives. There’s another moment where Jason comes upon a character and they literally just stand there waiting to die. While there aren’t a lot of weird moments like these, they definitely stick out like sore thumbs and make the movie feel more uneven.

REPORT CARD

TLDRFriday the 13th Part Two is a rare sequel that fixes its predecessors mistakes while building on the aspects of it that fans love. Sure there are some oddball moments that feel out of place with the more grounded and realistic setting the movie tries to go for. Thankfully, none of these moments derail the movie when it’s at its best – delving into the psychology of its killer and providing tense and effective kill sequences.
Rating8.5/10
GradeB+

Go to Page 2 for the spoiler discussion.
Go to Page 3 to view this review’s progress report .

Pages: 1 2 3
1980s, 1981, B, Grade, Horror, Review, review-movie, slasher, Thriller, Year

Review: Halloween II

Leave a comment
Director(s)Rick Rosenthal
Principal CastJaime Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode
Donald Pleasence as Dr.Sam Loomis
Dick Warlock as Michael Myers
Release Date1981
Language(s)English
Running Time 92 minutes

Halloween II picks up immediately after the end of Halloween with Laurie being transferred to a hospital following her near fatal encounter with Michael. Unfortunately for her he’s not only alive but he’s also looking to finish what he started by taking her out of the picture. What follows is a Halloween skinned Friday the 13th style slasher that’s packed to the brim with spectacular kills and a score that’s as iconic as the originals.

I’ll be honest. I think that Halloween II introduces a plot point/reveal that the mainline Halloween franchise has never been able to satisfyingly deal with. It’s the core behind Michael’s motivation and deflates a lot of the ambiguity that makes him so frightening in the first movie. As a result everything from the first movie feels off. Myers goes from “the Shape” to a person with human desires. The issue is the movie then tries to reconcile that with his general supernatural and distant characterization and it comes off as confusing. Furthermore, the way the reveal happens is so cheap and tacked on that the entire movie feels like it could have happened without this scene’s inclusion. It feels lazy and out of place, which is made all the worse because it is literally the driving force behind the story.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I can absolutely say this movie is entertaining if you can look past this plot point. The kills are creative and the set-ups are well worth watching. There’s one scene in particular where a nurse thinks Michael is her lover, whom she doesn’t realize has already been killed off. Watching the scene play out demonstrates the fundamental identity issue with the movie. The scene is terrifying because you know what’s going to happen and the nurse’s manner of death is particularly dreadful to imagine. However, the drawn out almost comical nature of it feels counter to how decisive and no-nonsense he feels in the first part. It’s not like all the kill scenes are like this. In fact, Rosenthal has more than his fair share of voyeuristic camera kills like Carpenter had made all the more interesting by the long white hallways of the hospital. It’s just that when a kill happens that doesn’t fit in the with that general current you can feel how out of place it is. If you’re just looking for a slasher with innovative and entertaining kills, this movie has them in spades and I can see why so many fans of the franchise have a fondness for this movie.

The score is also noteworthy for being nearly as entertaining as the original’s, which I think is one of the most immersive scores in horror cinema. Carpenter’s new rendition of the iconic theme is similar enough to evoke the feelings of nostalgia but feels new and energetic. Granted, I love synth music but I also think the score perfectly captures what the movie wanted to do in hearkening back to the original while being it’s own thing. I love how the usually sweet and soothing “Mr. Sandman” by The Chordettes is utilized in the movie. It comes off as sinister and unnerving in context which I think is testament to how well Rosenthal nails atmosphere. The first time I heard it play while watching I thought it was coming from somewhere else because of how odd its selection felt in such a movie. However, if you ask me now, I can’t imagine the movie without the song.

The one aspect of the movie that I genuinely enjoyed and think was pulled off well throughout the movie is the fear of the holiday of Halloween. The idea that it’s a holiday filled with fear and repression is exemplified through multiple different actions that are only tangentially related. Near the beginning of the movie a child is in the Emergency Room and we get a glimpse of his bloodied mouth. It hearkens back to rumors of razors in candy-bars and the fear that our own neighbors could harm our children. Moments like these add a much needed texture to the movie that place the central conflict within the schema of traditional Halloween scares and fears. It doesn’t elevate the movie up to where Halloween is, but it certainly gives the movie a more distinctive identity than just die fodder die.

REPORT CARD

TLDRI have a love hate relationship with this movie. On the one hand I love that it feels and plays like a continuation of Halloween . You could literally play this as soon as the first movie ended and it would feel like one fully encompassing piece. The similarity is so uncanny that fan-cuts mixing the two movies feel seamless without close inspection. Unfortunately, this latter half of the two-parter undoes a lot of what made the original so frightening and interesting, settling instead for a Friday the 13th style slaughter fest with a hackneyed plot that serve as the story’s main driver. It’s an entertaining gore-fest but feels less elevated in its themes and atmosphere.
Rating8.0/10
GradeB

Go to Page 2 for the spoiler discussion.
Go to Page 3 to view this review’s progress report .

Pages: 1 2 3
1980s, 1981, A+, Grade, Horror, Review, review-movie, supernatural, Year

Review: The Evil Dead

Leave a comment
Director(s)Sam Raimi
Principal CastBruce Campbell as Ash Williams
Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl Williams
Hal Delrich as Scott
Betsy Baker as Linda
Theresa Tilly as Shelly
Release Date1981
Language(s)English
Running Time 85 minutes

This is one of the few western horror movies I grew up watching, so it’s near and dear to my heart. As a naive middle school student, I believed the reviews online that said it was cheesy and corny. The word funny was thrown around everywhere, so I went in thinking I’d be laughing a lot. After the movie, I was left horrified. Nightmares for days on end. Tons of high pitched cackling involved. I refused to go near it again. Then the soft reboot, Evil Dead, was announced. It looked scary and intriguing and I was immediately reminded of the terrors of my not so distant youth. I decided then and there, that I had to get over the movie eventually and immediately went and saw The Evil Dead. The movie still scared me, but because I knew what was going to happen, I could view the events with a certainty.I could sit back and just watch the madness unfold. Now that I’m done a few rewatches, I can confidently say Sam Raimi’s low budget horror movie is one of the best ever made. It manages to scare me, intrigue me, impress me, and make me chuckle a few times every time I put it on.

The plot is campy if you look at it from today’s standards but you should keep in mind the movie came out back in the 80’s and was considered one of the scariest back then. It was ahead of its time and dared to go to some awful, depraved places. The story follows a group of five teenage friends – Ash, his sister Cheryl, his girlfriend Linda, their friend Scott, and Scott’s girlfriend, ,Shelly – as they go off to a cabin in the woods to party and enjoy themselves. From the moment they step foot in the area, things are off. When Scott goes to open the door, a swing repeatedly knocks into the wall of the house, almost as if another entity is trying to enter. Once our group opens the door, the knocking stops creating a sense of impending doom. After a series of events leads to an incantation from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis being chanted , things quickly go south as malevolent supernatural entities come to play.

The movie is very much a story of an unfortunate group of “kids” who are only partially to blame for their situation. They barely have time to do anything because the action st arts almost immediately, and the actions they do end up taking are heavily influenced by the supernatural. It’s almost like they’re doomed into a situation. This is made all the worse because the story takes time to develop the characters, so watching them get tortured is hard. It’s a few moments here and there, but character motivations are fleshed out and almost everyone feels like they have a purpose in the story. Yes, the story is mainly about Ash, but that doesn’t mean everyone else just exists as a prop. The story makes use of these relationships to create horrifying, gut-wrenching, and comedic moments.

It’s easy to tell there are production issues. Yes, Raimi didn’t have a ton of money to spend to make this look realistic. So he doubles down on the absurdity of the situation and makes the action and horror sequences bloody, over the top, and disturbing all at the same time. Makeup is on point. It gets bloody and really shows the damage the supernatural events are having on the group. As evidenced by below, it can get pretty real.

Makeup is on point. The Deadites look absolutely horrific.

Embracing the over the top gore makes the movie both horrifying and comedic. The production issues feel like intentional ways of showcasing the absurdity of whatever is going on. In the face of absolutely nightmarish situations it makes so much sense to laugh, because taking it seriously would make you go crazy (which is more Evil Dead 2). The humor doesn’t come from overt jokes. It comes from the juxtaposition of ineptitude with the horrific nature of what’s going on. Bruce Campbell goes full klutz as Ash. He finds a way to fall or crash in every scene, and puts his full energy into each and every tumble. You can feel the incompetence seep out of him. Add on some crazy facial expressions with his distinctive eyebrows, and suddenly every situation becomes a bit funnier. The spirits haunting the cabin also have a sick sense of humor. They love laughing in horrific sounding cackles and joking about everyone’s darkest fears. They actually relish just making people suffer. It’s funny in the moment, but every time I stop and think about the reality of what’s going on, I shudder. There’s a lot of messed up stuff here that I laughed at because taking it seriously was too off-putting. One scene involving Cheryl has stuck with me ever since I saw it. I have no idea how it got in there, but if sexual assault scenes that are visceral in nature are too much for you, you might want to watch it with a buddy.

To add on to all of the visual splatter and horror, the movie employs a lot of surreal/abstract imagery. There are recurring motifs that are fun to track throughout the movie that have you questioning their real purpose. These scenes are my favorite because I love that weird ambiguous artsy stuff that has you analyzing and re-contextualizing constantly. There are some more obvious symbols/icons that are also used to great effect, so the movie manages to balance the abstract with the “grounded” really well. It lends to a well crafted horror movie that has scares for multiple groups of people.

The camera movement is also exceptional and highly effective. Raimi knows exactly when to do close-ups and every time he does one it feels purposeful. No movement ever feels wasted. When the supernatural force is hunting down the members of the group, the camera moves frantically showing it choosing its next victim. It’s almost like the air and everything around the cabin is tinged with a negativity that seeks to envelop everything.

REPORT CARD

TLDRThe Evil Dead is a movie that manages to be hilariously over-the-top and horrifying at the same time. The humor is dark and absurd in nature and is used to counterbalance the violence and splatter-fests the movie ventures off into. If you can get over the “dated” feel and/or watch the movie as if it’s 1981, you’ll get swept up in one of the scariest horror movies made. A surreal nightmare turned black comedy.
Rating9.8/10
GradeA+

Go to Page 2 to view this review’s progress report .

Pages: 1 2