Slasher Mania

(in case you missed the dancing predators video i posted last year here it is again)

Happy Halloween folks!  We finally fuckin’ made it.  This season I seem to have watched more than my fair share of different and interesting horror pictures.  It’s always a mixed bag but I did well this round.  I hope that doesn’t mean next year is gonna suck.   Anyway, some other notables that I didn’t get to write about that I recommend are Brain Damage (nothing’s gonna beat Frankenhooker but Frank Henenlotter is the fucking man), The Stuff (from director Larry Cohen who did It’s Alive and wrote the Maniac Cop series), Bride of Frankenstein (very sequel-ish and I don’t get why a lot of people think this is better than its predecessor but it’s still a cool continuation of the story) and Demons 2 (not as good as the first one but still very fun and worth checking out).  Now on to Slasher Mania (and be sure to check back for Vampire Mania in the next couple of days).

Bloody Birthday

I liked Bloody Birthday and I wonder why this isn’t more well known.  It’s a great twist on the slasher genre with children being the killers instead of an adult or even a teenager.  Don’t worry, you know this from the get go so I’m not spoiling anything.  It was smart to not focus on the whodunit part and instead make it more about just how evil these kids are.  I was kinda mesmerized throughout the whole thing wondering how they were gonna kill their next victim, how far they were gonna take this shit, who was finally gonna have to take these sonsabitches down and does that mean children are gonna die on screen at the end of this?  That’s ballsy man.  This will really make you hate kids if you don’t already.  Check it out guys this was a cool one.

Side note: Michael Dudikoff (American Ninja) has a small part in this but I didn’t spot him.

Dr. Giggles

Slasher 101.  You got a dude out for revenge against a group of people, a gang of teens fight the good doctor (that was sarcasm, he’s bad really…actually he’s not a doctor at all), there’s a female protagonist, a fake ending, and puns.  Holy shit are there a lot of puns.  Every single doctor phrase that you’ve heard in your life is in here.  They do “you might want to get a second opinion”, “take two and call me in the morning”, “the doctor is in”, “is there a doctor in the house” and a million others.  I have to admit I was impressed that this film managed to cram so many in and ok, it was a little funny sometimes, but if you don’t like that shit then stay away.

Overall this one’s just ok.  The ending is cool and I especially liked the part where Dr. Giggles says “it’s time to do what doctors do best” and pulls out a golf club to use as a weapon.  Oh and get this, he really does giggle a lot.  The filmmakers showed restraint by not having the doctor spill over into full blown laughter.  Good for them.  But come on guys, that’s a silly fucking trademark and title to give your serial killer.          

Eaten Alive

This was the very next movie Tobe Hooper did after Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it’s surprisingly not horrible.  I’m not sure if it’s good really but there’s a little something there.  The story is real simple involving a redneck Texan hotel manager (Neville Brand (Birdman of Alcatraz)) that kills his guests and feeds them to his crocodile.  Brand does a good acting job ‘n all but his character isn’t scary or even very interesting.  He’s just kind of a crazy ol’ coot that can’t control himself and acts on his urges to murder folks.  Not much else to say.

The thing that makes this just a tad interesting is that it can be pretty damn trippy at times.  The whole film is fairly cartoony but that cartooniness gets out of hand sometimes.  Like this incredibly vivid bright red lighting is used for a while towards the beginning, this one family’s reaction to a croc attack is a little bizarre with the father becoming unhinged and there’s other shit.

According to IMDB Hooper had, you guessed it, creative differences during filming so who knows how much weirder this piece would’ve been.  He seems to not get along with anyone on anything that he works on.  As for Eaten Alive I don’t think you really need to see it.