Curse Of Chucky (2013)

Just with the title of this entry, I can already hear some of you asking, what’s the deal with Linus not reviewing anything out of the 80’s lately? It’s not that I’ve stayed away and given up the whole reason why this blog exists, it’s just that I’ve been branching out myself a taking in some new styles and trying out new things. Though my eighties collection is very extensive, I’ve been talking to some horror fans within recent months and I’ve been exchanging stories with them about movies we love and one of them had some nice things to say about this blog. But the one thing that surprised me was that he told me that I needed to learn to experience more modern films – which everyone knows how I feel about that – and to sit through titles I would not normally take a gander at on my own. Needless to say, I took the chance and walked away from my comfort zone for a little while and I have to admit that I’ve been rather disappointed at some of the drivel I’ve been subjecting myself to so I stopped altogether.

So when I heard the news that there was going to be a new entry in the beloved Child’s Play series, without even thinking, I immediately dismissed the idea. Though I loved the original and its immediate sequel, I am not a fan of either Bride Of or Seed of Chucky for reasons we won’t get into right now. They just weren’t my style, plain and simple. So I did some research on this new entry and read that it was going to revert to the stylings of the first film and be more straight-forward horror than the dark humor that its two predecessors were known for. And even though that was enough to spark an interest in me, I’ve been very disillusioned with the recent trend of endless remakes and reboots that have been coming out of the Hollywood anus with none of them satisfying me in any way, shape, or form so why would this film tied to a beloved 80’s franchise be any different? (Evil Dead, anyone?)

Now if you grew up in the Regan era and can remember when the first Child’s Play was released you probably can recall the controversy it caused when it came out in theaters. If I remember correctly, I was a lad in the eighth grade and in the area I was living at the time, the film became an instant hit. I remember a teacher in our school going on about the movie stating that she was afraid that it was going to have kids ‘glamorize violence’ and that ‘it was sad that Hollywood was taking the childhoods of many with this film’. Of course, in my house there was no way that I was going to be able to go to the theater to see it, though many of my friends did as it was the talk of the playground for at least a month. There was the whole talk about the soon-to-be-iconic antagonist Chucky being a rip-off of the My Buddy dolls of that era and how many kids who owned one suddenly didn’t want them anymore and that Child’s Play was the sole reason the My Buddy (and Kid Sister) dolls faded into obscurity. Was that true? Probably not, but it was enough to keep the film on the tongues of everyone during the fall of 1988.

About a week before this new installment was released, I did some research on it and was happy to read that Don Mancini had written it (who’d done every single sequel to date) and that Brad Dourif would be reprising role as the titular character and that Dourif’s daughter Fiona would be starring as Nica, the main character. The more I read about the film, the more curious I became, especially since this one was staying away from the plots and styles of the previous two films. But the thing that was ultimately piquing my curiosity was that this chapter was going to be released direct-to-video. Now, with the huge success the franchise has had up to this point and the loyal cult following that it’s had since its inception, why would this not be allowed to have a theatrical run, especially with Dourif as Chucky? Clearly all of the installments of the franchise have gone on to be highly successful so why not let this one have that same chance?

 

I then went ahead and contacted a friend of mine who was able to send me an advance copy of the film as the curiosity was starting to really kill me. I had already seen the artwork for the film’s poster and loved the idea that the producers had taken Chucky and returned him to a more ‘toned-down’ and old-school look. I immediately fell in love with the cover and became even more excited. Which is why when I got it in the mail about a week before it’s official DVD release (it had already been released VOD) I took aside a huge part of the evening and sat down in front of it as I knew I was going to be watching something really good. At least, I was hoping that it would be. I popped into the DVD player and sat down with my popcorn, hoping for the best. (Beware, major spoilers follow. So if you haven’t seen this yet…)

The film opens up with a package being delivered to the home of the Pierce family and Nica, a paraplegic girl, signing for it. When she opens it up, she discovers a Good Guy doll to which she shows to her mother, Sarah. That night, Sarah is unexplainably killed and her death ruled a suicide. Nica’s older sister, Barb, husband Ian, their daughter Alice and Jill, the live-in nanny all come to the house for the funeral as with a priest named Father Frank. Immediately upon seeing the doll, Alice claims the doll as her own and keeps him. The first thing that I notice about the film is that it is being told in a linear fashion and is a bit darker and moodier than I’d expected. When Nica makes a chili dinner for everyone, Chucky sneaks into the kitchen and poisons one of the bowls. When Father Frank ingests the chili, he dismisses himself from the group and is then involved in a fatal car crash (with a great decapitation scene!). Back at the house, the group is sitting in front of some home movies and here we see Sarah at a young age (pregnant with Nica, in fact) and their now-deceased father. We find out here that Nica and Barb’s father drowned shortly after the film they are watching was taken and in the distance stands a long-haired man wearing sunglasses. When Nica questions who he is, Barb simply replies, “Probably an old neighbor from Chicago”. Alice comes into the room as she’s lost Chucky and can’t find him. As her mother and Jill begin looking for the doll, they both go into the kitchen and we are suddenly given a gratuitous shot of the two ladies kissing and discover that they are secret lovers with Ian being clueless to their relationship. Now, I’m going to stop here and utter the following because it’s got to be said: Did we really need that? Not that I have anything against that sort of thing but that part of the plot felt a bit tacked on as the rest of the story could have been told without it. But that’s just me. So when we return to Nica going back into the living room, we see that Chucky is now seated next to a sleeping Ian. When he grabs the doll, Nica asks him if he remembered the dolls in particular to which he cleverly utters, “We’re the 80’s great?”

 

 

Determined to find out exactly where the doll came from, Nica goes onto the internet and does some research only to discover that the doll is linked to murderer Charles Lee Ray and a slew of unsolved Chucky murders. While this is going on, a storm is rumbling outside as Barb puts Alice to bed. As Jill comes into the girl’s room a little later to sleep with her (here we get a ridiculous scene of Jill taking her clothes off and opening her laptop to give Barb a peep show while she’s in the next room), Chucky kills Jill, knocking over a bucket of rainwater that’s leaked from the ceiling onto the power outlets on the floor. Was I impressed with this? Of course not, as I predicted that would happen as soon as I saw the bucket. So this basically messes up the entire house and as Barb gets up to see what’s going on in the next room, a pissed off Ian confronts her about her affair with the nanny and threatens to have Alice taken away from her. Here, he dons some earplugs and puts them on in an attempt to drown out a now pissed off Barb and she storms out. As she goes into the hallway, she sees Chucky sitting at the foot of the stairs leading to the attic. Thinking Alice may be up there, she grabs the doll and climbs the stairs. As she looks for her daughter, Nica know knows that something is amiss with Chucky and tries to warn her sister to leave the doll alone. Barb comes out of the attic and the two sisters begin to fight and Barb becomes furious as Nica begins to tell her about the connection of Chucky to the unsolved murders yet Barb is thinking Nica knew about the cam conversation between her and Jill and she storms back upstairs to look for Alice. With the storm having knocked out the elevator, she climbs out of her wheelchair and pushes her way up the stairs in hopes of getting to Barb before something terrible happens. It is here where Barb discovers a knife by Chucky and foolishly puts him and the knife down as she continues to look for her daughter. When she turns around, she finds Chucky on a shelf behind her, but something is different. His face! She walks toward him slowly and reaches for a piece of loose plastic that’s coming off his lip. With this, the scars on his face are revealed (an obvious reference to Child’s Play 3) and when she goes back to put her finger in his mouth, he goes for it and kills Barb, stabbing her in the eye and gouging it out. As Nica struggles to make it to the top of the stairs, she hears a noise and looks up and watches as Barb’s eye comes bouncing down the staircase (If you ask me, this was a complete homage to The Changeling as it was done in almost the exact same manner). Barb emerges from the attic and collapses, dead.

 

 

Nica manages to grab the spare wheelchair in the closet and rushes to wake the sleeping Ian to let him know what’s happened. They rush to the garage to hide and as he leaves Nica to go and search for Alice, Chucky climbs into the parked car and turns it on in an attempt to kill her by means of carbon monoxide poisoning. Here is where Ian returns, and now after having seen the carnage upstairs, he is convinced that Nica is the murderer. As he confronts her, she begins to have what appears to be a heart attack and passes out, waking up later, her hands bound to her wheelchair as she pleads with Ian that the culprit is, indeed, Chucky himself. Claiming that he could prove it was her with the nanny-cam he’d planted on the doll earlier to capture the affair between Barb and Jill, he begins to watch the recorded footage only to see that Nica was telling the truth! Quickly switching to the ‘live footage’ option, he sees that Chucky has not only come into the room with them, but he is standing right behind Nica. He pushes the wheelchair onto Ian, knocking him to the floor. With one swift move, the doll takes the axe that was left in the garage and gets Ian right in the jaw, taking it right off. Nica and Chucky begin to struggle and taking the axe, he get Nica right in the knee and she slaps the shit out of him, knocking him off her. She pulls the blade out of her knee and gives the doll and good whack, knocking his head off his body. But, of course, you’d be silly to think that it’s all over, right? And you’d be even sillier to think that Chucky wouldn’t re-attach his own head back to his body, right? With that said, he takes his own head, attaches it back to his body and grabs the wheelchair, pushing it out the door and knocking her over the side of the stairs to the main floor below.

 

 

Now, this is where the film takes an interesting turn.

As Chucky meets her downstairs, the film takes a great twist. It is revealed here that Charles Lee Ray was a friend of the Pierce’s and we see that he was the stranger in the home movies that the girls had been watching at the beginning of the film. He confesses that he was in love with Sarah but since she was married and pregnant, he couldn’t have her. Taking it upon himself to drown and kill their father, he kidnaps Sarah a little while after the funeral and keeps her hostage secluded away from everyone. During a great flashback scene we see Charles Lee Ray hovering over Sarah, telling her he is about to go pick up Barb from school. As she resists, the two get into an argument and he threatens to kill her, pulling out a red knife with a white stripe! The knife from the very first film! We then find out that Sarah called the police and as they approach his hiding place, he stabs Sarah in the stomach injuring the unborn Nica, causing her to become born paraplegic. Now here’s what made me smile: As the cops come to take him into custody, Charles Lee Ray flees only to end up at the toy shop from the first film (using clips from the original Child’s Play) therefore having the entire franchise come full circle.  We get treated to a little reminder of how everything got its start. I loved how the backstory was seamlessly interwoven into the plot of the current film, technically setting off the chain of events that would begin the entire franchise! Very well done!

So then comes the final confrontation between Chucky and Nica that begins with a terrifying struggle and ending with a knife being plunged into Chucky’s back. But, to her own horror, she goes to look at the wound to only find fluff and she pulls it out of him…which means he’s still alive! As this is going on, the cop who was around when Father Frank was killed appears at the Pierce house and busts inside, looking around and seeing blood everywhere and Barb’s body atop the stairs. And to make matters worse, not only is Nica still holding the knife she ‘killed’ Chucky with, but the doll himself is perched once again in the chair he was in at the beginning of the film, leaving all the fingers pointing to poor Nica. She is taken into custody and declared insane in court as she’s tried for the murders of Ian, Barb and Jill and as she’s wheeled away, Chucky himself is Exhibit D and she chastises him, telling him that even though everything has happened and as hard as he tried to dispose of her, she is still alive. As she’s being wheeled away, we see the same cop who discovered the scene at the Pierce home staring at the doll perched on the table in front of him. Cut to the parking garage outside the courthouse, we see that he’s stolen the doll and placed it in an evidence bag and takes it out to his car. He pulls out his cell and makes a call, leaving a voice message from someone that he has the doll and ‘not to forget his money’. As he hangs up, he looks over at the bad and sees that something inside is breathing! And just as he tries to figure out what is going on, someone emerges from the back seat and violently slits his throat with what appears to be a nail file. It’s Tiffany (Bride of/Seed of Chucky)!  What the fuck?! We then see her asking Chucky (as she’s boxing him up), “Who’s next?”

Cut to Tiffany walking into a shipping/postal office with a boxed up Chucky ready to be sent. It is here we can deduce that she’s forgiven Chucky for the events that happened toward the end of Seed of Chucky. We then cut to an apartment and see that Alice is alive and well and living with her grandmother. We see an open package on the kitchen counter and when Alice comes in to the room she beams with delight as she sees the doll. “You found me, Chucky!” she exclaims. When she asks for the whereabouts of her grandmother, he tells her she’s in the cellar. Chucky then tells Alice that he wants to play “Hide the Soul” and begins to recite the chant that first transferred his soul into the Good Guy doll at the start of the first film. We then see the camera pan off and see Alice’s grandmother emerge from the bottom of the screen, plastic bag over her head…still alive.

Bottom line, I loved this film. I was so pissed off that this wasn’t given the chance to run in theaters as I think it would have done really, really well. The story was well-told (though I’ll admit that it was a bit slow at first) and there was simplicity to the way everything was set up that allowed the film to flow freely and without confusion. Maybe it was a bit too simple now that I think about it, but I think if it would have been even a little more complex than it was, it would have not had the same effect. The mood was set up well, the house the Pierce’s lived in was very gothic in some ways and I do like how all of the events in the film took place within the house itself. That allowed the viewer to be focused on the story without being distracted by change in locales. Brad Dourif’s performance as Chucky was superb as it always has been but this time I liked that his performance was more reminiscent of the first two films. I honestly ended up liking it more than I thought I would (being that as of this writing I’ve seen it four times) and I thought it was a brilliant and actually acceptable entry in the franchise. It’s a shame that this couldn’t be shown on the big screen as I think it would have done great box-office, especially with all the shit that has been released in recent memory.

But…everything that I’ve mentioned here couldn’t compare to what followed the end credits. Now, I do need to clear up here that the DVD version that I got does not have what I’m about to reveal here as it’s a shame as this was the best part of the entire film. Whether or not it’s included on the Unrated version isn’t known by me as I think I have the standard version. The only reason that I was even made aware of it was thank to Wikipedia as I was quickly re-reading the plot as preparation for this entry and read this tacked on at the very end. So, here goes: Apparently, as soon as the final credits end, we are treated to a wonderful post-credit sequence with a delivery truck at an apartment making a delivery to Andy Barclay, protagonist of the first film. He opens the door and signs for it and he takes it, putting it on the table as he answers a phone call. It’s his mother and from what we can derive, it’s Andy’s birthday. As he tells her not to make a fuss, or buy him anything (!!), we see a knife come out the top of the box as something slowly slices its way out. Chucky has come to finally get Andy!…or so we think. So as Chucky sits up in the box and looks around for his first owner, he gasps as he sees Andy holding a shotgun to his face! And as Andy wonderfully delivers the line, “Play with this!”, he pulls the trigger and the screen goes black implying that once and for all, Andy has finally done away with his arch-nemesis.

 

 

This was a fantastic attempt at a reboot and I hate to say, but some of the production companies who have made similar attempts in the past with no luck should take notes as this is how it should be done. Bring in new characters, yes, but place them in a story that can immediately remind us of the films that you’re trying to re-capture. These companies that are trying to market 80’s remakes to a brand new generation should think again and market them to us 40-somethings who were around when the original films were released as we would be the ones go see them versus these kids who wouldn’t know the first think about a horror film, much less one made during the time their parents were in grade school. This is one to sit in front of at least once, but take it from me having sat in front of it for the fourth time that it’s worth getting into your collection. You can quote me on this if you’d like but Linus says this is the first reboot in the form of a sequel that I stand behind all the way. I’m actually hoping that another will follow this one – even though that post credit sequence has possibly put a damper on that – and believe me, if it’s even remotely done in the same manner and fashion, I’ll be standing in line for it. Welcome back, Chucky! We missed ya!

Hide and Go Shriek (1988)

The end of the eighties brought the downward spiral of the slasher film.

There were alot of factors that contributed to this: Maybe many of the low budget studios that were churning these out were finally seeing that their fruits were no longer profitable? Maybe there was a growing lack of un-interest in these types of films and studios didn't see the need to give out out hordes of cash to have less-than-Hollywood movie makers churn these out by the dozen? I have always wanted to know what really caused the fall of the slasher film by the time the greatest decade in history came to a close. But, if you paid any attention, some films were made at the end of this golden era that surpassed many of its predecessors in both style and content.

I'm walking through the isles of the H-E-B grocery store on Old Highway 83 in Weslaco, Texas. It's a hot Saturday during the summer of 1989 and I'm heading to the front of the store to where the videos were all lined up nicely in a attempt to get away from my parents for a while. The Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Town" is playing above me on the muzak and I'm walking like I'm a big 'ol badass just because I'm sporting a pair of hand-me-down British Knights. You know what's even funnier? I can hear you, the reader, laughing to yourself as you read that last sentence. Not because you're laughing at me, but because you probably did the exact same thing back then. At any rate, this particular store introduced me to slasher favorites Sleepaway Camp, Terror Vision and The Last House on the Left. But the box on the left (in VHS form, mind you) brings back the fondest memories of that store.

I remember picking it up and being fascinated by the film's clever title. That's one thing that - sadly - I'm a sucker for. A clever title, a warning that the footage contained in the video you're distributing is "too shocking for theatrical release" and you've pretty much have got me sold. About a year or two later, this film disappeared off the shelf of this store and then, the store disappeared altogether in favor of a much larger store with a larger video rental area that was propped on the other side of the city. Sadly, I don't remember seeing this title again until 1999, when a Brownsville, Texas mom and pop video rental that still charged for memberships had this on its horror roster. One night, my then significant other and I were browsing the shelves and I picked this one up, eager for him to take it home for me. He instantly shot me down, stating that my love for eighties horror was "childish and unbecoming of me" and that was that: The movie was going to be left there on the shelf just as I'd found it. Not that it really mattered, but I had this feeling that I was never going to see this particular title in print ever again. And I didn't see it again, until 2006 when I snagged a copy up on ebay and finally added it to my collection. I 'oohed' and 'ahhed' when I finally held it in my hands again and unless you are like myself, a die hard slasher buff with fond memories of the days of the mom and pop video store, you wouldn't even to begin to understand my happiness as I popped it into the my third of six Videocassette Recorders that I own and sat back to watch. After years of waiting, this was the night.

Before I begin with the film's actual review, let me say that when you boast on your cover that you are similar to Friday the 13th and Halloween, you're really not setting your viewers up for much. Well, it's not fair that you're tell your viewers exactly what to expect. If you are a non-horror fan, or at least not a fan enough to seek out slasher obscurities such as this, you would pretty much, without even thinking about it, instantly classify the film as another run-of-the-mill slasher. I mean everyone has seen Friday the 13th and Halloween so why would your little film be any different than those two blockbusters and definers of the genre in those days? But I digress. The film opens up with a group of teens who have just graduated from high school and who are going to celebrate their new-found freedom in the annals of a furniture store belonging to the parents of John Robbins, the obvious jock and leader of the group. As they sneak in and the store closes, all hell begins to break loose as the kids are picked off one by one by an unseen killer. Seriously, this is pretty much Friday the 13th in a furniture store. But, don't dismiss the film just yet.

The film oozes eighties charm from the very beginning. The clothes, the hairstyles, the way the kids interact with each other - the music. It's wonderful in its own right and not to sound cheesy, but it reminds me of when I was a kid and when times were just much more simpler. While on the surface the film seems to appear just like the rest of them - which in reality, it is with a few exceptions - you've got to take the whole "furniture store" bit into consideration. Since this film, there has never been another horror film set in a furniture store so just for that, the film gets an instant twenty points. The (obvious) lackluster gore that could have made the film that much better is compensated with some genuine moments of suspense and terror that you don't find in many movies of that time period. The mood is sometimes very claustrophobic (the scene in the bathroom!!) and very tense in some parts and that's what makes this one stand out. If you just shut up and give the film a chance, you will end up liking it and wonder why it didn't have much more of a following back then. All the actors are "eye candy" (especially extreme hottie Sean Kanan) and they're presented to us as a group of honest kids who were just trying to have some fun and do nobody harm.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us discuss the film's extremely bizarre and even more unexpected plot twist:

Shit, even I didn't see that train wreck coming.

I won't give it away but I will go on record that this is one of the most bizarre and out-of-left-field endings I've ever seen. Four Words: Gay Romance Gone Bad. That's all I will say. I sat there with my mouth agape, jaw almost hitting the floor at the weirdness of how the whole plot took the exit off the highway and didn't bother to come back. It was about as strange as the ending of Sleepaway Camp minus the nudity, of course. As strange as this "revelation" is at the film's close, it gave the film a trademark of its own, which is something that 80's films were all about at one point: Who could give the audience something they'd never seen before and let me tell you, even I as a horror aficionado would have never expected what transpired during the last ten minutes. And for that bizarreness alone it gets two thumbs up. It's ends up being one of those slasher films that flew under the the radar during its theatrical run and got its audience on video. If you see this one lying around on VHS (as there hasn't been an official U.S. DVD release - and there may never be one), grab it and check it out. It's worth looking at once. The VHS claims to be "unrated" but I didn't see anything over the top that I hadn't seen in other films. But overall, the film is great in its own ways and at some points manages to top some of its competitors and counterparts of that time period.

Body Count (Camping del Terrore) (1987)

In my book, I have a theory that a horror film can sometimes be summed up on its obscurity factor alone. Though I don't have many films on my list that actually prove that, I like to believe that it's fathomable. For example, my previous post for the ultra-obscure Last House on Dead End Street. Had never heard of it until a few years ago, never laid eyes on it until just the other night and though it didn't completely meet my expectations, it came pretty damn close. 

Body Count better known as the awesomely-alternately-titled Camping del Terrore

(Oh, come on, where have you heard of another horror film with a name that is cooler that that?), was one of those films that I'd heard about back in the day but never saw that it really existed. It was one of those that I'd heard about and read about but never really knew if it was a film that was actually in print, or one those that was mere hype. The reason I felt that way was because in all of my years as a horror aficionado, I had never seen, nor to this day have I seen, this film in print be it on VHS or DVD. So I did what every collector would do in this situation: Hit up Ebay. And of course, no luck. And if I did see it for sale, of course it went for silly money.

I posted a note on iMDB about this film and I got an email several weeks later from a fellow collector in the lovely state of New Jersey who told me that he would be happy to forward me a (legitimate) copy of the film to screen for this blog. Of course, I accepted and within about two week's time, I was sitting in front of my big screen television, popping this one in. I will forever hold the grudge against him that he didn't pass along a word of warning about this little ditty.

The plot is quite simple: A gang of college kids take a trip to the dark woods of Colorado during their Summer vacation to sort of "get away" from everything. While scouting the area, they run across a young hitchhiker named Ben who will lead them to his father's campsite out in the country. The place is located in the middle of nowhere and it appears at first glance to be the perfect place to spend the weekend. What these kids don't know is that the camp sort of has a "reputation" that involves an old local legend of a Shaman- half-man, half-beast. to believe, As they spent more time there they all realize one by one that the Shaman is indeed real and it's ready to kill them. Seems like a plot we can all relate to, right? Wow, I couldn't have been more wrong. If you know my taste in old-school horror, there is nothing I love more than to sit with some popcorn, a cold Pepsi and watch a stalk-and-slash film. As cookie-cutter as all stalk-and-slash films are (with the exception of a few hidden gems out there like Curtains and Maniac), I can easily overlook that minor flaw and give the film I'm screening the benefit of the doubt. But this one, sadly, was an exception to the rule.

First of all, the print I received was the darkest, murkiest thing I'd seen since Humongous, a film known for it's dark and almost completely unwatchable night footage. This was just as bad. Some of the death scenes occur at night and it was almost impossible to see what was going on. But that wasn't the most frustrating thing about this film. The pace is quite slow, the storyline wasn't able to keep my attention, but most of all: What a waste of David Hess! Every horror fan who has seen him in film like Last House on the Left or The House on the Edge of the Park knows and loves what this man can bring to a role. Forget Jason and Freddy, Krug was the man you loved to hate! There is brutal honesty when you put Hess in a role, especially as a villain. But to see him in one where he doesn't even play the bad guy? What the hell? I'm not used to seeing him as a passive father. But I digress. The only thing that was worse was knowing that this snoozer was directed by non-other than Cannibal Holocaust director Rugero Deotato who also helmed The House on the Edge of the Park. Let's not go there, shall we?

Long story short, the shaman does still exist (or does he?) and the kids get picked off one by one in bloody fashions blah-blah-blah. Usually in this genre of film there is always at least one thing that I can claim as a redeeming feature be it an actor who I can mark as the "eye candy" of the film (where in this case there was none), or a particular gore scene that caught my eye (where, also, in this case there was none). The only thing that came close was the film's final scene which left the view to decide if the shaman-beast in question really did exist. I can't go as far as to say that this is the worst slasher-in-the-words picture I've seen - that honor goes to The Prey - but it should have been a hell of a lot more than it was. For all the time I spent searching for this - no offense to Michael who was nice enough to send this film to me - there was absolutely no pay off. Unless you're a collector of Deodato's films or are a die-hard David Hess fan, there really is no point in seeking this one out solely on merit alone. As obscure and as hard to find as this film is, after seeing it, I've realized there's a reason...

Friday the 13th - Part 2 (1981)

The true horror-film devotee can easily name you not one, not two, but several different films in the genre that have gone on to not only spawn a sequel or two, but ones that have gone off to become million-dollar franchises, each one as bankable as the next. From mainstream knowns as Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street to the more obscure and lesser-seen titles as Children of the Corn and Hellraiser, the genre as a whole is scattered with plenty of sequels to keep any fan's palette happy. But amidst all the endless titles on the shelves at the local Blockbuster, no franchise stands out more nor has had the impact upon the world that the Friday the 13th series has had. And this was the sequel to begin all sequels.

The movie takes place five years after the events that happened on the shores of Crystal Lake in the first film. All horror die-hards know the story of how Alice (Adrienne King), still trying to free herself from the memory of what happened there, is hiding away in her home away from the outside world. She is quickly killed off by an unknown killer and left to die. Side Bar: Did you know that this movie holds the honour of being one of the few films in cinema history with a pre-credit sequence totalling over fifteen minutes? Not bad for a horror sequel, huh? But, could this be the maniacal Jason whom she told police she'd seen rise up from the annals of the lake itself? We instantly move to Camp Packanack where a new set of young and nubile counselors are setting up to re-open the camp despite the warning from local doom-preacher crazy Ralph. Leading this new group is experienced head camp counselor Paul Holt and his faithful sidekick Ginny (fan favorite Amy Steel) - one dedicated to train the other counselors in the good 'ol ways of survival in the woods, the other to allow the kids to goof off once in a while and enjoy their surroundings, and each other. Seems like the perfect team. But little do we know there is a romantic history behind them.

The problems begin when Paul decides to gather the counselors in front of a roaring campfire and scare them with the legend of Jason Voorhees and his mother and the bloodbath that took place years prior. This not only scares everyone, but it sparks the curiosity of two of the counselors-to-be, Jeff and Sandra (who's brother will avenge her death in The Final Chapter) to take a peek at the now-condemned - and off limits - area once known as Camp Crystal Lake, better known to them as "Camp Blood". When they're brought back by an officer patrolling the area, it also sparks the curiosity of Ginny, who makes her opinions and thoughts known while some of the group enjoys one last night out of the town during a rainstorm. Could the legend of Jason and his mother be true? Did Jason really see his mother killed that night on the lake shore? Is a real maniac hiding in the woods ready to kill to avenge his mother's death? Is that a real KISS pinball machine in the pub's background? Inquiring minds want to know!

Meanwhile, back at the cabins, teen-aged hormones are running rampant. Couples having decided to stay behind are pairing up, enjoying the rain outside form the inside and enjoying each other just the same. Especially Jeff and Sandra, forced to stay behind as their penance for their foray into the wilderness without permission. But, unbeknownst to them, something is lurking outside watching their every move. Sounds like every other slasher film cliche, doesn't it? But Part 2 goes for panache and delivers it well, even though it totally borrows from the Italian giallo shocker Reazione a Catena better known to the U.S. horror-loving world as Twitch of the Death Nerve or Bay of Blood directed by maestro Mario Bava. Almost all the death scenes are alike: The machete across the neck, the machete in the face, and the world-famous double-impalement on a bed. I didn't really believe it until I took both films and played them side by side and there's a lot of truth to it, which surprised me. Was Steve Miner's intention to re-do Bay of Blood by means of a Friday sequel? Or was he secretly paying direct homage to the film itself hoping die-hard horror buffs would get the tongue-in-cheek references? There are horror experts out there who even claim that the original Friday the 13th borrowed from the same film: Simon, the killer in that film and Mrs. Voorhees shared the same blue-knitted sweater! Because of these explicit scenes, the MPAA chopped this one up like a chicken salad, taking the best out and leaving barely enough to savour. If you own the original Paramount VHS version, look on the back and you will see that a still from the cut scene of the double-impalement is proudly slapped on the back of the box! And it was even omitted from the DVD sleeve! Something like that deserves a "WTF"? But more on that later.

The film is the first to showcase Jason, and in my opinion, this is the scariest he's ever been. The sack over his head - again, maybe borrowed from The Town that Dreaded Sundown - to me, is creepier than the hockey mask any day. Especially in the scene where he sits up from the bed when Vicky is looking for Sandra and Jeff. Yowza, that still gives me the heebies. There isn't much to Jason in reality, since he doesn't appear really until the film's closing act. But what we see does deliver and it delivers good. From the moment Ginny delivers the classic line, "Paul there's someone in this fucking room!" the action really begins. And it's one hell of a fun ride. This one for me is the best of the many sequels that would follow the original film, though Jason Lives comes in at a close second. Steve Miner's direction is charismatic and flamboyant and he showed us how much fun being scared to could be. And not many films can do that for me. The film's final minutes in which Ginny dons Mrs. Voorhee's sweater and tries to outwit the son-of-a-bitch - Remember, it's mentioned at the beginning of the film that she has a degree in child psychology - are fantastic and are quite clever if you really think about it. How they got Betsy Palmer to return in the second film is something to think about. She did call the first installment a "piece of shit", remember? But her short performance here steals the show. And I'm glad that the original idea of closing shot was never done. I've read that the original closing shot was going to have the eyes of Mrs. Voorhees' decomposing head open and her smile at the camera. That would have ruined the film for me. What they kept was just perfect.

Now, back to the "WTF" moments and questions posed by this film, and I'm sure I'm not the only one to ask these, but here goes. 1) In the first act, when Ginny and Paul are in the cabin alone - in the seconds before Ralph is killed - she kisses him and says, "Paul, I think there's something I need to tell you." That is never explored in the film and the question is never answered. What was she going to say to him? Was she pregnant? Was she out of condoms? Was her monthly visitor in town for the weekend?** I had never really noticed that question until just the other night when I sat down for my yearly Halloween dosage of this film. So, what was she going to say?! 2) What the hell happened to Paul? Friday history says he was killed off screen, but could this really be true? Maybe when Jason broke through the window, Paul made a run for it, got into his car and disappeared? Paul is the only character in the series who's whereabouts are never explained. Did he really die? And if he did, why did Jason spare Ginny instead of him? She was the one who tried to kill him. She was the one that tried to fool him by channeling his mother. So why him? and 3) What did the other counselors who had been out all night come back to find? We don't see anything but the ambulance and police car at the end of the film. Case in point: Ted, played by Stu Charno, is one of the main characters in the first half of the film, then he just disappears and we never hear anything about him again - why wasn't he brought back at the film's close?


(**Ginny was on her monthly. Remember Paul's line about bears and menses?)

This one remains in my top 10 of all time favorites. I watch this one more than the original film itself, maybe because I have more fun with this one as I'm still creeped out by the first film. This one delivers the scares but it does it on a different level. The first one was gloomier and it had more of a dreaded type of tone. Most horror-fans have this in their collections, I would assume. I own the original Paramount VHS, it's 90's re-release on the Paramount/Gateway label, and the Paramount DVD. I wished that Paramount would have included more in their special features in these films besides the theatrical trailer. Maybe a mini-documentary on how this sequel was contrived would have been a treat for fans. Though there is an uncut version of the original film that can be found on the likes of ebay, I've never heard of an uncut version of this film. I am aware of a television version in which alternate scenes are used that exists and currently, I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of it. Check this one out if you haven't seen it yet. Honestly, if you're reading this, you've seen it more than twice, I just know it. Sadly, the Paramount R-rated version is all we have to go on for now. Maybe they'll change their minds one day and give us a special edition with all the scenes cut by the MPAA in tact. But sure, that will happen. Just like one day Paramount will finally release an uncut version of My Bloody Valentine. But we can all dream, can't we?

Here is the short trailer. The actual full length trailer continues the "counting" where the first one ended. I think once was enough for that. If you are a true Friday devotee, you will notice the hundred-or-so things that are wrong with this trailer


Isn't in fun being a horror geek?


(Update 5/25/12): So Paramount has released a Special Edition of Part 2, as well. I won't be the first one to say that I was very disappointed to see that we still don't have the excised footage that was removed at the request of the MPAA having seen the light of day yet. Now that My Bloody Valentine has been released in a very gorgeous uncut version on DVD, I will now  personally consider Part 2's cut footage the holy grail of M.I.A. footage. I would actually dismiss any talk that any extra footage exists if it weren't for that one still shot that still remains printed on the back of every single VHS box in the United States. You know, the one that copies the infamous scene from Twitch of the Death Nerve? I've read a handful of articles regarding this and from what I've read, it seems that Paramount won't release the uncut footage and some articles claim that Paramount doesn't even acknowledge that said footage even exists. Part 2 looks fantastic in this edition and sounds just as good. I'm even thinking about buying this on Blu-Ray just to see how much better it looks. The total waste of a sequel to Lost Tales from Camp Blood is avoidable on this one, as well. Just skip right past it. Still remains, for me, the best of the bunch. 


Paul, there's someone in this fucking room! 

Welcome!

Welcome to Linus Loves 80's Horror, a blog page dedicated to the review of and tribute to the classic horror films from the best decade in history: The 1980's. I've been viewing and collecting these films since I was a teen and many of them, thankfully, have found their ways into my hands. This blog is to give you all, the readers, my opinions and viewpoints on some of these great - and not-so-great - films that defined a generation and have become nostalgic reminders of the era when horror movie-making was at its pinnacle.

The viewpoints here are for entertainment purposes only. I want those of you reading to have a good time and see what another avid horror fan thinks about those same movies you've gown to love and cherish over the past 20 years. I might warn you, this blog will have many spoilers and I will assume that those of you reading have either seen these films in their entirety or know enough about them to see what someone else thinks and recommends. I'm not going to tell you scene-by-scene details like other horror tribute sites do, not because I don't want to, but because, again, if you're a fan, you've seen most of these.

Feel free to leave comments and ideas for discussion. I'd love to know what some of you think about these films.

I currently own appoximately 200 horror films in which 98% of them are from the period 1974-1989. Now, some more recent films deserve to be noted so from time to time, you'll see me review something a bit more modern, only because I would highly reccomend the film in question and would urge you as a fan to seek it out. I will review everything that I have in my collection and as I acquire new pieces, I will post them on here as well.

Every so often, I will post essays on the genre and film sub-genres and just opinions and thoughts I have about living with these films during the course of the 1980's and beyond. again, your feedback is always appreciated.

Happy reading!

-LinusLoves80'sHorror