Tales From the Darkside

     I'm an avid horror fan.  Anything and everything scary.  Movies, comics, tv, books, you name it.  And one of my favorite things to do in the 80's was to stay up late watching episodes of Tales From the Darkside.  The 80's answer to Tales From the Crypt and The Twilight Zone, this gem scared the crap out of an entire generation of 80's kids. Downright scary at times and always entertaining, it never failed to entertain.  It was always dependable, and always good for a scare.  Just the opening credits are creepy enough...

The Lost Boys

     Sam and Michael (played by Corey Haim and Jason Patric) are two teenage brothers living in Phoenix, AZ who's parents have just divorced.  Mom takes the two boys and moves to Santa Carla, California, crashing with eccentric and somewhat grouchy grandpa.  The sleepy little town just happens to be known as the murder capital of the world, and even scarier than that, their mom (memorably played by Dianne Wiest) is dating again. Yikes! On top of all that, they soon find something else to worry about. While younger brother Sam is busy trying to find an MTV hookup and checking out the comic book collection in town, older brother Michael meets gypsyesque Star, played by Jami Gertz.  Star belongs to a gang of forever-young, teen punks obsessed with Jim Morrison, led by a fantastic Kiefer Sutherland (in a star-making role).  Michael becomes further and further involved with the mysterious gang, and soon finds out that they're all vampires.

     Probably one of the most-loved movies of the 80s, "The Lost Boys" is not only a superb time-capsule of the decade, but often considered one of the greatest modern vampire tales ever to hit the big screen.  Joel Schumacher's teen vampire flick completely epitomizes the 1980s in all their glory- and was the first film to put both Corey Feldman and Corey Haim together.  Although tongue-in-cheek are far from actually "scary"- "The Lost Boys" is still known as a horror classic.  It definitely has a more fun approach, as it successfully walks the tightrope between schlocky teen horror and comedy.  It's a perfect popcorn movie, and it holds up pretty good today.

     Surprisingly, "The Lost Boys" is filled with some great performances.  Every one involved seems completely right for the part- and this may be Haim's finest hour on screen.  Jason Patric is perfect for his role,  Barnard Hughes steals the show as cantankerous Grandpa, Dianne Wiest is simply delightful as the boys frazzled-but-determined mom, and even Alex Winter (Bill from "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure") makes a cameo as one of the undead.  And let's not forget the Frog Brothers, played by Jamison Newlander and Corey Feldman.

      It may seem a bit dated today, but after watching it again recently I was surprised at how well it still holds up.  I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously- there are elements of humor, horror, and good old-fashioned camp running gleefully throughout.  "The Lost Boys" is one of the best remembered and most loved films of the 80s- it's slick, it's stylish, and it's a huge cult classic today.  Whether or not this is mostly from the films' own merits or pure pop nostalgia, I can't say. Probably both. Doesn't matter though.  It's still darn fun to watch.

     And one more thing.... there are some definite homo-erotic undertones running throughout "The Lost Boys".  First of all, why does Corey Haim's character have a poster of a rather seductive looking Rob Lowe in his closet?  Go back and watch the movie.  You'll see it.  Trust me.

Prom Night

     After the overwhelming success of the slasher classics "Halloween" in 1978 and "Friday the 13th" in 1980, horror (and the slasher genre especially...) exploded and suddenly it seemed a different teen slasher was being released every week.  Following up her immortal turn in "Halloween", Jamie Lee cemented her status as the official Scream Queen of the 80s by appearing in a handful of horror flicks.  One of them,   "Prom Night", hit movie screens in July of 1980.

     "Prom Night" has a strange reputation among horror fans today.  Although it's widely considered a classic slasher of the 1980's, just as many purists disregard the film.  Mainly because there's only six killings and nary a drop of blood to be found anywhere.  There's no nudity in the film either- unless you count a scene of Jamie Lee being stalked in a bra.  However, "Prom Night" does have some things going for it that many slashers of the time did not have.  For one, director Paul Lynch drenches the entire film in a dark and eerie atmosphere.  Many of the stalk/murder sequences are murky, and there's some great shots of darkly lit hallways in the school that are quite effective.  And Paul Zaza's super-spooky score helps the overall creep factor.

     It's hardly a flawless movie, but I find "Prom Night" to be one of the most entertaining and unsettling of all the slashers to come out of the 80s.  It follows the slasher formula perfectly- and proves that you don't necessarily need gratuitous sex or gore to be effective.  Not going all prude on you, I'm just saying that sometimes just a good old fashioned spooky atmosphere, some darkly lit hallways, mysterious phone calls, and an ax-wielding murderer will do just fine, thanks.  And "Prom Night" has all that in spades. 

   It's a perfectly decent little slasher/mystery that doesn't try to be anything but what it is.  It's slightly goofy and certainly low-budget, and that's all part of its charm.  It's very dated, with its disco-themed prom and hairstyles, but the nostalgia of that particular era- the late 70s thru the early 80s- seeps out of every single frame of the film.  And that's probably a huge part of its charm as well.  This movie was the 80s.  On top of being one of the most memorable slashers of that time.  It obviously struck a chord in pop culture, as this film has been remade in the 2000's.  

Friday the 13th

    

      John Carpenter's low budget shocker "Halloween" scared the pants off millions of people and spawned a genre in 1978- the slasher film.  "Halloween" was so fresh and different and influential that tons of copycat imitations soon followed.  "Friday the 13th", another low-budget shocker, hit movie screens that summer of 1980 and became a box office smash.  Basically taking the same principle of "Halloween", "Friday the 13th" added some very shocking and creative murder sequences, Kevin Bacon, a camp in the woods, and a shock ending.  And became a pop culture phenomenon in the process.

       The plot is simple really.  A group of carefree counselors are all trying to get Camp Crystal Lake opened for the summer, headed by one Steve Christy.  Camp Crystal Lake has had a rather unsavory past- a young boy drowned there back in the 50's, two young counselors were murdered, and problems with fires and bad water all have given the camp a "cursed" reputation by locals.  But Christy is determined that it's all hogwash, and sees a golden opportunity in re-opening the camp. All is fun and games at first, but soon we find out an unseen presence is with them in the woods- watching, stalking, and murdering them one by one.

        "Friday the 13th" is a bona fide horror classic today. It's LOADED with great atmosphere- the whole backwoods mystique it's got going on really works for the movie.  Director Sean S. Cunningham truly makes us feel as if we the viewers are being stalked in the woods with the other counselors.  Everything about "Friday the 13th" works- the infamous music by Harry Manfredini, the sometimes crude photography and lighting, and Tom Savini's wonderfully graphic and shocking special effects.  This film, along with Carpenter's "Halloween", scared the pants off millions of teenagers back in the late 70s and early 80s.  But not only that, but they connected with the movie-going public. We were seeing us up there- your average, all-American teenagers, in Haddonfield, Illinois or in Camp Crystal Lake.  This was a defining moment in horror- and very few recent horror flicks have been able to capture that certain something that "Friday the 13th" so obviously did.  Audiences simply responded to this film.

     It's hard to imagine today- but when this first installment hit movie screens back in the summer of 1980, it truly was extremely scary stuff.  The countless sequels have sapped a lot of the effectiveness of the original installment, much like John Carpenter's "Halloween".  But if you can just forget the million sequels, the franchise- and watch the original for what it was, it's a pretty effective shocker and it's easy to see why it became such a phenomenon.  For better or worse, "Friday the 13th" is a part of Americana.  We can all relate to this movie- we all know how the woods can be scary.  We've all huddled around a campfire at night, breathlessly scaring each other silly with ghost stories.  We've all been to summer camp before.  "Friday the 13th" is a perfect time capsule of the early 80's.

POLTERGEIST

       I was ten years old when I first experienced "Poltergeist".  I went to a friend's house to watch it because it had just hit HBO- this would have been... oh 1983.  I had been told that I must see this movie immediately.  I was dying to see it anyway.  Needless to say, I was completely blown away by what I was seeing on the screen in front of me.  "Poltergeist", directed by Tobe Hooper (although let's be fair here- this movie has Steven Spielberg's stamp all over it...), literally scared the hell out of me, but it was so much fun- a non-stop roller-coaster ride that never lets up for one second. It's completely entertaining on all levels.  Besides being a top-notch thrill ride, it has the added bonus of some great writing and even greater acting.

Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, and the kids are sensational in their roles- they're 100% believable and even though the film boasts some astonishing special effects, the acting is what makes "Poltergeist" work. On top of the great family, we're treated to the wonderful Beatrice Straight and Zelda Rubinstein.  This was every family I knew in the 80's.  I lived this.  I completely identified with every single frame of that movie.  I was Robbie- terrified of the shadow on my closet door by the tree outside my window at night.  I also had a super scary clown, I just chose not to keep it.  "Poltergeist" was the second, big haunted house movie I had seen- the first being "The Amityville Horror".  As much as I enjoyed "Amityville", "Poltergeist" seemed real to me at the time.  It really made you think that it could happen to anybody, at anytime.

       "Poltergeist" is hands down one of the greatest haunted house movies ever made.  Besides having the talents of  Tobe Hooper and Spielberg involved, we get the delicious and chilling score by Jerry Goldsmith and one of the most well-known and parodied lines from any movie... "They're heeere.....".  "Poltergeist" is Steven Spielberg's vision of a haunted house/ghost story, and a great one at that.  For some reason taking the haunted house out of the gloomy, cobwebbed mansion and bringing it into contemporary suburbia only made it all the more scary.  It became the standard for haunted house movies to come. The film is making a comeback of sorts, it seems.  I see it talked about more and more on horror blogs in the past couple of years, and next year (2012) will be the films 30th anniversary.
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     "Poltergeist" was one of the biggest and most influential movies of my youth, and it's impossible not to think of this movie when you talk of the 1980's.  I know I had never seen anything like this before.  It quite literally blew my mind.  Sadly I did not get to witness this on the big screen, so I can only imagine the effect this had in that environment.  Just watching it on a dark, rainy afternoon on a reasonably large tv as I did was extremely powerful.  It was like "E.T." sort of... only scary.  And as unbelievable as it all is- Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Oliver Robins, Dominique Dunne, and Heather O'Rourke firmly make you believe every second of it. This movie, like so many from the 80's, never fails to entertain me.  It's just such a huge part of my childhood.  Luckily, I've never outgrown it, because it's still a hell of good movie.  Maybe slightly dated because of the whole channels signing off at midnight thing, but overall it's still as sharp and witty as always, with the banter between Nelson and Williams priceless.

 "Poltergeist" was so successful and popular it would start not only a franchise, but an undying urban legend about the so-called "Poltergeist" curse that is slowly and methodically killing off all involved with the films.  The film would garner 3 Academy Awards, and ranked # 80 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments and #69 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes for "They're Heeere...".  "Poltergeist" would gross over $78 million dollars and become the highest-grossing horror film of 1982.  It has become a bona fide horror classic, and well deserved at that.  This was some serious nightmares for many kids my age, and I know of a few who are deathly afraid of clowns because of it.  But overall, it's still such a fun movie to watch.  I love this movie.  Dearly.

THE SEDUCTION

     Seriously, what's not to love about "The Seduction"?   Once Dionne Warwick begins warbling the title tune over the opening credits, the viewer is blasted head first into full-on 80's kitsch at its best.  The divine Morgan Fairchild plays a popular TV news anchor, Jamie Douglas, who finds herself stalked and spied on by her hunky yet obviously deranged neighbor Derek (Andrew Stevens). Jamie grows increasingly alarmed, as she starts to fear for her life all while reporting on the local "Sweetheart Murders".  Jamie eventually turns to not only her older boyfriend Brandon, played by Michael Sarrazin, but his cop buddy as well.  But the local law basically tell her there's nothing they can do.  So Jamie takes matters into her own hands and goes all Charles Bronson and buys a gun.  Enough is enough already!

 
      I love this movie.  Everything about this movie.  From the cardboard acting and dialogue to the mind-blowing 80's vibe , it's a wonderfully entertaining b-movie thriller that actually boasts some pretty good moments sprinkled throughout.  Although it has great potential and threatens any minute to venture into full-blown shock territory, it never quite does...  It's sorely lacking in the body count department- sure, Derek comes off as obviously unbalanced and creepy... but knocking a couple of people off would have made him seem a bit more dangerous.  Not that it ruins the film, by any means.  It's loads of fun.  But it could have went full throttle on the fear factor.  Oh well.

     Anyway, "The Seduction" is much more of a suspense thriller- an extremely entertaining suspense thriller.  Trash, to be sure, but campy and delicious trash.  And it actually predates "Fatal Attraction" by about 5 years, although it's nowhere near as good a film as that one.  Still, I can always settle down with Morgan and Andrew on a rainy day.  This is pure 80's camp all the way, and only gets better with age.

     Filmed solely for the purpose to highlight the charms of Miss Morgan, the film offers no intellectual insight whatsoever.  This is simply for straight men to watch the lovely Morgan Fairchild stalked by a psychotic stalker and in various stages of undress,  and for gay men to delight in the utter campiness of it all.  Throw in Colleen Camp as Morgan's wise-cracking best friend Robin, and you've got a recipe for fun.  Part slasher, part TV movie, and part soft-core porn, "The Seduction" is prime 80's silliness.  "The Seduction" makes a great double-feature with "Eyes Of A Stranger", starring Lauren Tewes of "The Loveboat" and Jennifer Jason Leigh, or "Eyes Of Laura Mars" with the smashing Faye Dunaway! (The "eye" thing was just a coincidence!)