It’s stretching it to call “Intruder” a classic but it is an enjoyable late entry in a genre that was all but disappearing to a direct to video market. That’s for the most part thanks to some astonishing make-up effects and an overall gruesome nature in the flick’s kill scenes that “Intruder” scores highly among genre buffs.
Director Joe Dante is one of my favorites. He’s delivered some bona-fide classics like “The Howling”, “Gremlins” and “Innerspace”.
He’s simply an imaginative filmmaker who can play in more ways than one with the material at hand and, therefore, make them fairly unique and original.
Like many of Dante’s other films, “The ‘Burbs” pays a great deal of homage to a particular genre while also carving out a satirical standpoint that gives it it’s own identity.
A girl named Rosemary writes a “Dear John” letter to her boyfriend oversees during WWII. Some time later she’s out with her new beau during a graduation dance and a figure clad in army fatigues stabs them both to death with a pitchfork
“Without Warning” is a fun cross between gruesome sci-fi and slasher flicks that were doing good business in the late seventies and early eighties. A real coup was getting two terrific old timers Palance and Landau to headline the proceedings and inject real intensity into their wacky characters. They certainly help distinguish “Without Warning” and raise it from being of interest to only genre fans into being also a real curio.
Ever since “Scream” (1996) re-charged the horror industry that was, at the time, slowly migrating towards Direct to Video the genre has stayed relevant among A-listers and, obviously, below that as well. A number of exciting talent were able to take advantage of this boost early on; among them Australian born director Jamie Blanks, an obvious horror enthusiast who made two noteworthy entries in the “New-age” slasher category.
Five years after surviving a night of terror at the hands of Jason Voorhees; Tommy Jarvis finds himself in a rural halfway house in New Jersey for mentally disturbed teenagers. Ever since that fateful night Tommy has been, more or less, a basket case and has never gotten the image of Jason out of his mind.
Before long a series of murders in the area shake up the local community and soon the killer’s sights are on the residents of the halfway house. Could it be that Jason himself is back from the dead and committing these murders?
It’s that time again and horror buffs are re-watching the Halloween series. Trouble is nowadays that the series has four timelines! For this year I chose the option of watching the Michael vs. Jamie storyline covered in “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers”, “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” and “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers”.
These standard slashers don’t really need a synopsis but here we go! – Under a campfire on a dark night Max (Neumann), owner of a camp for gifted children, tells staff and campers the tale of Madman Marz (Ehlers); a deranged farmer who slaughtered his family in a nearby house. Legend has it that if you speak his name above the sound of a whisper he’ll come for you.
“Final Exam” is a relatively bloodless slasher that is clearly very influenced by “Halloween” (1978) in that it honestly goes for scares and tries to build up a brooding atmosphere.
A classic British horror film not necessarily in terms of quality but rather as a fun time capsule of an era long gone and a mood that was only attainable for a short period of time.
