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description=Horror films from the 1960s, 1970s, & 1980s. European horror, sleaze, giallo, slasher, found footage-- all that is offbeat and bizarre.;

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the (530), and (195), her (86), that (85), for (70), film (63), with (61), his (51), she (50), but (46), this (41), slasher (40), killer (40), their (38), out (30), him (28), all (27), one (27), into (26), are (25), from (24), have (24), girl (23), not (23), its (23), final (22), 2013 (22), they (22), 2014 (21), who (21), 2012 (20), women (20), has (19), our (18), #slashtober (18), part (18), after (17), also (17), horror (15), you (15), share (15), most (15), kenny (15), before (14), when (14), young (14), can (14), like (13), only (13), there (13), them (13), even (13), about (13), films (12), just (12), these (12), october (12), years (12), dir (12), girls (12), through (12), might (12), than (12), those (12), sex (12), characters (11), was (11), other (11), girlfriend (11), what (11), costume (11), prank (11), meltdown (10), comedy (10), terror (10), more (10), see (10), moral (10), character (10), way (10), upon (10), isn (10), college (10), which (10), victims (10), because (10), 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onship must she remain his property even if he s uninterested in her sexually finally we re especially forced to consider and perhaps criticize the complicity of certain female characters in perpetuating these beliefs of male superiority when one female character walking across the quad is told by a creepy male character that girls shouldn t be out at night alone to which she chirps in agreement we feel disappointed can t a girl just have a pleasant nite out without getting slashed to ribbons and when we discover the identity of the killer and her motives which essentially boil down to hero worship of the male sex we feel grossed out by the terrible psychological influence that the androcentric values of her culture have had on her and others our villain may be acting as a self defined moral authority but considering the general likability of her liberated victims her morals seem grotesque and draconian from our perspective killer s motivation the killer is barney rutanya alda a flirty middle aged waitress at the on campus diner who also sometimes goes by the name katie cavanaugh identifying her as the impossible identical female twin of convicted campus murderer dickie cavanaugh after dickie s suicide katie snaps kidnapping his body to preserve in the diner s walk in freezer and embarking on a bloody scavenger hunt of revenge against those sluts and whores who ruined her poor brother s life by cheating on him and driving him to the mad house her acts of revenge conflate all young women with dickie s ex and blame the inconstancy of certain women for the culturally ingrained violent misogyny of men we also discover that dickie is innocent of the crime he was committed for it turns out that it was actually katie who took it upon herself to teach dickie s ex a fatal lesson in female subordination way back when besides all this weirdness the most interesting characteristic about girl nite out s killer is her iconic costume a mop haired b ball bear mascot with a protruding felt tongue and freddy kreuger ish retractable claws might seem an odd choice for producing a menacing sight but it s all quite effective in action moreover the costume is an appropriate fit for the killer considering its prior context within the film and her ultimate aspirations the costume formerly belonged to benson the campus s resident sleazy ladies man and we see him early on in costume groping and harassing various young women by killing benson and swiping his costume katie is able to do a bit of gender bending by inhabiting the role and outward appearance of the film s sex crazed male the fact that she uses this costume associated with the sexual harassment and objectification of women for the new purpose of doing physical violence to women demonstrates the frighteningly fine line separating these behaviors chalk another one up for probably unintentional criticism of cultural values final girl there s isn t one lynn julia montgomery quasi hero teddy s cheated upon girlfriend is our closest thing to a typical slasher heroine but even she disappears long before the film s climax after she discovers the first corpse making way for the film s true heroine to take center stage hal holbrook as buxom campus security officer jim macvey evaluation girls nite out a k a the scaremaker is like if porky s 1982 were a slasher film yes of course any given slasher with a high school or college aged cast of victims is destined to have at least a dollop of raunchy humor adorning the top of its entrails stuffed casserole but that s not what i m getting at girls nite out s resemblance to a sex comedy runs deeper than the presence of a few locker room pow wows and pairs of exposed bosoms making it a uniquely strange entry in the early 80s slasher canon can you remember the name of a single hero or heroine in any generic run of the mill 70s or 80s teen sex comedy can you remember the relationships between any of the characters or any significant story developments surrounding them of course you can t the teen sex comedies of the era were carefree discursive and episodic sojourns into grossly exaggerated versions of contemporary teenage life periodically punctuated by tasteless gags and cartoonish slapstick and thus they generally had no vested interest in narrative or character development beyond the bare essentials i e male character starts out virgin then gets laid female character starts out a bookish prude then takes off her top the sex comedy s focus is less individuals and their stories are than the random and varied assemblage of cultural signifiers relevant to teenage life beer boobs and basketballs joints junk food and jock straps contrary to their popular reputation as similarly shallow dead teenager flicks the majority of slasher films really don t follow the sex comedy s philosophy of disregarding story and character in favor of a scattered parade of indistinguishable teenagers doing teenage things certainly the slasher subgenre expresses a similar fondness for indistinguishable teens doing teenage things for one of its purposes slasher films always need their victims but importantly the subgenre is also littered with over complicated but more or less linear mystery narratives and vulnerable tortured protagonists who undergo radical transformations by way of their conflicts with their would be killers essentially the slasher film is obsessively concerned with story and character even the original friday the 13th 1980 a simplistic slasher with threadbare characters and bare bone plot developments distinguishes itself from the mindless spectacle of the average sex comedy through its emphasis on the repetition of local history and the presence and enduring popularity of its heroine the way in which girls nite out operates places it closer in line with the sex comedy s philosophy than the slasher s the film is presented as an episodic series of events in the lives of its rather large cast of college buffoons because we shift frequently and rapidly among the various characters stories we re given no genuine protagonists to follow as even those characters whose names we bother to learn eventually disappear for long stretches of the film if not entirely wherefore art thou maniac like the generic sex comedy girls nite out creates a viewing experience akin to that of being an invisible observer at an actual college party we absorb every action and detail but the context is nigh inscrutable and we re unlikely to ever discover where everyone has wound up at the end of the night ultimately those recognizable elements of the slasher film that girls nite out possesses namely the bloody local history of dickie cavanaugh and its ramifications in the present are not inextricably tied into this episodic sex comedy plot the killer isn t revealed to be anyone s second cousin no heroine emerges to confront her literal and figurative demons the party isn t even cut short because all the attendees are dead in fact whenever our bear costumed killer pops in to slaughter another student we re left feeling that she has intruded from an entirely different sort of film a slasher film starring hal holbrook principally and swept away another nameless body luckily the alpha chi omega house won t be running out of those anytime soon and the keg s far from dry posted by jc at 8 00 am 1 comment labels 1980s psycho slasher slashtober 3d email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday october 17 2014 slashtober 3 d part iii curtains 1983 dir richard ciupka logline while in pre production on his new film director johnathan stryker john vernon decides to ditch his old leading lady samantha eggar in a loony bin and invite six younger starlets to his private mansion for an intimate weekend of auditions to take her place unfortunately for the hopeful young actresses they must contend not only with the exploitation and disappointment inherent in the film industry but also with a scythe wielding maniac in an old crone mask looking to pull down the curtains hastily on each of their performances crime in the past after securing the film rights to a hot new property an aging actress prepares for the lead role by committing herself to an insane asylum to help with her method acting unfortunately the director of the project decides to leave her there bodycount 8 hams who ve overstayed their welcome get figuratively yanked off stage with a figurative hook themes moral code thematically the film attacks the effects of show business on the female psyche simply put showbiz specifically the men controlling it drives women insane first women are driven mad trying to get into showbiz when they have to deal with the backstabbing of their equally desperate female competitors and the sexual advances of the male producers and directors who act as gatekeepers to employment and who deem the women valuable not as talent but as young warm bodies then once and if they ve entered into showbiz the manipulation and exploitation continues with actresses of all ages and levels of success putting their money careers and bodies into the control of the same horrible men who are eager to toss these women aside once they ve grown too old or served their purpose this is the combined fate of all our actresses in the film patti lynne griffin can t get a gig because she won t sleep with her directors christie lesleh donaldson has talent as an ice skater but quickly learns that the only thing that matters in becoming an actress is her willingness to give away her body tara sandra warren has accepted her designated role as eye candy and allows her exposed breasts to have more screen time than her voice brooke linda thorson an accomplished but somewhat older actress is forced to embarrass herself by auditioning for and sleeping with the director finally there s samantha sherwood the aging actress who literally risks driving herself insane by committing herself to an insane asylum shock corridor style all for the sake of the role and her beloved director only to be rejected upon her return can these women be blamed for going a little nuts killer s motivation the killer patti is driven by her willingness to do anything to win the role even if it means knocking off the competition in the most deadly of fashions we also know that she s lost roles repeatedly because of her refusal to play the skeevy casting couch er casting jacuzzi game with sleazy hollywood bigshots or worse yet she may have lost roles even after submitting to the casting couch game as she s also a stand up comedian patti initially seems the least likely suspect among the assembled women and also the least likely to win the coveted dramatic role of audra it s clear that patti has a hard time of things being a funny girl in a dramatic actor s world but the film never convinces us that this frustration would propel her into full bore straight jacket insanity instead of the clear headed insanity of cold blooded opportunism nevertheless into the straight jacket she goes and the last time we see her she s giving her glassy eyed comedy routine to a group of patients in the mental ward the film s quasi red herring is of course stryker s former muse samantha who has the best excuse for insanity and revenge the killer s outfit including a droopy old hag mask is obviously meant to further this suspicion in our minds as it could very likely represent a visual projection of samantha s inner feelings about herself scared as she is that stryker is right and that she is a worn out old woman whose career has reached its end however the hag mask could as easily have relevance to patti and her feelings about her own age and the state of her career while not as old as samantha or the also accomplished brooke patti isn t exactly young anymore either and her complete lack of success as an actress probably has her fretting when she sees a younger crop of actresses like christie enter the scene patti knows that the time one has to flourish as an actress in hollywood is very limited and that even the relatively young can be seen as grotesque hags after too long final girl the last girl standing is our killer as there s no room for final girls in the cutthroat world of show business wherein any moral superiority is soon corrupted early on christie in her youthful naivete seems the likeliest candidate for elevation to final girl status but almost as quickly as we begin to think so we find that she has jumped into bed with stryker the aftermath might leave her in tears of regret but those will only get you so far in a slasher film specifically in christie s case as far as the next scene evaluation in the storm of press that followed curtains recent and much needed b lu ray and dvd release from synapse films many reviewers adopted the opinion of the film s cast and crew as detailed in the special feature interviews and commentaries that the film is an utter mess the slipshod and barely comprehensible result of a troubled director replaced cast shake ups and prolonged 3 years production i think anyone who believes curtains to be a trainwreck hasn t sufficiently plumbed the chaotic depths of low budget horror cinema certainly the film is saddled with some dangling ends what s michael wincott doing here and abrupt switches of tone and style massive re shoots with a different non director will do that but what continues to surprise me most about curtains is how complete of a film it feels despite its production problems patchwork as it may be in reality there s a coherent story in the finished curtains that builds to a cheekily morbid crescendo along the way the film is dotted with surrealism satire melodrama cheesy exploitation tasteless fake outs genuine chills flashy setpieces and mind numbing chase sequences the film crams in every commendable and lousy attribute that characterized the early 80s slasher and the truly remarkable thing about it is that this strange brew feels intentional as if it were all business as usual in the constricted hysterical world populated by the vile stryker and his batty ingenues editors michael maclaverty and henry richardson deserve a lot of credit for molding the disparate footage they had into the film s relatively cohesive whole unlike the fun but fairly rote prom night producer peter simpson s other major contribution to slasher cinema curtains is a unique and mostly classy affair steeped more thoroughly in the austere tradition of classic agatha christie murder mysteries than in contemporaneous dead teenager flicks mark the hallmarks a mostly adult cast of characters a posh isolated mansion location wicked betrayals bitter jealousies a ten little indians plot structure add to this sense of class a healthy dose of self awareness the film proper is credited on screen to the director within the film the plot of the film itself appears to mirror that of stryker s script meta fake outs galore and a handful of masterfully constructed slas...