Kategoria: 1981

#968 Halloween 2018: Student Bodies (1981)

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Student Bodies is a spoof of the slasher movies that thrived in the early 80s.

It came to the party remarkably early in 1981, at the time when slashers were still arriving left, right and center for the next two years. Considering its early release date it feels surprisingly fresh, even more so than most of the movies it satirises. The humour is of the crazy comedy style with many loose gags thrown in, in the style of Airplane (1980). Admittedly many of the gags and jokes are snappy, but still rarely laugh out loud funny. There are a few recurring routines also that get old really fast, like the antagonist’s continuous heavy breathing spread throughout the movie.

One of the film’s best remembered character is the mysterious ’The Stick’ – a raw-boned stand-up comedian playing Malvert the school janitor – for whom Student Bodies remained his only feature film before his untimely death in 1989.

80s-o-meter: 81%

Total: 52%

#967 Halloween 2018: Final Exam (1981)

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Final Exam feels like two different movies merged into one: There’s a surprisingly interesting drama comedy about college life, believable relationships and the power of fraternities over freshmen – some above average slasher plot lines going on here!

Then, there is most a pretty uninteresting slasher haphazardly glued on the side, which to its only merit doesn’t directly copy any other slasher I know of. But, it does boost a pretty appalling antagonist and doesn’t really bring anything much new or interesting to the table.

Thanks to the some actual writing work and character development Final Exam ends up well above the usual soulless copy paste slashers, but most likely won’t please most of the horror gore hounds out there.

80s-o-meter: 84%

Total: 47%

#950 Halloween 2018: Ghost Story (1981)

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A club of four elder gentlemen – Chowder Society they call themselves – has been getting together each week for years to share fictive stories of horror. This year people around them start dying and it all seems to linked with something happened in the past.

True to its name, Ghost Story works out as a well told ghost story. There’s something timeless in it and the movie manages manages to keep the viewers interested and on the edge of their seats to see and hear what happens next – just like a good camp side spooky tale would. It’s a real treat seeing John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks jr and Fred Astaire together as the old gentlemen who share a common secret they’ve kept shut for the last 50 years. Especially Astaire wows in his last feature film, showing there would’ve been a lot of acting prowess still left in him after he’d hung up his dancing shoes.

Some might think Ghost Story as an old fashioned relic of the past where you can see the big secret coming pretty much miles away. But that’s precisely what Halloween sometimes needs: Some good old fashioned spooks.

80s-o-meter: 48%

Total: 81%

#946 Halloween 2018: Night School aka Terror Eyes (1981)

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A killer dressed in a motorcycle leather suit and a helmet goes around decapitating young women in Night School, a bore of a slasher marketed as Terror Eyes on the European side of the pond.

Before I totally tear the movie apart, it has to be said to the movie’s defence that it does make an effort to be more intelligent than many of its contemporary peers. The characters are adult instead of teenagers, there’s paper thin layer of whodunnit present and the movie’s style resembles more of a 70s psychological thriller than your typical slasher. But the movie is just too tame and there is a very little horror to be had here, with only the few odd kill scenes offering somewhat suspenseful moments. When not being boring, Night School is totally middle of the road with none of the moments really awful – but not particularly good either.

Night School ends up being just plain dull, which is certainly a bigger offence than being bad in my book.

80s-o-meter: 38%

Total: 22%

#943 Halloween 2018: Hell Night (1981)

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Just when I was totally fed up with dozens of early 80s cut & paste slashers, along comes Hell Night, a horror movie that doesn’t settle for repeating the lowest common denominators of the genre, but mixes and matches elements from various horror subgenres to make for an atmospheric film.

Story wise there isn’t much new here; a bunch of teenagers are challenged to spend a night in a spooky mansion, and expectedly someone starts to rub them out, one by one. But beyond the dodgy plot the movie makers manage to make quite a lot of good decisions from a constant eery presence of an evil to the relentless antagonist wisely exposed to the camera sparingly, which no doubt works for the movie’s advantage.

Hell Night was categorised and underrated as a yet another slasher upon its release, but has been later rightfully valued as an above average slasher, perfect for that gloomy Halloween movie night.

80s-o-meter: 72%

Total: 82%

#941 Halloween 2018: Scream (1981)

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Tourists run amok in an abandoned western ghost town, getting put away one by one in Scream, a sorry excuse for a movie.

What we have here is a totally effortless exercise that looks and feels like it’s been shot in a location in one day. It’s even bad in the usually poor slasher genre, unable to make any of the kills memorable. Forget about seeing some first class FX work here, due to the strict restrictions of talent and funds, what you’ll usually see is a take of an axe swinging midair, followed by a scream.

The scares consist of some very muffled and quiet dialogue followed by extremely loud noises that are enough to make you hate the movie, as well as its creators.

80s-o-meter: 55%

Total: 4%

#939 Taps (1981)

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Based on Father Sky, a Novel by Devery Freeman, I had Taps figured out before I started watching it: A movie about the youngsters in Military Academy where they obey the strict rules, turn loose in their free time and talk about girls and growing up. Some of them rebel against the powers that be, but in the end they are faced with a harsh situation where they learn all about the honour and end up graduating as valiant young men with tons of self respect.

How was I led on. And the movie didn’t stop there. After the tragic events the movie seemed to become a light-hearted coming to age story where the mischievous boys take a stand for their school and become a true band of brothers.

I loved every surprise the movie had to offer. Although I didn’t really score the movie high when first watching it – my bet is that the original novel still betters the movie – it did leave an impression that has stuck for days, and the movie’s value has certainly grown interest since I watched it. Timothy Hutton is a spot on choice for the upright cadet who takes the lead in the exceptional situation while trying to hide from everyone – including himself – how lost he really is. Sean Penn and Tom Cruise star in minor roles, latter of them showing some real, chilling acting prowess in the few passing moments he’s featured on screen.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 81%

#918 Tarzan the Ape Man (1981)

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I always find it a little puzzling reviewing anything with Bo Derek in it since the focus of the movies is usually on her mammary glands instead of the plot. What it comes to Tarzan the Ape Man, it admittedly does have some sort of story going on for it, including an ape man that appearing towards the end of the movie, but rest assured: The movie is very much about Derek being half naked and sensual, this time around in a jungle.

Campy in the very definition of the word in its acting and slow motion action scenes, the cinematography here is actually not that bad at all. Other than that and some of the photogenic animals pictured here – many of which don’t belong to the African fauna at all – the movie is just plain tedious and I found myself struggling to stay focused on the events on the screen.

Tarzan the Ape Man remains the second best movie of Bo Derek after her breakthrough role in 10; an insight that should make it clear to steer away from the rest of her catalogue.

80s-o-meter: 38%

Total: 17%

#890 Ms .45 (1981)

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A revenge exploitation movie that makes Death Wish look like a serious drama, Ms .45 tells a story of a young woman who goes on a psychotic rampage against the mankind after getting raped.

It a dull ride with an exceptionally unpleasant cast and that stuffy 70s scent hovering all over it. The movie gets less and less interesting as the bodies pile up until I really couldn’t care any less what happens next in the movie. It replaces the violence or the prolonged rape scenes of its paragon I Spit on Your Grave with some finesse and style, but otherwise it has dropped down from the very same trash tree.

There is some kind of a cult status associated with the movie, but really there isn’t anything here that hasn’t been done much better since — or before.

80s-o-meter: 48%

Total: 8%

#873 True Confessions (1981)

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True Confessions is a interesting experience of having wide range elements mixed in (the catholic church and its game of power and money, a murder mystery, drama between the brothers and their personal redemption to name a few) but still ending up a slow and unsatisfying experience.

The movie can’t seem to make up its mind whether it’s a murder thriller, a whodunnit, a conspiracy drama, character study or a religious statement. Especially the themes of catholic corruption and quilt failed to grab me and I can’t help but to think that if those elements were tuned down quite a bit, this could’ve been a somewhat decent crime movie.

The movie also misses one of those ’big’ scenes towards the culmination point that usually help to make these kind of movies memorable.

True Confessions features the talent of Robert Duvall and Robert DeNiro who both manage to make the very best out of their roles and remind us what an Oscar quality acting work looks like.

80s-o-meter: 23%

Total: 52%

#861 Private Lessons (1981)

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Part of the now politically even more incorrect wave of early 80s movies of an adult getting raunchy with a minor, Private Lessons joins in with the somewhat dubious club of Class, My Tutor, In the Mood, They’re Playing with Fire and Blame It on Rio.

It’s hard to view Private Lessons as anything but an exploitation on the subject and a weak excuse to display some T&A in order to lure in some younger audience. The movie does make an effort to cover all this up by cooking up a blackmailing plot – which is not actually too bad – but it’s too little too late to make up for its numerous shortcomings.

80s-o-meter: 71%

Total: 44%

#852 Body Heat (1981)

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A lawyer falling for a femme fatale plots to kill her husband in Body Heat, a critic acclaimed thriller that launched the career of the director Lawrence Kasdan, Kathleen Turner and one Mickey Rourke.

I admittedly hated the movie title that reeks of a cheap erotic thriller and the first half of the movie seemed to confirm this presumption. But it was after the murder that the movie really took off, turning out to be one of the best neo-noir movies of the era. Kasdan not only manages to have a good time with the genre and its clichés without the movie ending clichéd itself, but also successfully translates the elements of film noir to the present day.

I always admire the unexpected and mysterious qualities William Hurt manages to bring to his character, and in Body Heat he perfectly captures the timidness and uneasiness of a man who often goes over his head. Mickey Rourke greatly understays his welcome in the movie, appearing briefly as an arsonist.

80s-o-meter: 51%

Total: 84%

#834 Prince of the City (1981)

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Based on a book by Robert Daley about Bob Leuci, a New York cop who cooperated with the 1971 investigation of police corruption, Prince of the City is a grippingly lifelike depiction of the law enforcers so knee deep in the business it’s often hard to tell between a policeman and a gangster.

Treat Williams shows tremendous talent as the crooked detective rubbing elbows with the mob, caught in a dead end where the only alternative remains having to betray his partners. It’s his spiralling from a big player to a complete wreck that really makes the movie.

Clocking a whopping 167 minutes, I was happy to find out the movie doesn’t feel any more taxing to watch than your usual 90 minuter, and the length is completely justified as it really adds a lot of depth to the storytelling.

80s-o-meter: 78%

Total: 87%

#820 Pennies from Heaven (1981)

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Based on the BBC serie of the same name, Pennies from Heaven is a musical that is for some reason being served as drama, although its core concept of dancing and mouthing old hits from the golden era cannot be perceived as anything but comedic and silly.

The big gimmick of the movie, escaping the grim day-to-day life to a jolly song totally detached from reality – a concept used later successfully in Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark – works well for a short time, until it gets repetitive and then finally gimmicky. Actually, it’s not the musical numbers but the actual movie bits that start to feel tiresome after awhile: Pennies from Heaven is the kind of period picture that relies far too heavily on just establishing the period for a cozy feeling, and if taken to the current time, the story just wouldn’t have much going for it.

The dance numbers themselves are fabulously constructed and clearly it’s taken a lot of practise for the actors to train for them. What’s distracting though is the way the original songs are being lip-synced instead of having the actors perform them. The real treat of the movie is Christopher Walken whose brief performance is nothing short of a breathtaking.

80s-o-meter: 45%

Total: 58%

#812 They All Laughed (1981)

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Best known for being the notorious last movie for the young actress and Playboy model Dorothy Stratten, They All Laughed seems like an improvised movie made up on the spot as the filming went on.

The movie introduces a few gentlemen that work for some kind of a detective agency. This gives them a loose motive to follow some babes around in pointless scenes that seem drag on and on forever. As much as I enjoy watching NYC, observing someone tailgate someone other for twenty something minutes doesn’t really hold up my interest.

Their endeavors – that could in 2018 be described only as plain creepy – are here rewarded with them ending up making out with the models. Ben Gazzara plays the oldest wolf of the bunch who wanders around the city with beautiful women throwing themselves at his feet.

If there ever was a point to the movie, I completely missed it.

80s-o-meter: 57%

Total: 11%

#808 First Monday in October (1981)

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Like many Walter Matthau movies, First Monday in October isn’t particularly eighties in style, but more like a nice, cozy breeze from the past. Often typecast as the grumpy, stubborn character, Matthau does have plenty of that old world charm which he always manages to bring into his productions.

Same goes here; Matthau plays an uncompromising, liberal Associate Justice that finds himself in a verbal tug-of-war with the first female Associate Justice just appointed to the Supreme Court. The old men contra women workplace setup is a bit dated, but not at all something that wouldn’t resonate still today. The real highlight of the movie is the snappy, smartly written dialogue that Matthau and Clayburgh deliver in a delightful fashion as they go against each other, tooth and nail.

It’s also an interesting period piece from the time when landmark decisions on the adult video censorship were being made in the Supreme Court.

80s-o-meter: 62%

Total: 75%

#788 Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)

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One of the most expensive box office flops of the 80s, John Schlesinger’s Honky Tonk Freeway aims draw a comedic picture of America’s constant life on wheels and its total dependency on cars.

The story begins as Ticlaw, a tiny town in Florida eager to get some tourist money pouring in is completely passed by the newly opened highway. While the townfolks execute one dirty trick after another to make that own exit happen, we are introduced to a selection of random people all over the roads of USA making their way to Florida – by car, how else. Looking at the array of wacky characters in their jalopies, an obvious comparison to It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World cannot be avoided.

There are some isolated good moments here but overall the experience is crippled by endless amount of characters and subplots that fail to lead anywhere, leaving the whole experience patchy. The humor is also hit and miss, mostly playing around with some tired stereotypes and easy targets.

Besides the misfired jokes and some occasional animal cruelty there’s certain good road movie feel to the movie, which – along with the interesting cast – is definitely the strongest asset here.

80s-o-meter: 56%

Total: 58%

#758 Halloween 2017: Deadly Blessing (1981)

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Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing is often seen as a transitional work between his 1977 horror classic The Hills Have Eyes and the huge commercial success that followed with A Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s an original, professional but not mainstream experiment suffering from a slight identity crisis.

In Deadly Blessing Craven has all the right pieces set up, but when the show really starts, he’s not quite sure how to put them all together to make a solid story. There’s an interesting concept of a strict religious group with a strong leader (Ernest Borgnine) and his rebellious son (Jeff East) clashing together and the latter tightroping between the tempting freedom and being shunned out of the community. This intriguing tension alone would’ve been enough to craft a tight thriller.

Instead, Deadly Blessing tries to plaster on a horror element in form of spiders, snakes, tales of succubi and such. These never quite seem to stick with what’s seen on the silver screen, leaving the viewer puzzled what exactly to make of all this. Especially the ending seems weak, and a lost possibility considering the vast possibilities here.

80s-o-meter: 65%

Total: 62%

#748 Halloween 2017: Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

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Although Jason – the antagonist of the Friday 13th series – is synonymous with the whole series, he is really properly introduced in Friday the 13th Part II, and this is the movie where he starts his mission of seriously harvesting the teenage population.

The premise of the Part II is basically the same than in the previous film. Five years after the events of the first movie a bunch of new kids gather at the cabin by the lake, and as expected they first get naked and soon get whacked off one by one. As a movie the sequel is more well rounded than the first movie – even preferred by many fans of the series – but on the other hand it lacks the cult status and the relative freshness of the first movie.

Here we see Jason still masqueraded with a pillow cover instead of his iconic hockey mask, which just doesn’t seem right if you’re set to watch a Friday the 13th movie. Comparisons to another well known slasher sequel released in 1981 are inevitable, and out of the two Halloween II comes out a clear winner.

80s-o-meter: 81%

Total: 62%

#744 Halloween 2017: The Evil Dead (1981)

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The movie that kick-started Sam Raimi’s career, Evil Dead first became a cult classic that gained so much fame in the following years that it’s concerned a genre classic these days.

The Evil Dead is a ludicrously gory show with the amount of blood, ooze and excretion taken to cartoony levels. The movie cannot be taken too seriously, but it isn’t listed as a comedy either, and it’s void of the slapsticky elements seen in its sequel. I actually much prefer it this way.

Considering the otherwise no name cast, Raimi found a perfect companionship in Bruce Campbell, whose distinctive over the edge face acting become synonymous with the series. Although the movie now has been widely accepted as a central part of the movie scene and has lost some of its shocking factor, Evil Dead is by no means a movie for everyone. But, it’s a movie every true horror fan should watch at least once in their lifetime.

80s-o-meter: 76%

Total: 75%