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Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik, 1983)

Despite knowing all about the ending of Sleepaway Camp, its final 5 minutes still managed to blow me away. Easily some of the most unnervingly handled imagery I’ve seen since sitting through Inland Empire. I can’t talk about this much right now because I’m not sure what to make of, among many things, the homoerotic subtext, the film’s transphobic potential and what it has to say about the male gaze in slasher films. Either way, I’m amazed and will offer you this interesting piece of writing in the meantime - which you shouldn’t read if you want to ensure your experience of this 1983 Friday the 13th ripoff stays entirely spoiler free:

In Sleepaway Camp, “Angela’s transgender status is the penultimate lie in a long line of lies the filmmakers have heaped upon us. The audience is deceived by a villain disguised as a hero. The murderer has deceived the campers by being a quiet, unassuming girl whom they think they can bully with impunity. The girl has deceived everybody by being a boy. And the boy is deceiving himself and everyone else by pretending to be someone else entirely (i.e. his sister).

But Angela’s not deceiving everybody because she’s a trans* person. She’s deceiving everybody because she’s a (fictional) trans* person created by cissexual filmmakers. As Drakyn points out, the trans* person who’s “fooling” us on purpose is a myth we cissexuals invented. Why? Because we are so focused on our own narrow experience of gender that we can’t imagine anything outside it. We take it for granted that everyone’s gender matches the sex they were born with. With this assumption in place, the only logical reason to change one’s gender is to lie to somebody.

Thus, so many trans* characters in fiction are really cissexuals in disguise. Men only dress as women to hide out (Some Like it Hot) or trick their enemies (countless Bugs Bunny cartoons). And women only dress as men to break through the glass ceiling–Mulan does it to join the army, Yentl does it to study Jewish law. This view of transition is simplistic, cissexual-centered, and, like the characters who exemplify it, entirely made up.” […]

- “OMG! I’ve Found the ‘Transgender Agenda’!” via feministfilm

Because how does Angela’s gender even begin to justify her killing spree? Or is the whole thing ultimately a cautionary tale about imposing gender identification? I shall rewatch this in less drowsy and more clear-headed state soon, as I definitely to need to clarify some things before proposing a reading. Also, to be clear, the asterisk following trans (above) is used as an inclusive term, derived from the use of asterisk as a wildcard character, in search engines per example. Correct me if I’m wrong.

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Just got this from my hard-workin’ VHS-crazed friends over at vhshitfest. If you’re into VHS, bottom-of-the-barrel horror and the lower depths of cinema, you might want to consider this craftily put together DVD bootleg of what looks like one of the worst films of all time. Click on the link above to learn more and/or help some guys out - it’s dirt cheap and should be a lot of fun!

(via vhshitfest)

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Maniac (William Lustig, 1980)

The last of my unintentional “1980” triple-feature (following Humanoids from the Deep and Pinball Summer, both of the same year) took me into the mind of an incredibly disturbed, disgusting and chillingly misogynistic killer (hypnotically performed by character actor (and co-writer in this case) Joe Spinell), in the appropriately titled Maniac from cult director William Lustig (the Maniac Cop trilogy, notably) which also stars personal favorite Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me, Starcrash, Dracula A.D. 1972). Repressing some serious childhood trauma/mother issues - as most serial killer do, anyways- Maniac follows the killer on his rampage, giving us a glimpse at his psyche and offering some gripping and realistic depictions of violence, brought to vivid existence by Tom Savini - who also stars in the film as the infamous exploding head victim. Uncomfortable and atmospheric, Maniac is merciless in its execution and performance and shall linger on your mind for a while because of it.

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Just Before Dawn (Jeff Lieberman, 1981)

The fact it took me more than 3h to finish this 90-minute film only added to the experience of being stuck in the forest with these inbred creep-o killers. I was watching it on my bed early this morning and could not fight the urge to nap intermittently. I would usually fight such an urge, but couldn’t since my bed is quite confortable, especially when waking up. The film itself is extremely eerie and even beautiful at times - when not obscured by VHS to DVD transfer fuzz. An unexplicably forgotten slasher that is not the best of its kind, but certainly effective, Just Before Dawn succeeds at rehashing the familiar psycho inbred hillbilly plot and offers a few genuinely tense moments. Not Lieberman’s best by any mean, but worth the watch if you seek some decent backwood stalk-and-slash action!

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Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (Joe Chappelle, 1995)

Oh boy, this has to be one of the worst slasher sequels I’ve seen - and keep in mind I have an extremly high tolerance and thought that both Halloween 4 and 5 were really solid and entertaining. You know your franchise has gone to shit when it needs to resort to occult celtic astronomy nonsense and loud ”horror” sound effects to be scary and make sense of things. At least it stars a young Paul Rudd…

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Title Design by Angelica C.

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Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil (Clay Boris, 1992)

This…was just awful. Throwing any pretense of being a Prom Night sequel out the window and making it a story about an evil priest, this film is one of the laziest slashers (and half-assed critique of the Catholic Church) I have ever seen on screen. I can’t believe this had a small theatrical run. That said…Joy Tanner (pictured, right) was all sorts of hot and the film had its…moments.

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Day 3 - The bulk of it is done! Courtney, Adam, Tash, David, Nate, Jo & Dan, thank you all!! Now, much editing, ADR and pick-ups ahead! Stay tuned!

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Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

One of the best films ever made in any genre, really. The pacing is perfect, the music is legendary and John Carpenter’s minimal, controlled and extremely effective directing is something else entirely. While I think Michael “The Shape” Myers is the most boring villain of the main slasher franchises, I’d argue this is undeniably the strongest film of the “founding trinity”…

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Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (Bruce Pittman, 1987)

How!? Imagine Degrassi High, Carrie, Poltergeist, Slumber Party Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street, er, 4 rolled into one big fat burrito and this is what you get. A glorious clusterfuck of late 80’s insanity. Didn’t expect this to be as much fun, to say the least. Campier dialogue, smarter (in its ability to rip-off everything in existence) script and interesting kills make for better film. It’s so simple.

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Prom Night (Paul Lynch, 1980)

Below average slasher flick but still worth it for Leslie Nielsen just being there and Jamie Lee Curtis’ extended dance sequence. I’ve never thought of her as “hot” but she definitely was - sort of - during her scream queen heydays, which is quite unsettling.

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Men, Women and Chain Saws (1993) by Carol J. Clover

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Danielle Harris in Halloween 4, which is probably the only reason Adam Green would later cast her in Hatchet II. Let’s face it: even then, she was annoying. Great character, though.

Also, I am actually very surprised at the level of interesting serialized continuity between the films in this series (if you take out the 3rd one) and at how quickly Loomis is turning into a tragic - almost central - and creepy character. Can’t wait to see Curse of Michael Myers as “EVERYTHING WILL BE REVEALED!”. Surprised they actually took the time to build a mythos. Way to go!