Horror Time Warp
August 17th 2008 20:20
No, not the Rocky Horror "Time Warp". That's for someone else to discuss.
God, it's been so f-ing long since I posted something here...luckily no one really reads it, and the few that may (still) are patient enough with me that they know I'll get around to tit eventually. Did I just type "tit eventually"? I'm gonna leave that one, 'cause it's the funniest spelling error I've made in quite some time.
This time we're taking the screening room back...way back. 1981, here we come for a dose of slasher goodness. Both of these flicks were brought to my attention courtesy of the awesome doc Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, which I'm happy to mention again.
First up, The Burning
What a fun f-ing movie. To some extent, it's very similar to a certain film named for a supposedly unlucky day. Kids go to camp, kids get killed. The slasher in question here is called Cropsy (how goddamned cute is that? no, really, it's scary!) Cropsy was just simple laborer at the camp who got caught in a prank gone horribly wrong (see title). When it's not meandering along in a pleasantly Meatballsian manner, The Burning has its fair share of pretty graphic kills. You know what else it has? George Costanza and a pre-Short Circuit, pre-Michelle Pfeiffer Fisher Stevens pretending to be teenagers. They (and their fellow campers, including Holly Hunter) actually do have some amusing scenes, and the gore effects by Tom Savini are clever and always interesting to watch. The oft-referenced "raft scene" delivers on the hype, too. If you're bored with the current crop of studio horrors, which you surely must be (how 'bout that new Prom Night? how 'bout NOT), The Burning is a good antidote. If you need an antidote for the burning, I can't help you. (7/10)
The Prowler
also boasts some neat-o blood work by Mr. Savini. That's the highlight, but that and the overall cheesiness of the proceedings are pretty much enough for me to recommend it for a late, drunken viewing. The film opens with a nicely done flashback to killings that occured at a graduation dance in 1945, an event that scarred the townsfolk so badly that they put off having another one for a whole thirty-five years. And wouldn't you know it, at the 1980 Graduation Dance, kids start getting killed! Bad f-ing luck, right there, no? There may be a few momentum-killing stretches of what I would (generously) call "padding"; but, with a killer clad in WWII army gear, plenty of blood, and kids making plenty of bad decisions, it's hard to go wrong in my book (though not too damn many people have that book). (6/10)
In a face-off, I think Cropsy and The Burning would hand The Prowler his gas mask and send him packing. That's not a bad idea...movie face-offs.
God, it's been so f-ing long since I posted something here...luckily no one really reads it, and the few that may (still) are patient enough with me that they know I'll get around to tit eventually. Did I just type "tit eventually"? I'm gonna leave that one, 'cause it's the funniest spelling error I've made in quite some time.
This time we're taking the screening room back...way back. 1981, here we come for a dose of slasher goodness. Both of these flicks were brought to my attention courtesy of the awesome doc Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, which I'm happy to mention again.
First up, The Burning
What a fun f-ing movie. To some extent, it's very similar to a certain film named for a supposedly unlucky day. Kids go to camp, kids get killed. The slasher in question here is called Cropsy (how goddamned cute is that? no, really, it's scary!) Cropsy was just simple laborer at the camp who got caught in a prank gone horribly wrong (see title). When it's not meandering along in a pleasantly Meatballsian manner, The Burning has its fair share of pretty graphic kills. You know what else it has? George Costanza and a pre-Short Circuit, pre-Michelle Pfeiffer Fisher Stevens pretending to be teenagers. They (and their fellow campers, including Holly Hunter) actually do have some amusing scenes, and the gore effects by Tom Savini are clever and always interesting to watch. The oft-referenced "raft scene" delivers on the hype, too. If you're bored with the current crop of studio horrors, which you surely must be (how 'bout that new Prom Night? how 'bout NOT), The Burning is a good antidote. If you need an antidote for the burning, I can't help you. (7/10)
The Prowler
also boasts some neat-o blood work by Mr. Savini. That's the highlight, but that and the overall cheesiness of the proceedings are pretty much enough for me to recommend it for a late, drunken viewing. The film opens with a nicely done flashback to killings that occured at a graduation dance in 1945, an event that scarred the townsfolk so badly that they put off having another one for a whole thirty-five years. And wouldn't you know it, at the 1980 Graduation Dance, kids start getting killed! Bad f-ing luck, right there, no? There may be a few momentum-killing stretches of what I would (generously) call "padding"; but, with a killer clad in WWII army gear, plenty of blood, and kids making plenty of bad decisions, it's hard to go wrong in my book (though not too damn many people have that book). (6/10)
In a face-off, I think Cropsy and The Burning would hand The Prowler his gas mask and send him packing. That's not a bad idea...movie face-offs.
| 21 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Comments (2)
Add Comments
Read More
