80's Double Feature Friday Night

I decided to hold myself a double feature(I had intended to include TERROR TRAIN, but alas this would not materialize)Friday night(June 11, 2010) and so I chose the movies HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME(1981) & PROM NIGHT(1980). I had recently purchased both movies for only 5 dollars a piece so I decided to finally watch them.



Crawford Academy. The Top 10 are a group of wealthy kids who have an enemy taking them out individually. Virginia(Melissa Sue Anderson) returned to this school after some absense and has become part of the 10. She was almost killed in a car accident that took her mother's life. Memories of her trauma are returning and she depends heavily on her psychotherapist, David(Glenn Ford in what many considers his worst film), to help her through this trying cycle in her young life.

Her damaged psyche is a staple in the slasher genre as it possibly implicates her as the potential killer. You can visualize her being a suspect for good reason. It's an old trick that would be revisited over the years in regards to the female character and her questionable emotional state, a young woman who could be considered a killer due to such baggage she is carrying around.

The characters in the movie, those part of the ten, have their own quirks and eccentricities. Alfred's workshop with all the fake body parts and stuffed animals. The bell tower incident. The science department skull found in the garden. The incident where Etienne climbs into Virginia's room to steal her panties. The culprit behind all that is taking place and this person's reasons for committing such murders.

There are numerous characters with an oddness about them, such as Alfred(Jack Blum) the taxidermist or Rudi(David Eisner) the practical joker, both have these moments where they carry this creepy demeanor and facial expression as if either one could be capable of lunacy. But, we wonder why the killer is targeting this particular gang, and the motive later materializes. The tragic night where a car isn't able to cross a bridge, resulting in the death of Virginia's enraged mother(her desire for her daughter's acceptance in the wealthy elite is rejected during the night of Virginia's birthday party). As the movie moves on and bodies continue to go missing, the searches intensify.

"We've got to find the link between your trauma and your friends."

David starts to become suspicious of Virginia himself when Ann(Tracy Bregman) goes missing and he recalls her calling him in terror claiming she had found her in the bathtub drowned. A memory locked in virginia's mind could hold the answer and it has something to do with her birthday(of course, considering the title of the movie). This movie has one of those infamous "dinner party" scenes where the killer gathers together the corpses of those murdered around a table in various stages of decomposition. After watching it again, I think it's okay, the twist was a bit off the wall and there are many of the well worn cliches we've come to expect while watching it. I had tonight about the same response as the first time I watched it..HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME is a middle of the pack slasher, but if it was one I had grown up watching I reckon it would earn credits for nostalgia. The fact that I rented and watched it for the first time in like 2003 means it didn't exist as a slasher favorite from my younger years that has remained with me. I like veteran director J Lee Thompson's style, though..it has a visual polish at least and the camera work is top notch. And, the idea of a shishkabob as a weapon is certainly imaginative. Was I the only one grabbing my crotch in agony after that poor kid got the weight dropped on his nuts?



For my second movie during my slasher night, I chose PROM NIGHT. It isn't exactly highly regarded anymore, earning particular vitriol from slasher fans who consider it mediocre or just flat out boring. I find that I have warmed up to it over the last few viewings, even though PROM NIGHT is less over the top and gratuitous, lacking nudity or strong ultraviolence. Like a lot of folks I purchased the Echo Bridge dvd for like 5 bucks and that's the kind of quality delivered to me..you get what you paid for so to speak. Anyway, director Paul Lynch opens the film with why the eventual killer is stalking the victims in PROM NIGHT. A little girl falls out of a window thanks to some brats who terrorize her, crashing to the ground stories down and through a mirror right in front of her little brother. On the night of the prom, those involved in this incident(the ring leader got the others to keep it hush-hush), now seniors in high school, will be hunted down and killed one by one for their hand in the death of a little girl. What a great building Lynch found for the opening of his movie..such wreckage, like an abandoned vessel lost at sea, a gutted body with the remains of a once occupied area now left in ruin. A menacing voice, with an enthusiastic whisper, informs the potential victims of what awaits them at the prom(Lynch shows a shadow on the wall, a pencil striking through the names on paper of those chosen for execution, and the faces of the characters as a child and six years later at present time recieving the call from their possible assassin). What's good about this Jamie Lee Curtis slasher is that she gets to portray the popular babe of the school this time around. We see her in a bra and it allows us a chance to recognize her for the very sexy woman she is. Her Kim is the homecoming queen and recently acquired boyfriend Nick(Casey Stevens) is the homecoming king. Nick was one of the kids responsible for the death of Kim and Michael's sister. Wendy(Eddie Benton), a beautiful bitch with a black heart, was once an item with Nick and hasn't taken her "dismissal" very well. Wendy truly believes Nick will return to her after the prom, unable to accept that he no longer wants anything to do with her. Marybeth Rubens and Joy Thompson are the other two girls the killer will seek after. Using both a piece of broken mirror and an ax, the killer, dressed in black, with a stocking, will strike when the appropriate opportunity presents itself. I think PROM NIGHT perseveres because it's one of the "Jamie Lee Curtis slashers" before she would go into more mainstream roles and features Leslie Nielsen as her father. I mean, those of us who have seen PROM NIGHT numerous times know that Nielsen's role is minor(to put it mildly), but his name in a slasher movie will always draw curious genre fans. I think PROM NIGHT is probably most (in)famous for the disco theme around the prom and seeing Curtis bust a groove on the dance floor. But, the story itself within PROM NIGHT is indeed a tragic one..the Hammond family have yet to recover from the loss of the girl, and the ending ultimately will cause even more grief. Lynch's subplot regarding an escaped lunatic who was charged with the murder of the Hammond girl is uninspired, to say the least, basically an attempt at a red herring, though I imagine most will see right through it. I've read from many reviews(slasher fans and certain critics)who agree with me that the best sequence is the long chase through the darkened halls of the school as Wendy tries to evade her pursuer to no avail. The payoff is lackluster, but I think Lynch built adequate enough suspence, although we knew Wendy was a goner. I must admit, the beheading is quite a doozy, the way it is carried out.