Some 80s Slasher Genre revisits
I had this misconception that my slasher reviews in the past (2011-2012) were successes until I was looking at perhaps reducing many of the lesser-viewed posts in order to lean up the blog somewhat. Neither April Fool's Day (1986) nor The House on Sorority Row (1983) set any records, that's for sure.
I had this idea of spending the summer writing slasher reviews naming it Scarecrow's Slasher Summer. Some of the reviews were minor successes (Cheerleader Camp & Final Exam both had some decent page-view numbers) but for the most part, the blog was abysmal with the occasional film review enjoying surprise success.
I get why slasher fans are wishy-washy about April Fool's Day. It really doesn't offer that certain audience its specific interests. It has a cast of faces that ring familiar, though. Deborah Foreman, especially, reaches out from the cast as does Thomas F Wilson (who had his most major role just a year prior in Back to the Future (1985)). Amy Steele, obviously a slasher final girl icon for Friday the 13th Part II (1981) returns for another Paramount release, once again "surviving" to the end. Those who grew up in the 80s and early 90s also know Ken Olandt (a year later he'd star in the Mark Harmon comedy, Summer School (1987)), as Steel's boyfriend (and, along with her, a "survivor" to the end). Foreman gathering college pals to her impressive cabin-by-the-lake (a part of her inheritance) during a spring break, gradually behaving strangely while her friends start to ponder her altering personality gets to wield (well, hold it up and appear to menacingly plan for a nice stab) a knife while looking unstable at the end as Steel begs her to back away and calm down. Cleverly, director Fred Walton avoids onscreen gore, and when you see bodies or heads, they either look like heavy make up or props or cutaways don't give us any detail to fates whatsoever. When there is outrage or disappointment for the twist ending, I am always confused because the title of the film says it all. Clayton Rohner's character, including his excessive emphasis on a porn mag, doesn't age well AT ALL. But he's one of those slasher examples that many in this day and age would certainly rise up against. Obnoxious and crude, Rohner is quite in-your-face and vulgar, while the scholarly book-reader, Leah Pinsent, revealing that she met Foreman in a drama studies class, tolerates him and his antics. There are juvenile pranks and off-color comments, shared between Wilson and Griffin O'Neal (The Wraith), and sexually frank Deborah Goodrich, given one scene where she's asking explicit questions to Steel and Foreman about experiences. Goodrich is the girlfriend of Rohner...why? I have no idea. The clues left behind and supposed discovery of a twin sister who might be mentally deranged present Steel and Olandt leads before they realize it is all an elaborate bit of theater. The very last scene with Pinsent and Foreman--a return the favor--is a bit tacked on, but I liked it.
I was in the mood for a revisit of The House on Sorority Row (1983). I haven't watched a lot of 80s slashers here lately. I might not have watched this one in maybe six or so years. I was trying to dig up my review on this blog but didn't have no such luck yet. I didn't mind it actually, although I just don't think the poster is even all that appropriate for what happens in the film or relates much to the characters. In fact it does seem a bit closer to a sorority porn movie or something where moonlight and a young woman in a gown prepare us for a bit of naughty bedroom seduction. I'm guessing of the cast, the three you will recognize are Kate McNeil (Monkey Shines (1988)), Harley Jane Kozak (Arachnophobia (1990)), and Eileen Davidson (a soap opera veteran). Kozak is probably the best actress of the trio but her character is more of a follower than a leader while Davidson has the most memorable role due to her lack of a moral compass. McNeil is the final girl of the film, the one who wants to report to the cops a drowning accident of a sorority house mother caused by the use of a gun trick firing blanks but is convinced to keep quiet by ringleader (and selfish) Davidson who brings up what this situation will do to all of them as a result. Davidson wanted to have a party at the sorority house while their house mother (her back story involving an abnormal birth produces the killer dressed in a clown costume using his mother's bird-handled cane as a main weapon) insisted they leave after having graduated that day. When Davidson shoots her with the gun, not realizing there was a bullet left in the chamber despite loading it with mostly blanks, they leave her in the dirty pool while continuing the party later that night! Davidson plays her part to the hilt: always thinking of herself and not facing the consequences of her actions, what happens to her and the other "sisters' of the sorority stems from the death and inability to confess to their crime. A doctor involved in the house mother's fertility experiments ends up drugging McNeil in order to lure the killer into the room! Plenty of cane stabbing, pushing a bin with a dead body into cop car, a dead body falling out of an attic, a secret room full of clown-related subject matter (including a jack-in-the-box with a clown popping out to a catchy tune), a severed bloody head in a toilet, knife to the jugular, silhouette stab to the throat, stab to the hand, slit throat, pistol shooting, pop ballads at the party complete with disco ball, "sea pig", guys in tighty-whities (that goes for Olandt in April Fool's Day, too), two guys attempting to swing dump a college gal into the pool before the cast stops them (!!!), Davidson baring her breasts for a boyfriends who helps her "test shoot" his pistol, among other memorable scenes. Richard Band's melodic score is really a gem hidden in a film primarily known by slasher fans who deep dive into the 80s for anything to cross of the list. The plot about hiding a group mistake that results in death and cover-up is very, very shopworn now, but wasn't all that common back then. This was released right in the boon period of the slasher film, before the marketplace needed a desperate relief from them due to levies breaking from the ongoing tide. Perhaps my favorite part has McNeil enduring the drug injected into her and its hallucinogenic effects, trying to keep herself together (and alive). McNeil is a capable lead and has conviction although she even relents from doing the right thing until most of her friends are dead.
To me, despite being only three years apart, April Fool's Day and The House on Sorority Row feel as if they are part of different eras. The former plays with the genre while the latter is one of the films Student Bodies (1980), a parody three years before it, poked fun at. Losing your friends is a component that runs through both films, while the latter has a body always causing the female cast to kvetch. Steel, Foreman, and their cast is certainly somewhat superior to House, in terms of their recognition, but slasher fans often embrace the early 80s low-budgeters, often produced by obscure companies (or by a few folks who gathered up enough financially to get a film out), later to be unearthed during the wonderful DVD boom of the early 2000s (and somewhat helped by the Scream Factories later). The House on Sorority Row isn't a Paramount product, barely finished by its director, Rosman, who gathered up enough after running out of budget to get this film in the can. I was able to watch it from flix (a channel featured in the Showtime network of premium channels), a channel that had previously shown the likes of Black Christmas (1974) and The Prowler (1980) when I was subscribing to the Showtime package during my following of David Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return. The House on Sorority Row has that same "look" and "feel" (the slasher early 80s aesthetic) of something like The Prowler, He Knows You're Alone, or Final Exam. I think fans will consider it a part of the 80s "fraternity"--or if you prefer "sorority"--of the slasher genre. You could watch it alongside Prom Night (1980) and feel as if both films were made around the same time. But April Fool's Day is different. I think it is essentially viewed as something perhaps resembling a Friday the 13th Done Light. It is very professional looking, something that doesn't carry the same dimestore production quality of many of the slasher films often seen before it. It has its own music box, with a popout figure prone to cause a jerk or two. Not quite as memorable as the popout clown in The House on Sorority Row, though.
April Fool's Day * * * / * * * * *
The House on Sorority Row * * * / * * * * *
I had this idea of spending the summer writing slasher reviews naming it Scarecrow's Slasher Summer. Some of the reviews were minor successes (Cheerleader Camp & Final Exam both had some decent page-view numbers) but for the most part, the blog was abysmal with the occasional film review enjoying surprise success.
I was in the mood for a revisit of The House on Sorority Row (1983). I haven't watched a lot of 80s slashers here lately. I might not have watched this one in maybe six or so years. I was trying to dig up my review on this blog but didn't have no such luck yet. I didn't mind it actually, although I just don't think the poster is even all that appropriate for what happens in the film or relates much to the characters. In fact it does seem a bit closer to a sorority porn movie or something where moonlight and a young woman in a gown prepare us for a bit of naughty bedroom seduction. I'm guessing of the cast, the three you will recognize are Kate McNeil (Monkey Shines (1988)), Harley Jane Kozak (Arachnophobia (1990)), and Eileen Davidson (a soap opera veteran). Kozak is probably the best actress of the trio but her character is more of a follower than a leader while Davidson has the most memorable role due to her lack of a moral compass. McNeil is the final girl of the film, the one who wants to report to the cops a drowning accident of a sorority house mother caused by the use of a gun trick firing blanks but is convinced to keep quiet by ringleader (and selfish) Davidson who brings up what this situation will do to all of them as a result. Davidson wanted to have a party at the sorority house while their house mother (her back story involving an abnormal birth produces the killer dressed in a clown costume using his mother's bird-handled cane as a main weapon) insisted they leave after having graduated that day. When Davidson shoots her with the gun, not realizing there was a bullet left in the chamber despite loading it with mostly blanks, they leave her in the dirty pool while continuing the party later that night! Davidson plays her part to the hilt: always thinking of herself and not facing the consequences of her actions, what happens to her and the other "sisters' of the sorority stems from the death and inability to confess to their crime. A doctor involved in the house mother's fertility experiments ends up drugging McNeil in order to lure the killer into the room! Plenty of cane stabbing, pushing a bin with a dead body into cop car, a dead body falling out of an attic, a secret room full of clown-related subject matter (including a jack-in-the-box with a clown popping out to a catchy tune), a severed bloody head in a toilet, knife to the jugular, silhouette stab to the throat, stab to the hand, slit throat, pistol shooting, pop ballads at the party complete with disco ball, "sea pig", guys in tighty-whities (that goes for Olandt in April Fool's Day, too), two guys attempting to swing dump a college gal into the pool before the cast stops them (!!!), Davidson baring her breasts for a boyfriends who helps her "test shoot" his pistol, among other memorable scenes. Richard Band's melodic score is really a gem hidden in a film primarily known by slasher fans who deep dive into the 80s for anything to cross of the list. The plot about hiding a group mistake that results in death and cover-up is very, very shopworn now, but wasn't all that common back then. This was released right in the boon period of the slasher film, before the marketplace needed a desperate relief from them due to levies breaking from the ongoing tide. Perhaps my favorite part has McNeil enduring the drug injected into her and its hallucinogenic effects, trying to keep herself together (and alive). McNeil is a capable lead and has conviction although she even relents from doing the right thing until most of her friends are dead.
To me, despite being only three years apart, April Fool's Day and The House on Sorority Row feel as if they are part of different eras. The former plays with the genre while the latter is one of the films Student Bodies (1980), a parody three years before it, poked fun at. Losing your friends is a component that runs through both films, while the latter has a body always causing the female cast to kvetch. Steel, Foreman, and their cast is certainly somewhat superior to House, in terms of their recognition, but slasher fans often embrace the early 80s low-budgeters, often produced by obscure companies (or by a few folks who gathered up enough financially to get a film out), later to be unearthed during the wonderful DVD boom of the early 2000s (and somewhat helped by the Scream Factories later). The House on Sorority Row isn't a Paramount product, barely finished by its director, Rosman, who gathered up enough after running out of budget to get this film in the can. I was able to watch it from flix (a channel featured in the Showtime network of premium channels), a channel that had previously shown the likes of Black Christmas (1974) and The Prowler (1980) when I was subscribing to the Showtime package during my following of David Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return. The House on Sorority Row has that same "look" and "feel" (the slasher early 80s aesthetic) of something like The Prowler, He Knows You're Alone, or Final Exam. I think fans will consider it a part of the 80s "fraternity"--or if you prefer "sorority"--of the slasher genre. You could watch it alongside Prom Night (1980) and feel as if both films were made around the same time. But April Fool's Day is different. I think it is essentially viewed as something perhaps resembling a Friday the 13th Done Light. It is very professional looking, something that doesn't carry the same dimestore production quality of many of the slasher films often seen before it. It has its own music box, with a popout figure prone to cause a jerk or two. Not quite as memorable as the popout clown in The House on Sorority Row, though.
April Fool's Day * * * / * * * * *
The House on Sorority Row * * * / * * * * *
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