Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

 Pluto TV currently has Twilight Zone's first two seasons On Demand, so I thought I would throw on a few episodes, sort of mixed bag on a Friday while working my way through some accounts. I have always wanted to pair Nick of Time with A Hundred Yards Over the Rim. For whatever reason, I don't think I've ever done those two together. I really like this Noon with Twilight Zone idea but since Pluto TV only has two seasons, I'll have to mix and match accordingly. Shatner recently celebrated a birthday and is still with us, so I was really thinking about when to revisit "Nick of Time" and what better time than a pretty Spring day in April. I have my window open and letting the blue sky and sunshine pick up my mood. It felt like the perfect episode, really. A traveling honeymooning couple passing through Ohio, Shatner a superstitious future accountant (sorry, "office manager") with a very patient Breslin accompanying him. I want to say that is a good feat

Definitely an accumulation of life sucks for a pregnant news photographer whose husband dies in a car wreck four months prior to the birth of their child...and that's not even the worst of it! She's got home invading wacko, Dalle, wanting her baby at Christmastime, willing to use scissors to get what she feels is hers! Dalle is as close to The Shape as I've ever seen, especially in how she seems to haunt the house and traverse spooky quiet in the shadows. Scissors to Dalle are a butcher knife to Michael. Dalle clad in black kicking a door while the mommy endures a slit face on the night before she's supposed to go to the hospital, holing up in a bathroom...it is really a nightmare. The way the music, really minimalist, atmospheric, and just right at the surface where you can feel it. Something much like you'd hear in a Soderberg movie, I think. I remember how this was the talk of the IMDb Horror Message Board. The French Extreme boom was 🔥 in the mid aughts. They w

I noticed some compared this to Candyman, and I totally get that, but I kept thinking more about The Wishmaster. Just the same, Kandisha seems to be a seductive Moroccan spirit, gradually growing more grotesque and greater in stature, until she's this tall creature barely maintaining her feminine characteristics, with really only her eyes left of what she probably was in life before Portuguese soldiers tortured and executed her, resulting in this hatred of men that really manifests itself when she takes her hoof and smashes areas of Bintou's brother, breaking open his ankle to expose the bone, fracturing his spine, and crushing the side of his head. She also lifts Morjana's pops off the floor and splits him apart (Ouch!) while she looks on in horror unable to stop Kandisha. Amélie conjuring Kandisha out of anger against her abusive ex-boyfriend might seem understandable since she probably didn't realize the ramifications and was just justifiably pissed at him. Without m

I have to cop to my losing interest in this as it continued. I can't imagine members of a police force would add sound design and jump scare music to Go Pro footage found in this abandoned psyche hospital with graffiti walls, clown portraits, dolls, and patient pictures of women with the same doctor. I really found the darkened labyrinthine hospital with all these rooms quite effective at the beginning when the film's young ladies and two guys arrive to camp, one among them a patient of the doctor factoring a lot more in the overall story once this alternates with the detective bureau looking at the footage and investigating how to find them and why they are missing. The light of the Go Pro on the heads of two particular people, Sam(antha) and Seb(astian), turning around as they turn to record everything can be used quite well, especially when the Michael Myers wannabe can be seen at a distant with an ax, including this damaged patient named Amanda reluctantly helping the mania

 This really looks like it was Frankensteined together with an act or two missing due to lack of budget. Something about twin brothers, the wrong brother executed for the slaying of Lynn's (Donna Scoggin) friends and music associates, because she thought Billy was responsible when it was actually John. John's music was stolen by Billy so he got his revenge. Lynn, unfortunately, is a product of John's mania. Meanwhile, there is a lot of rock music, Lynn is considered crazy by those still alive who question her claims Billy is terrorizing her, and yet despite being hunted by John decides she'll continue performing for an audience Rainbow Eyes after the coffin holding her captive is opened. During the final performance, John uses a type of spear to just kill people on stage (?!) while the crowd (perhaps believing it was all staged) cheers. This movie looks like the horror/slasher parts were just attachments to the rock music...the music seemed most important. Scoggins, as

Tall Grass Golf Course, a big charity tournament, a country club owner who refuses to close it down due to lawnmower murders to golfers (and a kid caddy pulled into the weeds while going after runaway golf balls); a former star golfer, Roy Kent (Robert North whose head hangs low and eyes look sad, really carrying a depressed demeanor most of the film) who took up drinking and began to fail at his career decided to stay close to what he loves, taking the job of a pro, much to the chagrin of hard-working, dedicated Kelly Lange (Victoria Scott)...Kelly had been expecting the job, instead being a golfer during the charity game. Norman Osgood (William Towner) will not close or even postpone the charity game, not even deterred by a number of savage deaths by the lawnmower, driving around on its own, seemingly unencumbered by issues with fuel. Deke Slade (Jeremy Whelan) is a former country club employee claiming the lawnmower is the thing responsible for the bloodshed while the authorities be

God, what a delightful kitchen sink movie. It is absolutely total nonsense with so many different genres thrown into a blender, a good sense of shlocky humor, a grand sense of adventure, a real eye for accentuating all of the sexy women in the cast, scraping every cent together despite every odd stacked against it: this is probably my favorite Jim Wynorski movie. I still hold out hope that some day I'll load up Tubi and "Sorority House Massacre II" will be on there. Sigh, alas, until then, at least we had this little itty bitty gem (well, maybe cubic zirconia, but I adore it anyway). Look, this is very, very, very rough around the edges. This is clearly made by someone cherishing the chance to make his own movie...you can really tell it is made with love and enthusiasm. I felt energy in every frame even if you can see the puny budget pushed to the very limit. He has to use a matte painting for Dr. Sin Do's island fortress, the laser weapons and sets are obviously pull

I totally get that Carpenter and Cundy (and that amazing cast) get and deserve all the praise. But I just want to make sure I throw some love Debra Hill's way, too. When I watch "The Fog", she just comes to mind now as much as anyone else. She's in with the locals gathering around the statue "commemorating murderers" (as can only be said by a haunted Holbrook, kvetching about the harbinger of doom on the horizon) when the "lights go out". She shot a lot of second unit coverage. She was in on the production and her contributions often go without the proper accolades. I think she would be a big hit on the festival and con circuit, and I'm certainly sure Debra would have so many admirers begging her to come on their podcasts and YouTube channels. Her advice and knowledge would be so requested and on demand today. We lost her too soon. That happy accident with Houseman as Mr. Machen can never be understated...this brief appearance has remained of g

This was a Letterboxd Exclusive, but I don't think I've ever written anything for Salem's Lot on this blog! That is insane! I'm sort of doing a Spring of King for the next two months, and I have had the Blu Ray for a few months. I thought, "Why not kick off that Spring of King with 'Salem's Lot'?" Great choice, methinks. I really appreciated the choice of contacts for the vampires and the fangs. Going more towards the Murnau Nosferatu vampire, the creep factor of Max Schreck is alive and well. You know, I could see why some might find the lack of Reggie Nalder's Barlow to be a mistake, but perhaps holding onto the shock of his appearance until later had much more impact, more punch. I love how grotesque he is. This puts to rest that Tobe Hooper was some one-trick pony. Granted I love a bunch of his movies. It is just ridiculous to weaponize "he peaked early" with TCM when this excellent television movie exists. James Mason as Straker,

While watching that damned Bundy doc on Netflix, the chapters on Florida and his murders reminded me of this 1985 serial killer newspaper thriller set in hot, sunny-and-rainy Miami, with Russell getting to really flex some dramatic muscles as Richard Jordan's maniac takes a shine to his way with words in the Journal he works headline for. There's a real creepy scene where Russell actually meets Jordan, unaware he's actually the killer, told he was this person with particular information, speaking with a lisp, sweaty, trash teeth, a trailer disheveled and full of dirty dishes with nude pictures on the wall. Russell failing to realize he had the killer, failing to help the police. The recording left behind to further tease him. And then Jordan threatens Muriel Hemingway, his fiance. Jordan definitely makes the skin crawl. Yeah, the film goes towards generic thriller territory with the reporter's girlfriend in danger by the killer who feels he was getting too much exposure

A weird closing Easter choice. I picked it because it had a lot to do with Catholicism, though I'm not Catholic and how the Church is featured in the film deals with shady Durning, a prostitute found cut in two pieces, an LA cop (Robert Duvall), the cop's high-ranking Monsignor brother (Robert DeNiro), and a priest found dead at a cathouse from heart failure. There's a lot of hinky activity in the film, a sort of ugly symbiosis often entangling the Church, the police, and body politic. DeNiro tells Burgess Meredith (a fellow priest) he has to accumulate and wield power in order for their churches to be built and souls to be saved. Doing that means DeNiro must often do business with the likes of Durning. Flanders, and Corley...but Durning is the one DeNiro is tired of being associated with the most due to his rampant corruption. The pacing and development of the story are curious. Like there are interludes that really slow the film such as the brothers visiting their mother

 So I was in the middle of my annual Easter weekend revisit of "Critters 2" (1988) when I thought to myself: so Bradley Brown (Scott Grimes) returns to Grover's Bend two years after his family left for "the big city" for just Easter weekend. He leaves the next morning after the events on Easter day so he actually rode the bus from home to Grover's Bend just for Saturday and Sunday, never really enjoying his stay considering the Crites pick up activity just as he arrives. The teenage kid can't even enjoy a weekend back home without dealing with those damned Crites! You'd think if he was visiting his grandmother, Bradley would stay longer! But, nope! I don't know why, but I never thought of the above before after thirty years! Who really visits from a city to a home town for two days? 

So I was a bit mistaken when I noticed this was available on Shudder. I thought it was the Carnival of Blood from 1970 featuring a pre-Rocky Burt Young. This 1973 oddity that had been considered lost; I read it was presumed all copies were destroyed after really bad reception when it was released in Drive-Ins. The 1970s were chock full of the strange and surreal, perhaps due to just how mad the world had gotten. Or it just seemed that way, I guess. Personally, I wasn't born until four years later, as the Disco era was in full swing. So this film really seems to communicate to me in a way because the carnival itself sort of depicts the decline and decay of a once (I assume) thriving amusement park in Pennsylvania as it was about to be put out of its misery. Those involved in the film never made another one, but I'm glad I had the chance to see "Malatesta's Carnival of Blood" because it really is a relic worth discovering if you are a connoisseur of independent, mad

  I was sort mulling over what to watch after Tragedy Girls (2017), so I was just "channel surfing" through Shudder's various category lists, eventually landing on S éance (2021), capturing my attention because I have a soft spot for horror/slasher films The Craft-adjacent or The Craft-familiar. Even if they aren't considered highmarks such as 5ive Girls and Little Witches, but even before The Craft (1996), there was Heathers (1989). So I'm really a sucker for a poster that has student girls together supposedly against something (or someone) evil or themselves as a horror film description. This film has some fun surprises I appreciated. It has the slasher formula of the body count where members of a particular group (Alice, Yvonne, Rosalind, Lenora, and Bethany) are messing around with a planchette and try to contact the Edenvile Ghost or a recent "suicide, Kerrie. New arrival, "Kamille" has a friend in the meek and shy Helina, who obviously seems t

 Two teenagers, Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand; "Deadpool" and "Deadpool 2") and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp, a few X-Men movies), are serial killers who want to learn from the Rosedale Ripper, a notorious psychopath they have been keeping tabs on, making sure he had a teenage honor student available to stick a machete in the head of -- not dead, Sadie made sure to suffocate him and finish what the Ripper, Lowell (Durand) started! Sadie and McKayla are later revealed to be the murderers of the sheriff's (Timothy V Murphy) wife and Jordan's (Jack Quaid; "5cream" (2022) mother. Jordan is very good at editing videos for social media and Sadie has a bit of a crush on him while McKayla sees Jordan as a threat to her lock-tight bond with Sadie. To show Sadie she is willing to go all the way and kill someone she "loves", McKayla makes sure her ex-boyfriend (Josh Hutcherson; "Hunger Games" series) dies after they set up a ghoulish motorcycle cr

  Well, my lust for Monica Keena remains intact, but my initial excitement and enthusiasm before, during, and after "Freddy vs. Jason" in 2003 is long gone. This has not aged well. That early 2000s "high school humor" certainly retains the cringe of the post-Scream era right before Zombie and the Splat Pack decided to go in a much darker direction and the French Extreme mid aughts horror movement brought us somewhat officially out of that for good. The CGI Freddy slug blowing pot smoke in the face of a stoner and the Hypnocil drug labrats and "dream blockers" institution angle certainly didn't feel like Peak Elm Street or Friday. And the use of Hypnocil to render Jason unconscious (not to mention the use of water to stop Jason in his tracks) seems, in retrospect, questionable. Still, this was the chance to see Freddy in Jason's dreams, something I don't think we Friday fans ever thought we'd see. A lot of the CGI (we get it, this saved mone

 This was on Shudder's Folk Horror Channel and decided to watch it. I was reading a bit on the English Civil War for which this film is set before Whitehead, Friend, and Jacob venture towards wherever that field finds itself, as Cutler talks about an alehouse heading towards the alchemist, O'Neill, looking to settle his many debts by finding this treasure he's sure Whitehead will be able to lead them to like some sort of compass. This war, like so many others, is about politics, religion, and real estate, the usual shit that war after fucking war, no matter the country, no matter the continent, results in dead bodies torn apart by weapons. This war just has 17th century weapons. Anyway O'Neill is just another among centuries and centuries of commanding, narcissistic assholes who make demands and expect them, using force when necessary. In the case of Whitehead, he either serves masters, prays to his God, fasts while others eat mushrooms, tries to run from fighting becau

 This was on Shudder's Slashics Channel, and I stumbled on it after watching "A Field in England" (2013). I have to watch this on Joe Bob's Drive-In next. My favorite television series is The Twilight Zone and Serling always had mannequins over and over again, starting with "Where is Everybody?" So when I come across a horror film specializing in them, I'm all in big-time. When their eyes move, mouths open, and that unnerving sound comes out, that is the creepy goods I wholly embrace. And that atypical Donaggio score might have been rejected by Yablans, but I thought it added a ton of gravitas to the major creep-factor that really gave me goosebumps. Also the score added this melody that could be equal parts harmonious and unsettling. But whatever alchemic witchcraft Connors had working to conjure up such supernatural mannequins and such, it definitely felt like Jones, Roberts, and her friends stumbled on this whole other disturbing place few ever would

 I remember Adam Marcus (director of "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" (1993) talking to a favorite YouTuber of mine about Sean Cunningham's aspirations to be a "prestige picture director", but while watching his follow-up film to "Friday the 13th" (1980), the Fort Lauderdale sex beach comedy, "Spring Break" (1983), I thought to myself, "He never really got to make that". Perhaps "Spring Break" is just an answer to "Porky's" or its many similarly playful and raunchy fellows, a joyously rambunctious and spirited romp that has no other reason to exist except to capture Ft. Lauderdale, FL, in 1983 during a very special time in the lives of beautiful young people, clubbing the night away, attending the expected wet-shirt contests, with lots of gatherings and hookups ongoing, including plenty of modeling contests in bikinis and suntanning beach attendees. The nonsense plotting of "Spring Break" incl

We are the youth of today. God bless America, limp dick. They were the Honor Society but atomic weed turned them into violent, drug-pushing cretins. The Nuclear Plant located not far from Tromaville High had a serious covered-up leak (who else in charge of something so corrupt than Pat Ryan?) and because of the toxic waste (of course), several of the youth are suffering "side effects". I've never been as high (pun intended) on this Nuke 'Em High film as I am of "The Toxic Avenger". The actors that played Bozo and Slug are two of the punks terrorizing students (and driving faculty crazy). Warren and Chrissy were minding their own business at a raucous party when their friends stuck the atomic weed in their mouths...one was turned into Toxie-Light and the other coughed up a killer sperm. A lot of folks from "The Toxic Avenger" return for Nuke 'Em High. From what I read, this was actually shot in 1984. It is roughly edited and acted...no big surpr

This sort of felt like an amalgamation of Trick or Treat (1986), Todd and the Book of Pure Evil (2010), and Night of the Demons (1988). Sex toys and a chainsaw working together to kill demon parents...and a piece of shit bullying cousin. Take an extra star for chainsawing that prick's head and ax-wielding blond beauty, Kimberley Grossman. Metalheads responsible for conjuring an apocalyptic blood moon demonic possession that has turned practically everyone except a motley few into eye-gouged, sharp-teeth, vomit-blood ghouls tearing each other apart. King of the Demons, Aeloth, is to be summoned by a follower and her minions. Metalheads in Kiss makeup and pentagram necklaces, with devil horns hand shake. Joe Bob calling up Felissa Rose to talk Weed Wacker dick mutilation was my favorite part of this film or its Drive-in special presentation. The chainsaw anal abuse, head pulled from a torso complete with the spine, arms pulled from sockets, and hacked limbs and body parts of all type

Saw this for the first time back in 2010 as Class Reunion Massacre in one of those Mill Creek public domain DVD 50 packs. That off kilter electronic score just remains unnerving and the soft light photography the 70s could really provide (as well as the early 80s) I guess always captivates me, for lack of a better term. A film that might either be purposely fire and brimstone or parodying religious message ferocity, nonetheless, there is something just magnified by this addition to what could have been a basic slasher plot regarding former classmates gathered for a ten year reunion, not anticipating a master of disguises with an extra thumb picking them of one at a time. The human-sized clown puppet with a dagger and flame thrower with strings is creepy enough but the kid rising from a lake and Finkbinder dressed as a magician and clown among other made-up characters is especially effective. A bit sluggish at times and I'm sure will be considered also problematic if the viewer find

"You fat slob, let's see if you have any guts! Officer Clancy, take care of this toxic waste." When this was "cut" on USA Up All Night, I do remember my uncle being leery of me watching it. Obviously, USA wasn't about to allow the profanity and violence, so that would come a little later. I couldn't exactly recall when I would finally get the chance to see it with all the filth. I definitely don't think, even with dorky mop boy, Melvin, at the Tromaville Gym falling in toxic waste and suffering all the effects shown on television, USA showed the complete intentional head-on crash into a boy on a bicycle (his helmet didn't help him, unfortunately) for "28 points" by an unhinged gym nut whose "stress ruins his karma". His buddy encourages the lunatic to take an old woman's car after throwing her groceries on the street, punching her in the stomach, and pummeling her with her own walking cane! That's Troma. This certainly

I had noticed Polanski's Repulsion listed as inspiration, and I was also feeling those Woody Allen Manhattan vibes with the very distinct view of NYC in B&W. But House of the Devil was also on my mind while watching Lauren Ashley Carter investigate Sean Young's decadent mansion, including that long hall to a room that is locked for a reason...it could be where "the living devil was conjured". The film never lets us see what is inside...perhaps that is best for our own sanity? Whatever the whispers are that seem to encourage (or perhaps exacerbate what was already slipping away) Darling's descent into madness, "The Man" (either Henry Sullivan or Dr. Abbott; hard to determine which since she's not altogether reliable), played by Morvant, gets the worst of it. Darling was the wrong girl for Sullivan/Abbott to talk to in the club at the bar...there is a particularly strong noirish edge to the scene with the smoke from Darling's cigarette, all the

Engaged couple, Tony and Brittney, and Brittney's teenage brother, Kevin, arrive at Brittney and Kevin's parents' cabin, finding multiple people in the area (including the parents) killed, encountering a shot-gun packing plumber (Dimici) paranoid and half-crazy, saying "they were all demons", believing they might be also. What happens is our trio trying to avoid the same fates as everybody else, hoping to convince the plumber that they aren't demons or dangerous, just wanting him to leave. From that point on Kevin is on alert, on guard, adopting a similar paranoia as the plumber, eventually convinced Tony returned from a walkabout (looking for help) "changed". Brittney tries to get her brother to chill out, with a Karen showing up calling herself Margie (Lori Hammel) sort of causing a lot of tension in the group. Eventually even the plumber returns, causing even more friction between Tony and Kevin. I personally didn't have a problem with the per

 The twist in the last twenty minutes is clever, I'll give the film that. And there is definitely some disturbing kills and assaults, including a teenage girl impaled on spikes, a pregnant mother aborted and killed herself by a machete, a teenage boy stabbed in the neck with a machete, a father smashed in the face with a bat, a mother stabbed in the neck with a hunting knife, two teenage boys attacked while trying to protect their parents. I agree with other critiques that the decision to stress the cast by speaking in English really wasn't necessary and mostly detrimental, especially the younger cast. But the disorienting Dewanto trying to figure out what is going on and why his "family" was under attack while journeying through the woods "avoiding a madman" while two teenagers are "looking for their father" just wasn't really all that gripping for me besides the shocking violence. 2.5/5

 Geno Walker is reclusive in a new apartment after a nervous breakdown, alcoholism, and divorce from an ex he's still on good terms with. He was "downsized" from a managerial position, trying to find a niche on (I am guessing) YouTube or some other paying platform for videos (he's trying with a lawn tips related topic). He's into taxidermy, using countdowns for calming technique, living close to an ordered and cyclical life (drinking coffee and eating soup at a certain time, on schedule). Eventually Walker's Ken Barber realizes something paranormal is in the apartment, told by a researcher and spiritualist named Colin (Lawrence Grimm) there was abuse and murder (and a suicide by the murderer) before he arrived to live there. So a "spirit jar" ordered from Colin might have pulled a spirit from some astral plane into reality accidentally by Barber, needing a ritual done with Colin's personal spirit jar in order to "heal" the apartment. Co

 Watching Halloween II (1981) with my daughter Monday evening was just perfect, because this was her first official viewing of it (she is 18). She told me a few months ago the next time I watched Halloween II that we would watch it together. I want to say this was the one Halloween film she hadn't watched. I'm not sure why, really. Just the same Shudder has LOADED their streaming service with a bunch of classic films for their "halfway to Halloween" gimmick. I thought to myself: Halloween II belongs on Shudder. They really are like peanut butter and jelly. There were particular scenes she really responded to, such as the early neighborhood scenes with Michael stalking about. When he kills the teenage girl in her home. The death of Ben Tramer, and just how many times Loomis shoots Michael. The hammer to the security guard's skull. But, especially, Jamie Lee Curtis fleeing from Michael, with her remarks of "John sure knows how to make music, dad" making me

"I'm going to cut myself free of you if it's the last thing I do." Dragging that piece of shit around the place must have been all kinds of suck. Megan Fox having to navigate that scumbag's carcass -- "Is he here?" - Tom. "Most of him." - Emma -- for a good bit, the film actually making that work, kudos to all involved. I thought the plot was rather clever actually. And it allowed Fox's Emma to think quick in a very difficult situation seemingly against a lot of odds. But, boy, what a nasty piece of work Mark (Macken) was as the husband. He elaborately set Emma up to be killed by the very attacker who put a knife in her back (and for whom she stabbed in the eye with a key!). The gas let out of the vehicle, all the candles and rose pedals after a dinner and blindfold trip to a lake house in winter, complete with seductive sex, only to shoot himself as she awakens, spattering blood and brain in her face. Leaving a recording of her accounts of

This is one of those thrillers where a group find themselves having to get rid of a body after a fun weekend getaway due to tempers flaring out of control, though the one killed isn't actually responsible for a specific crime against them. Cameras installed in the showers spy on them, and a certain adultery between two of the group (Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand) needs to be covered up, with the caretaker (Toby Huss) considered the one at fault. Stevens' brother (Jeremy Allen White) physically assaults Huss as he's trying to call the police while Vand attempts to stop him, since the adultery would be uncovered. Meanwhile, Huss actually isn't the person with the camera installed and watching (and recording) activities committed by visitors, masking up and eventually going on a kill-spree. The masked killer suffocates Huss while he's in the tub unconscious.  I love Alison Brie (G.L.O.W and Community, especially, though she's a monster in "Scream 4"), who is j

 This was an Up All Night and VHS favorite of mine, but it wasn't until I got to see it uncut with my Lost Collection Lionsgate DVD that I felt I had truly seen it. The kills are wicked: that acid bath melting that victim into a skeleton, the "poisoned" beer that causes the victim's stomach to explode blood and guts literally, the very "electric sex" between two former lovers, a mechanic's worst nightmare while trying to get a tractor's motor running while on a jack, among others really kick ass to me. I know one of the cast members, who played Nancy, from "Don't Open Till Christmas", the strip booth worker running for her life from the Santa killer. I have always been torn on the "it was all a dream" twist, because I felt Marty's horrible bullying and nasty pranks at the beginning were beyond the pale. Caroline Munro is a Hammer icon and horror icon, but asking us to accept her as a teenager was always ridiculous to me, e

 "Ha, ha, ha! Real funny you guys!" Watching this with my daughter was fun -- well, except for the deluge of early sleaze/sex jokes and behavior that comes with the 80s territory -- because she didn't know the twist at the end. I have been watching "April Fool's Day" since I was a teenager in the early 90s. And this was a cable/satellite premium channel mainstay well into the mid aughts. I do think I saw this still popping up on Starz/Encore as late as 2018, so the film seems to be very accessible. I almost bit on the SE Blu Ray, but I've never been in love with this film. Though I will say I find it very rewatchable, just not remarkable if that makes sense. The awkwardness among students trying to get to know each other, and some class and sexual dynamics at play, along with those pranks set up around the house by Muffy, really are standouts to me. I like how personalities clash and animosity becomes apparent. And I sound like a parrot on repeat but gre

 I have had the Blu Ray (bought blind; I've never seen before, not even when I was frequenting rental stores during my VHS youth) since January 22nd, but I sat on it because of the holiday. I didn't really know whether or not to start with this or "April Fool's Day" (1986), but I did know I was ending with "Slaughter High" (1986). I'm glad I kicked off my April Fool's marathon with this. I guess I best felt like different producers/directors/writers worked on the film, as there is that Porky's/Revenge of the Nerds fraternity/sorority hi-jinks part of it, there is this meta hair metal music video at a drive-in (well, the frizzied-punk hair gal and her handy boyfriend were watching a crazy funeral scene from a movie, so this is a movie within a rock video) with zombies rising from damaged cars as the cute neon punk gal tries to get away fro them, an abandoned house with a history as the April Fool's party hangout, and a batshit crazy posses