Terrifying Classics at Quickflix
Halloween’s over for another year, making it the perfect opportunity to take a
look at the many horror movies - indeed thousands - that are available to us on
DVD for our viewing terror…
While contemporary remakes of horror classics and the new ‘torture porn’ movies
generally go great guns at the box office – the fourth in the Saw franchise has
just been released into Australian cinemas with Hostel: Part II doing big
business back in June – away from their hyper-gore, slick stylings, shock
tactics and commercial success, on closer scrutiny maybe they ain’t so hot
after all… Not when you compare them to the truly maverick films that blazed
the way 3 decades before.
The 70s - 80s was a golden period in American horror film – a time when
independent filmmakers led the way, making inventive horror flicks on low
budgets and launching the careers of many an unknown star.
John Carpenter’s
Halloween (1978) is the perfect case in point; co-writing, directing
and composing the music, Carpenter also had his hands full turning the then 19
year-old Jamie Lee Curtis into a horror movie icon in her very first feature
film. “The Babysitter versus Michael Myers” could be Halloween’s alternative
title – Curtis’s Laurie Strode was a formidable heroine and handy with a
coat-hanger when it counted… While Curtis retired Laurie from the franchise by
Halloween III: The Season of the Witch (1982), she had fun reviving
Laurie - all grown up and ready to take on Michael Myers all over again - in
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). But by
Halloween: Resurrection (2002) Laurie was definitely past her use by
date…
Inspired by Halloween’s success producer/director Sean S. Cunningham decided to
try his hand at teen horror unleashing
Friday the 13th (1980) on unsuspecting audiences two years later. The
‘maniac on the loose’ formula - with teens again as the protagonists and
victims – worked a treat with the unfortunate characters – as Variety so
delicately out it - “progressively despatched by knife, hatchet, spear and
arrow”.
Friday the 13th remains one of the most successful and most ‘sequelled’
horror movies ever with the original – and the best - featuring a very young
Kevin Bacon playing camp counsellor Jack Burrell. Our Kev doesn’t escape the
ripper terrorising both the kids and their teen guardians at ‘Camp Crystal
Lake’. Only Betsy Palmer lives long enough to see the dawn, battling psycho nut
job Jason Vorhees to the bitter end…
Cunningham arrived in Hollywood around the same time as another filmmaker whose
name is now synonymous with horror: Wes Craven. Craven and Cunningham worked
together on ultra-low budget exploitation films before the former hit upon the
franchise that would make him famous:
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984). Freddy Krueger was the name of
Craven’s “maniac”, only he wasn’t human like Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers.
Freddy was an entity that invaded teenagers’ dreams, an avenging spirit who
preyed upon them at their most vulnerable: when they were asleep.
Johnny Depp is in the first film, dying in what has to be one of the
weirdest deaths every committed to screen – he gets swallowed up by his bed!
Unlike the aforementioned horror franchises the Elm Street series actually
thrives over its first few incarnations, with II: Freddy’s Revenge, III: Dream
Warriors and IV: The Dream Master very worth watching. However the wheels had
definitely fallen off by the time
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) rolled around.
Freddy Vs Jason (2003) is the final in the series (Nightmare on Elm
Street VIII), the long awaited pairing of two of the most notorious maniacs in
teen movie history! While the film hasn’t got much going for it plot-wise, the
face off between these two scream icons is inspired. Directed by Hong Kong
action movie king Ronny Yu, Jason and Freddy go at it hammer and tongs in a
violent cinematic dance that makes one both laugh out loud and suck in breath
in sheer awe. This final sequel might sound like a cynical cash cow, but it’s
much more, made specifically for fans who like their horror films with visual
invention and humour thrown in.
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
