Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]The 80s saw I would say as a perfection in the art of making slasher movies, I mean there was a lot of great slasher films before the 80s… (A couple of good examples of this is Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, Psycho (1960), and even The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) to name a few…)
But the 80s really perfected this sub-genre as a reputable and entertaining exploitation style horror movie sub-genre, for quite a few reasons.
Now the stories in a lot of these pre 1980s slasher horror movies were great, but not a lot of them ended up having a terrific amount of franchise potential… What I mean by that, is that with the exception of movies such as, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Psycho (which both have shared long lasting franchises, and have stayed in the hearts and minds of horror fans everywhere), there really hasn't been many slasher films to come out before the 1980s that have had long lasting franchise appeal… Now I think that is in large part, probably due to the popularity of monster movies Earthbound Monster movies in the 70s (such movies as Jaws (1975), Barracuda (1978), and Piranha (1978) to name a few…) and the more popular historically epic horror movies that people like Vincent Price (The Pit And The Pendulum) did in the 60s, etc…
Another reason is because rather you are a fan of the more mainstream slasher horror movies (like Friday The 13th (1980) or A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)), or if you are a fan of the more B Movie styled horror movies, such as, (Intruder (1989), or, The Prowler (1981), to name a few…) or are a fan of both (like myself), than you are going to also find these 80s slasher movies to be more perfect for the following reasons:
A: The story lines gave an element of potential legend in the storylines (as exampled with such series as, the ‘Friday The 13th’ series, the, ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ series, and even to a lesser extent, the, ‘Child’s Play’ series.
B: A lot of these slasher flicks that came out of the 1980s, were the inspiration for what was great from (well let’s be honest,) most of the horror movies to come out of the 1990s!
C: The next thing that I wanted to mention here, is that although I do think it may not be the worst ideas to remake some of the slasher films (or Horror films in general) from before the 80s, most of the horror movies that have been remade in the last 10 years are movies that although got their starts in the 70s, are movies (or movie series) that had their heyday’s start in the 80s!
But you know what folks, this is not paper on the importance of the slasher genre (that is coming) but a review on an awesome and classic slasher movie from way back when, that I do think embodies everything that made (and still makes), B slasher films so incredibly awesome (including everything that I mentioned above…) That movie of course being, Return To Horror High (1987)!
Written by: Bill Froelich (A Fine Romance), Mark Lisson (Mighty Joe Young), Dana Escalante, Greg H. Sims (Red Surf), and Directed by: Bill Froelich. Starring: Richard Brestoff (The Man With Two Brains), Brendan Hughes (Outland), Lori Lethin (Bloody Birthday), Pepper Martin (Scream), Andy Romano (Pump Up The Volume), Alex Rocco (The Godfather) and Al Fann (Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot).
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This production is sure to have a lot more then just it's budget, 'SLASHED'![/caption]A film crew has come to the great city of Crippen, to the former High School, to make a movie about the events that occurred at that School a few years earlier, those being that someone had gone through and had killed a whole bunch of the students that had gone to the School at the time!
Now what makes this story so sensational is that the killer had not only never been caught, but had also never been identified!
So of course a few years later, a sleazebag producer by the name of, Harry Sleerik (Rocco) decides to make the movie about the events that occurred during the time that those grizzly murders were occurring!
Well the movie starts off after the new set of grizzly murders are supposed to have occurred, where all of the cast and the crew are laid out in pieces… During this time, the Chief Of Police (Martin) is there and he is interrogating the writer on the project by the name of ‘Arthur’ (Brestoff).
Now Arthur is telling the story, (which of course is the lead in to the movie…) And at the beginning of the story, everything seems to be working out well, with the exception of certain problems with in the crew hierarchy (including: the Producer wanting to save a buck and make a low budget gore fest, the Director wanting to make the epic that will save his career, the frustrated writer, and the overly pretentious special effects man).
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The lead actress with the head of the production![/caption]That is of course until people start disappearing from the production… Are they dead? Have they walked from this job? Or is there something even more sinister going… Well in the end, as more and more people begin to disappear, Steven Blake (Hughes) an officer for the Crippen P.D. who had been around during the original murders, and Susan (Lethin) begin to investigate what is going on… During this time though, and despite the disappearances, the show must go on… And the cast and crew may end up doing more than just, ‘break a leg’!
The last two things that I thought that I should mention here is the cameo appearances by actors: George Clooney (Ocean’s 11), and Maureen McCormack (The Brady Bunch), the other thing that I thought that I would mention here is that the ending to this movie is freaking awesome, and one that you will never expect!
So if you get a chance, check it out, I thought this one was both hilarious and entertaining, and you might as well!
http://youtu.be/pLjWEvEJvsk
