The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie Challenge #14: Bloody Moon (1981) (Arrow)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
A disfigured, incestious maniac is killing insanely attractive co-eds from the same Spanish class in this Giallo-like slasher.
Checking out another Jess Franco movie as he tackles the popular college slasher genre. An above-average slasher with lots of lurid grist for the slasher genre lover. We liked it.
The Trailer:
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The Hunger
The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #13: The Hunger (1983) (Criterion)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
A sexy French vampire drains her lovers of life.
We thought we’d seen this one, but when we got to the 10 minute sex scene between Catherine Deneveue and Susan Sarandon. Nope, we’d certainly remember that. Wowza!
The Hunger is a vampire film in art film trappings. While, the movie doesn’t have to much depth as a good art film, it does look fantastic and feels like art. Plus, David Bowie is in it, always a plus for that cool, alien feel the film was striving to be.
The plot is basic Dorian Grey, but that’s okay, it works. A decent movie, but not particularly memorable.
Except for, you know, that 10 minute sex scene.
The Trailer:
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #13: Near Dark (1987) (Criterion)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
Hillbilly vampires take in a new recruit who does nothing but sabotage the tribe.
We saw this back in the ’80’s and remembered liking it. So, we decided to show the movie for friends. Upon revisit, Near Dark doesn’t really hold up. The best sequence, the bar scene, is still pretty great. However, a stupid, bloated Hollywood ending and an unsympathetic lead who does stupid things hamstring the rest of the film. Is Lance Henrickson still awesome? Yes. And does scene stealer Bill Paxton make every movie he’s in better? Sure. But, the rest of the movie can’t support these shining stars.
The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge, by its very nature, wallows in nostalgia and the main goal of the challenge is to find movies worth seeing, first, and to showcase lesser classics, second.
We failed on the second count. We’re a culture that prefers to look back in comfort than press forward in discovery. Nostalgia, at the end of the day, generally just adds up to circle jerk. And as we reassess our cultural touchstones here at The Fiesta 13, we guess, stuff’s gotta go. Tastes change.
Anywhoozle, Near Dark. Less than the whole of its parts.
The Trailer:
Another added note: As The Challenge grinds on, we’re having trouble finishing many of the movies we’re starting as they are often the worst thing a movie can be: boring. We’re looking at you Hard Rock Zombie. How do you make Heavy Metal, Zombies and Nazi’s boring? I want to finish it just because we’ve made some pretty awesome graphics.
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #12: Black Roses (1989) (Shudder)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
Tipper Gore was right. Middle of the road, bland, corporate heavy metal causes high school students to commit atrocities.
One of the ’80’s subgenres of horror that I didn’t see a lot of at the time was the whole “Heavy Metal is satanic” series of movies. Not really a fan of mediocre heavy metal, but let’s try and rectify that horror hole with a few movies.
Hard to know who’s the hero of this movie is as they follow roughly 20 characters at the beginning. A heavy metal band, Black Roses, is starting their tour in a generic midwestern town (really, Canada). They are tools of Satan. Eventually, the sympathetic English teacher emerges as the one to throw gasoline on Satan and save the kids.
The movie begins slow, but if you start with the death of Big Pussy from The Sopranos (his first role) about a half hour in, the rest of the movie picks up with random killings by heavy metal obsessed ‘young adults’ at a fairly even clip. The effects are fun, in the rubber-puppet variety, and while the metal is pretty forgettable, the movie does go out of its way to compare Walt Whitman and today’s crappy metal.
One thing we did not know: Metal bands write Power Ballads primarily to show adults their music is palatable and not, repeat not, the music of Satan.
‘Effin’ Tipper Gore.
The Trailer:
An added note, I’ve started about three other Metalsploitation films, but didn’t finish them as they were Gawd-Awful. The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge is only met when we finish a movie. Boy, what a lot of wasted mousse.
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #11: Behind The Door 3 (1989) (Arrow)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
You know when a bunch of American college students go to Serbia, nothing good can ever happen. Behind The Door 3 is sort of like a Serbian Midsommar.
Behind The Door 3 has nothing to do with the other Behind The Door movies, and while slow in spots, its a solid fish out of water college misadventure with supernatural elements, showcasing a pretty exciting train midsection. An early Hostel vibe.
This one was a surprise, great local mood, all the budget on screen–even a cheesy model train sequence that works–plus a decent plot.
We liked this one and would like to issue an apology to Bo Svenson. We always got Bo Svenson confused with Joe Don Baker which never bode well for Svenson. But Svenson goes all in as the student’s shady teacher, tricking the kids into a pagan ritual and stealing the movie.
The Trailer:
The Fiesta 13, Blaine, Ne.
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #10: Dream Demons (1988) (Criterion)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
Nightmares bleed into reality as a Bride agonizes about her upcoming wedding and the mysteries of a new house.
Generally, dream sequences are dead weight and a cheat in horror movies. We give most movies two bites at The Dream Apple and that’s it.
However, Dream Demons does a good job of integrating the dreams into the plot all the way to its bloated and predictable conclusion. A local celebrity, the bride of a Falkland’s War Hero (It is Britain in the late 80’s) keeps having nightmares about her abusive groom. Soon, a stranger shows up and the nightmares blurs and things get weird.
While a perfectly serviceable, modest horror, Dream Demon doesn’t really take any big swings at the bat and fails for it. The ending is a bit too tidy. The nominal bad guys, two sleazy tabloid hacks are easily the highlight, but the film, ultimately, doesn’t know what to do with them.
The Trailer:
The Fiesta 13, Blaine, Ne.
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #9: Death Screams (1982) (Arrow)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
‘Young Adults’ go to a hometown carnival, then the woods where a killer eventually shows up.
This is a below-average slasher with a scarce, but easily-guessable killer. I weirdly liked all the ‘Young Adult’ hometown carnival scenes of ‘Young Adults’ being ‘Young Adults’ for the first half of the flick. The last third is a pretty standard slashic with below-par effects.
We want to take a minute to talk about The Comedian character. He’s, always a he, is usually second killed after the pretty naked girl. And in this movie, he dies in pretty Comedic Character fashion, taking a dump in an outhouse on a rainy night.
We actually thought he was funny in the beginning of the movie, but the relentless onslaught of dated references, even for the ’80’s, began to wear and we were ready for him to go. Why must every Comedian Character do a Three Stooges routine? A marked difference in this Comedian Character, he had a girlfriend. That’s a first.
You see, we would end up being The Comedian Character in any real-life slasher situation. We really only know jokes and have no real slasher-evading skills. So, we generally have Comedian Character sympathies, but they are always sooooo obnoxious. Why can’t you actually make them funny? Do you make them obnoxious so the audience wants him to die? We prefer the more sympathetic ‘Young Adult’ characters. As a teen, we used to root for the killer ’cause we were kind of a jerk. But now, we root for the ‘Young Adults.’
So, find us a Comedian Character worthy of rooting for, slasher movie.
The Trailer:
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #8: The Living Dead Girl (1982) (Criterion)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
A Dead Girl, exposed to chemical toxins becomes Living, her childhood friend helps her drink blood.
The in-the-know horror community really likes Director Jean Rollins. All of his movies are on multiple streaming services. I read about people raving about this or that movie. We’ve seen a few of his movies, but were generally bored. Too Euro-trashy? Not sure. So, we gave Jean Rollin’s The Living Dead Girl a fresh chance. A pleasant surprise. Good effects, not slow without intent, good acting and an attractive lead with a lesbian subplot. We’ll do a little research and seek out a few more movies. Maybe there’s a gap in our 70’s and 80’s horror movie viewing that needs to be remedied.
The Trailer:
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #7: The Brain (1988) (Prime)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
A Giant Man-Eating Brain Plans to Take Over The World by Hypnotizing TV Viewers.
Somewhere between Halloween 3 and They Live, The Brain probably should have done better box-office wise, but does have a small cult following today. The effects were fun, the plot had a nice element of satire, and didn’t lag much. Add to that a decent budget, the film looks better than average.
The only big problem was the lead. He was miscast. He’s supposed to be this iconoclast genius rebel, but he came off primarily as a jerk. While the rest of the acting was good, especially Re-Animator’s David Gale, the lead just seemed disconnected and artificial.
This movie does deserve to be seen by 80’s horror fans, just pay no attention to the lead. Root for The Brain!
A Clip:
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #6: The Pit (1981) (Arrow)
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
A weirdo kid finds a pit full of demons, goes on killing spree to feed them.
At first, I kinda liked the weirdo, only child, loner kid who finds The Pit as I check a lot of those boxes. Where they lost me was the tonal change when the weirdo kid gleefully starts killing for the demons. I mean, anytime you start make deals with demons or killing for demons, chances are, things are not going to go well for you.
Oh, the weirdo kid also talks to a Demon Teddy Bear, also a pretty big red flag that you’re going down the wrong path.
A generally modest picture, the effects were fine. Never really bored watching the film, but nothing really worth recommending to others.
The Trailer:
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #5: Microwave Massacre (1983) (Arrow)
A shlumpy construction worker hates his wife’s gourmet cooking, so he does what anyone would do: turn to cannibalism with the world’s largest microwave.
First off, a shout out to The Arrow Video Streaming Channel, the modest budget Microwave Massacre looks great as does all the niche, not found anywhere else, Arrow library.
Although the movie has a dud ending, everything else pretty much works. Honestly, not much else to say. Watch with friends.
The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge, 62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days.
The Trailer:
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The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movie OctoVember Challenge #4: Dead End Drive-In (1986) (Arrow)
More a car-based dystopia like fellow Aussie film, Mad Max, Dead End Drive-In doesn’t have a lot of horror elements, but still is an enjoyable movie. Like a darker Grand Theft Auto come to life.
Our hero, the only non-racist white guy in the film, spends his time scavenging car crashes with his cooler, older brother and a tow truck. He borrows his brother’s ’57 Chevy and heads off to the drive-in with his easily-led girlfriend. At the drive-in, our hero and his girlfriend are held captive.
62 1980’s Horror Movies in 62 Days, The Fiesta 13 1980’s Horror Movies OctoVember Challenge.
The Trailer:
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The Fiesta 13 