Living in Australia I have no idea what Thanksgiving is, and prefer to remain clueless, filling the American minutia knowledge part of my brain with the history of Twinkies instead. But at Retro Slashers, Thanksgiving is still very special to us: an excuse to lavish praise on Home Sweet Home (1981, Review) starring Bodies-By-Jake Steinfeld.
A pretty substantial update one of my retro projects: Fangoria have posted an article exclusively unveiling the Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor official poster art, plus copious quotage from me that’ll give you the comprehensive skinny on the lost slasher.
[audio:http://www.retroslashers.net/choppingmall.mp3]
Chopping Mall Theme – Chuck Cirino
Holy hannah, will you take a look at this? Right now? Maniac (1980) scores a new poster in celebration of its return theatrical run via Grindhouse Releasing and Blue Underground. Sure, there was nothing wrong at all with the original legs-knife-scalp poster – in fact it was everything right about early 80’s grimy slashers. Even that denim bulge. But this new one is fantastic in its own right – eschewing the anonymous terror of the original to give the late great Joe Spinell his due, as well as Caroline Munro. A festering look into the internal mania of the maniac.
Stephen Romano aka The Best In The Biz is responsible for this crimson delight. Grindhouse Releasing are offering limited editions of the poster on their website – 100 copies, individually numbered and personally auto’d by director William Lustig & producer Andrew Garroni. $40 plus $10 shipping. Chase that up here: Maniac onesheet
For the purists out there, the Maniac 30th Anniversary DVD/Blu-Ray out now carries the original cover art. Which is cool with me because detailed art like this deserves to displayed large on the wall, not shrunken down to those puny-sized blu-ray covers.
Your living room may be a safe place to watch this movie, but the real experience is in watching with a paying, rowdy public, just like the 42nd st days. Maniac is playing at selected theatres across the US throughout November. Is one near you? Hit it: Maniac theatrical playdates
It won’t be available in supermarkets! Intruder is finally going to receive the justice it deserves, via Synapse. Note: Pictured is an uncut DVD from Denmark, which Synapse will obviously trump in quality and content, but we challenge them to match or better this cover art. Now onto the goodness…
A quiet halloween for me. I’ve been sick all week, and as a result of carving my first ever jack-o-lantern way too early in the month, it has rotted and sunken in on itself, causing it to look a little like Abe Vigoda if his face imploded. So that’s two points against an enjoyable halloween. Now I need to salvage the night and I won’t be taking any safe bets either: Trick R Treat (2008) is on the slate and I’ve been puting off watching it forever.
Trick R Treat is a modern anthology movie. Creepshow (1983), which has been name-dropped as an inspiration for this film, has a special place with me but I’m generally not much of an anthology fan. My personal exception would be when slasher elements are present, but recently Amusements (2008) tickled my tastebuds then left a bitter taste after. So the win to lose ratio worries me. Peer pressure is at hand here though, so I’m going in. Wish me luck.
Below you’ll find a pop-art take on the poster art that went on sale today – and promptly sold out.
A quick reminder, our promotion with Crazy Dog T-Shirts ends tonight. Five buck discount off their halloween & zombie range by using code HALLO5 at checkout.
My sometimes collaborator but always friend Dustin over at Retro Horror Remix recently released Halloween Treat 2 though the internet’s version of VCD, the torrent.
Every Halloween on Retro Slashers I mention Gary Graver’s Trick Or Treat (1982). A movie deeply underloved, even by the slasher crowds that hold Don’t Go In The Woods Alone and The Prey up as pinnacles of retro-slasherdom. Last year’s gratuitous mention warranted some speckled comments killing the movie criticism and worse – indifference.
As we approach All Hallows Eve I’m struck by the annual feeling that Halloween: Season Of The Witch is the most “Halloweenish” of the whole series. It always bothered me on one level at least – it’s a holdover from the ‘robot duplicate takeover’ plots from the 70’s that by the early 80’s was mostly consigned to cheesy TV movies and shows. But when I was a kid, I still accepted it as a new entry.
I didn’t even wonder where Michael Myers was – the 1982 entry continued the premise of the holiday which was as much of a character as Myers himself if you think the way I think. As well, I think one of the cool things about being a kid your fertile imaginative mind tends to fill the holes that require adults to take a leap of faith to cross. So I just assumed this movie was about the factory that made Michael’s mask and therefore why he was evil. Even in my later decidedly less-tender teenage years I was mentally linking up the plot with the cult in Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers – I think it’s a given that Dr. Wynn was based on Conal Cochran.
And now that I’m an adult? I dream of the genius that could result in taking those early Myers-like chase-scenes in the movie and trimming around the whole conspiracy plot to recut the movie into a slasher-centric short that better falls next to the first two.
“Bad Halloween sequel, good standalone movie” seems to be the comment that bridges fans and detractors of Season Of The Witch. For me it’s the reverse sentiment – as a standalone movie the bad taste of Futureworld and the like is a perma-fixture in my moviegoing mouth, and gee wouldn’t that pin-eyed devil (only seen on the poster) have been the scariest shit ever? But as a Halloween sequel, it passes muster – one of the few in the franchise that actually feels like circa late October.
Intruder (1989) is a personal favorite of mine for use of isolated locale and inventive killscenes. I reviewed Wizard’s Director’s Cut a few years back and often go back to it for it’s blue collar charms. I’ve often wondered what a real supermarket/grocery store clerk thought of the movie, so don’t you know I was so chuffed to receive this email from new reader “Mark”:
Hi John,
I just found the site. I just saw THE INTRUDER tonight. I work retail so this was awesome. I especially like how Jennifer said something in response to the killers motive like “But that’s not the night crew’s fault!” haha, how often have I had my crew blamed for something at work! hehe.
I like how the adding machine’s tape got red blood all over it giving new meaning to the phrase “in the red.” hehe.
I like how Jennifer hid behind an end-cap; now that was genius! There are definitely odd hollowed out spaces in end caps in our store! Very scary places!
And, I love how not only did the dude get killed in the box bailer, but the killer went so far as to actually make a bail! So the bail has the victims arms/legs hanging out of it! It is so hard to get my crew to take the time to make bails and so it was awesome when the killer went and made a bail! haha.
I like how the feet under the bathroom stall were just feet! No one was in there! Just their dead feet! haha.
