We are now halfway home in my recommendation list for my pal
'Mad Cat’ Cattis.
We’re now hitting the 80‘s which...is not my favorite decade. I have a
very dim view for the deification of that time, and feel it is
responsible for the way popular media has devolved into a frantic search
for which corpse to try and revive. Those people who fetishize this
ten year period forget about the not-so-great stuff that was vomited
out.
You’ll notice there’s a couple of weird cross-over
films...and that’s because there’s a lot of blending in this decade. So
while some of these entries are more...science fiction or art school
than pure horror, I stand by them as great recommendations.
As always, if I discussed these films before on the site or on one of my podcasts, a link is provided.
STRANGE BEHAVIOR (1981)
This
was produced by the notorious Australian producer Anthony I. Giannini
(who also produced
Thirst from part two of our list), and was shot in
New Zealand. It’s supposed to be set in the American Midwest. Even
with the weird accents supposedly in the middle of the Farm Belt, it’s
an effective, slightly tongue-in-cheek throwback to 50‘s sci-fi horror
with a pair of scientists (one, played magnificently by Fiona Lewis, who
feels like she should be shot in black and white) doing behavioral
experiments on small town teenagers that cause them to become highly
aggressive. It features a witty script by Bill Condon (better known for
musicals such as
Dream Girls and
Chicago, which isn’t surprising, given
this film has a dance number) and an injury-to-the-eye effect that
shouldn’t work given its cheapness, but does.
GALAXY OF TERROR (1981)
Yes,
this is science fiction, but it’s seriously scary, thanks partially to
some great effects and set design overseen by one James Cameron. This
is the film that features the infamous ‘maggot rape’ scene, but the
other death scenes are pretty cool and there’s just a strange look
overall to this thing. It’s got a pretty great cast of character actors
and is fun in a grim sort of way.
THE BEAST WITHIN (1982)
I
am a big fan of Phillippe Mora, the French-born, Australian filmmaker
who made some absolutely insane genre flicks, and this is his first--a
grimy, dirty backwoods horror about a were-cicada (honest!). It may be
slow going, and a bit gross, for most of its run time, but you have to
see the transformation in the final act to believe it. It is as good as
the ones in the two werewolf movies around the same time--only a lot
filthier--and, like those, it’s 100% practical.
Q (1982)
I
said we’d return to Larry Cohen on this journey. This is maybe my
favorite of his works, an offbeat thriller featuring Cohen’s favorite
actor, Michael Moriarity as a piano playing petty thief who happens to
find a kaiju nesting in the Chrysler Building. It comes off as a police
procedural--the detective Moriarity runs into is played by David
Carridine back when he still gave a damn--that just
happens to have a stop-motion winged lizard picking people off rooftops
of Manhattan in the middle of it.
OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (1983)
This
film is directed by George Cosmatos, the father of
Mandy’s Panos
Cosmatos, and on the surface it sounds ludicrous: Peter Weller becomes
obsessed with a rat that has invaded his newly bought brownstone while
his family is out of town. The bulk of the film is Weller tearing apart
his home driven half insane by the rodent in his walls. But trust me,
this film is legitimately good thanks to Weller’s performance and
Cosmatos’ direction, which slowly ratchets things up before ending in a
riot of insanity.
SLEEPAWAY CAMP (1983)
You’ve probably heard
of this one. And you may know the twist ending. But if you still
haven’t seen it, you still should...even if it is all different shades
of wrong in the light of modern mores. It helps that the actors are
actually more or less the age they’re supposed to be (female lead
Felissa Rose was thirteen when she made this, which makes her eerie
performance all the more impressive) and there’s a sort of viciousness
that rings true with how we all grew up back then. And no matter how
much you heard about it, the ending is essential viewing...even if
nowadays I can’t watch that last few minutes without thinking of a
certain drummer and rock group leader.
Look, you’ll know what I mean when you see it.
THE COMPANY OF WOLVES (1984)
This
is an early film by Neil Jordan, who will go on to do
The Crying Game,
and it’s...unique. Based on an anthropological text, it should be
approached as something of anthology film with its dream like images and
storytelling and stream-of-consciousness flow. It features several
truly amazing
transformation sequences--each one different from the one before it--and
one of my favorite depictions of Satan (played by Terrence Stamp) on
film. This is the artiest film on the list, but it is very worth it.
RAZORBACK (1984)
Yet
another Ozploitation film, an early film by Russell Mulchahey of
Highlander fame. It’s a land-based take on
Jaws with a giant boar
taking the place of the shark, and the Outback at night taking the place
of the beach. It’s got a real atmospheric look to it, a real stunner
of a first act twist, and some great creature effects.
CAT’S EYE (1985)
This
one is admittedly not the greatest...it’s an anthology film based on
some of Stephen King’s earliest works with only one really great story
in it...but what. a. story. ‘Quitter’s Inc,’ which opens the film,
features James Woods as a man trying to quit smoking who falls in with a
new organization that uses mob methods to help him off the nicotine
habit--not surprisingly run by actual mobsters. The performances by Woods
and Alan King, playing the head of the organization, is incredible and
it’s got a good sense of humor (watch for the scene where Woods
hallucinates King, dressed as Elvis, singing ‘Every Breath You Take.’).
The third story, with Drew Barrymore’s cat fending off an evil troll
has a pretty good Carlos Rimbaldi creature effect. The second story
is...regrettable.
PHENOMENA (1985)
It’s about time I talked about Dario Argento, one of those singular weird
visionaries who had a run of outstanding, idiosyncratic horror films
that are much watches. This one, the last one of his to be released to
theaters here in America until
Two Evil Eyes got shoved out in a limited
release several years after it was finished, is his self-professed
‘fairy tale’ complete with spooky castle, evil witch, hidden passages
and Jennifer Connelly as a modern day, sleepwalking princess. Of course,
it’s an Argento film, so there’s also decapitation, maggots and a
razor-wielding monkey (who supposedly slashed the face of Argento’s then
wife, Daria Nicoldi). His work is an experience, the kind of
dream-like nightmare that you just have to let wash over you.
Next Time: Ten Cheesy Horror Films from the end of the 80‘s!
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While we’re all stuck in a global lockdown, come escape this episode to Hawaii as Des and I praise the great writer/director David Twohy and review A Perfect Getaway. Then Des discusses Channel Zero: No End House and the short film Mules.
