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Reviews
The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
What a gas!
This was originally supposed to be a straight (if unofficial) sequel to Night of the Living Dead, but somewhere along the way it became one of the best comic horror films of the decade. The secret is that director O'Bannon never lets on that the material is supposed to be funny: at times the movie almost resembles a seriously intended flick that would up accidentally amusing. The opening scene sets the tone perfectly, as Uneeda Medical Supply worker Frank (James Karen) instructs new worker Freddy (Thom Mathews) about the tricks of the trade before showing him some sealed canisters in the warehouse basement. In these canisters, Frank says, are the very corpses whose rampage inspired Romeros first Living Dead film, along with a gas that can give revive them and other dead things. Through circumstances too involved to describe here, the gas winds up escaping (along with the corpse) from the canister and gets into a nearby graveyard, awakening an army of zombies. They terrorize not only Frank and Freddy, but their boss, Burt (Clu Gulager), weird mortician Ernie (Don Calfa) and bunch of Freddys punk friends who have decided to party in the graveyard.The resulting goings-on alternate between shockingly gory and hilariously funny, and the film is also notable for a couple of horror landmarks.In the first genre film set in Louisville, Kentucky, and it was the firs film bring Linnea Quiqlley to prominence.
The Hitcher (1986)
A trench coated drifter.
Rutger Hauer is psychotic perfection as John Ryder, a trench coated drifter picked up by young Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) on a dark desert highway. Jim's just a bit worried about Ryder's cryptic way of talking.. and then they pass a parked car that seems to have someone in it. Ryder says that was the person who picked him up before Jim, comments that he couldn't have walked very far. and then looks at him waiting for him to ask why. When he does, Ryder replies, "Because I cut off his legs, and his arms, and his head. And I'm gonna do the same to you." The terrified Jim manages to push Ryder from his car, but it's just the beginning of his nightmare; from then on, Ryder keeps finding him, wherever he goes to escape or get help. Director Robert Harmon creates a nightmare logic to the film, forestalling questions of plausibility and making for a truly scary cinematic experience. The spare desert locations he uses add an air of desolation and doom to the proceedings, and he going gets actionful, Harmon makes the car chases and vehicular carnage intense and exciting. There are times when film borders on the sadistic -especially the fate of Jennifer Jason Leigh, as a girl Jim befriends- but the movie never loses its mood of quiet horror.
The Stepfather (1987)
The Stepfather: slasher sleeper
The Stepfather is one of the most ingenious and original thrillers i have seen in years, and one of the few films that echoes Hitchcock without robbing his grave.(More exclamations: a sleeper, an underrated surprise that's a knockout from start to finish.)Terru O'Quinn starts as a nice guy who happens to slaughter his loved ones whenever his ideal family fails to live up to Father Knows Best rerun. Then he resettles with another household, figuring practice makes perfect. He's a serial killer, a domesticated Norman Bates, and what's most frightening is that you like this guy. O'Quinn turns in a riveting performance, and you pray that he doesn't crack, and you want his candy-coated dreams to come true. When he snaps, watch out. His acts of violence make you wince in pain and shock from their suddenness. Director Joseph Ruben and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake underscore the tense mood with a perfect measure of twisted black humour. Unlike Hitchcock copycat Brian De Palma. Ruben's cinematic references to Hitch's Shadow of a Doubt, Suspicion, Psycho and even The Birds add to the fun without calling attention to themselves and stopping the film dead. This clever thinking man's slasher film wont disappoint. Whew!
Prison (1987)
The mood is everything.
In this Renny Harlin-directed film, the story is nebulous and vague in the best possible way. An ancient prison in Wyoming must be reopened to relieve inmate congestion elsewhere. The state penal board installs Ethan Sharpe (Lane Smith) as the new warden. His first task is to renovate the place, using an advance guard of inmates as slave laborers. Smith brilliantly portrays Sharpe as a Gestapo version of Jimmy Steward. And soon it becomes apparent that Sharpe has something to hide, something to do with the history of this hoosegow and a prisoner who died in the electric chair down in the basement. Worse yet, it seems like said prisoner's spirit has been lying in wait for Sharpe's return.
The mood is everything in Prison. An air of confinement overtakes the film as soon the buses roll into the yard to drop the work crew off at their new home. The look, sound and smell of penitentiary life hangs all over the place. For the ghost vs. warden conclusion, the vagaries of C. Courtney Joyner's script translate into the imprecision of a nightmare. What the hell does this wrongly executed ghost want? Who knows? Despite the silly subplot with a crusading lady reformer. Prison remains one of Empire Picture's most accomplished productions.