Classic Horrors Club

Does anyone remember the Hudson Brothers? Bill, Brett, and Mark Hudson were discovered by a record producer in Portland and offered a contract. They released several singles in the late 1960s under the names The New Yorkers, Everyday Hudson, and Hudson. I know them from The Hudson Brothers Show, a summer replacement for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour on CBS, then from The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, a Saturday morning show that aired for a year beginning in September of 1974.

Their so-called star burned bright only briefly. By the early 1980s, their career in this form was winding down. One of their final projects was a 1982 Airplane-like spoof called, Hysterical, one of at least eight similar horror comedies in the early 80s. Somehow the Brothers gathered an impressive cast that makes the movie better than it has any right to be: Richard Kiel, Julie Newmar, Murray Hamilton, and Clint Walker. That doesn’t mean it’s great, but many parts of it are good fun.

What’s strange is that several of the film references, not just horror, are from the height of the Hudson Brothers popularity in the mid-1970s, making them dated even in 1982 or 1983. For example, the big bad ghost is named Captain Howdy (The Exorcist, 1973), there’s a strange bit built around Taxi Driver (1976) and a long, running bit inspired by Jaws (1975.) I found the last to work best. When a dead body washes onto shore, Sheriff (Clint Walker) says, “I knew it: sharks!”

Immediately, and the first time we see him, Mayor (Murray Hamilton) exclaims, “I’m not closing the beach!” Further, every time the dead body, revived as the ghost, Captain Howdy (Richard Kiel), by the spirit of an old lover, Venetia (Julie Newmar), approaches, the theme from Jaws plays. The references inch toward the early 1980s with bits from The Shining (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and… Chariots of Fire (1981)? While not a slasher spoof per se, there is a recurring character named Ralph (Robert Donner) who repeatedly warns people that they’re doomed.

Hysterical ranges from these mostly clever homages to utter nonsense. With the arrival of Dr. Paul Batton (Mark Hudson) and Fritz (Brett Hudson), adventurers lured to Oregon to help investigate the strange goings on, slapstick rears its ugly head. However, it’s all grounded in a legitimate story. Frederic Lansing (Bill Hudson), a successful but unhappy writer, escapes to the Pacific Northwest for inspiration to unlock the great novel he knows is within him.

He rents the abandoned lighthouse where 100 years ago scorned lover Venetia let Captain Howdy plummet onto the rocks below, let his wife’s ship crash, and committed suicide. Frederic’s arrival awakens her restless spirit. Besides physically raising her old lover, she at time entrances Frederic and he becomes possessed by Captain Howdy’s spirit. Oh, and anyone touched by the Captain’s axe becomes a zombie. The way you identify someone who has become a zombie is that they’re now wearing a turtleneck and ask, “What difference does it make?” 

Frederic also meets Kate (Cindy Pickett) and the two instantly fall in love. Since he’s incognito, Frederic tells her, “I’m a ghost writer. My name is Casper.” That line alone represents the movie in its entirety. It’s kind of clever and is woven into the story, but it also makes you groan. It’s not entirely unpleasant, though, even when the zombie horde grows and performs an elaborate musical dance number several months before Michael Jackson did the same with a little tune called, “Thriller.”