Category: Movie Discussions

  • Night School (1981)

    Night School (1981)

    Only vaguely aware of Night School (1981), I don’t remember ever watching it during the Slasher Age or video store days. However, if you’d asked me, I could have told you it was Rachel Ward’s first movie. Her star shined brightly for almost a decade, then, although she kept working since then, I don’t notice…

  • Prom Night (1980)

    Prom Night (1980)

    We’ve made horror film smoothies before; let’s do it again… Throw Halloween (1978) into a blender with Carrie (1976.) Sprinkle a little Saturday Night Fever (1977) on top and press “Chop” for one minute. Wait! I said, “Chop,” not “Puree.” Now we have pure liquid with no real substance. Such is Prom Night (1980), the…

  • Massacre at Central High (1976)

    Massacre at Central High (1976)

    Drama? Thriller? Horror? Let’s try fantasy… This movie takes place in the land of adult actors playing high school students while at the same time the story is totally absent of any adult characters. There are no teachers at the high school and there are no adults in town. That is, until the very end…

  • School of Death (1975)

    School of Death (1975)

    Not nearly as sordid as the synopsis reads, School of Death aka El colegio de la muerte (1975) is nevertheless unsettling at times. It reminds me a bit of The House That Screamed aka La residencia (1969); however, while I enjoyed the former more than I expected, I didn’t adore it like I do the…

  • Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

    Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

    Jaws: the Revenge (1987) has been maligned from the moment it was released. I for one didn’t like it when I saw it in theaters. Prior to revisiting it for the first time in probably 38 years, I expected it to mirror the downward trajectory of the Superman quadrilogy. However, what happens in Jaws the…

  • Jaws 3 (1983)

    Jaws 3 (1983)

    Jaws 3 (1983) was originally pitched by producers David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck as a comedy called, National Lampoon’s Jaws 3, People 0. I don’t know what he had to do with it at this point, but Steven Spielberg threatened to leave Universal Pictures if it proceeded. Even then he had the power and…

  • Jaws 2 (1978)

    Jaws 2 (1978)

    When you have as perfect a movie as Jaws (1975), it’d be misguided, to say the least, to think a sequel could match it, much less exceed it. Well, I guess The Empire Strikes Back (1980) exceeded Star Wars (1977), but that was another chapter in a larger story. Once you explode a killer shark,…

  • Jaws (1975)

    Jaws (1975)

    Last week, I claimed that Jaws (1975) is a nearly perfect movie. Now, since it’s shark week and seems like a good time to do it, I’m going to go ahead and put my money where my full-of-razor-sharp-teeth mouth is and share some of the reasons why. Interestingly, few of them feature the shark. If…

  • Memories of Jaws (1975)

    Memories of Jaws (1975)

    It was a hot summer afternoon in Enid, Oklahoma as I stood in line outside the Chief Theater to see Jaws (1975.) This would not have been my first time, although I don’t remember my first time. I saw it repeatedly, but there’s something about this particular day that sticks with me. I don’t remember…

  • Hide & Go Shriek (1988)

    Hide & Go Shriek (1988)

    The queer content of Hide & Go Shriek (1988) is clear from the opening shot. As the camera slowly enters what looks like an old warehouse, a man shaves… and then puts on makeup. We don’t know the exact nature of his orientation, though. He looks at both the male and female prostitutes as he…