“Blood Night: Legend of Mary Hatchet” is a Bloody Mess

July 11, 2011 Slasher StudiosBlood Night: Legend of Mary Hatchet

Is blood and gore enough to save a bad slasher flick? If a film has zero redeeming qualities outside of a few cool deaths is it still worth a watch? Those questions were running through my head as I sat down to watch “Blood Night: Legend of Mary Hatchet”. This is a slasher flick that should have been amazing. Danielle Harris has the lead final girl? A cameo by Bill Moseley? Some of the most “extreme deaths ever caught on film”? Sign me up! I plunked down my $15 and walked out of Wal-Mart happy, ready to put said dvd into my blu-ray player for a good time. Sadly, the movie is more than a bit of a let down.

The set-up is promising if a bit uninspired. A group of teenagers are celebrating Blood Night, the anniversary of the death of a local axe murderer named Mary Hatchet. After their party ends up getting a bit out of control, they suddenly find themselves face to face with the realities of her haunting. As they run from the bloody rampage left behind they soon realize that they’ll need to survive the night in order to expose the truth behind the legend of Bloody Mary.

So, what sinks this movie? The awful characters and bad dialogue. Seriously, there are at LEAST 15 teens in this film and every single one of them is obnoxious beyond belief. Guys trying to score with girls, girls getting drunk and making out with other girls, guys fighting with other guys. Rinse. Repeat. There you have the first forty five minutes of “Blood Night”. It’s tedious beyond belief. When the deaths do start happening, the film is done in such a chaotic mess that it is hard to tell who is dying and how. It doesn’t help that there are at least a dozen too many characters. You don’t care about these people. They are assholes and most of them deserve to die in the bloodiest ways possible. Danielle Harris is in fine form here but she isn’t given anything to do until the last act, a last act that is utterly predictable. Still, this is a professionally made piece, some of the deaths are quite well done (loved the scissors through the back of the head and the “spaghetti intestines”) but in the end you really don’t care. Looking for some mindless gore? Have at it. Everyone else? Look elsewhere.

Scream Queen of the Week: Heather Langenkamp

July 8, 2011July 8, 2011 Slasher Studios*Scream Queen of the Week

Heather Langenkamp wasn’t always a horror fan and admits that before she was cast in the role that would change her life that she had never seen a horror film. Funny that now, nearly 30 years later, the actress is remembered as one of the greatest horror Scream Queens of all time. This week we honor her at Slasher Studios as “Scream Queen of the Week”.

While she was studying at Stanford University, Wes Craven cast her as teen heroine Nancy Thompson in the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street” as he wanted someone very “girl next door” to play Nancy. He believed that Langenkamp met this quality. For the part, she beat out over 100 actresses. The film, follows the story of a group of teenagers who are killed in their dreams one-by-one by a past child murderer turned supernatural serial killer, whom their parents killed. The film was continued the 80’s slasher movie craze, following the trend set by “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th”.

The film introduced the iconic villain Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund. Nancy, as the film’s protagonist, lives, and defeats Krueger after he has killed all of her friends. Johnny Depp, in his feature film debut played Nancy Thompson’s boyfriend, Glen. Veteran film actor John Saxon played Nancy’s father, police lieutenant Donald Thompson. The film was both a critical and commercial success, earning a total of $25 million at the American box office. In 1985, she received the Best Actress Award at the Avoriaz Film Festival for this role. She also became one of the original scream queens and final girls.

She continued her role as Nancy in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors”, in which she co-starred alongside Patricia Arquette and Laurence Fishburne, and “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”, in which she played herself, and through events in the narrative, she is compelled to reprise her role as Nancy Thompson. John Saxon also returned with Langenkamp in “Dream Warriors” and “New Nightmare”. “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” earned nearly $45 million at the domestic box office, making it both the highest grossing film for the studio that year. “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” earned $18 million at the U.S. box office. The three films in the series in which Langenkamp stars are considered the three best due to their critical reception.

Since “New Nightmare”, Langenkamp has kept a rather low profile. She has given up acting for the most part to concentrate on raising a family. Nonetheless, horror fans will never forget Langenkamp and the stunning character of Nancy that she so vividly brought to life. In the past two years, Heather has shown just how appreciative she is towards the horror audience that helped shape her career. In 2010, we served as Executive Producer on the excellent “Never Sleep Again” documentary and just this year she released her own documentary “I Am Nancy” in which she talks about living in Freddy’s shadow. Both are extremely well made and worth checking out. So, this week we salute you Miss Langenkamp, our “Scream Queen of the Week”.

Underrated Slasher of the Week: Deadly Friend

July 8, 2011July 13, 2011 Slasher Studios*Underrated Slasher

In the mid 80’s Wes Craven was on top of the world. After just completing the groundbreaking “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, the horror director pretty much had his pick of horror projects to choose from. The project that he would choose next would be in some ways a drastic departure from his usual slasher self. The movie would feature a talking robot, a girl suffering from abuse from a father, and a bright young boy years ahead of his time. The project was called “Deadly Friend” and it would be soon come to be known as one of the worst movies in Craven’s career. But, is the film really THAT bad? Does it deserve a larger audience than it would ultimately receive?

The plot is relatively complex for what seems like, at least on the outside, an ordinary run-of-the-mill slasher. A 15 year old scientific whiz kid named Paul Conway, just moved to a new town with his mother. He also has a yellow robot named Beebee which is his friend and protector. Paul befriends the girl next door named Samantha, and she lives with her abusive father who knocks her down some stairs one night and severely injures her. She was on life support in the local hospital, but after a certain amount of time, they pulled the plug on her and she was dead. Paul disguises himself as a hospital worker and takes Samantha’s body from the hospital over to the local university. As an attempt to save her life, he implants Beebee’s robot microchips into her brain, but discovers not too long after that she is out of control.

“Deadly Friend” certainly has its share of problems but it is just so sweet and kind in its heart. Paul is a good kid that tries to do a good deed when everything else has failed. He is the only one to actually take action in this story to try to make something positive happen. The film’s moral seems to be that evil will not disappear just because we turn our head from it. It is a sad story with many touching moments. As a seasoned slasher fan, I will even admit that the ending has been known to shed a tear or two from me. It’s funny that coming from Craven, that the horror is the only thing that really doesn’t work in the movie. Stories from behind the scenes say that there was a lot of studio interference in this film and it is not hard to tell where it lies. The gore scenes just don’t work, they seemed borrowed from another film entirely. Nonetheless, the performances are strong and this is a story worth telling. It’s no masterpiece but I think those who hated on this film when it first came out should give it another look. Samantha, as well as the film, deserves it.

80’s Throwback Video: “Nightmare on Elm Street 3” Promotion

July 6, 2011July 7, 2011 Slasher Studios*80's Throwback Video

There is nothing that I love better than seeing a really cheesy ad promoting one of my favorite slashers from the 1980’s. A wave of nostalgia rushes over me as I sit there grinning from ear to ear. Just hearing the cheesy narrator describe how amazing the slasher movie is going to be gives me goosbumps. The following is one of my ultimate favorites. Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger describing to video store owners just how many copies “Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” is going to sell and just what is in store for Nightmare 4. Plus a chance to win a movie role in Nightmare 4?!? Sign me up!

90’s Slasher Throwback: “I Know What You Did Last Summer”

July 6, 2011July 6, 2011 Slasher Studios*90's Slasher Throwback

Most hard core horror fans are not exactly big fans of the meta, self aware, late 90’s style of horror movie that “Scream” so successfully ushered in. Movies like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Urban Legend” were huge hits with the general public but less so with horror fans and critics alike. How dare they create a fun, knowingly mocking type of horror movie? Looking back more than a decade later, it’s easier to see the appeal of these films. They are cheeky, tongue-in-cheek slasher films with hot WB casts gets butchered in interesting ways. Are these great films? Not really. Are they a hell of a lot of fun? You bet. So it is without further ado that I give you our first 90’s Slasher Throwback title…”I Know What You Did Last Summer”.

The plot of “I Know” is strictly 80’s slasher fodder. When four friends accidentally hit and kill a man on a road at night, they start to panic and decide to dump the body into the sea. A year later, they all try to settle down again, but one of the friends receives a note in the post, with the words ‘I know what you did last summer’. As each of the friends gains their own reminder, they finally accept the one thing they feared the most; someone knows what happened that night, and now they’re out for revenge.

Tell me you didn’t see THAT coming? “I Know” is silly and the ending has more holes in it than most of the bodies but it’s pleasant enough. This is the kind of old fashioned slasher that we just don’t see today. More emphasis on character and setting (believe me North Carolina has never looked more beautiful) than blood and gore really help this film succeed. Though both male characters played by Phillippe and Prinze Jr. are played as bores, the female characters of Julie and Helen, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar respectively, shine. These girls actually feel like real friends and behave as though real friends would behave. Helen’s chase scene is one of the best I’ve seen committed to film and Gellar screams like a champ. I can’t say “I Know” is groundbreaking or revolutionary but it’s more fun than most horror movies that routinely open today. Plus, the best news? It’s not a sequel OR a remake!

Slasher Studios: The Best Horror Documentaries Ever Made

July 3, 2011 Slasher Studios*Horror

On this week’s show, Kevin Sommerfield will be talking about his favorite horror documentaries. Make sure to listen in and also call in to discuss with Kevin your favorite horror documentaries and to discuss what makes a good horror documentary. Tonight at 10PM central! Click on the link below to listen in live or to listen to one of our past shows.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/slasherstudios/2011/07/04/slasher-studios-the-best-horror-documentaries-ever-made

Scream Queen of the Week: Danielle Harris

July 1, 2011July 8, 2011 Slasher Studios*Scream Queen of the Week

Danielle Harris is, and has always been, one of my favorite “Scream Queens”. She has shown a dedication to the genre ever since she was a child. She has appeared in over two dozen horror movies, four of them in the “Halloween” series: “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” and “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” as Jamie Lloyd and Rob Zombie’s remakes “Halloween” and “Halloween II” as Annie Brackett. In 1988, she auditioned and was chosen (beating out Melissa Joan Hart) for the part of Jamie Lloyd, Michael Myers’s niece, in the movie “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers”. Just one year later, she would reprise the role in “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers”. The character of Jamie returned in 1995 for “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” but Harris did not participate due to disagreements regarding the changes to her character on the script. After seeing the final film, at least part of me is glad that she didn’t participate.

Harris would later return to the franchise in a much different role, that of Annie Brackett, in Rob Zombie’s “Halloween”, a 2007 reboot of John Carpenter’s classic 1978 original. In this film, she had nudity for a sex scene and her encounter with the dangerous Michael Myers, a career first. She stated “[It] is something that I wanted to do because everyone’s like, ‘Oh, she’s little Jamie. She’s 14.’ And it’s like, no, actually, I’m 30. It’s something that I’ve never done before.” She reprised her role in Zombie’s sorely underrated “Halloween II”.

Harris has continued to show her horror love today to amass some very impressive film credits. Her films “Godkiller” and “Blood Night” saw DVD releases in late 2009. Fear Clinic, a Fearnet original web series, featuring Harris alongside horror legends Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, and Lisa Wilcox. The fun web series made debut the week of Halloween 2009. Since then she has thrived in horror appearing in “The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond” and taking over Tamara Feldman’s role of Marybeth in the horror sequel “Hatchet 2”. She is set to star in Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D, director Zebediah de Soto’s retelling of George A. Romero’s 1968 classic zombie film.

This week we salute Danielle Harris and we can’t wait to see what screams are in store for this amazing queen of horror.

Slasher Studios: Top 10 Death Scenes

July 1, 2011July 6, 2012 Slasher Studios*Top Ten

10. Four girls in the car-Death Proof
Excellent FX effects make this car crash scene one to remember. Extremely bloody and over-the-top with no CGI use whatsoever, this scene is a testament to the 70’s and 80’s drive in classics.

9. Girl beaten with sleeping bag-Friday the 13th Part 7: New Blood
Probably the most memorable death from the entire “Friday the 13th” series. One hit against the tree in the sleeping bag and the girl death by the new “Zombie” Jason. A hell of a lot of fun and the only case I can think of in recent memory where the edited version works better than the unedited one.

8.
Tina-Slashed Open, Falls from Ceiling-Nightmare on Elm Street
The great misdirect. Throughout the first twenty minutes of “Elm Street”, Craven presents Tina as the ultimate final girl. It is with shock that she is killed off at the end of the first act. By this point the audience as no idea what to expect and knows they are no longer watching a “traditional” horror movie.

7.
Waterbed Death-Pieces (starts at 2:58)
Blood gushes out of a girl who is terrorized with a large butcher knife on a bed. Say what you want about “Pieces”, the acting might be terrible, the dubbing atrocious, and the direction lacking but the deaths are some kind of amazing. More gore than you are likely to see from most horror movies of the 80’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iwullPIrJY

6.
Nancy-Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
The ultimate punch-in-the-stomach. How could they kill off Nancy? Nancy is one of the greatest Final Girls in the history of horror cinema and when she is killed by Freddy at the end of Nightmare 3, you feel it…hard. Used to make me cry as a child and still puts a lump in my throat.

5.
Kids on Raft-The Burning
Some great special effects highlight a classic scene from another 80’s slasher. Excellent editing and score give this scene a killer edge. Plus, c’mon, you gotta love a guy with garden shears as a weapon!

4.
Tatum-Garage Door-Scream
One of the most creative death scenes of the 1990’s. Very funny, very clever, and very scary. You are trapped in a garage with a killer. What do you DO? Well, ultimately Tatum makes the wrong decision but you can’t blame a girl for trying.

3.Jennifer-TV Death-A Nightmare on Elm St 3: Dream Warriors
Freddy uses Jennifer’s “dream” of being on television to kill her in her dream. The Fx in this scene is just superb and Freddy’s “Welcome to Primetime, Bitch” line gets a laugh out of me every single time.

2.Old Lady-Basketball-Deadly Friend
Hilariously gratuitous gore scene (see above pic) in the middle of a fairly serious horror drama. This movie is all sorts of weird and this death scene is just about the tip of the strangeness. I can’t say this death really fits in with the rest of the movie but at least it’s fun.

1.
Debbie-Turned Into a Cockroach-A Nightmare on Elm St 4: Dream Master
Yuck! This is the death that used to give me nightmares as a child. I am not a fan of bugs so just imagining turning into a bug just gives me the willies. Freddy gives some of the best death scenes ever and this one truly is the best of the best.

Slasher Studios: Top 10 Death Scenes (A Second Opinion)

July 1, 2011July 1, 2011 Slasher Studios*Top Ten

10. Freddy vs Jason
Jason Kills Trey In Bed
This, by far, was my favorite death of the film. It’s brutal when Jason starts stabbing Trey and it will make you cringe has he bends the bed in half along with the beer guzzling jock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw7aZ92CSIU

9. Nightmare On Elm Street
Freddy Kills Glen
Poor Glen. Johnny Depps character get a sucked into his bed and then spit back out. Lots of blood. I repeat, lots of blood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGrbOZrFqw

8. Deadly Friend
Basketball Death
Maybe the craziest and most over-the-top death ever put on film. You will die laughing before she does.

7. Sleepaway Camp 2
Outhouse Death
A really gross death that is enhanced by some great lines leading up.

6. Final Destination 3
Too Hot Too Handle
The stupid popular girls finally get what’s coming to them as they go from a nice bronze to well done.

5. Jason X
Face Freeze
Ouch! Great effects and another example of the powerful strength that comes from Jason.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKpRWulOftg

4. Halloween: Curse oF Michael Myers
Nurse On A Stick
So simple yet so good. I have to give all the credit to the score as it comes in at the perfect time and on the perfect note.

3. Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Sleeping Bag Meets Tree Trunk
An all time classic horror movie death. It was edited down, but for once, maybe for the best.

2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Hole In The Head
Geat effects and great camera work. The dolly shot from the front seat leading all the way out of the van is amazing to say the least.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChexglKUhaE

1. Halloween 2 (2009)
Annie Should’ve Had A Gun
No! Not Annie! I really hate that she had to go, but this scene was pieced together so well that no “Halloween” fan will ever forget it. RIP – Annie Brackett

Jason Takes Vancouver, City Yawns: “Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan” Review

June 29, 2011April 20, 2012 Slasher StudiosFriday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

At the end of “The New Blood”, Jason had been returned to his watery grave and Camp Crystal Lake had become safe yet again. Well, safe until a young, stupid couple decides to throw anchor to have some hot “boat sex”. In a rip off of the beginning of “Jason Lives”, Jason is once again brought to life by electricity and he is off to kill a cruise ship worth of teens on their way to the Big Apple. Does “Jason Takes Manhattan” continue the strong killing streak of “Jason Lives” and “The New Blood” or does Jason die with a whimper? Well…

Let’s start with the cruise ship “victims”. On the cruise ship we have our Friday final girl Rennie, definitely a step down from quality from Tina, as a senior celebrating her graduation aboard the SS Lazarus. Along for the ride is her strict uncle, her favorite teacher, her boyfriend, Sean, all of her classmates, and a stowaway: hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorhees. One by one, Jason slowly murders each classmate and sinks the ship, stranding the survivors in New York. Rennie and the few survivors now must face Jason to save their lives from impending doom.

Very little about “Jason Takes Manhattan” works. First of all, for a movie called “Jason Takes Manhattan”, very little of it actually takes place in New York. Three quarters of this damn movie takes place on a cruise ship. Cruise ships just are not that scary and they definitely aren’t scary here. Even Jason himself seems to be going through the motions. What’s equally depressing is how much this movie takes pains to rip off the more popular “Elm Street” series. Do we really need the supernatural Jason appearing in visions to Rennie? Or the “little boy” that Jason becomes at the end? It’s all rather silly. Also, at over 100 minutes, it’s grossly overlong. This is just a bland effort all around with little to recommend it. This used to be one of my favorite entries as a child but time has not served it well. Jason is finally killed by toxic waste. Yawn.