As a watcher of all movies - from the bad to the good, the shameful to
the classics - Damon Swindall discriminates against no film. Unabashed
love of all things horror and a steady diet of 80s everything keeps him
busy in front of the TV and movie screen. He writes a regular column
about the weekly Horror Movie Night over at Horror's Not Dead (http://horrorsnotdead.com/wpress/category/the-chronicles-of-horror-movie-night-2/), and has
been known to contribute for a few other sites here and there. Follow
his exploits on Twitter for more wacky times - @zombiefreak.
It’s
hard to argue the strong impact of Spielberg’s amazing 1975 film JAWS.
This movie scared a whole nation away from the ocean for quite sometime,
but once we got to the third entry into this series these killer sharks
were so commonplace that they would put them in kiddie pools. Here we
see the grown-up Brody kids (one of which is played by Dennis Quaid)
head to Sea World in Florida where they have a bit of a shark problem.
There they meet the wonderful Louis Gossett, Jr and a very young Lea
Thompson – drool – in her first feature film role. No, it might not be
the best of the JAWS films, or even the best of shark movies in general,
but I love everything about the movie. From the cheesy 3-D body parts
floating in the water to the awesome shark vs underwater observation
tube scene this is pure joy. And, hell, it couldn’t possibly be worse
than part four, right?!
I
don’t care what you say and I don’t care what you think of me, I LOVE
GREASE 2! There, I said it and it feels great. I’ll admit that it does
loose a little steam in the last act but it’s a small price to pay for
such greatness. You might roll your eyes now, but this sequel has better
songs than its predecessor, Tab Hunter, and Adrain Zmed! Does the
original GREASE have a song all about reproduction? No. How about one
about bowling? No again. And it definitely doesn’t have Michelle
Pfeiffer singing atop a ladder. To put this in perspective, I have this
VHS and DVD, where as I don’t own the original, and keep the soundtrack
on my iPod at all times. You never know when you’ll get that hankering
to listen to a song about a guy trying to trick his girlfriend into
sleeping with him because they’re (fake) going to war and they should
“do it for their country”.
It
is a crime against cinema that this flick has still yet to be released
on DVD. I know I’m not the only one out here clamoring for Cru Jones and
his BMX buddies to get a proper release, especially considering my VHS
wore out long ago. For the uninitiated, this fantastic film is about a
young BMX trickster/paperboy who gets a chance to prove he has what it
takes to be the best when a major competition sets up in his hometown
and builds Helltrack! The two-wheeled stunts are amazing, the characters
are fun, there are slimy twins and a pretty bitchin’ soundtrack. Not to
mention that FULL HOUSE’s Lori Loughlin plays the out-of-town love
interest of our hero and the two “bicycle boogie” on the dance floor to
Real Life’s hit single “Send Me an Angel” in a jaw-dropping scene.
Supposedly a group has been working on a making-of doc for a hopeful
upcoming release. I know there’s an HD remaster because it has played on
some premium cable channels. Now if the studio would only put it out so
I can be a happy, happy man. Until then I’m relegated to watch an old
less-than-stellar VHS copy whilst I enjoy a bowl of Kix.
I
love heavy metal horror movies. Yep, every single one of them. Even the
boring ones that barley have a metal connection – cough, BLOOD TRACKS,
cough – but Fasano’s BLACK ROSES is the pièce de résistance! This
magical tale follows a band called, you guessed it, Black Roses as they
set up a gig in a small town to kick off their new tour. All of the
adults in the town are up-in-arms over their presence and want these
evil heavy metallers out of their neighborhood. A group of the parents
all attend the first of multiple shows to check them out and a minute
into a nice ballad to open they show they’ve seen enough to know these
musicians clad in all white are harmless – so they leave. This was
frontman Damien’s plan all along. Once the grown-ups vacate the building
the stage goes black, and the lights come up on black leather, spikes,
and evil rock-n-roll! Trick is this band is actually made up of demons
and they turn the kids to their side of things and brainwash them into
killing their parents. There is great music, rowdy teens running over
their parents with their cars, more awesome music, Vincent Pastore (Big
Pussy from THE SOPRANOS) being eaten by some stereo speakers, and even
more headbanging heavy metal. I saw this in the theater with my dad
years ago and loved it from the start. If you’re feeling extra saucy
make this a Fasano rock-n-horror double feature with his first film ROCK
‘N’ ROLL NIGHTMARE (1987). You won’t be sorry.
Yep,
another sequel. This is probably an unpopular one, but I don’t care. Is
this my favorite in the series? Not by a long shot, but I don’t know
that it’s my least favorite either. It might be but I really do enjoy
every entry in this series for different reasons. People didn’t like
this largely for its lack of our hockey masked killer, and giving
Jason’s evil an explanation and a physical manifestation. I guess it’s
kind of like the midi-chlorians but I don’t mind it at all. Marcus tried
something new and while it’s far from the strongest chapters it still
delivers on some great kills and has fun along the way. The bounty
hunter cracks me up pretty much every time he’s onscreen. But the whole
movie isn’t why I chose this film for the list. I chose it for one scene
in particular and it’s the one you all know. I was thirteen
years old when my dad took me to the theater to see this entry and at
the end when Freddy’s gloved hand comes up from the ground and grabs
Jason’s mask to drag it to hell I almost jumped out of my seat. This
elated me beyond belief and teased us gorehounds for the ultimate
showdown. Of course that tease would last for about ten years, but each
time I watch JASON GOES TO HELL I can’t help but get a little bit of
that rush I felt the first time I was surprised by the crossover taste.
Don’t deny it, you know you all felt the same way.
2 comments:
Great list. Jaws 3D is a wonderful film. Think I may have to dig Rad out again, been years since the last time I saw it.
I am a HUGE fan of RAD as well. Was a family classic for me growing up.
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