Creepy Video Dance Party

Just Before Dawn (1981)

Two men, Ty and Vachel, are hunting in the forest when they come upon an old, decrepit church. While drunkenly playing preacher at the abandoned pulpit, Ty glances up at the hole in the church’s ceiling and sees a large man staring down at him. As Ty goes outside to investigate the appearance of the man, Vachel is killed by a machete to the groin. Hearing his friend’s screams, Ty watches as the hulking stranger exits the church while putting on Vachel’s hat and vest, and a horrified Ty runs screaming into the wilderness. 

Soon after, a group of five friends arrive by RV at the outskirts of the forest: Warren, his girlfriend Connie, couple Megan and Jonathan, and Jonathan’s brother Daniel. Ignoring the warnings they receive from forest ranger Roy (George Kennedy!) and a trembling, terrified Ty, the kids head into woods to camp out on an area of land recently purchased by Warren. The group merrily swims, dances, and talk cosmetics, completely unaware that not one but two lumbering killers are following their every move.....

 I absolutely adore Just Before Dawn, and I've always been a fan of movies set in the forest. I'm not sure why, as I've only been camping once in my life and I spent the entire outing crouched in an attack position while brandishing two bottles of Off! Deep Woods bug spray. The scenery in Just Before Dawn is so lush and gorgeous that it makes me want to give camping another try, regardless of the bugs, backwoods killers and lack of proper toilets. The film's haunting, droning score is also a nice touch; it really ramps up the tension and adds to the overall creepy atmosphere of the movie.

 There are a lot of genuinely eerie moments in the film. The aforementioned scene where Ty sees the killer peering down on him is really unnerving. Even a shot of innocent looking twin girls has a creepy Diane Arbus feel to it. The giggling, rasping psychotic brothers make a habit of sneaking up on the campers; I love the scene where Megan and Jonathan are swimming in front of a waterfall, happily splashing and making out, completely unaware that one of the killers has slipped into the water behind them.

The characters in Just Before Dawn are big part of the film's charm. George Kennedy, while not a huge part of the film, is hilarious as a the gentle forest ranger who talks lovingly to his plants and his horse. The five campers are extremely charismatic and fun, and even though they dismiss and ignore Ty's plea for help (they think he's just drunk), they come across as genuinely nice people (and Blondie fans as well, which will always make you okay in my book). The film's standout character is, of course, Final Girl Connie. Quiet and reserved, Connie spends a lot of the film worried about her ability to be as sexy as the make-up obsessed Megan or as wilderness-savvy as her macho boyfriend Warren. When she is faced with danger, however, she becomes stronger than she ever probably imagined, and her method of killing one of the murderous twins has to be seen to be believed. The last ten minutes of Just Before Dawn cemented Connie as my favorite Final Girl in slasher filmdom.

Things I Love: Newspapers in Horror Movies

How many can you identify?

 

 

 

 

 

the Incubus (1982)

A small New England town is rocked by an epidemic of gruesome rape-murders. With each brutal attack, the town’s doctor begins to suspect that something inhuman is stalking the women of Galen, a creature that may also haunt the prophetic dreams of his teenage daughter’s boyfriend.

There’s a pervasive weirdness to the Incubus that really sets it apart from other classic stalk-and-slash movies of the early 1980’s. The editing gives it an off-kilter feel; scenes end abruptly or breakdown into slow motion, and there’s a lot of interesting camera angles and voyeuristic POV shots that intensify the strangeness of the film. Some of the performances are also a bit off, but in a good way, like Kerrie Keane’s nosy journalist Laura Kincaid who says her lines like she’s an alien who’s just learning to imitate human speech.  John Cassavetes’ Dr. Sam Cordell, the film’s central character, lavishes affection on his daughter Jenny that seems borderline incestuous. There’s face stroking, kissing on the lips, and at one point Cordell watches his daughter as she gets out of the shower. His character is revealed to have had a prior relationship with an 18 year old woman that ended with her death, but it’s just one of several plot points that never seem to reach fruition. There also seems to be some sort of town conspiracy involving the mother of Jenny’s boyfriend and a series of rapes that happened thirty years earlier, and these are also never fully explained. 

Despite its inconsistencies, the film retains a creepy tone throughout, aided by some pretty harrowing and suspenseful sequences in which the townswomen (and at one point, an entire family) are attacked by an unseen force. The film is fairly devoid of cheese, with the exception of a scene in a movie theater where a music video featuring a pre-Iron Maiden Bruce Dickinson is being shown (and it is totally boss). And then there’s the dialogue. Oh god, the dialogue. Let's just focus on these cute kittens for a second.

 “The windpipe was torn out. Her uterus was ruptured, just like Mandy’s. What we had here was real intercourse with a hell of a lot of sperm…. Look there was so much sperm in her that the hemorrhaging itself couldn’t get rid of it. “

WHAT THE EFFING EFF? Look, I’m pretty used to hearing horrible details of rape/murders thanks to an undying love of Law & Order: SVU, but that has to be one of the most disgusting sentences ever. The words “sperm”, “dry intercourse” and (gah) “ruptured uterus” are used repeatedly throughout the movie, so if you were looking to finally fill out your "Disgusting Things Said By John Cassevetes" bingo card you’ll definitely hit gold with the Incubus.

Overall, the Incubus is a definite recommend for fans of early 80’s slashers and weird cinema alike. Plus it introduced me to fabulous song "Vice Versa" by Samson. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m in desperate need of a steaming hot shower.

Bruce Dickinson gives it two thumbs up.

Scene of the Day: It's Not Over Yet!

The Citizen Kane of crappy killer cat movies, 1988's Uninvited is a GD masterpiece.

Scene of the Day: Holy Shit!

Eyes of a Stranger (1981)

A brutal serial killer is stalking the women of Miami, harassing them with obscene phone calls before strangling them. Reporting on the murders has anchorwoman Jane Harris a little on edge; she personally knows the trauma that sexual violence can cause. As a child her younger sister, Tracy, was abducted, raped and nearly beaten to death on the way home from school. The assault caused Tracy to psychosomatically become blind, deaf and mute. Now adults, the sisters live together with their dog in a high rise apartment building. One night Jane watches as her schlubby neighbor Stanley changes out of a bloody shirt in the building’s parking garage. Correctly suspecting Stan to be the killer, Jane gets her Grace Kelly on by breaking into his apartment to search for clues (she finds muddy shoes and a cuckoo clock, strong indicators of psychopathy). Jane begins taunting Stanley by ringing him at home and calling him “Phone Freak”, which angers him to the point of following a very talented stripper home and killing her. Seriously, her dancing is insanely awesome. Thanks a lot, Jane.

Spoilers Ahead.

Upon realization that his pursuer is Jane (her use of “Phone Freak” on television gives her away), Stanley lures her out of the apartment and into his. While she’s distracted, he slips into the Harris home, killing the dog and attacking Tracy. This surprise attack brings Tracey’s eyesight back, and she’s able to shoot Stanley in the stomach, subduing him for a moment but not killing him. Jane sees Tracy and the killer from Stanley’s balcony, and she rushes over, putting a bullet in his head and splattering brain juice all over her nice bathroom. Tracy speaks for the first time in years and the sisters embrace. 

I really liked Eyes of a Stranger, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if a few edits were made. I don't mind scenes of rape or brutalization if they are tastefully done and serve a purpose to the story, but the scenes in which Stanley strips, slaps, and punches his victims really threw the film off balance for me. I thought the movie would have been more suspenseful if the actual mechanics of the murders were left to the viewer's imagination. Yes, this slasher movie lover actually wanted murders to happen off screen for once; there was just something seedy and trashy about the assaults that made me uncomfortable. I did really get a kick out of Lauren Tewes' (Julie, Your Cruise Director from the Love Boat!) feisty feminist Jane, and Jennifer Jason Leigh is both adorable and impressive in her film debut as Tracy. The film's finale is quite memorable; I especially enjoyed the scene in which Stanley toys with Tracy by moving furniture and plates around in the kitchen while she's using them. Guess he's also a big Wait Until Dark fan. Plus, the first murder in the film involves a decapitated head in a fish tank, and who doesn't dig that?