Sunday Slasher #1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Sunday Slasher: A weekly celebration of the best and the worst of the Slasher genre.

George Mihalka's 1981 Canadian slasher MY BLOODY VALENTINE is mostly remembered these days for supplying one of the most important bands of the past thirty years with their name, but to many kids who came of age in the early to mid eighties it is famous for being one of the most cut up and infamous horror films of their youth.
Hungarian born Mihalka was a complete unknown and had had very little film experience when he shot MY BLOODY VALENTINE in late 1980. He had previously only directed one feature, 1980's PICK-UP SUMMER and MY BLOODY VALENTINE simultaneously shows his inexperience and youthful energy.
The film, written by HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME collaborator John Beaird, follows the adventures of a group of small town Canadian kids who are attempting to have the towns first Valentine day dance since a crazed coal miner named Harry had went on a killing rampage years before. When human hearts start showing up in Valentine's day boxes, the towns overwhelmingly inept sheriff starts to think that perhaps a dance isn't the best idea, and that maybe Harry is back in business.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE fails on so many levels that it is hard to know where to begin, and yet in the last twenty minutes or so it does become genuinely suspenseful and for all its flaws, slightly enduring.
The positive aspects of MY BLOODY VALENTINE are pretty easy to point out. The Canadian location of Sydney Mines in Nova Scotia is very memorable and gives the film a much different feel from many of the slasher films of the period. Mihalka's direction isn't exactly inspired but he handles the film's killings well and like I said he does manage to build a sense of dread and excitement in the films final scenes. Rodney Gibbon's photography is also fairly good, specifically in the films darker moments where he uses a pretty simple but still effective lighting scheme that manages to be creepy but not overly done.
The film suffers from several beloved hallmarks of the genre, namely major lapses of logic, poor characterizations, bad acting, poor decision making and a trick ending you can guess less than halfway though. Looking past these obvious faults is pretty easy though in these films and it is still fun to watch, laugh at, or perhaps more importantly laugh with, and be scared by MY BLOODY VALENTINE...friends, beer and a late night are all recommended for maximum viewing pleasure though...

Of course none of the above matters as MY BLOODY VALENTINE is still one of the most cut slasher films in existence, and of course this is what has made it so legendary. Literally every killing scene was cut heavily by the ratings board, neutering what should have been the films most visceral and memorable moments into a bloodless series of confusing and at times incomprehensible shots. Perhaps only FRIDAY THE 13TH PART TWO was more damaged by the censor's scissors, but MY BLOODY VALENTINE is at least running a close second as the board literally ripped the heart out of the film.
The footage is said to still exist but unfortunately the film is the property of Paramount, a comany notorious for hating these movies and doing as little for them as possible. So it seems that the killer's unadulterated carnage can only be seen right now by those lucky enough to have grey market copies. As I was watching this recently with my girlfriend I mentioned that watching MY BLOODY VALENTINE like this was a bit like watching a sex film without the sex or a musical with no songs...it is really unfortunate that this film remains unrestored.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE opened in early 1981 to typically savage reviews and just okay box office. Thanks to magazines like Fangoria though, the cutting of the film became known almost immediately and because of this it became one of the most talked about slasher films of the eighties.
The influential Scottish band MY BLOODY VALENTINE, led by the Brian Wilson of his age Kevin Shields, took their name from the film in the mid eighties even though they had never seen it. Shields and collaborator Belinda Butcher were said to be simultaneously annoyed and amused when they finally saw the film on one of their early American tours, when they found it less than the masterpiece that they had hoped for.
MY BLOODY VALENTINE is currently available on a bare bones DVD from Paramount that features an okay Widescreen print but nothing else. All of the gore is still missing, so MY BLOODY VALENTINE is still one of the most skinless and bloodless slasher film of the period.
The film, despite its flaws is pretty beloved by fans of the genre who still yearn to see the missing footage. There is something almost quaint about the film now and it is hard for me to not be a bit nostalgic about it even though it is about as far away from being a good film as possible...one hopes that eventually a good uncut copy of the film will appear someday and that fans can finally put old Harry to rest.

Sunday Slasher #2: Terror Train (1980)

While it wasn't the first madman on a train movie ever released, 1980's TERROR TRAIN is certainly one of the most memorable. Shot in Canada in late 1979 partially aboard an actual train, young director Roger Spottiswoode delivered an interesting if flawed entry in the slasher genre that is well worth giving another look to.
Spottiswoode, who edited several high profile films in the 70's including STRAW DOGS and PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID for Sam Peckinpah, is probably best know today for his directorial work on the 1997 James Bond film, TOMORROW NEVER DIES. TERROR TRAIN was his first assignment as a director and while the film is undeniably silly in parts, the direction from the young filmmaker is pretty stylish and the cast, including Jamie Lee Curtis, is mostly solid.
Like many Slasher films of the period, TERROR TRAIN begins with a practical joke that goes horribly wrong. The victim of the joke in this one is named Kenny, an outcast wannabe magician who is constantly made fun of by his classmates. Three years after the joke lands Kenny in the hospital he returns to wreak havoc on his old classmates, who have rented out a train for a New Years Masquerade party.

TERROR TRAIN suffers from the typical major lapses in logic that most of the slasher films in this period share, but the script by T.Y Drake (writer of the 1976 Christopher Lee film, THE KEEPER) thankfully keeps things fairly levelheaded. The main strength of the film thematically is its setting, as there is something naturally claustrophobic and frightening about being on a moving train after a snow storm with no where to stop.
Spottiswoode's film also suffers from sluggish pacing in its first half, mostly due to some needless time padding scenes featuring the great actor Ben Johnson. Also disappointing is the film's score by John Mills-Cockell which is neither scary nor particularly effective. The band on the train is credited as "Crime" and their oddly off kilter synth songs lend the film at times a weird Euro Disco feel that is simultaneously effective and distracting.
Despite the many problems the film obviously has, I still like it and looked back on it feels much more classier and solid than many of the other films of the genre that came out in the same period. The film's biggest asset is indeed Jamie Lee Curtis, who looks really lovely here under the film's fine photography by John Alcott (one of Krbrick's favorite D.P.s who had just shot THE SHINING before this one). Curtis is very strong in the role of Alana and simply put, every time she is on the screen TERROR TRAIN works very well. Particularly noteworthy is an exciting fight sequence between her and Kenneth that thankfully isn't interrupted by a male hero coming in to save the day. Curtis was always so strong and smart in these films. It is a credit to her and her directors that she was allowed to play these parts the way she did, and the reason she is still so beloved today by genre fans. Curtis was in her prime as the great scream queen of the period here as she had just wrapped Paul Lynch's PROM NIGHT just before TERROR TRAIN began shooting.

The cast also features the fetching Sandee Currie, who is good as Jamie's best friend Mitchy, and a surprisingly effective David Copperfield as simply 'The Magician'. Many other faces pop up that film fans will recognize, including a young Vanity and of course the great Johnson who is a bit wasted here although he does get a lot of screen time.
So its not the greatest film ever made but any film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, directed by Sam Peckinpah's editor and shot by one of Kubrick's favorite D.P's should at least be interesting, and TERROR TRAIN absolutely is.

TERROR TRAIN opened up in early 1980 to pretty solid business and was either ignored or condemned by most critics. The film is surprisingly tame with most of the killings taking place off screen. I am not sure if any footage was cut out or not or if that was Spottiswoode's intention from the get go. The current DVD of it features a fairly sharp print of the film that shows just how fine Alcott's photography is, but outside of a theatrical trailer it is a bare bones release. If you can trudge through the poorly paced first half of the film, you will find TERROR TRAIN to be surprisingly effective and a ride worth taking. It isn't among the very best slasher films of the period but it certainly isn't one of the worst.

Sunday Slasher # 3: Night School (1981)

While I rarely see it mentioned these days, Ken Hughes 1981 slasher NIGHT SCHOOL is, to my eyes, among the best of the genre. The British born Hughes, probably best known for his striking 1964 adaptation of OF HUMAN BONDAGE and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG (1968), delivers a sleek and strange little film with NIGHT SCHOOL, and it is one of the only slashers that truly resembles the Italian Giallo that inspired the genre in the first place.
The award winning Hughes was born in Liverpool in 1922 which puts him at nearly sixty when he directed NIGHT SCHOOL, his final film as a director. He had gotten his start in the early fifties with some low budget British productions and had his big break come just after his fortieth birthday with the interesting 1960 production of THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE. While not at all prolific, nearly all Hughes productions caused a bit of stir, from the searing Kim Novak performance he directed in his Somerset Maughn adaptation to the grotesque work Mae West delivered for him in SEXTETTE (1978). Hughes was certainly no stranger to controversy when he signed on to helm NIGHT SCHOOL in 1980.

NIGHT SCHOOL is mostly remembered these days for introducing a ravishingly beautiful young British actress to the screens named Rachel Ward. The talented Ward had just appeared in some television roles when she went to America to film NIGHT SCHOOL. Within a year she would be on the verge of major stardom with her great role as Domino in the fantastic Burt Reynold's directed SHARKY'S MACHINE (1981) and would hit international pay dirt with the mini-series THE THORN BIRDS in 1983. Ward turns in a really fine performance in her first film under Hughes direction, and her work is just one thing that elevates it above most slasher films of the period.
NIGHT SCHOOL was filmed in Boston in the fall of 1980 on a relatively small budget but the veteran Hughes knew exactly what he was doing, so the lack of money and short schedule caused few problems. One of things that separates Hughes work from other slashers of the period is that while it is partially set at a college, the people in it are not teenagers. Much like the Giallo's that inspired it, the characters in NIGHT SCHOOL are grown ups dealing with the psychological ramifications of their pasts.
Working from a screenplay credited to producer Ruth Avergon, Hughes cast his film incredibly well, and surrounded Ward with some very talented players. Most notable is Italian born Leonard Mann (who reminds me of Giallo favorite George Hilton) as the intellectual police detective who is searching out the machete-wielding, motorcycle-driving killer. Also worth noting is Drew Snyder as the slimy college professor who is obsessed with ancient tribal rituals and himself. He makes for a wonderful red herring in a film filled with them.
Everything about the film screams Giallo, from the killer's motivations to the music to the black masked killer. NIGHT SCHOOL has much more in common with ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (1972) and SPASMO (1974) than it does with FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) or PROM NIGHT (1981), and Hughes seems to be relishing every minute of it.
Among the film's most notable moments are the opening murder on a child's playground (some discarded dolls can actually be seen in the dumpster behind them, another Giallo reminder) and the shower sequence, which has Rachel Ward being covered in a child's red paint by the professor. NIGHT SCHOOL has many unsettling images, but instead of feeling cheap they feel like direct links into the mind of the killer, something that Italian directors like Sergio Martino and Umberto Lenzi excelled at in the sixties and seventies.
NIGHT SCHOOL benefits greatly from the eerie mood that Hughes and company are able to give it. This is a dark little film and the melodically creepy piano based score by Brad Fiedel is one of the best of the period. The film's sharply cold and menacing look is rendered perfectly by Cronenberg cinematographer Mark Irwin and it is one of the most striking looking slasher films ever made. Irwin would shoot the legendary VIDEODROME (1982) just a year later and it is interesting to compare the arresting looks of both works to each other.
Hughe's film is also a rare case of a twist at the end actually making sense. So often in these films the inevitable surprise feels forced and unnatural, but NIGHT SCHOOL'S resolution feels perfectly organic with what has proceeded it. A slight misfire with a stab at humor in the last sequence doesn't work, but the climax does and NIGHT SCHOOL is one of the most perfectly rendered English language slasher films ever made.
The film opened up in the spring of 1981 to the usual critical disdain and decent business. It didn't resonate as heavily with audience hungry for campfire tales and teen murders, and it had a shorter run than other slashers of the period. The film, despite its well earned R rating for nudity and violence, does appear cut but a rumored uncut print is out there somewhere. I have never come across it though and NIGHT SCHOOL remains, like many other films of the genre, a bit neutered. The film was labeled a Video Nasty in Britain (where it was known as TERROR EYES) in the eighties and two scenes were chopped from the UK video release.

NIGHT SCHOOL remains out of print in this country and to my knowledge it has never had a DVD release anywhere. I know I am pretty much alone in my admiration of the film, as it is not often mentioned as a fan favorite. To me though, it is a work of the slasher genre that very actively went out of its way to pay tribute to the Italian films that had started it. That, along with the addition of Rachel Ward at her loveliest, is enough for me to consider NIGHT SCHOOL as one of the best slasher film of the eighties.

Sorry, Your Party is Dead: Jennifer Jason Leigh in Eyes of a Stranger (1980)

Mostly remembered for its terrific Tom Savini makeup effects as well as being the debut feature for the tremendous Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ken Wiederhorn’s The Eyes of a Stranger is at times as generic as its title, but it’s both stylish and entertaining and Slasher enthusiasts should absolutely seek it out.
Wiederhorn has mainly worked in television for the past couple of decades, but genre fans will mostly know him for his strangely effective 1977 debut as a writer and director, Shock Waves, as well as for 1988’s Return of the Living Dead Part II. With Eyes of a Stranger, his one entry in the early eighties Slasher craze, Wiederhorn shows himself as a competent and occasionally stylish director well aware of what genre fans would want from a stalk and slash film in 1980. He also offers up a sly and sometimes surprising tongue-in-cheek attitude in the film as well, as his own Shock Waves is playing on one of the victim’s televisions at one point and one of Savini’s most legendary films, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, also comes into play during the film.







Scripted by Friday the 13th Veteran Ron Kurtz, with assistance from an Eric L. Bloom, Eyes of a Stranger details a string of bloody murders and rapes by a serial killer, whose hook is a prank phone call before his attacks, and a local female news-anchor who becomes obsessed with stopping him. There’s nothing too out of the ordinary here and Eyes of a Stranger can rightly be looked upon as a hodgepodge of earlier and mostly better Slasher films, but it moves along at a brisk pace and doesn’t outstay its welcome in its 90 minute running time.



















Starring television favorites Lauren Tewes as daring anchorwoman Jane Harris, John DiSanti as the sleazy killer Stanley and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Jane’s blind sister Tracy, Eyes of a Stranger works best when Wiederhorn pulls out all the exploitation stops, as he is unable to build any true tension with the film. Bloody and filled with no small amount of nudity from its attractive cast of victims, Eyes of a Stranger features pretty much every element that Slasher critics love to pick on and, of course, it’s those same elements that has made it a minor fan favorite over the years.











Legendary (yes, I have no problem calling her that) Jennifer Jason Leigh not surprisingly provides the film’s best performance. Just eighteen when she filmed Eyes of a Stranger, Leigh is already showing traces of the qualities that would go on to make her one of the most fearless and consistently brilliant actors of her generation. Eyes of a Stranger might be a minor and not totally successful film but it will always have a place in film history as the big screen introduction to Leigh, who had only appeared in television up to this point.












Jennifer Jason Leigh’s introduction aside, the best thing about Eyes of a Stranger are the bloody make-up effects by Tom Savini. Produced by the company that handled the original Friday the 13th, that Savini had made so memorable, Eyes of a Stranger benefits at every turn due to his involvement. While there is nothing here as groundbreaking or as shocking as Savini’s work on films of the same era like Maniac, The Prowler and The Burning, the effects for Eyes of a Stranger are instantly recognizable and never less than very effective.
Eyes of a Stranger, like many of its Slasher counterparts from the era, was heavily censored upon its release. Missing well over five-minutes of Savin’s unsettling effects, Wiederhorn’s film was extremely neutered for its big-screen run. Once only available in a complete version courtesy of an Australia VHS copy, the current Region 1 DVD from Warner Brothers (part of their Twisted Terror Collection) is thankfully uncut with a fairly solid widescreen transfer that shows off the film's at times very striking cinematography. No extras are offered, but having the cut footage reinstated is honestly extra enough. While far from being one of the great early eighties Slasher film, Eyes of a Stranger is an enjoyably sleazy offering that hits more often than it misses. I dig it.