I’m almost certain that I hold the record on the horror blog Internet for writing the most pieces about HALLOWEEN 4– Dwight Little actually agrees with me– and it’s a crown I wear with pride as the Queen of Vincent Drug. To my surprise, however, I’ve never thrown in this little doozy of a retailer promo, which is another kryptonite of mine featuring THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS in all its glory.
In case you’re unfamiliar, a retailer promo is an early release of a VHS tape sent to video store owners that will ultimately either sway them to stock the shelves with said movie or give it a hard pass. In addition, some of these screeners would be sent to the media for review. Hard to imagine a time when critics would have to actually wait on the postman to deliver physical media as opposed to a screener email that can be obtained in under 60 seconds, eh?
Can we also appreciate this standee that was seen in Mom and Pop video shops? I covet thee so hard.
That being said, I don’t think HALLOWEEN 4 was ever going to be a hard sell to horror movie fans, but that, of course, never stops the PR machine from pimping the sequel for home video release like it was one of its top hookers on Broadway St. Hell, they were so confident in their success on the video rental market, they couldn’t even bother to spell Freddy’s Nightmares right when talking about television promo partnerships.
That’s a big dick move there, Mikey.
The street date for HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS landed on May 18th, 1989, just a few weeks after THEY LIVE and CHILD’S PLAY hit the shelves and five days before PUMPKINHEAD was added to the VHS horror movie rentals of ’89. 1988 was a HUGE year for horror movies-you can check my top 15here-so therefore the Summer months following were a banger for us at the video rental stores.
I mean, they never had to oversell me. I’m the proud mom of two copies, while three others over the past 30 years have been laid to rest from being played to death.
Anyway, enjoy something that brings me a lot of personal joy and fuzziness. Huge shout-out to Tripsy Trailers for uploading this treasure for the rest of us!
That’s right. His name was Jason, and it’s been 45 years since the massacre at Crystal Lake that led to the birth of a horror icon and, technically, the birth of the 80s slasher.
In the early 1970s, Sean S. Cunningham sat in an editing room with director Wes Craven as the two cut together what would become, one of the most disturbing horror films ever made: THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Cunningham’s first film, THE ART OF THE MARRIAGE, had attracted Craven, who wanted to be in the film business, a friendship struck and then went ahead and made basically a soft porn film together entitled, TOGETHER. Which is totally what I would expect from the master of 80s perky boob shots and gore.
After Last House, Craven would go on to direct THE HILLS HAVE EYES, but Cunningham had a different vision.
In 1978, John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN was released and changed the horror game. Cunningham took notice of the huge success of the premise of a stalker going around killing teenage girls and thus began the creation of FRIDAY THE 13TH. A movie that would spawn 9 sequels, a remake, and a crossover with, ironically, one of his old buddy’s own iconic creations, and become one of the most influential horror movies of all time.
So before we go any further, let’s smack a kiss on little Mikey Myers. Because without him, there would be no Jason.
After coming up with a title that like, Halloween, centered around a mysterious date,FRIDAY THE 13TH, the aspiring horror director pulled a massively ballsy move without even shooting one scene of the movie, by making an advert of his movie idea and somehow getting it placed in the July 4th issue of VARIETY magazine. The idea was to maybe secure the financing necessary to start production. The now-infamous and very first ad appeared for the original film in the franchise, proclaiming Friday The 13th “The Most Terrifying Film Ever Made”. The gamble paid off with Paramount picking up the title and a green light to shoot the film for $1.5 million buckaroos.
The slasher film was still in its infancy back in 1979, and though films like BLACK XMAS (which in my opinion was the FIRST true slasher movie), THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and HALLOWEEN set the bar for the subgenre, FRIDAY THE 13TH set the standard for the 80s slasher-and the absolute crazy oversaturation of it during that decade. And I wouldn’t have it any other fucking way.
FRIDAY THE 13TH set a new slasher standard for young bloods getting picked off one by one in an isolated setting where no adults could be found anywhere supervising the often horny and impaired kids. If they were around, they were usually presumed as drunk or crazy.
Crazy Ralph, anyone?
Not to mention the now cliché horror movie tropes that we’ve seen in almost every slasher movie since. Sex equals death. Drugs equal death. An unstoppable madman (or in this case, woman) with the killer POV camera shot that doesn’t directly show the killer, that keeps us guessing who their identity is throughout the movie. And of course, we need the all-important final girl. The more innocent she seemed, the better her chance of survival. Of course, FRIDAY wasn’t the first to establish that trend (that credit goes to HALLOWEEN), but they sure as hell ran with it religiously for an entire decade and inspired the very film they kind of-sort ripped off, (HALLOWEEN), to cash in on the slasher boom of the 80s with a couple of sequels. The formula set the standard for FRIDAY movies going forward, and the rest of the 80s slashers that came after.
Also, it spawned Randy. Randy is all of us. Thanks to the likes of Friday the 13th.
FRIDAY THE 13THopened nationwide in the US on May 9th, 1980. Nobody expected this little horror movie to do much regarding big Box Office numbers, including Sean Cunningham, but holy shit was everyone surprised when this little film shot at Camp Nobebosco in New Jersey blew up and ending up meaning just shy of 40 million in the US domestically, and almost 60 million worldwide. Not a bad profit for a movie that was shot for half a million.
And then just like that, along with a sequel to HALLOWEEN, a film that never intended to have one, a slew of similar films embracing the same tropes that FRIDAY banked on, absolutely inundated theaters and straight to video stores with movies like SLEEPAWAY CAMP, CHEERLEADER CAMP, and SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE. Not to mention the appeal of associating a murderous madman with a holiday like MY BLOODY VALENTINE, APRIL FOOL’S DAY, and SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT. The trend continued throughout the entire 80s, with the golden era of horror movies busting out 253 slasher flicks. And it’s all thanks to a little mongoloid named Jason and his vengeful mother who started it all.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILDis well known in the Freddy franchise for a lot of good (and bad) reasons. But there’s one tidbit about the 5th installment I’m willing to bet a lot of you missed; no matter how many times you’ve seen it. As a matter of fact, every time I bring it up to someone, they’re actually surprised they missed it- and it’s the moment in the film where the franchise actually admits to Freddy being a pedophile.
The only reason I bring this up is that despite the large Freddy fandom, and the first film premiering over 40 years ago (wow I feel old), this is STILL a debate amongst some fans. I guess some people have never seen the NEVER SLEEP AGAIN doc that actually goes into this subject. But anyway, the now-famous viral panel interview with Robert Englund addressing the million-dollar question with vagueness hasn’t helped the internet debate either. Although I don’t blame him much as he is probably sensitive about the topic. I’m sure he doesn’t want his greatest movie role that he made iconic to be remembered as being a child molester.
But, here we are. I guess if you blink while watching THE DREAM CHILD, you’ll miss it, but I’m one of those people that looks around the screen at things in the background, especially now rewatching older movies to catch glimpses of nostalgia or things I may have missed the past 5,000 times I’ve watched it prior. And a few years ago, I actually caught this.
More than halfway through THE DREAM CHILD, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Mark (Joe Seely) are seen in Alice’s bedroom discussing how to move forward after realizing Freddy is after Alice’s unborn child. Mark brought over a bunch of old newspapers ranging from the demise of Amanda Krueger, to the trials of Freddy and behold- this screenshot from the ending of that scene:
There’s no denying it. It’s as they, “all there in black and white.” I mean, I hate to even be writing this or putting it out there, but the debate has to end. It’s not like me, a Fred head myself, wants to be one to actually say it out loud. I don’t think any of us do. And I personally think it’s one of the (many) reasons why the 2010 remake failed so tremendously. I mean, besides the horrific makeup, the way they made Nancy into such a weak bitch, and the center plot stating the dirty secret outloud. There’s a big difference between subtle hints throughout the franchise and blatantly being so in your face about it. To throw in another cliché saying, “ignorance is bliss”; if we don’t talk about it, it never happened. Even though we all know deep down, this was always the premise for the Springwood Slasher. But, to be a true Fred Head is to be in the know. And now you know.
For those who have still been in denial about it, I hope I didn’t ruin your day.
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Nightmare Nostalgia 