Thursday, July 25, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
THE SLEEPAWAY CAMP SERIES!
The 1980's were a special time for horror. Halloween had set the tone in the 70's and a little publicized low budgeter you may have heard of called Friday the 13th came on the scene and the 80's slasher was born. After the success of F13 a number of copycat summer camp slashers were pumped out by studios looking to cash in on the craze. One of those films was a little different than the rest and caused quite a stir among horror fans due to its campy style and bizarre subject matter. That film was called Sleepaway Camp. The film spawned a number of sequels (a few of which I will not mention in this blog due to the fact they have nothing to do with the original trilogy.) So.....let's get started!
I saw the the original trilogy when I was in high school in the 90's. During one of my many local Blockbuster raids I noticed the above posted cover art. Next to it were two sequels....so I thought "What the hell!" and got all 3. Little did I know I would spend the next few hours in true horror camp heaven and would never be the same. I started with the original.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
The movie opens with a father on a trip with his young son and daughter. They are at a lake boating when an accident kills the son (Peter) and the father. The terribly introverted and obviously traumatized daughter (Angela) is left orphaned and sent to live with her eccentric Aunt Martha. Aunt Martha has a son named Ricky who is roughly Angela's age. Ricky is fiercely protective of his cousin Angela and they become very close.
Aunt Martha sends Angela and Ricky to Camp Arawack where Angela is terribly bullied and Ricky is constantly saving her, often getting himself into trouble with the camp counselors for his wicked, raging anger. Calm the hell down bro. Yes, I said "bro"....eat it. ANYWAYS, Angela is tormented so terribly by the other campers that she rarely even speaks. The only kid to earn her trust is Paul....a charming, handsome blonde boy who I am sure grew up to be a killer bottom in gay porn.
SUDDENLY, kids begin to die. The killer is never revealed but the killings are done in a routine, by the numbers fashion. One by one the evil tormenters are killed leaving the viewer to assume it is either Angela or Ricky behind the killings. Toward the end of the film Angela invites her beau Paul for a swim and they head to the lake at night. As the camp counselors find more and more bodies they frantically arrive at the beach where Angela is found humming and holding Paul (who is apparently sleeping) in her lap. FLASHBACK TO AUNT MARTHA......it is revealed at the end that Aunt Martha brought Angela in and is very excited to have "the girl I have always wanted." Trouble is....Angela isn't Angela.....but PETER....yes folks, PETER LIVED and the original Angela was killed. Aunt Martha raised our poor young Peter as a girl. FLASH FORWARD.....Angela on the beach turns around and jumps up revealing she has 3 things....Paul's head, a knife.....and a dick. THE END.
I love this movie because it sticks to the normal 80's whodunit formula but takes this CRAZY left turn at the end. It is truly the definition of a camp classic. Terrible acting, decent effects, and a crazy plot twist. Check it out for sure.
Onto part 2
This film opens with a group of kids around a campfire listening to camper Phoebe tell the story of the now legendary Camp Arawack killings. When the story is finished Phoebe, who has snuck away from her own camp to hang out with the boys is found out by a female counselor. The counselor orders Phoebe back to camp and off they go into the woods. After Phoebe becomes a little mouthy in the secluded woods she is hit over the head with a piece of wood and her tongue is cut out. YEP, our pissed off camp counselor is none other than Angela from the previous film. This time around Angela (played by Pamela ImBruce'sSister Springsteen) is on a mission.....a mission to commit a genocide of assholes. She quietly and hilariously wipes out the ENTIRE CAMP including her coworkers throughout the course of the film.
The selling point of this sequel is its ability to have a sense of humor. Not only does Angela spew out wity one liners upon each murder but she does so in a fun and unique fashion. Here we get a beheading, 2 slutty sisters who are torched, a girl drilled in the face, a stabbing, a guitar string strangling, a chainsaw death, a slit throat, and my personal favorite...death by leeches in the outhouse. Yes, this movie goes there and does so brilliantly. Whereas the original film aimed to scare you, this one aims to make you pee your pants and I almost did a number of times. THIS is my favorite in the series.
PS: a fun piece of trivia: All the campers and counselors are named after Brat Packers....including the head of the camp "Uncle John" after John Hughes. TOO MUCH FUN.
MISS ANGELA AIN'T KIDDIN' AROUND......
Now onto PART 3
This movie was made directly after the sequel was made and finds our lovely Angela as a disguised camper at a retreat type camp for troubled kids. This camp is designed to intermingle street kids with rich kids and is run by two old coots who have way too much fun in this movie. Angela murders a girl at the beginning of the film, puts her in a trash compactor, assumes her identity, and is carted off to Camp New Horizons to begin another bloodbath. At this point we think we have seen it all from Angela....but this is not so. Here we have a firecracker in someone's nose, a beheading with an axe, a lawnmower ran over someone's head who is buried in the dirt, a girl tied to a flagpole and dropped, among other fun deaths. This film also has a quite comedic tone as it was directed and produced by the same man who did the sequel. I find this one a little less entertaining simply because it becomes a little redundant after a while.
Ps: More Trivia: In this flick the rich kids are named after the Brady Bunch and the poor kids are named after characters from West Side Story. The owners of the camp are Herman and Lily.....haha. HILARIOUS and subtle.
*Note* There is an unfinished and unrelated sequel that can be found in the Sleepaway Camp Survivor Kit Box Set and also a sequel made in the 2000's that was so bad I can't even go there.
SO......
DEFINITELY pick a night, order some pizzas and get a group of friends together because THESE FILMS ARE FUN and are meant to be viewed by a group of drunks. You will laugh....you will cringe....and you will enjoy yourselves.
Until Next Time! Keep on choppin!
Brent
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
The movie opens with a father on a trip with his young son and daughter. They are at a lake boating when an accident kills the son (Peter) and the father. The terribly introverted and obviously traumatized daughter (Angela) is left orphaned and sent to live with her eccentric Aunt Martha. Aunt Martha has a son named Ricky who is roughly Angela's age. Ricky is fiercely protective of his cousin Angela and they become very close.
Aunt Martha sends Angela and Ricky to Camp Arawack where Angela is terribly bullied and Ricky is constantly saving her, often getting himself into trouble with the camp counselors for his wicked, raging anger. Calm the hell down bro. Yes, I said "bro"....eat it. ANYWAYS, Angela is tormented so terribly by the other campers that she rarely even speaks. The only kid to earn her trust is Paul....a charming, handsome blonde boy who I am sure grew up to be a killer bottom in gay porn.
SUDDENLY, kids begin to die. The killer is never revealed but the killings are done in a routine, by the numbers fashion. One by one the evil tormenters are killed leaving the viewer to assume it is either Angela or Ricky behind the killings. Toward the end of the film Angela invites her beau Paul for a swim and they head to the lake at night. As the camp counselors find more and more bodies they frantically arrive at the beach where Angela is found humming and holding Paul (who is apparently sleeping) in her lap. FLASHBACK TO AUNT MARTHA......it is revealed at the end that Aunt Martha brought Angela in and is very excited to have "the girl I have always wanted." Trouble is....Angela isn't Angela.....but PETER....yes folks, PETER LIVED and the original Angela was killed. Aunt Martha raised our poor young Peter as a girl. FLASH FORWARD.....Angela on the beach turns around and jumps up revealing she has 3 things....Paul's head, a knife.....and a dick. THE END.
I love this movie because it sticks to the normal 80's whodunit formula but takes this CRAZY left turn at the end. It is truly the definition of a camp classic. Terrible acting, decent effects, and a crazy plot twist. Check it out for sure.
Onto part 2
The selling point of this sequel is its ability to have a sense of humor. Not only does Angela spew out wity one liners upon each murder but she does so in a fun and unique fashion. Here we get a beheading, 2 slutty sisters who are torched, a girl drilled in the face, a stabbing, a guitar string strangling, a chainsaw death, a slit throat, and my personal favorite...death by leeches in the outhouse. Yes, this movie goes there and does so brilliantly. Whereas the original film aimed to scare you, this one aims to make you pee your pants and I almost did a number of times. THIS is my favorite in the series.
PS: a fun piece of trivia: All the campers and counselors are named after Brat Packers....including the head of the camp "Uncle John" after John Hughes. TOO MUCH FUN.
Now onto PART 3
Ps: More Trivia: In this flick the rich kids are named after the Brady Bunch and the poor kids are named after characters from West Side Story. The owners of the camp are Herman and Lily.....haha. HILARIOUS and subtle.
*Note* There is an unfinished and unrelated sequel that can be found in the Sleepaway Camp Survivor Kit Box Set and also a sequel made in the 2000's that was so bad I can't even go there.
SO......
DEFINITELY pick a night, order some pizzas and get a group of friends together because THESE FILMS ARE FUN and are meant to be viewed by a group of drunks. You will laugh....you will cringe....and you will enjoy yourselves.
Until Next Time! Keep on choppin!
Brent
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
RANDOM REVIEW: 28 WEEKS LATER
Welcome to my first in a series on my blog called "Random Reviews" in which I pick a film at random, eyes closed from my collection to review it.....I have everything from amazing to REALLY bad, so this is going to be interesting!
FIRST UP I chose.............
28 WEEKS LATER (2007)
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (say that 3 times fast)
Written by: A whole bunch of people I am too lazy to list.
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, and Jeremy Renner
NOW....anyone that knows me knows that I like my horror straight forward, with little to no genre bending. I like em' serious. I like em' dark. And I like em' scary. This film delivers the goods. It's a gory, fun ride that is almost too intense to handle in places. It's sort of a zombie film (more on that in a bit)...but mostly just a kick ass survival story.
This film is a sequel to the 2002 film 28 Days Later, which I am sort of ashamed to admit I was not a huge fan of. I thought it played too heavily on the military subplot and failed to deliver what I expected would revitalize the zombie genre....although it sort of did. The "zombies" in these films are not zombies at all, yet normal, everyday folks who are inflicted with a "Rage" virus that turns them into monsters. Once infected they are maniacal, fast, and hunt alone and in packs. This virus is passed through bites, saliva, etc. In the original film a man wakes up from a coma to find the city of London deserted in a sort of post apocalyptic haze. Upon investigation he is soon attacked by raving maniacs and must fend them off with other survivors in a remote house....a la Night of the Living Dead.
In the sequel we learn that 28 weeks after the original events London has been virtually wiped out by quarantining the rage virus to the main island. The infected have officially starved and are all dead. The island is proclaimed safe yet still quarantined. Survivors are now herded back to London but are forbidden by the military to cross into the quarantined zones, even if they lived there. They are to find new homes and rebuild.
A father who escaped a farmhouse after a major attack is reunited with his 2 children (a younger brother and teenage sister) during their return to London. Upon their reunion he tells them the events which eventually led to the death of their mother. The children, devastated decide to sneak out of the safe zone and into the quarantined zone to retrieve a picture of their late mother at their home. Upon arriving they find their mother alive and disoriented. Turns out she is infected with the virus but has a special immunity. Scientists take her in to study her in hopes of finding a cure. During her stay her husband is made aware she is alive and sneaks in to see her, whereupon he kisses her....and turns into this......
aaaaaaaaaand all hell breaks loose....again! The rage virus spreads like wild fire and the entire city of London is once again completely overrun with fast as lightning, intelligent zombies.
The coolest part of this story is the humanity. The lengths at which the sister will go to protect her brother, along with a female scientist who must also protect the brother due to his hereditary immunity of the virus is really the heart of the film. There is also a soldier who goes against orders to protect the family. These human stories tie very nicely into the action which is itself unrelenting.
There are sequences of violence in this film that made me entirely uncomfortable....especially the untimely fate of the mother. This sucker NEVER lets up and before you know it body parts are a' flyin'. The gore quotient is rather high here as well, but not overdone. This ultra-violent universe is created almost perfectly by the director and writers.
I definitely recommend this movie even if you weren't a fan of the original. I give it 3 "ooooh girls" and 4 "no she betta don'ts."
Stay tuned for more Random Reviews!!!!
Big, gay bear hugs!
FIRST UP I chose.............
28 WEEKS LATER (2007)
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (say that 3 times fast)
Written by: A whole bunch of people I am too lazy to list.
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, and Jeremy Renner
NOW....anyone that knows me knows that I like my horror straight forward, with little to no genre bending. I like em' serious. I like em' dark. And I like em' scary. This film delivers the goods. It's a gory, fun ride that is almost too intense to handle in places. It's sort of a zombie film (more on that in a bit)...but mostly just a kick ass survival story.
This film is a sequel to the 2002 film 28 Days Later, which I am sort of ashamed to admit I was not a huge fan of. I thought it played too heavily on the military subplot and failed to deliver what I expected would revitalize the zombie genre....although it sort of did. The "zombies" in these films are not zombies at all, yet normal, everyday folks who are inflicted with a "Rage" virus that turns them into monsters. Once infected they are maniacal, fast, and hunt alone and in packs. This virus is passed through bites, saliva, etc. In the original film a man wakes up from a coma to find the city of London deserted in a sort of post apocalyptic haze. Upon investigation he is soon attacked by raving maniacs and must fend them off with other survivors in a remote house....a la Night of the Living Dead.
In the sequel we learn that 28 weeks after the original events London has been virtually wiped out by quarantining the rage virus to the main island. The infected have officially starved and are all dead. The island is proclaimed safe yet still quarantined. Survivors are now herded back to London but are forbidden by the military to cross into the quarantined zones, even if they lived there. They are to find new homes and rebuild.
A father who escaped a farmhouse after a major attack is reunited with his 2 children (a younger brother and teenage sister) during their return to London. Upon their reunion he tells them the events which eventually led to the death of their mother. The children, devastated decide to sneak out of the safe zone and into the quarantined zone to retrieve a picture of their late mother at their home. Upon arriving they find their mother alive and disoriented. Turns out she is infected with the virus but has a special immunity. Scientists take her in to study her in hopes of finding a cure. During her stay her husband is made aware she is alive and sneaks in to see her, whereupon he kisses her....and turns into this......
The coolest part of this story is the humanity. The lengths at which the sister will go to protect her brother, along with a female scientist who must also protect the brother due to his hereditary immunity of the virus is really the heart of the film. There is also a soldier who goes against orders to protect the family. These human stories tie very nicely into the action which is itself unrelenting.
There are sequences of violence in this film that made me entirely uncomfortable....especially the untimely fate of the mother. This sucker NEVER lets up and before you know it body parts are a' flyin'. The gore quotient is rather high here as well, but not overdone. This ultra-violent universe is created almost perfectly by the director and writers.
I definitely recommend this movie even if you weren't a fan of the original. I give it 3 "ooooh girls" and 4 "no she betta don'ts."
Stay tuned for more Random Reviews!!!!
Big, gay bear hugs!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)