Ashlyn Gere | Through the Shattered Lens

“You know what they say, Sam! Everyone wants a piece of a medical student.”

“That’s sick, Punk Rock Dan.”

So say two radio hosts towards the end of the 1986 film, Evil Laugh.

Evil Laugh is a slasher film that was directed by Dominick Brascia, the actor who appeared as Joey, the most annoying character ever, in Friday the 13th Part V. Joey was the fat kid who got on everyone’s nerves by offering them a chocolate bar. Eventually, he made the mistake of approach axe-crazy Vic while Vic was holding an actual axe. “You know I’ve never chopped wood before but it looks like fun,” Joey said. “LEAVE ME ALONE!” Vic shouted. “Okay, Vic …. but I think you’re way out of line.” Vic responded by burying his axe in Joey’s back and I imagine audiences cheered. Seriously, Joey was that annoying.

Evil Laugh actually contains some references to Friday the 13th. One of the potential victims, a medical student named Barney (Jerold Pearson) is a horror movie buff who points out that the reason that Jason keeps coming back to Camp Crystal Lake is because everyone keeps having sex. Unfortunately, none of his friends listen to him.

Barney is one of a group of med students who are spending the weekend at an abandoned orphanage. Years ago, an employee named Martin was falsely accused by the orphans of abusing them. Martin’s father committed suicide from the shame and Martin went on a killing rampage before setting the place on fire. (And yet, the building still stands without so much as a burn mark.) A doctor has decided to reopen the orphanage and, in the tradition of Steve Christy and the counselors he got killed at Crystal Lake, he has recruited a bunch of med students to help him get the place ready to go. The doctor has already been killed by the time the med students arrives but they get to work anyway.

The cool thing about this movie is that there’s a cleaning montage. Everyone really gets into cleaning. I could relate to that. Another cool thing about this movie is that there are a few moments when it reveals itself to have a sense of humor. Barney is a horror fan and is constantly pointing out that everything that is happening is like something that would happen in a slasher film. Barney’s friends are dismissive of him and, as a result, things don’t go well for them. The deaths are all memorable. As well, the film’s ending worked surprisingly well. Finally, the last cool thing about this movie is that, towards the end, one character got to wear the really pretty black kimono. As soon as the movie ended, I decided to order myself a new black kimono.

That said, I don’t want to overpraise Evil Laugh. It had its moments and I think it can be argued that it had more “good moments” than the average low-budget, independently-made 80s slasher film. At the same time, some of the acting truly is unfortunate and it does seem to take a while for the film to really achieve any sort of narrative momentum. For every scene that works, there’s another one that’s just downright boring. Evil Laugh is not an overlooked classic but, again, it has its moments.

In 1986’s Dreamaniac, Adam (Thomas Bern) is a total dork who lives with his much more popular sister, Pat (Ashlyn Gere). Adam aspires to be a heavy metal superstar and he is very much interested in the occult. He’s been having dreams about being visited by a sultry and mysterious woman named Lily (Sylvia Summers). When he performs a Satanic ritual to summon her for real, Lily offers him anything that he wants. Instead of asking her to turn him into the world’s greatest guitarist or something smart like that, Adam asks to be irresistible to women.

Seriously, Adam, if you were the world’s greatest guitarist, you would be getting laid all the time whether you were irresistible or not. The ugliest guy in the world is still be sexy if he can play guitar. Take a look at the Rolling Stones and its long history of ugly guitar players who all looked good as long as they were playing. Take a look at …. oh, I don’t know. I’m tired and I’m just trying to pad out this review because there’s not much to be said about this movie. Let’s move on.

Anyway, Adam gets his wish but he also has to kill the women so that Lily can take their soul and …. eh, that’s stupid. Like Adam, why would you agree to such a counter-productive agreement? Adam was so desperate to get a girlfriend that he apparently didn’t consider that none of them would really live long enough for him to have a real relationship with them. What an idiot.

After Adam sells his soul or whatever it is that he’s supposed to be doing with Lily, Pat throws a party at the house and a bunch of shallow sorority girls and fraternity boys come over and everyone dies one-by-one, usually right after having sex. No one really notices that everyone at the party is dying but then again, no one in this movie really seems to like anyone else so maybe they just don’t care.

Dreamaniac kind of ticked me off, largely because the title should have been Dream Maniac instead of Dreamaniac. I guess I would have let them even get away with something like Dreammaniac. But Dreamaniac, with only one m, just doesn’t make sense and looking at the word makes my multi-colored eyes tear up. This may sound like a petty complaint but there’s honestly not much to be said about Dreamaniac. It’s one of those low-budget, shot on video horror films where the lighting is often so dark and the soundtrack so muddy that you’re never really sure what’s happening on-screen. I dare anyone to watch this film and seriously try to tell one character a part from another. I had no idea who half the characters were and quite frankly, I didn’t care. This was one of David DeCoteau’s earlier films and it has none of the subversiveness that distinguished DeCoteau’s better efforts. (Considering the harsh tone of this review, I feel like I should point out that DeCoteau has directed some truly entertaining movies. Dreamaniac is certainly not the film that should be used to judge his overall career.)

Of course, today, DeCoteau is best known for directing the “Wrong” films for Lifetime. And really, I think the only thing that could have saved Dreamaniac would have been Vivica A. Fox showing up and saying, “Adam, you picked The Wrong Succubus.”