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Film Review: Camp Murder (dir by Mark Polonia)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The sad truth of the matter is that the Friday the 13th films haven’t done much for the New Jersey summer camp industry.

Seriously, Crystal Lake is such a pretty location.  The lake looks beautiful with the sun rising over it and the water literally beckons you to toss off all your clothes and go for a swim.  The woods feature green trees and are full of animals and mysterious shacks.  The nearby town is home to people like Enos the Truck Driver, Ralph the Prophet, and a countless number of waitresses who will give you directions and gossip if you ask politely.  And then you’ve got Camp Crystal Lake, which has cabins and a generator and an archery range and a lot of outdoor showers.  Seriously, Camp Crystal Lake encompasses the natural beauty that New Jersey was once known for.

Unfortunately, none of that matters.  A few stupid camp counselors managed to get themselves killed by Betsy Palmer and now, no one wants to go to New Jersey anymore.  Before Friday the 13th, New Jersey was a state for the entire family.  After Friday the 13th, it became a state for a different sort of family.  My point is that the Friday the 13th films are directly responsible for the Mafia taking over New Jersey.  I don’t care how much they blame Lucky Luciano.  Jason Voorhees is responsible for organized crime.

Anyway, that’s my long-winded explanation for why no one wants to vacation at Camp Crystal Lake anymore.  It’s now known as Camp Blood and no one wants to hang out at a place where they might get killed or, even worse, get lost in the Pine Barrens.  Instead, people decide to vacation at much safer locations …. like Camp Murder!

2020’s Camp Murder takes place at the camp of the same nickname.  Throughout the film, everyone talks about what a dump Camp Murder is but, from what we see of it, it looks perfectly pleasant.  It might be a little isolated and a little neglected but it hardly seems like the Hellhole that everyone keeps describing.  A group of people are vacationing at Camp Murder, secure in the knowledge that infamous murderer “Terrible” Tommy Heller (Jeff Kirkendall) has been safely locked away from 25 years.  Except — uh oh! — Tommy’s escaped!  Dr. Lewis (Noyes J. Lawton) is searching for him but will he be able to find him before Tommy has wiped out the majority of the cast?

Camp Murder is one of Mark Polonia’s cheerfully low-budget horror films.  Polonia specializes in horror-on-budget.  His films aren’t exactly good but they’re made and often performed with such enthusiasm that it’s easier to forgive their flaws than certain other low-budget entries in the genre.  When it comes to a Polonia film, you know what you’re going to get so I’m going to focus on two positive aspects of the film.

First off, Terrible Tommy is actually a pretty effective villain.  His mask is genuinely disturbing and Jeff Kirkendall is properly menacing and relentless in the role.

Second, there’s a shot of two women walking towards a deserted barn that is actually effectively creepy.

As for the rest of the film, the pace is slow and the acting is often amateurish.  Some of the gore effects work.  It’s a shot-on-video slasher film.  You know what you’re getting into when you starting watching it.  The tourism industry will survive Camp Murder and that’s a good thing.

Film Review: The Initiation (dir by Larry Stewart)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1984’s The Initiation, Daphne Zuniga plays Kelly Fairchild, a college student who is haunted by a recurring nightmare in which she, as a child, watches a man get burned alive in her childhood home.  Kelly, who can’t remember anything about her life before the age of ten, signs up for sleep study but her mother, Francesca (Vera Miles), strictly forbids it.  Kelly is far too busy and far too rich to have her dreams analyzed.

And really, Kelly does have a lot going on in her life at the moment.  She’s a student at SMU.  She’s pledging to a sorority.  Her father (Clu Gulager) owns one of Dallas’s biggest department stores and Kelly has the key so that the sorority pledges can spend the night inside the “deserted” building.  Sure, a patient with extensive burn scars has recently escaped from a mental hospital but what could that possibly have to do with Kelly and her disturbing dreams?

The Initiation is a film that takes a while to really get going.  The film spends a lot of time on just Kelly walking around the SMU campus and visiting her parents in Highland Park.  Eventually, though, Kelly, Marcia (Marilyn Kagan), and Alison (Hunter Tylo) spend the night in that store, which is not quite as deserted as they were told.  Not only is the president of the sorority there to play pranks but she’s invited along three goofy guys to add to the fun.  Of course, there’s also the mysterious killer who proceeds to start picking everyone off, one-by-one.

The Initiation is a film that I like for a couple of reasons.  One of them is that, whenever I watch this movie, I find myself shouting, “I’ve been there!”  This film was set and filmed in Dallas and it accomplishes the near-impossible task of actually making the SMU campus look vaguely interesting.  (SMU may be a top college but the campus has always been a bit on the dull side.)  SMU is a college that I once wanted to go to, at least until I saw how much it would cost and my guidance counselor saw how unimpressive my grades were in high school.  Instead, I went to UNT but I still spent a lot of time around the SMU campus because it was right next do to my favorite movie theater, the Dallas Angelika.

Meanwhile, the department store is played by Dallas Market Center.  I can only imagine that trouble that the production went through to get permission to shoot there.  That said, I have to admit that I found the “Vendors only” signs that appeared on several doors to be distracting.  (The Dallas Market Center is largely used for trade shows.)  Still, it was a good and atmospheric location for the slasher mayhem.

While it does take a while for that mayhem to start, the kills are all memorably nasty and bloody and actually rather frightening.  I’ve always felt that, if you’re going to make a movie like this, you should go all out.  There should just be blood and guts everywhere and The Initiation doesn’t shy away from that.  The fact that the victims are largely played by likable actors only makes the deaths more effective.

Finally, The Initiation ends with one of those totally out-there twists that a viewer like me just can’t help but love.  It’s a totally ludicrous twist but it’s just so weird and random that it was impossible not to enjoy.

Now, to be clear, The Initiation is not a lost classic.  As I mentioned earlier, it takes a while for the action to really get started and there are a few early scenes that definitely drag.  The film’s original director was fired after shooting began and, as a result, the film itself feels a bit disjointed.  It’s obvious that the original director had a much different vision than the director who replaced him.  But, even with all that taken into account, The Initiation is still a hundred times more effective than it probably has any right to be.  It’s ultimately an effective and memorable slasher film.

And it was filmed in my home town!

Film Review: Silent Madness (dir by Simon Nuchtern)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1984’s Silent Madness opens in a mental hospital in New Jersey.  In order to cut down on costs, the hospital’s administrators have been giving early release to some of their patients.  Dr. Joan Gilmore (Belinda Montgomery) has only been on staff for a few months but even she knows that there’s a risk that a truly dangerous patient could be released.  Dr. Gilmore’s worries come true when a homicidal patient named Howard Johns (Solly Marx) disappears from the hospital.  Apparently, a computer errors led to Howard being released instead of a patient with a similar name.

Oh, someone screwed up big time!

Or, at least, that’s what Joan believes.  In a scene that has to be seen to be believed, the arrogant Dr. Kruger (Roderick Cook) attempts to convince Joan that Howard Johns actually died a while ago and that’s why he’s not in the hospital anymore.  Joan demands to see a death certificate.  Dr. Kruger is like, “Oh, I don’t know where it is.  We’ll have to look for it.”  Yeah, that’s the same thing I used to say in college whenever I was running behind on my paying my credit card.  “Really?  I never received that bill.  Can you send it again?”

Knowing that Howard was imprisoned after committing several murders at a sorority house in upstate New York, Joan theorizes that he’s heading back to the college so that he can pick up where he left off.  Pretending to be a former member of the sorority, Joan meets the aging house mother, Mrs. Collins (Viveca Lindfors).  Mrs. Collins — who often refers to younger women as being “whores” — tells a story of how a hazing ritual gone wrong led to handyman Howard grabbing a nail gun and wiping out a pledge class.  When Joan actually spots Howard on campus, she tries to get the sheriff (Sydney Lassick) to do something about it.  The sheriff replies that Joan must be seeing things because the hospital called and reported that Howard is deceased.  The sheriff than has a beer because he’s the best character in the entire film.

Howard, needless to say, is not dead.  He’s hiding out in the sorority house and he’s continuing in his murderous ways.  We don’t really learn much about Howard.  As the title suggests, he’s a silent killer.  That works to the film’s advantage.  A silent killer is far more intimidating than one who spends all of his time coming up with bad puns.  Because Silent Madness was originally filmed in 3D, Howard enjoys throwing axes and firing nail guns, often straight at the camera.

Silent Madness is a thoroughly ludicrous film but it’s enjoyable as a product of its time.  It’s hard not to smile at the thought of a theatrical audience ducking as Howard throws an axe at the camera in 3D.  Howard is a properly intimidating killer but the film is totally stolen by Roderick Cook, Viveca Lindfors, and Sydney Lassick, three veteran actors who knew better than to even try to be subtle while appearing in a film like this.  Lassick’s performance as the cowardly sheriff is especially enjoyable.  We all know that law enforcement is useless in a slasher film.  Lassick’s sheriff seems to understand this as well.  He’d rather just stay in his office and who can blame him?

Silent Madness is silly and kind of dumb but it’s undeniably entertaining.

 

Film Review: Scream (dir by Byron Quisenberry)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Since today is Friday the 13th, I decided to review a film called Scream….

No, not that Scream.

This Scream came out in 1981.  It’s a slasher film but instead of featuring the usual collection of teenage victims, the victims in Scream are largely a collection of middle-aged tourists who are played a motely collection of former sitcom stars and western veterans.  Even Ethan Wayne, the son of John Wayne, makes an appearance, playing a potential victim named Stan.

The film imagines what would happen if a bunch of tourists who were exploring the Rio Grande decided to spend the night in an apparently deserted ghost town.  Speaking for myself, I would have never decided to sleep in a deserted town, especially one that isn’t even on a map.  I mean, those places are called ghost towns for a reason.  Even if they’re not haunted by ghosts, they are probably home to snakes, spiders, and all sorts of bugs.  Considering that these people have camping gear with them, I’m not sure why they decided it would be smart to just sleep in an abandoned building.  This is where the film’s use of adult victims really backfires.  It’s easier to accept teenagers and 20-something doing something stupid.  When it’s a bunch of people heading towards 40 and 50 (and even older in some cases), you can’t help but feel that they have no one but themselves to blame.

The murders begin on the first night.  Needless to say, the survivors decide to find somewhere else to sleep but they discover that their rafts have been cut apart.  They’re trapped in the town.  Some of them leave to try to find a nearby ranch.  Everyone else stays in the town and tries not to fall victim to the unseen killer.

And then Woody Strode shows up.

Oh, poor Woody Strode.  Woody Strode was in his late 60 when he appeared in this film.  In his youth, he was one of the first black men to play in the NFL.  When he went into acting, he became a favorite of John Ford’s.  In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, he was John Wayne’s best friend.  In Sergeant Ruteledge, he had a rare lead role as man falsely accused of murdering a white woman.  In Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, he was the gladiator whose defiant death sparked Spartacus’s rebellion.  In Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West, he was one of he gunmen waiting for Charles Bronson at the train station.  Woody Strode had a long career and he broke a lot of barriers.

In Scream, Woody Strode plays Charlie, who claims that he’s spent forty years searching for the invisible killer who is currently terrorizing the tourists.  It must be said that Strode gives the best performance in the film.  He delivers his dialogue with a natural authority and, if you needed someone to defend you from an invisible killer with a scythe, Charlie is definitely who you would want to call.  That said, Charlie wanders off for a good deal of the film.  We never really find out where Charlie went off to.  He returns eventually but not before the remaining survivors have managed to do several stupid things.

Scream is a pretty dull film, one that doesn’t even take advantage of its potentially atmospheric location.  Watching it, one gets the feeling that everyone involved just made it up as they went along.  It’s interesting to see a slasher film in which the victims are not a bunch of teenagers or camp counselors but otherwise, Scream is nothing to scream about.

 

Scenes That I Love: Jason Emerges From The Lake In Friday the 13th

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1980, when director Sean S. Cunningham offered Ari Lehman a role in his new movie, he asked only one question. “Can you swim?”

At the age of 14, Ari appeared in Friday the 13th.  He didn’t get much screen time but his performance and appearance as the young Jason Voorhees created a moment of fright that lives on today.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Friday The 13th Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

The Friday the 13th films aren’t exactly known for being the most visually impressive horror films ever made.  That’s especially true of the first 8 films, which were all shot on a low budget and in a hurry.  Actually, I think you could argue that’s a part of the enduring charm of the series.  Today is Friday the 13th and there’s no way that I, as a lover of the horror genre, couldn’t use the 4 Shots format to pay a little bit of tribute to one of the most successful and influential horror franchises of all time.

So, with that in mind, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Friday the 13th Films

Friday the 13th (1980, dir by Sean S. Cunningham)

Friday the 13th Part II (1981, dir by Steve Miner)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984, dir by Joseph Zito)

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989, dir by Rob Hedden)

Back in 2012, I reviewed every single film in the Friday the 13th film franchise!  It was a lot of fun!

My Friday the 13th reviews:

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix for Sharktopus!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties.  On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday.  On Mastodon, I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, at 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix!  The movie?  Sharktopus!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find Sharktopus on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  I’ll be there happily tweeting.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

See you there!

Scenes That I Love: Joe Don Baker In Walking Tall

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the 90th birthday of Joe Don Baker!

Our scene that I love features Joe Don as Sherriff Buford Pusser.  Some local crooks thought that they could keep the sheriff out of their bar.  In this scene from 1973’s Walking Tall, he proves them all wrong.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Darren Aronofsky Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 57th birthday to one of our favorite filmmakers, Darren Aronofsky!  When we first started this site, we were eagerly awaiting the release of Black Swan.  Now, fifteen years later, we’re eagerly awaiting the release of Aronofsky’s next film, whatever it may be.

In honor of the birthday of a true visionary director, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Darren Aronofsky Films

Pi (1998, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Matthew Labitique)

Requiem for a Dream (2000, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Matthew Libatique)

Black Swan (2010, dir by Darren Aronosfky, DP: Matthew Libatique)

mother! (2017, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Matthew Libatique)

Scenes That I Love: Burt Reynolds in The Last Movie Star

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the birthday of Burt Reynolds.

Our scene that I love is from 2018’s overlooked The Last Movie Star.  In this scene, an elderly Burt Reynolds finds himself transported back to the days of Smokey and the Bandit, where he meets his younger self and takes a ride in a famous black sportscar.  It turns out that the two Burts do not agree when it comes to observing the posted speed limit.