Halloween II (2009)

(2009)
Director: Rob Zombie
Writer: Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie's sequel to his 2007 reboot of the Halloween franchise picks up directly after the end of the first film with Michael Myers escaping and Laurie Strode, still in shock from the events, being taken to the hospital. Thought to be dead, Michael Myers remains in hiding until next Halloween when he begins seeing ghostly visions of his mother telling him to bring his sister home. Laurie Strode meanwhile, is still dealing with some psychological issues left over from the terrifying ordeal she went through the previous year. Convinced that Michael Myers is still alive, she reaches her tipping point when a tell-all book by Dr. Loomis reveals that she is in fact the sister of the infamous Michael Myers.

Okay, so this is where I'm really going to lose some people. I. Fucking. LOVE. This movie. I don't really get why there are so many people that hate this film. With the first Halloween, it felt to me that Rob Zombie was stifled by conforming to the same basic plot as the original film. With this sequel, it's clear that he was given free range to make whatever movie he wanted to make as opposed to making a "Rob Zombie version" of something else. When a Halloween movie begins by explaining what a white horse is supposed to symbolize in a dream, you know you're in for some weird shit. The film is littered with scenes that may or may not be a dream, hallucination, or both. Unnervingly brutal murder scenes are juxtaposed with cinematography that is just goddamn beautiful to look at. This may seem like a stretch to many people, but I predict that general audiences will come around to Rob Zombie's Halloween II the same way they came around to Halloween III. Does it make perfect sense? No. But it is one fucking wild ride. I give Rob Zombie's Halloween II (or H2, if ya nasty) 5 out of 6 beers.

Halloween (2007)

(2007)
Director: Rob Zombie
Writer: Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie's re-imagining of Halloween begins with Michael Myers's childhood. Raised in a white trash household with an abusive stepfather and a desperate mother who works at the local strip club to make ends meet, young Michael Myers's sociopathic behavior goes unchecked until he finally snaps and kills several people on Halloween night. Now after 15 years in an asylum, Michael Myers escapes and returns to Haddonfield for his little sister.

Rob Zombie goes much deeper into the origin of Michael Myers with this remake than any of the previous films. Although I personally really enjoy the first half, I can understand why many people had a problem with it. By going so in depth with the influences and motivations of the character of Michael Myers, he loses a lot of his mystique, that "boogeyman" quality. Instead of being "evil incarnate", Michael Myers becomes yet another serial killer. Although I feel like the series had pretty much run it's course with that angle anyways, and I was glad to see a different perspective. After the one hour mark however, the film becomes a fairly straight-forward remake of the first film. I guess when I first watched it, I was a bit disappointed as the first half of the film was so innovative and off-the-rails of what you would expect from a Halloween movie. Once it settled into familiar territory, suddenly I knew what to expect and wasn't quite as enthralled. It also didn't help that the movie clocks in at almost two hours. If it loses you along the way, that's way longer than it needs to be. Rob Zombie has a very fast-paced, music video style of directing and while I personally love it, it doesn't fit with every movie. The eerie, uncomfortable tension that permeated the first film is lost in this re-imagining, although the film's quickly-edited, brutal attack scenes do provide an uncomfortable tension of their own.

A lot of people were very upset with this remake, some even going as far as to claim that Rob Zombie "ruined the Halloween franchise". First of all, let's be honest. The Halloween franchise was ruined long before Rob Zombie got there. In today's world of big budget remakes and re-imaginings, Halloween was bound to get rebooted whether anyone wanted it to or not. At least Rob Zombie tried to do something a little different with it. It may be true that Zombie doesn't appear to have the same love for the original film as a lot of the fans, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes a bit of distance from the source material can bring an interesting new perspective. Remember the shot-for-shot remake of Psycho? Remember how everyone hated it because it brought absolutely nothing new to the table? We could've gotten that. No one will ever capture the lightning-in-a-bottle of the original Halloween. That movie exists in it's own time and place. If you're going to remake a film that you obviously can't make better, come at it from a different angle and bring your own voice to it. Whether you love it or hate it, you can't deny that Halloween feels like a Rob Zombie film.

Although I did enjoy this film more upon re-watching it, it's faults are still plainly obvious to me. I don't feel that it deserves as much hate as it's usually given, but I also admit that it could be done better. I give Rob Zombie's Halloween 3 1/2 out of 6 beers.

Halloween: Resurrection

(2002)
Director: Rick Rosenthal
Writers: Larry Brand, Sean Hood

In Halloween: Resurrection Michael Myers finishes up some business with the now institutionalized Laurie Strode, then makes his way home to Haddonfield. Meanwhile Busta Rhymes, the host of a popular internet reality show that films groups of young people in serial killers' homes, has secured the infamous Myers house for his hit show. Michael Myers then returns home and picks off the teenagers one by one, to the internet's amusement.

Halloween: Resurrection was the only film in the Halloween series I hadn't seen before, and I have to admit that it was a bit of a surprise. It wasn't exactly a good movie, but it certainly wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The whole internet reality show angle, as silly as it is, is at least an interesting and fresh idea. The film also provides some fairly decent slasher movie kills, especially in a year when the slasher film renaissance was pretty much on it's way out. Really, if I have one complaint about this movie, it's Busta Rhymes. Every time he appeared on screen, I found myself becoming increasingly irritated by him. Maybe that was just his "character", but I suspect it had more to do with his inability to act like anyone other than Busta Rhymes. All in all, Halloween: Resurrection is a decent entry as long as you don't expect too much from it. I give it a perfectly average 3 out of 6 beers.

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later

(1998)
Director: Steve Miner
Writers: Robert Zappia, Matt Greenberg

Halloween H20 retcons parts 4, 5, & 6 and takes place 20 years after the end of part 2. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, who has faked her own death and changed her name to become the headmistress of a private school in California. Michael Myers has tracked her down and, while all but a select few are away from the school on a vacation, sets out to complete the job he started twenty years ago.

H20 was made in 1998, during the post-Scream slasher renaissance, and feels very much like a product of it's time. Characters in the film can be seen watching Scream on television, and Kevin Williamson (of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer fame) was brought in to punch up some of the dialogue in the film. This isn't actually a bad thing if you enjoy those late 90's slashers, but H20 certainly doesn't brave any new territory. Learning from the mistakes of the last 3 films in the franchise, H20 is fairly straight-forward and explains very little. It's never revealed where exactly Michael came from, where he has been for the last twenty years, or why he has returned now. There are a few good kills, but not as many as you would expect from a Halloween film, especially one that is supposed to be Michael's big return. The film is littered with disposable characters, very few of which actually die.

Let me just say that H20 is one of the dumbest titles ever. Since the movie has absolutely nothing to do with water, it's just a really lazy and unfunny pun. Also it then insults us further, explaining the pun by adding "Twenty Years Later". I'm not stupid, I get why you're calling it H20. Maybe the third film in the series of Halloween remakes should be titled "Hallow33n: The Es Are Threes Because It's The Third Movie, Get It?". I remember really disliking Halloween H20 when it first came out, but upon re-watching it I didn't hate it nearly as much. Even though it's nothing out of the ordinary, it's certainly not as bad as some of the previous sequels (even though it does feature a Creed song). It's a standard, no-nonsense slasher that comes in at a merciful 86 minutes. I give Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later 3 1/2 out of 6 beers.

Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers (Producer's Cut)

(1995)
Director: Joe Chappelle
Writer: Daniel Farrands

In this sixth installment of the Halloween franchise, the now adult Tommy Doyle from the first film (played in this film by a young Paul Rudd) is still attempting to find a motive for Michael Myers' killing sprees. After finding the baby of Jamie Lloyd at a bus station, he eventually pieces together that Michael Myers is actually under the influence of the ancient druidic rune of Thorn. The cult of Thorn believes that in order to prevent sickness and famine, one vessel (Michael Myers) is chosen to sacrifice their next of kin on the night of Samhain. As Jamie's child would be Michael's last sacrifice, the curse of Thorn would then have to find a new vessel and the most likely candidate seems to be Danny, the youngest of the Strode family who also hears the same "voices" that Michael did when he was a child. Along with Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance in his last film role) and Danny's mother Kara, Tommy attempts to stop the Thorn cult from more senseless killing.

Having already seen Halloween 6 (though admittedly it was a long time ago), I decided to watch the Producer's Cut of the film instead as it's supposed to be the better version. I can't really say for sure whether or not that's true, I was just as confused after watching this version as I was the first time I saw the movie. Halloween 6 is definitely ambitious and tries really hard to tie all of the movies together into a cohesive narrative, but in explaining the origin of Michael's immortality and superhuman strength it sort of loses some of it's punch. Making Michael Myers into the victim of a nefarious cult kind of forces him to lose his "boogeyman" image and become another mentally damaged killer. Albeit one with supernatural powers. However, I didn't completely hate this movie. It's not good by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it's somewhat interesting. I can't really fault the makers of the film for trying to make sense of a series that had already kind of gone off the rails. Their efforts really are admirable, but in the end Halloween 6 just ends up as a confusing and jumbled mess. Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers gets 2 1/2 out of 6 beers.

Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers

(1989)
Director: Dominique Othenin-Girard
Writers: Dominique Othenin-Girard, Michael Jacobs, Shem Bitterman

Halloween 5 takes place one year after the events of part 4. Michael has been in a coma in a hermit's shack for an entire year, and Jamie Lloyd, now mute, has been under psychiatric care. Just before Halloween, Michael suddenly awakens and Jamie begins sensing that he is coming for her.

Halloween 5 seems to me to be the point where the Halloween franchise really jumps the shark. Instead of working with the much more interesting premise of Jamie Lloyd continuing the legacy of Michael Myers as set up by the ending of part 4, they go back to the same tired formula of Michael Myers stalking his last known relative and killing anyone who gets in his way. Except this time, he doesn't even seem to know what he's doing. He seemingly just kills at random with no final goal in mind. First he goes after Jamie's adopted sister, then just goes after her friends for no discernible reason. When he attempts to kill her adopted sister's friend Tina, it seems to affect Jamie way more than when he killed her adopted sister, even curing her muteness, and we're never really sure why. There's a whole lot of things going on in this movie that don't really make much sense, but it's not really a good enough movie to find the energy to care. The whole movie is kind of a boring mess that I'm sure disappointed audiences as well, seeing as it would be another 6 years before the franchise returned. I give Halloween 5 two out of six beers.

Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers

(1988)
Director: Dwight H. Little
Writers: Alan B. McElroy, Dhani Lipsius, Larry Rattner, Benjamin Ruffner

Halloween 4 finds that Michael Myers has survived the fire at the end of Halloween II and has been in a coma for the last ten years. While being transferred to another facility, a paramedic mentions the fact that he has a niece, causing him to reawaken and slaughter anyone that stands between him and his last blood relative. Jamie Lloyd, the seven-year-old daughter of Laurie Strode (who has apparently died in a car accident, most likely because Jamie Lee Curtis had found fame elsewhere and had no interest in returning to the series) has visions of being stalked by her infamous uncle while Dr. Loomis (who also somehow survived the end of Halloween II) intends to intercept him and stop "The Shape" for good.

Halloween 4 is not a terrible sequel. While it definitely feels much cheaper than any of the previous films, it does have enough in it to appeal to fans of the original. The teenage friend of Jamie's foster sister is named Lindsey, and although originally given more to do in the script, was supposed to be the same Lindsey that Laurie Strode ended up babysitting in the first Halloween. Donald Pleasance returns as Dr. Loomis, although at this point in the series he seems less like the one rational person who knows how dangerous Michael is and more like an insane person that no one can really be blamed for ignoring. All in all, Halloween 4 is a fairly solid sequel that should keep fans of the series entertained and an entry that at least seems to be trying to move the mythos of Michael Myers forward. I give it 4 out of 6 beers.

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch

(1982)
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Writer: Tommy Lee Wallace

In Halloween III: Season Of The Witch, mustachioed casanova Tom Atkins drinks his way through a dark conspiracy involving a popular line of Halloween masks, the eerily quiet town where they're produced, and robots. I've reviewed Halloween III on this site before for one of my October challenges, so there's not a ton more that I can say about it. It's a real fun Halloween movie even if (or perhaps because) it has nothing to do with the rest of the series. Although most of it is pretty silly, it's aged well and certainly has more fans now than when it first came out. Halloween III gets 4 out of 6 beers.

Halloween II

(1981)
Director: Rick Rosenthal
Writers: John Carpenter, Debra Hill

Halloween II picks up directly after the events of the first film, with Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Laurie Strode. While Laurie is being taken to the hospital, Dr. Loomis and the sheriff continue to look for Michael Myers, who is still on the loose. Unbeknownst to them, Michael is not yet finished with Laurie, as they have a deeper, mysterious connection.

Halloween II is a really solid sequel that manages to hold it's own against the original. While it doesn't quite capture the same overpowering sense of dread as the original, it does a good job of expanding on the Michael Myers mythos and providing a nice, creepy hospital atmosphere for our killer to stalk around in. Halloween II gets 5 out of 6 beers.

Halloween

(1978)
Director: John Carpenter
Writers: John Carpenter, Debra Hill

The original Halloween is a classic and there's not much I can say about it that hasn't been said before. While it's definitely not the first slasher film as many claim, it can't be disputed that it's certainly one of the most influential. Launching the reign of Michael Myers, one of the all-time great boogeymen, Halloween set it's tension and terror in the unlikeliest of places- a sleepy little town in middle America. For better or worse, Halloween spawned an entire sub-genre of films trying to duplicate it's formula, to varying degrees of success. One would think that a film as imitated as Halloween would lose some of it's effectiveness, but for me it still holds up just as well every time I watch it. Halloween is the perfect movie to settle down in front of on a chilly fall night with a big bowl of popcorn. A feeling of dread permeates the entire film and Carpenter's haunting synth score echoes in your bones long after the credits roll. For someone who grew up in a small town like I did, Halloween hits every note flawlessly, perfectly reproducing that suburban fear, that prickling on the back of your neck that tells you that somewhere out there in the unsettling quiet someone or something is watching you. And waiting.

Halloween gets 5 1/2 out of 6 beers.

Halloween Marathon

It's been a while since I posted anything, and I was considering whether or not I would try to top last October's massive undertaking of 75 horror movies I hadn't seen before. Ultimately I decided that I wouldn't have time this year for that many movies, but I still wanted to do something. So I've decided that for the month of October this year I will watch and review all of the movies in the Halloween franchise, including the Rob Zombie remakes. It should be noted that last time I watched it, I actually really enjoyed Rob Zombie's Halloween 2. This will be ten movies total that I'm covering with an average of about two movies a week. Now I know that ten movies is not impressive and that this is a franchise that's been covered a million times (probably better) on other blogs. However I'm hoping that maybe I can bring a little something new to the reviews, or that at the very least you can watch me struggle to defend Zombie's H2, which many people regard as indefensible. Happy Halloween!

Video Nasty #20- Toxic Zombies

By the time The House By The Cemetery ended, everyone else in my crew had fallen asleep. But I was determined to make it to the end, so I made one last trip to the snack bar and settled in to watch the final film of the weekend.

(1980)
Director: Charles McCrann
Writer: Charles McCrann

In Toxic Zombies (also known as Bloodeaters and Forest Of Fear), a group of hippie pot farmers, suspecting that the feds are onto them, decide to gather up what remains of their crop and make their escape. Unfortunately for them, a group of federal agents decide to have the remote area of Pennsylvania that the hippies call home to their operation crop dusted with an experimental new herbicide which turns them all into bloodthirsty maniacs. Forest ranger Tom Cole isn't deterred by the government's warnings to stay away from the area due to "severe flooding", and takes his annual fishing trip anyway, along with his wife and brother. While there they run into Amy and Jimmy, a brother and sister whose parents were slaughtered by the toxic zombies. Soon, the maniacal hippies descend upon them and they desperately try to escape back to civilization.

When the star of your film is also it's writer, director, and producer, it's a pretty safe bet that you're in for a stinker. Add to that some other terrible performances, not the least of which is the mentally challenged Jimmy played by an actor dressed like Simple Jack that goes "full retard". You never go full retard. There's also an actor that plays one of the zombies that looks remarkably like Tom Petty and it cracks me up every time.

I suppose this film fell onto the nasties list because of the gore in it, which is strange because it's not particularly good. In fact, it seems like the kind of movie that no one would pay any attention to if it weren't on the list. Except maybe for the kickass poster. The plot is stupid, the actors are terrible, and the effects are pretty awful. And that's kind of what makes Toxic Zombies worth watching. I give it 4 1/2 out of 6 beers.

And with that, the April Ghoul's Drive-In Monster-Rama was over. As The Spaniels' "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite" played over the radio and I climbed into my tent for a few hours of sleep, I could hardly wait to come back in the fall and enjoy another two nights of good times, great snacks, and awesome horror flicks.

Video Nasty #19- The House By The Cemetery

The last two movies of the night were ones I hadn't seen before, so I loaded up on coffee and snacks and prepared myself. Next on the agenda was another Lucio Fulci film, The House By The Cemetery.

(1981)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Elisa Briganti, Lucio Fulci, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Dardano Sacchetti

The House By The Cemetery is very strange movie and I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it. It follows a family that is moving into an old mansion in New England. The son, Bob, has some kind of telepathic communication with a little girl who keeps warning him not to come to the house. Soon after moving in, it becomes apparent that something strange is going on in the basement which is nailed shut.

House By The Cemetery has some pretty gruesome kills in it and that likely the reason it was on the "Nasty" list. Most notable is the "bat attack" scene which becomes so bloody it actually starts to seem comical. My guess as to the real reason House By The Cemetery was banned though, is Bob. Bob is quite possibly the most annoying character put to screen. His voice makes me angry, his face makes me angry. He is the Jar-Jar Binks of Italian horror.

Despite Bob however, The House By The Cemetery is a pretty engaging piece of Fulci madness. I was never quite sure where it was going to go and was enthralled by oddness of it all. The House By The Cemetery gets 4 out of 6 beers.

Video Nasty #18- Zombie

After The Evil Dead came Night Of The Demons, which was a blast. Night Of The Demons is a favorite of mine. It's just a good, fun eighties horror flick. And it also has Linnea Quigley in it which doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, I had to tap out for Lamberto Bava's Demons which was the last feature of the night. I love Demons, but it was just too late and I was too tired. The next day, after a visit to the nearby Monroeville Mall where George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead was shot, we settled back in for another night of great horror flicks starting with Dawn Of The Dead itself. Although I've seen it countless times before, it was a pleasure to finally see this classic at a drive-in. The second film of the night was one that I've also seen many times before but was very excited to see on the big screen-

(1979)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti

Zombie (aka Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Woodoo) follows a woman who, along with a reporter, is trying to track down her missing father. Her father, Dr. Menard, is a physician who is investigating the secrets of the island of Matool where the dead have begun to rise. Although Zombie started production before Dawn Of The Dead (which was known in Europe as Zombi), when the George Romero film became a hit, the producers of Zombie added scenes to the beginning and end to try to tie it into the franchise.

As with many Fulci films, Zombie (Zombie Flesh Eaters) is very gory and that's certainly the reason it was banned by the British Film Board. Surprisingly, Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 and 3 were not banned by the BBFC.

I've watched Zombie many times, and not only because it tricked me by being released in the U.S. as both Zombie AND Zombie 2. To me, the plot of Zombie is not particularly enthralling, instead it's the horror setpieces that turn the film from just your average zombie flick into a truly great one. Once you've seen the "zombie vs. shark" scene (in which an actual actor dressed as a zombie interacts with a real shark) or the tense scene in which a woman's eyeball is slowly impaled on a splinter of wood, you will never forget them as long as you live. The haunting progressive soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi also elevates the film to another level. Essentially, Zombie is a dumb horror movie that has enough great elements that, in the end, it becomes a classic. And how can you resist that poster of the maggot-infested zombie proclaiming "WE ARE GOING TO EAT YOU!"? That's genius marketing right there. Zombie gets 4 1/2 out of 6 beers.

Video Nasty #17- The Evil Dead

After the credits rolled on Texas Chain Saw Massacre and I visited the concession stand for a bad-ass pizza burger, the ultimate experience in grueling terror began. A film that the drive-in environment could not be more perfect for-

(1981)
Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Sam Raimi

When I was twelve years old, I flirted around horror movies. I was not yet a "horror fan", but I did have a fascination with monsters as any red-blooded American kid should. I loved Godzilla movies and two of my favorite shows were Tales From The Darkside and Monsters. I was no stranger to horror, but the very thought of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees still terrified me. I was however VERY into comic books, Marvel Comics to be exact. And so it was that I began to see advertisements on the back of my comics for a movie that was so intriguing that I couldn't resist finding out what it was all about. Staring back at me from the back cover of the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man was a chiseled hero with a chainsaw for a hand and a large-breasted maiden by his side. Standing atop the wreckage of a car and oddly enough in front of a castle, he was beset upon by a group of skeletons. And the tagline for this film read "Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas." Thus I was introduced to Sam Raimi's third Evil Dead film Army Of Darkness, and I began a love affair with horror films that I continue on to this day. While Army Of Darkness is certainly more of a slapstick comedy than a horror film, it introduced me to the crazy world of Ashley Williams and once I discovered that there were two films that came before, I just HAD to see them. In one night, later that year, I sat down by the glow of the television to view for the first time both Night Of The Living Dead and The Evil Dead and I instantly loved them both. The Evil Dead threw me for a loop though. Compared to Army Of Darkness, Evil Dead is pretty darn scary. It was the perfect thing to convert me into a full-on gorehound.

The plot of Evil Dead is nothing groundbreaking. It's your basic 'teenagers go to a cabin in the woods, teenagers accidentally awaken ancient evil, teenagers get dead' story. The thing that sets Evil Dead apart from other horror films is it's director's inventiveness. Sam Raimi is not afraid to take risks with camera angles and elaborate shots and it turns Evil Dead from just your average horror flick into an unnerving thrill ride. Add to this the spectacular sound design, and you've got pure, unadulterated terror. Also, it doesn't hurt that all of the actors in the film come off as very likable people. Even Scotty, who's a giant dick.

The Evil Dead was a major hit when it was released in the U.K. and became the number one video release that year. The next year however, the Video Recordings Act would pass and Evil Dead's notoriety would propel it straight to the top of the video nasties list. There's no question as to why it was put there, Evil Dead is balls-to-the-wall gruesome and revels in it's goriness.

If you read up on the production of The Evil Dead you'll find that, much like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it was a miserable shoot. The cabin in the film was just as remote as it seems which became an issue whenever someone was injured on the set. Sam Raimi, who is infamous for his love of torturing actors, supposedly had Bruce Campbell chop wood for hours on end to use in the "wood chopping scene". If you don't remember that scene, that's because it doesn't exist. In fact, I only remember one piece of wood being chopped in the entire film and wouldn't exactly call it a scene. By the end of the film, the cast & crew were burning furniture inside the cabin to keep warm. The bright side though is that the experience shines through and makes the movie just that much more effective. Everyone involved with the film poured every ounce of what they had into the film and it shows. The success of The Evil Dead would lead to the even crazier Evil Dead 2, and then of course to the absolutely insane Army Of Darkness. But The Evil Dead still holds it's own as a solid horror film and it's legacy is one that I believe will live on for generations of gorehounds to come. Evil Dead gets 6 out of 6 beers.

Video Nasty #16 1/2- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

I'm going to start with a bit of a disclaimer on this one. I actually meant to have these entries up way sooner than I will. Unfortunately, a series of inconveniences (not the least of which was my computer suddenly dying on me) caused me to take an entire week just to finish the first of a planned five posts. Although I had hoped to have them all done by this time, I don't want to rush through them and not give the movies or the experience the credit they deserve. So while I viewed all of these next five video nasties in the span of 2 nights, it will take me significantly longer (hopefully no more than a week) to post their entries.

I had the pleasure last weekend of visiting one of my favorite places in the world- the Riverside Drive-In in Vandergrift, PA. Twice a year, an ever-growing group of friends and I make the five-hour journey to enjoy a weekend of great (and sometimes not-so-great) horror flicks as part of their April Ghoul's Drive-In Monster-Rama and it's autumn counterpart the Drive-In Super Monster-Rama. It's always a memorable experience and one that I treasure a lot. As enjoyable as it is to watch an old horror movie in a dark room by yourself, nothing quite beats relaxing outside with a group of friends and a tub of popcorn, basking in the glow of a film like The Thing With Two Heads or Psychomania.

This year, four of the eight movies playing were ones that I still had to cross off of my Video Nasties list. The first film on Friday night was not one of those four but was still banned in England, so I decided to include it as a "half" entry.

(1974)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Writers: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper

After a visit to the concession stand for a giant tub of popcorn and some great old school trailers, I was fully prepared to revisit The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. TCM is one of my favorite horror films and one that still gets to me on a visceral level every time i watch it. That being said, seeing it a drive-in is a totally different experience and is truly the way it was meant to be viewed. I don't think I need to go into any detail as far as the plot is concerned, if you haven't seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre you need to stop reading this right now and watch it immediately. It's a horror classic for a reason and is essential viewing for anyone who's even a casual horror fan. The biggest thing that struck me on this viewing was how funny the movie really is. I mean, I was already aware of the darkly comic streak that runs through the film, and maybe it was just the thrill of seeing it at a drive-in or the good spirits I was in, but I could not stop laughing. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is truly a masterpiece of black comedy-horror that has the ability to be a laugh riot or intense thrill-ride depending on how the audience views it. Sometimes it can even be both at once.

My father, although supportive of my obsession with horror films, is not really a horror movie guy. He saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at a drive-in back when it first came out and was not impressed. When I told him how much I enjoy it, he told me that all he remembered was that it was so dark you couldn't see anything and that there was a lot of chainsaw noise and screaming. After finally seeing it at a drive-in, I now understand what he was talking about. Though the print that was screened was pretty good, there were a few parts, especially toward the end, where it was hard to make out what was going on. That's kind of part of the drive-in experience though. If I wanted to watch a crystal clear presentation of a film, I could do so in my living room, blu-ray remote in hand. At a drive-in, all those barely visible scenes, all those cracks and pops and cigarette burns, they're all characters unto themselves and ones that I have grown to love dearly.

While not technically a "video nasty", Texas Chain Saw Massacre was banned in the U.K. Which is odd since the notorious film has barely an ounce of blood or gore in it. A very good possibility is that it's simply because it has the word "chainsaw" in it. Along with "ninja", among others, this was a trigger word for the BBFC and was simply not allowed. That's how England ended up with the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Whatever reason was given for banning this film however is completely undeserved. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre changed the face of horror cinema when it was released and still inspires and terrifies to this day. It has a grittiness and unapologetic tone that you can't turn away from, no matter how hard you may try. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre gets 6 out of 6 beers.