Saturday, June 02, 2007
Nostalgia. Some of us are affected by it immensely. Others appear, at least, to be immune to its sway. I am of the former category myself. The older I grow, the more sad I get about the loss of my youth. My wife gets angry about it when I say that, but I think she misunderstands. I would not trade what I have today. Not for the poverty or innocence of yesterday. But who among us does not long for the days when our bodies, minds and hearts were younger? I'm happier, more satisfied and successful than I've ever been in my life.
And we tend to cloud the reality of our past years with rose-colored glasses. I forget the hungry nights and the dead-end jobs and the lack of respect I had for myself. I remember the good times.
1986 was a pretty good year for me. I got my first VCR and I got a marginally better job than I had ever had before. Horror was hot and I was in love with the books and movies that were coming out. Splatterpunk was new and vital and home video was kicking into high gear. The Cinema of Transgression was festering in dark corners of New York City. I began reading Fangoria Magazine regularly, as well as Cinefantastique. And best of all, The Twilight Zone and Night Cry were putting out the best short horror fiction.
And there was still one functioning drive-in theater in my hometown.
Like I say, good times. I often mark the times of my life by the movies I watched. These are the movies I enjoyed from 1986. Some are veritable classics and others are pretty damned good. Some are okay crowd-pleasers and still others are pieces of crap. Yet I had fun watching them all. This was back when I still had a lot of local friends and 'most every weekend there were several people at my house watching videos. Quite a few of these are films I would doubtless skip today, but I hung out with a lot of 'regular guys' and we watched a lot of generic action films and comedies and the like. If my memories of the time spent watching them are fond, then I listed it. Some were by myself on cable, others were rented by myself and others. Some were seen at the drive-in and I saw many of them at indoor theaters.
As much as I tried, I doubt that this is a truly comprehensive look at all the films I loved from '86. It's doubtless that I've missed a few. But it's a pretty clear look at where my cinematic head was twenty one years ago.
So take a stroll down Memory Lane with me and come back to those days of long ago. When VHS was still new and a marvel and most of us spent way too many hours in video stores. When there was still a whiff of the down and dirty exploitation movies from the 1970's.
Note: The * denotes films that I still love and consider to be great today.
Aliens* Apology April Fool's Day* Armed Response At Close Range* Avenging Force Back to School* Bad Girls' Dormitory Bad Girls in the Movies The Best of Times Betaville* Big Trouble in Little China* Black Moon Rising Blue City Blue Velvet* Born American Breeders Bullies Castaway Cathode Fuck Chopping Mall Class of Nuke 'Em High Club Paradise Cobra The Color of Money* Combat Shock* Crawlspace Critters Crocodile Dundee Crossroads* Dead-End Drive In Deadly Friend Death Valley 69 Def Con 5 The Delta Force Demons Down by Law* Eliminators F/X Ferris Bueller's Day Off* Film House Fever Fingered* Firewalker The Fly* Fortress From Beyond* Girls School Screamers Go to Hell The Golden Child Goodbye 42nd Street Gothic Gung Ho* Half Moon Street Hamburger: The Motion Picture Hannah and Her Sisters* Heartbreak Ridge* Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer* The Hitcher Hollywood Harry Hollywood Vice Squad Hoosiers Horrible Horror In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro Invaders from Mars Iron Eagle Jake Speed* Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI* The Jet Benny Show Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling The Karate Kid, Part II King Kong Lives The King of Sex Kiss Me Goodbye The Ladies Club Las Vegas Serial Killer Let's Get Harry Link The Majorettes The Malibu Bikini Shop Matador* Maximum Overdrive The Money Pit The Mosquito Coast* Mountaintop Motel Massacre Murphy's Law My Chauffeur The Naked Cage Neon Maniacs Night of the Creeps* No Retreat, No Surrender Nomads Out of Bounds The Park Is Mine Parting Glances The Phantom Empire Platoon* Pretty in Pink* Psycho III Quiet Cool Raiders of the Living Dead Raw Deal Rawhead Rex Reform School Girls River's Edge* Seize the Day* Separate Vacations Sid and Nancy* Slaughter High Something Wild* Sorority House Massacre Soul Man* Stand by Me* Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home The Supernaturals The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2* The Tomb Trick or Treat Troll True Stories Truth or Dare? Vamp Vendetta Wired to Kill Witchboard The Wraith Youngblood The Zero Boys Zone Troopers
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