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Saturday, April 25, 2009
I take tours through my past with the movies I watched. Books too, and music, but there's something about movies that make me extra nostalgic. Maybe it's the communal nature of watching them.
1989 was the end of the 80's. The end of innocence. Not to the world in whole; that has never been innocent. My innocence. Though I came up in the 70's, I feel a greater affinity to the 1980's.
It was the last gasp of the home video hysteria. Fewer were having movie parties. In the mid 80's, it seemed like everyone was having them. The VHS revolution had still been fresh. In time it was apparent who the faddists were and who were the genuine lovers of cinema.
Researching this, I see that I was becoming more selective in my viewing. I wasn't renting as many crappy direct-to-video productions with catchy titles. I was weaning off of a lot of studio fare as well. Looking over this list, I'm almost shocked to see that to date I have never watched some sequels of movies I loved, like Fletch and Ghostbusters. I couldn't gather any enthusiasm over them.
Not to say I didn't watch my share of turkey's as this will prove. Still, for various reasons I liked everything I put here. Even while I cringe at the memory of things like Martians Go Home, Star Trek 5 and C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the C.H.U.D. As bad as these movies are, I had a good time roasting them with friends in joyous pre-MST3K abandon.
Horror wasn't exactly healthy. This was the end of the Decade of Fear and few really good movies were released. The old standbys franchises were in need of serious overhauls: Friday the 13th 8: Jason Takes Manhattan, Halloween 5 and Nightmare On Elm Street 5 are arguably the worst of their respective series'. Craven tried to score another Freddy with Shocker, to the dismay of almost everyone. But Pet Semetery was a good adaptation of King's novel and was a financial success. Scott Speigel's Intruder and Cutting Class came in a little too late to cash in on the slasher wave. The cerebral Exorcist 3 was an amazing movie, but it failed to please those that wanted more flying pea soup. J.R. Bookwalter and Tony Elwood's Killer anticipated the underground movie frenzy that would come just a few years later.
Though I loved many movies of 1980, it was a weaker year than any other of the 80's. Moviegoers were in need of a change, which would come about shortly. But I have some true favorites, with Great Balls of Fire, Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, Santa Sangre and Crimes and Misdemeanors at the top of my list.
Everything changed in the 90's and I'll be back to chronicle them. Just don't expect it too soon. It's a lot of work to compile these lists and while I tried to be as complete as possible, I'm certain that I overlooked certain gems.
Without further ado...
The Abyss
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child
After Midnight
Aisles of Doom
Assault of the Party Nerds
Back Street Jane
Back to the Future 2
Batman
Baxter
Beverly Hills Vamp
Beyond the Door III
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure*
Black Rain
Black Rainbow
Blaze*
Blind Fury
Bloodfist
Blue Steel
Born on the Fourth of July
Breaking In
Brothers in Arms
The 'burbs*
C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud
Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death
Casualties of War
Cat Chaser
Chances Are
Chattahoochee
Christmas Vacation
Communion
Crimes and Misdemeanors*
Cutting Class
Cyborg
Dead Bang
Dead Calm
The Dead Next Door
Dead Poets Society
DeepStar Six
Disorganized Crime
Dream a Little Dream
Drugstore Cowboy
Edge of Sanity
The Exorcist III
Field of Dreams
Gnaw: Food of the Gods 2
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Great Balls of Fire!*
Gross Anatomy
Halloween 5
Headhunter
Heavy Petting
Hell High
Hollywood Boulevard II*
The Horror Show
I, Madman
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Intruder
Johnny Handsome
Kickboxer
Killer
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects
Last Exit to Brooklyn*
Leningrad Cowboys Go America*
Lisa
Lock Up
Martians Go Home
Masque of the Red Death
Meet the Feebles
Mystery Train
New York Stories
No Such Thing As Gravity
Out of the Dark
Parenthood
Parents
Penn & Teller Get Killed*
Pet Sematary
The Phantom of the Opera
Psycho Cop
The Punisher
Puppetmaster
Red Scorpion
Relentless
The Return of Swamp Thing
Road House
Rude Awakening
Santa Sangre*
Savage Beach
Say Anything... *
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills*
Sea of Love
Shocker
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland
Society
Sonny Boy*
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Stepfather II
Stripped to Kill II: Live Girls
The Terror Within
Think Big
True Believer
Twister
UHF*
The Unbelievable Truth*
Uncle Buck
Vice Academy
Warlock
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
You might have already heard that the venerable science fiction media magazine, Starlog, has shut down its print magazine. The word is that this is a temporary situation and I hope that is true. Even though I've never purchased a copy of it, or for that matter, I've never held a copy of Starlog in my hands.
It makes me sad though, because the name, Starlog, brings me great nostalgia. The Starlog Group was and is the publisher of Fangoria, a magazine I've always loved.
Not so much now though. I guess I'm getting to be an old bastard, but the horror movie world no longer seems like home to me. Oh, I still adore scary movies, but for the most part I watch the older ones. The new fans and community seem alien to me. But that's for another column.
It's always sad when something as old as Starlog dies. The magazine began publishing in 1976. Created by periodical visionaries Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs, the premier issue featured Star Trek on its cover. It successfully ran for over three decades.
Starlog will continue as an online publication, but we all know that's not the same thing. E-Books, online magazines, etc be damned. There's nothing like holding the genuine article in your hands.
And you don't have to remind me that I publish fiction electronically here at Horror Drive-In. I know it's a half-assed way to do it. But for the time being at least, it's the only way I can get certain stories and authors out to the world.
As I previously noted, I've never been a Starlog reader, but the same thing could happen to any genre magazine. Fangoria, Rue Morgue, Video Watchdog, Shock Cinema, Videoscope and yes, even Cemetery Dance. Look back to demised treasures like The Twilight Zone Magazine, Cinefantastique, Film Threat Video Guide, Psychotronic. The cool little horror fiction magazine out there are struggling or dying.
There's only one way to prevent this: Subscribe. Subscribers are the lifeblood of magazines. Advertisers are critical, yes, but without subscribers there are no advertisers.
Don't let print magazines die in this plasticized, homogenized planet. We don't want to be stuck with Premier or Entertainment Weakly and their clones. Or getting all of our needs from the unhealthy light of these computers.
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Friday, April 10, 2009
India has been here with me for Spring Break all week. It's been a bittersweet occasion for me. It's always wonderful to see her, but I haven't really seen her much at all.
I was looking forward to having company on the trip back from NC to VA last Sunday, but she slept the entire time. We got here and she immediately wanted to go spend the night with her best friend. I hated it, but I'm not such an old fossil that I don't know how important friends are to teenagers.
I desperately wished I could have taken off more this week, but I have no vacation time and I need my full week's pay. Plus I'm working long days. I'm out the door at 5:30 AM and I'm not home until after 5 PM. So India ended up spending the nights with her friend from Sunday to Wednesday night.
I wanted her home, but if I insisted I would lose my 'Cool Dad' status. And we are cool parents. Tanya and I have taken the kids to rock shows and horror conventions. We like cool music and movies and things and we turn the kids on to wild stuff that they aren't likely to find anywhere else. India says her friends are jealous.
But I have off Fridays and I was stoked about last night. We were going to hit our favorite drive-in restaurant for cheeseburgers and fries and I wanted to take a long walk with her. That's one thing she and I always have done together.
I picked her up at around 4:30 yesterday afternoon and took her to the house, where she promptly went to sleep and she slept until 7:00 this morning. Obviously she and her friend weren't doing a lot of sleeping.
But today we'd walk and get breakfast and do some shopping! Walking was out however. Both India and I are allergic to pollen and the season is on us. We did have breakfast and went to some stores. I bought India a couple of books and a CD.
We came here and she wanted to go back to her friend's house. I know that I looked disappointed and India hugged me, but still wanted to go. I allowed her. Before she left she said I was the best father ever. I smiled and asked what made me so good (I was feeling sorry for myself). She said, For all the love, for the humor, for always being there, for providing and perhaps most of all, for teaching her to love books. India adores reading and most of her friends don't. She feels sorry for them.
I'm so happy that I've been able to pass on the legacy of reading to my kids. Europa loves to read too. I'm grateful that I've been able to pass on the wonder, the passion, the marvels of the printed word.
I'm lonely for India and I wish we were spending more time together, but you have to let teenagers be teenagers. Their friends are so important to them. It hurts, but it's natural.
Tomorrow I'll be driving India back to Raleigh and there's no doubt in my mind that she'll sleep during the entire trip. All I can do is sadly chuckle.
Note: I assume that everyone here is familiar with my situation and that's almost certainly wrong. For the curious, India is my stepdaughter. I met her mother at DragonCon '99 and we were married the following year. We had a tragic separation in early November 2008 and they moved to another state. We're now working toward a reconciliation.
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