[6] Christopher Collet plays a tenth-grader whose divorced mother brings a drug-dealing boyfriend home in this drama from Michael Apted (Nell, Gorillas in the Mist). The movie is pretty solid for its first two-thirds, ratcheting up the tension and creating a good deal of empathy for Collet and his little brother, played by the late Corey Haim (his film debut). The last act is a …
[7] While we were all enjoying the happy horny homogeneity of early ’80s teen sex comedies, along came The Last American Virgin, a remake of a 1978 Israeli film Lemon Popsicle. It starts off like any other of its ilk, with three teen boys trying to lose it, whether it’s to coked-out party girls, an over-sexed Spanish pizza delivery customer, or a hooker with crabs. …
[7] This stand-alone slasher flick from Bob and Harvey Weinstein (the first Miramax film production) rivals the best of the Friday the 13th fare. The requisite nubile flesh and gory kill scenes are here, but the teen protagonists are more likable than usual and the film creates a genuinely creepy atmosphere throughout. With its lakeside camp setting and deformed villain, The Burning isn’t going to …
[8] This film version of V.C. Andrews’ popular novel is considerably toned down, but it’s still a wonderfully creepy and sadistic melodrama. A widower takes her four children to live with their grandmother, who views them all as vile sinners. The wicked old woman (played by Nurse Ratched herself, Louise Fletcher) religiously brainwashes the mother and locks the children in a single room, where they …
[8] Frank Oz directs the film version of Howard Ashman’s dark musical comedy (which was in turn based on Roger Corman’s original film). Rick Moranis plays a hapless flower shop employee who discovers an exciting new plant that brings much needed business. Problem is, the plant is carnivorous… and it’s getting bigger! Ellen Greene reprises the quirky role she originated in the off-Broadway production, and …
[7] Barbara Hershey plays a single mother who is repeatedly sexually assaulted by an invisible force. I was impressed with how brutal and explicit the attacks are, right down to some creepy special effects that simulate the squeezing of Hershey’s breasts by unseen hands. Though the rapes are supernatural, they’re among the most terrifying I’ve seen on film, due largely to Hershey’s fearless performance. The …
#12: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) [2] This is the worst of the Fridays. The subtitle is a misleading marketing gimmick, as Jason only arrives in Manhattan for the last twenty minutes. Those twenty minutes are okay, if only to see Jason put a few New Yorkers in their place. But the rest of the movie is interminably boring and the …
[6] A scientist sends a man with dangerous telepathic powers on a mission to destroy a renegade adversary with similar powers. David Cronenberg (Videodrome, The Dead Zone) wrote and directed Scanners, so you know it’s sure to be a bit slow-paced and sublimely melancholy, but with a couple moments of unforgettable gore. Here the big visceral accent comes about fifteen minutes in, when the bad …
[6] John Travolta and Debra Winger star as impetuous young lovers who meet at a Houston honky-tonk bar, get married, and struggle to keep their relationship together. I enjoyed the first half of the movie more than the second. You believe that the two characters would come together, but in the second half, Travolta’s character’s ugly side really comes out and the movie is downright …
[4] William Hurt makes his big-screen debut in this blend of psychedelia and cockamamy psychology based on a novel by Paddy Chayefsky (Network). Hurt plays a college professor of science who experiments with drugs inside isolation tanks to, oh, I don’t know — I think it was to find God or something. Anyway, the experiments actually end up regressing Hurt’s DNA and he slowly turns …
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