Going ‘80s!

Over the last few days I’ve been in an ‘80s horror film mood having watched THE KISS (1988), THE TOMB (1986), DEATH SHIP (1980), DEADLY OBSESSION (1989), and GHOST TOWN (1988). Some of these films have gone on to become cult classics while others have simply been forgotten and ignored. While DEATH SHIP is a highly sought after DVD item, who actually remembers DEADLY OBSESSION or the offbeat Egyptian vampire of THE TOMB?

When I was young I watched all of these films when they came out (with the exception of DEATH SHIP at which time I was too young). I saw all these films before I was even a teen (I was born in ’76) and therefore many of these films had me in total suspense and awe and (dare I say it) may have even scared me. It’s now more than twenty years later and I’ve still got a fondness for THE KISS, I still love DEATH SHIP, and GHOST TOWN and THE TOMB are fun anomalies. DEADLY OBSESSION is just too dated to really do anything for me anymore; I know recognize it as a very cliché film with no whit or substance or even any campy nostalgic charm.

What watching these films did remind me of (other than that many horror films weren’t really all that scary) is that there was more to the genre than Freddy or Jason or Michael Myers and that there were many films that never made it to franchise level yet still remain worthwhile films even to this day. Watching these films reminded me of the quality and quantity of horror films being released then (during the VHS boom) and just how much diversity there was.

Whereas, GHOST TOWN had a cop being thrust into a cursed town in search of a missing girl who was kidnapped, DEATH SHIP had survivors of an ocean liner disaster plagued while on a ship with a mind of its own. The former was played with a tinge of dark humor (it was produced by Charles Band) while the later was played dead serious. THE TOMB was very tongue in cheek (as directed by Fred Olen Ray) while THE KISS had nuances of sexual overtones played serious. Each film had its own identity.

As I was watching these films I couldn’t help but realize how innovative the filmmakers of yesterday were compared to today. Although there will always be filmmakers who “jump on the band wagon” with copying from recent hit films (i.e. the hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY verses the straight to DVD copycat PARANORMAL ENTITY) its more prevalent now than then. As soon as the remakes of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and THE HILLS HAVE EYES were hits you had every Sam, Dick, and Harry making a low budget film about people who get abducted by hillbilly throwbacks (these films still seem to pop up even after the sequels to those hits failed at the box office). In the ‘80s it took a little longer for films to become unquestionable hits and copycats may not have arrived for a year or two. I don’t really recall another film about a haunted ship until 2002’s GHOST SHIP.

Every young filmmaker wants to emulate the films of the ‘80s and for good reason. Some were sexy, some were scary, and some were even funny, but most important of all the films of the ‘80s never felt like other films of the ‘80s. It was unique era in horror cinema in which not only fans of the genre enjoyed the films but also people of all ages and groups (I was only 11 or 12 at the time when I saw THE TOMB and I still remembered parts of it before re-watching it) unlike today where it is a rare occurrence when a true horror film connects with a large audience (PARANORMAL ACTIVITY anyone?).

I miss the ‘80s like many people who grew up in that decade like I did and it is a gem when a filmmaker takes the time to acknowledge these classics and produce a film that reminds us of what the films of that decade were really like. Although filmmakers like Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, and Quentin Tarantino claim to be making throwbacks to the ‘80s, I remember very few films from then like HOSTEL, the remake of HALLOWEEN, or DEATH PROOF. There were films back then like those, don’t get me wrong, but they were few and far in between. I remember the ‘80s as being a mixture of thought provoking horror (i.e. THE DEAD ZONE, DEAD RINGERS, THE SERPENT & THE RAINBOW) or horror spectacle (i.e. C.H.U.D., THE EVIL DEAD, SCANNERS, THE THING, THE FLY, RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND) or all out great fun (i.e. WATCHERS, ALIGATOR, CHRISTINE, SHOCKER, TH EVIL DEAD 2, DOLLS). That’s what I remember about the ‘80s and these handful of films just reminded of why I loved horror films from that decade when I was growing up.