Assorted little known slasher flicks

A little new zealand piece called The Ugly, from the mid-90s, is about obscure as you can get. No-one bersides myself seems to have seen it.
Nice little psychological slasher, though.

Anguish was horrible mess, so unless you're a fan of Zelda "the magic munchkin" Rubenstein from Poltergeist, feel free to avoid it.

Just before dawn is a fairly ho-hum Friday the 13th style slasher, and be warned, it contains the perennial indicator of a bad film, George Kennedy.


If you're looking in the classic 80's slasher realm, you won't find anything anyone could call good, but a few are better than others. Off the top of my head:

Black Christmas (1974) - Good for historical perspective. The prototype slasher flick years before "Halloween" or "Friday the 13th"

Maniac (1980) - One of the first "follow the killer around" stories, with some good ambiance and some better gore.

The Prowler (1981) - Mindless slasher with some of the better gory special effects of the era.

Happy Birthday to Me (1981) - More absurd slasher mayhem, but notable as one of the first "inventive ways to kill people" entries to the genre.

April Fools Day (1986) - If you haven't seen it, you must. Stay all the way through to the end.

The Intruder, directed by Scott Spielgel and written by Lawerence Bender, starring the one and only Sam Raimi as a bit o flesh that gets hung up on a meat hook. Fantasticaly low-budget and gory.

The Burning - written by the Weinsteins. Their first movie, i think.

The Unseen - starring the awesome Sydney Lassick.

[QUOTE=70sCinema]The Burning - written by the Weinsteins. Their first movie, i think.

QUOTE]

is that the one at the camp, and the guy used hedge clippers?

Yep. Stars Jason Alexander and Fisher Stevens. And Holy Hunter, who has one line. Curiously unavailable on DVD.

damn, I had totally forgot about that movie,

thanks for the info, when that comes out on dvd it will be on my shelf.

(is it good? Or are my childhood memories making it better than it was?)

It is good! Effects done by Tom Savini. They covered it a little bit on that Starz doc.

The Burning was also part of the "video nasties" furore in the UK in the early-80s, along with things like Driller Killer.

I, Madman - I haven't seen it since the '80s but remember that it was pretty good.

Two Evil Eyes - another golden '80s oldie, courtesy of Messrs. Romero and Argento

Basket Case - this doesn't really qualify as a little-known flick but it seems fewer people these days are aware of it, by the great Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage and especially Frankenhooker are also great).

Terror Train - Here's the tagline: The boys and girls of Sigma Phi. Some will live. Some will die.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II - I recall it being pretty stupid but I liked it.

Edited to add:

One more I'm remembering: Dust Devil - Aussie flick from the early '90s that kicks ass.

Slasher flicks, YT. Not monster movies and Poe adaptations.

Howzabout: Miracle, Slap Shot, Strange Brew, Mystery, Alaska, and Youngblood ?

Yeah, but there's elements of the slasher subgenre in those flicks too -- Maybe not Two Evil Eyes, but I saw it on a double bill with I, Madman so it came to mind!

I just loved the fact that it was little more than a bunch of filmmaking friends getting together over a couple weeks and shooting a bloody horror movie.

Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel, Lawerence Bender, and Ted Raimi. I mean, I haven't ever seen any making-of Doc or heard any commentary (don't believe there was one) but I always got the distinct impression from the film that it was more of a bunch of friends goofing off rather than a serious horror project, and that glee carried across for me through the waaaay over-the-top gore and, yes, the very silly "I love this supermarket" reveal. It's not a good movie, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

I have fond memories of Terror Train.

"Eye See You" / D-Tox is pretty much a (fine) slasher flick. Just instead slashing drunk teens, Robert Patrick, Tom Berenger, Jeffrey Wright, Charles S Dutton, Kris Kristofferson, Rome's hottie Polly Walker and Sylvester Stallone are on the list. Very underrated.

"Cherry Falls" failed (awful german title is "Sex or Die"). The Mother Bateman-story and costume were just ridiculous. "Deep in the Woods" and "Valentine" also failed to deliver.

Wasn't "Soul Survivors" another slasher? Didn't see that one.

Basically a remake of Carnival of Souls, so no.

The Good:
Don't Look In The Basement - I've always had a soft spot in my heart for this little no-budget offering from '73. Genuinely creepy moments and some solid performances elevate this beyond the means of it's paltry budget. Sam is the man!

The Bad:
Pieces - Linda Day George and hubby Christopher try their best to look scared/interested in this Spanish-Italian slasher from '83. It starts on a very high note but doesn't sustain this level for long. Paul L. Smith gets criminally underused here but he's fun to watch while it lasts. This film contains the shittiest tennis match (Linda Day's character is supposed to be a tennis pro) you will ever have the misfortune of seeing in a motion picture.

The Ugly:
The Demon: Cameron Mitchell looks downright confused throughout most of his screen time in this shitty excuse for a horror film from '76. There's nothing in the way of gore/FX in this stale ass "The psycho always wears black gloves" cliche of a movie. But the very bizzare ending to this one almost makes up for the hour and a half of suffering you'll have to endure in getting there.

The best line from Intruder belongs to Dan Hicks: "Where'd ya get the knife?"

Counterpoint: George Kennedy was in "Cool Hand Luke."

As for the topic at hand, I kind of liked "Penny Dreadful", one of the After Dark Films Horrorfest movies. Best of the Fest, IMO. Not all that gory, but there was some. Decently acted, and the psychological torture is pretty creepy. These films are slated to come out late in March.

I'm a pretty big fan of 1991's Popcorn. Schlock at its finest.

Tom Savini considered his FX work in The Prowler to be his best at the time, so I'd say it's worth a look based on that alone. Beyond that though, it's been far too long since I've seen it, but I remember thinking it was pretty decent at the time.

I don't know exactly how obscure it's considered to be, but Tourist Trap (1979) with Chuck Conners and Tanya Roberts is a very wierd, and creepy slow-burn slasher flick. Light on the grue, it's more a of psychological head trip than an all out bloodbath.

Killer Party (1986) - It's a cross between 'Halloween', 'The Exorcist', and 'Porky's', and it concerns the vengeful spirit of a fraternity pledge killed in a hazing incident on April Fool's Day returning and possessing the body of a sorority girl after another April Fool's prank perpetrated decades after his death pisses him off. Killer Party is so 80's it hurts, and it's somewhat clever in that it has three false starts - a funeral / "dead rising from the grave" scene ends up being a drive-in movie, then a teenage girl watching said movie goes to get popcorn, finds the place oddly vacant, and when she returns to her car is doubly surprised to find that her boyfriend and everyone around her has turned into a zombie, then this scenario ends up being a music video by an obscure hair metal band called "White Sister" (the song is, drum roll..."April You're No Fool").
I love the movie because it manages to escape the undercurrent of misogyny typically leveled against slasher films by focusing on it's three charismatic female leads - and not requesting nudity from either of them, though there is very modest, tokenish nudity from random girls in the first few scenes - it also, and quite obviously, doesn't take itself too seriously. You can't classify it as a horror-comedy (to be honest it's not terribly successful on either front anyway) but it has a nice energy to it, a kind of cute, dumb charm, and it manages to slip in an unexpectedly creepy little ending.

Killer Party also has Ralph Seymour in it, and if cheesy 80's movies are fries, then a Ralph Seymour appearance is fucking ketchup.


Slaughter High (1986) Another maybe, kinda, sorta, less obscure April Fool's themed slasher film starring Caroline Munro, about a nerd, subtely named Marty Rantzen, who is disfigured by acid after a group of bullies set up an April Fool's Day prank and it of course, goes to shit - April Fool's Day also ironically happens to be Marty's birthday. 10 years later, on April Fool's Day, the people who were involved in the prank are invited to a 10 year reunion. They're all surprised to discover that their school is now a spooky, abandoned shithole, and that they're the only people who've even shown up...hmmm? Being that this is a slasher movie, they opt to go in anyway, and when they discover cool beer and other party favors set-up for the taking, they only briefly question the immense weirdness of this situation before they just say "ah, fuck it!" and dig in.
Things, as they are wont to do, begin to go terribly and quite messily awry, and Marty, being a science nerd long before he was a deformed psychopath, proves to be a pretty creative little fucker when it comes to killing these people.
The film has some wide and hilarious lapses in logic, and even when you take the cliched ending into account, all of what came before isn't exactly ruined by it. The kills are pretty decent to pretty brilliant, the acting is uniformly trashy and fun - except for the then 36 year old Munro who seems lost throughout the film - and as mentioned before Marty (donning a creepy Jester's mask ) makes for an effective stalk & slash killer.

As a sidenote, I did learn some time ago that, according to IMDB, Simon "I'm pretty sure this is not my real name" Scuddamore, the actor who portrayed Marty, apparently killed himself shortly after 'Slaughter High' wrapped.
Shame really, because he was actually a lot of fun in this thing.

Three things in defense of Just Before Dawn. For a film on a budget, the cinematography is very accomplished, the effective if not necessarily iconic score by Brad Fiedel, and as far as awesome slasher movie kills go, three words: Fist-in-mouth.

The House on Sorority Row - A group of sorority sisters accidently kill their house mother in a prank and have to keep her body hidden while a killer stalks them during a party. Mostly decent acting, terrific score. Directed by a DePalma protege.

Eyes of a Stranger - Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a deaf blind and mute girl whose news reporter sister suspects that theres a killer living in the building across from theirs. Leigh is very solid in her role and there's some good suspense.

Visiting Hours - Lee Grant plays a reporter who's attacked by a psychotic misogynist played by Michael Ironside. She ends up in the hospital where he continues to stalk her. I like this one quite a bit. The performances are all pretty strong for this sort of film. Linda Purl, Lenore Zann, and William Shatner round out the supporting cast.

Alone in the Dark - Martin Landau, Donald Pleasence, and Jack Palance play maniacs who escape from a mental institution. I haven't seen this one, but I've heard a lot of positive things about it.

starring David Copperfield as......

the magician!

I don't even know who ralph Seymour is, but this quote is fucking priceless.

Tourist Trap would make a great double bill with The Unseen for weird slasher offshoots.

The Prowler is standard slasher crap, with the exception of the kills, which are particularly nasty and owe much to the way the shots work with the effects. It's some of the best shooting of Savini's "kills", give or take an exploding head. I remember "pitchfork in the shower" and "bayonet through the head" as being particularly startling.

I don't think there's an audio commentary, but there was a pretty decent behind-the-scenes look at the film as part of Jonathon Ross' Incredibly Strange Film Show, from back when it was still filming under the name of "The Night Crew".

some of the other good ones already named... couple more flicks I've not seen mentioned that are worth a watch:

Curtains (truly one of the best little seen slashers)

Nightmare in a Damaged Brain

Don't Answer the Phone (Nicholas Worth is splendid, and just as good as Ironside in Visiting Hours or Spinell in Maniac or David Hess in anything)

Alfred Sole's Pandemonium

He Knows You're Alone

Sleepaway Camp

Cutting Class

Carpenter's own Someone's Watching Me

of course if you include gialli, that's where you can really go nuts with the obscure gems.

also Tobe Hoopers The Funhouse is a purer slasher than TCM, though TCM is the superior film.

Not true; I own it, uncut, on a Region 2 DVD released by Vipco quite some time ago.

I was being geocentric. (And neglecting to say I have it on DVD as well, in bootleg form.)

I saw that years ago. It was utterly forgettable. Your time & money are better spent elsewhere.

That's a bold statement.

ha ha ha ha ha. My wife bought both of these movies a few years back for $4 dollars each at some super market. And I totally agree, they are both horrible. Pieces does have one of the funniest scenes I've seen in a horror flick, however. The Kung-Fu professor that jumps out of the trees and attacks the girl and guy. WHAT IN the hell is that?

I knew the Peace Frog would be useful for SOMETHING

Some slashers to avoid:
Drive-In Massacre
I Will Dance on Your Grave: Killing Spree (Vol. 2)

And I believe he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for that film.

EDIT: Not that an Oscar is any indicator of quality (although in this case he was a deserving winner - a great performance in a great film).

Not exactly a slasher film, but I was always scared of this one movie called "The Guardian" which was a William Friedkin film from 1990, which also was the last horror film he did. Many thought it was silly. But me remembering it from Childhood, the tree scene and the coyote scene gave me nightmares.

The Tree scene was very creepy. That movie was a little weird. Definitely not for everyone, but I liked it. And no, it's definitely not a slasher film.