There's debate over whose idea it was to kill off Jason. Some speculate that Paramount was increasingly embarrassed by the continued success of the “Friday the 13th” series and wanted to wash their hands of it. Frank Mancuso Jr. claims it was his idea, as he was tired of getting no respect for his work on the franchise. Yet other sources simply conclude that Paramount was aware of the slasher genre's waning popularity by 1984. I personally believe that the producers figured part three's 3-D gimmick would be hard to top so another gimmick – the death of the central villain – would be needed to bring in audiences. Whoever made the decision, the fourth “Friday the 13th” would make its intentions clear, from the subtitle on down. Jason Voorhees was finally going to die, for realsies-no-take-backsies this time. Part four was intended to be the last entry in the franchise. That was the intention anyway.
Joseph Zito, previously of excellent indie slasher “The Prowler,” directs while Barney Cohen, who would go on to co-create “Forever Knight,” provides the script. In some ways, you can see they weren't too concerned about specifics here. The fourth “Friday the 13th” has the vaguest plot yet. Jason shrugs off an axe wound to the head and wanders back to Crystal Lake, in the span of a day. (Which means this entry is actually set around Sunday the 15th, which is not as catchy a title.) He finds his way to the Jarvis family cabin, who live near Crystal Lake, and the pack of horny teens who have rented the home next door. I guess news travels slow in 1980s New Jersey, as these kids don't seem aware of the two separate massacres that just happened a little further up the lake. But I feel worst for Mrs. Jarvis and her kids, who apparently live in this hot bed of death.
This is still a “Friday the 13th” sequel, so most of the cast is completely indistinct. I often loose track of which pretty brunette is Samantha, the one who can't stop banging her boyfriend, and which one is Sara, the one who desperately wants a boy to bang her. Perhaps you can owe my face blindness to a pair of literal twins, who might as well be identical in personalities as well as looks, being in the movie. Most of the guys are equally generic Jason fodder... With a few exceptions. Meet Jimbo and Teddy. Ted often teases Jim for his lack of skills in the bedroom, in the most obnoxious way imaginable. You actually root for Jim's exceedingly awkward attempts to get laid. When he's successful, and can throw it in Ted's face, you kind of cheer for the guy. Or maybe it's just because Jimmy is played by the legendary Crispin Glover, whose spasmodic dance moves immediately went down in cult movie history. Either way, Glover's oddball energy, and the strange chemistry he shares with Lawrence Monoson as Ted, makes these guys the de-facto heroes of the movie for me. They're certainly more memorable than Kimberly Beck's Trish, among the franchise's most forgettable final girls.
Eighties slasher killers, and Jason specifically, are frequently seen as the avatars of Reagan-era reactionism. That they are punishing horny teens for transgressing against traditional American morality. But if this is the case, why does Jason skewer a random banana-munching hitchhiker? All she did was say a bad word. Why does he spend the last third of the movie trying to kill Tommy, a literal child? His only sin was spying on some teenage hanky-panky. Surely, these crimes wouldn't be on Jason's radar. Is he better compared to a very creative bear, a force of nature, who murders anyone who wanders into his territory? Is Jason symbolic of the random chaos of the universe, that ends lives for no reason at all? The more of these movies I re-watch, the more I realize youth being cut short senselessly is the real motivating factor behind them.
Matching Jason's rage are Tom Savini's gore effects, which are truly among his nastiest work. Bone-sawing a horny coroner's throat is not enough, as Jason has to ratchet his head around afterwards. Slamming a meat clever into Crispin Glover's face does not satisfy Jason's sadism. So he violently mocks the kid first, by driving the corkscrew he was looking for through his hand. Zico's sharp direction and editing combine with Savini's effect to even make a head-crushing appear utterly brutal. Even a simple axe through a door gag or a butcher knife in the head are spruced up, with an air cannon effect behind the splintering door or blood splattering on the white projector screen behind Teddy's head. But the real showstopper is Jason's death. The hideously deformed killer has never been more sympathetic than when doing the machete brain-pan slide. His tongue wiggles out of his mouth, his eyes bulge out, he grunts in agony. In death, Jason is as scared and innocent as any of the teenage meat he so effortlessly cleaves through.
Two Halloweens ago, I reviewed A.I.P.'s beloved cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, most of which starred Vincent Price and were directed by Roger Corman. Though Corman was emulating Hammer's classic monster movies, his movies would end up begetting their own set of imitators. In 1963, the same year “The Raven” and “The Haunted Palace” were released, producer Richard E. Kent and United Artists would put out two of their own Price-starring horror pictures adapted from literary sources. Six months before droll Nathanial Hawthorne omnibus “Twice-Told Tales,” U.A. put out “Diary of a Madman,” an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's classic horror story “The Horla.”
After the funeral of magistrate Simon Cordier, his journal is read. It tells the story of Simon, a man still traumatized by the death of his wife and son, who went to visited a convicted murderer one day. The man spoke of an invisible force that commanded him to kill. After the convict's death, Simon finds himself haunted by the same force. At first he fears he's gone mad but soon becomes convinced what he's experiencing is real. Calling itself the Horla, the unseen but corporal entity mocks Simon as he attempts to court a young woman. Soon, the Horla sets out ruining his life and eventually forcing him to kill as well.
Still, “Diary of a Madman” does have a few things in its favor. First off, you can't undersell the value of Vincent Price. This movie allows Price to play to both of his strengths. In the scenes where Simon is flirting with Odette, the young model he falls in love with, he comes off as suitably charming. The romantic subplot between these two provides the film with a lot more pathos than it otherwise would've had. Price also gets to rant and rave with the entity that is haunting him. A scene where his paranoid narration climaxes with him yelling out in frustration is classic Price. Watching this guy ham it up is never not fun.
Compared to some of the classic Price starred in throughout the sixties, “Diary of a Madman” definitely stands among his more forgettable efforts. It certainly doesn't compare flatteringly to anything from the Poe Cycle. This is probably United Artists and Richard E. Kent made only one further attempt to copy that style. For whatever it's worth, “Diary of a Madman” is a lot better than “Twice-Told Tales.” It's not as painfully long or self-serious as that one. The truth is, even a mediocre Vincent Price flick has things to recommend about it. I don't know if I'll remember much about “Diary of a Madman” in a few days – and it certainly pales in comparison to the short story that inspired it too – but it's also not worth throwing out entirely either. [6/10]
Earlier this year, Richard Donner – one of the greatest directors of popcorn movies – passed away. Donner began his long career in television and his most distinctive early work is six episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” The first of which is “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” undoubtedly the most iconic episode of the entire series and probably one of the most iconic single episodes of American television period. You know the story but I'll recap it anyway: Robert Wilson is recovering from a nervous breakdown, seemingly triggered by his phobia of flying. He is boarding a plane for the first time since his treatment and, despite the reassurance of his wife, is exceedingly nervous. That's when, midway through the flight, he spots a strange, humanoid creature on the wing of the plane. As the gremlin tears up the engine, he tries to convince everyone else on the plane what is happening but only convinces them he's going crazy.
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” has been so widely referenced and parodied that it's easy to forget what an economic piece of storytelling it is. The script – from the brilliant Richard Matheson, of course, based on his own story – sets up everything we need to know about Wilson and his wife in only a few minutes. That Mrs. Wilson loves her husband but is, in no way, prepared to handle his emotional state. (She tries to sleep while her husband is obviously having a full-blown anxiety attack.) And neither is anyone else on the plane. The engineer placating Wilson's apparent fantasy is the best approach but, the minute he realizes what's happening, Wilson just feels like an asshole. As someone who's had some emotional episodes while out in public spaces, I relate a lot to this.
The most famous part of this episode, more famous than even its shag carpet monster, is William Shatner's lead performance. Shatner is often mocked for being hammy and I suspect much of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet's” infamy is owed to his theatrics here. Yet Shatner's mannerisms are actually perfect for this story. He's a tightly-wound man desperately trying not to loose it. And failing. There is humor in this episode but it comes from the monster so totally fucking with Wilson, smoothly sliding out of view every time Wilson asks someone to look. Shatner's sweaty, gasping performance keeps the suspense building, as we relate to this man who is afraid he's loosing it but desperate to help. All the elements combine to make “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” a tense, highly entertaining twenty-five minutes of television. [8/10]
Episode six of "Godzilla Singular Point" opens with the striking visual of hordes of Rodan, followed by the mysterious red dust, invading Manhattan. This is seen largely from the perspective of a young boy, looking out the window of his skyscraper apartment. From there, the episode shows more kaiju encroaching on the world of man. Jet Jaguar, piloted by Goro, attempts to fight off the surly Anguirus. A giant harpoon to the chest momentarily stuns the creature but it takes Yun and his A.I. system, using his inexplicable genius with physics and robotics, to kill the beast. Meanwhile, the Japanese Navy is utterly powerless to stop a group of Manda from swarming into Tokyo Bay... Along with another, even more intimidating aquatic reptilian monster.
Yes, after six episodes – half of the show's season! – Godzilla has finally appeared in "Singular Point." But don't get too excited. First off, the monster only appears on-screen for a minute. Secondly, this seems to be some sort of larval form of Godzilla that more heavily resembles Titanosaurus. In fact, if it wasn't for the show playing Akita Ifukube's beloved theme music when the monster leaps into the air, you probably wouldn't know it was suppose to be Godzilla at all!
"Singular Point" being the show it is, there's plenty of technobabble. Mei uncovers the notes of Professor Aisihara, which seem incomprehensible at first. With the help from a reporter, who points out quotes from William Blake and Walt Whitman in the notes, Mei realizes that Aisihara proved that the Archetype molecule can bend space/time's symmetry. I feel like the show could've gotten to this point a lot faster and with a lot less science jargon. Did we need six episodes to get to the reveal that there's a magic molecule that fucks with the space/time continuum? This stands alongside more minor characters, including that overly poetic journalist, discussing more theories and backstory. It's tiresome. It's also beginning to bug me that Yun and Mei are so uniquely brilliant that they can science out most of the story's problems by themselves. They are beginning to feel less like people and more like plot devices. But at least there's some cool kaiju action in this episode, so I'll give it a [6/10].
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