All language subtitles for 2022 In Search of Darkness Part 3

Horror movies.

Mutilation,
decapitation, torture.

Does that sound entertaining?

In the 80s, horror really
dove into this gritty,

grimy, gross, horrific,
psychotic exploration

of the chaotic maniac,

the questionably
motivated murderer,

the individual who
seemed to be after

nothing but a blood lust as
punishment for promiscuity.

Or materialism.

Telling stories without
really worrying too much

about justifying the
horror that these villains

were imposing upon their victims

was exploited in a
really wonderful way

by the filmmakers of the 80s.

I'm most interested in
fear, the emotion of fear.

People pay to be scared,
and when you think about it,

it's real ridiculous.

Underneath all of
it were these cracks

in the veneer.

This place has a
way of making us think

about the kind of future
our young people will have.

Nationwide,
we found that minor cases

of satanic activity
light up the map.

It's 10 p.m.

Do you know where
your children are?

It's very much, for me,
the decade in which America

tells stories about itself.

There were hundreds and
hundreds of horror films

produced in the 80s.

The essence of sex and violence.

It is the explosion

of that video rental
market that fuels

the modern horror films.

There's something very
sexually attractive to horror.

It's almost like you're
attracted to the forbidden fruit.

Kids get the movies

from the horror section
of the video store.

Most of the violent
movies are rated R,

and aren't supposed to be seen

unless you're 17 years old.

My mom would have died

if she knew some of the stuff

I was bringing
home and watching.

So many weird things
in the movies of the 80s.

I was genuinely scared.

Maybe my imagination
was too vivid.

It is a bit weird, isn't it?

Strange horror.

We just wanted to say
things really fast and loud.

You know?

Everything was
kind of over the top,

and we were at a party.

The 80s were a proving ground

for horror films to
be commercially viable

as movies that also were not
intellectually unrespectable.

We will not be showing
you extreme violence

in these movies.

We've picked scenes that
only suggest the violence.

We want to inform
you, not offend you.

It's just as well we're not
showing some of those scenes.

I think people would
turn their sets off.

Yes.

I could watch 80s horror
movies on a loop forever.

It's never enough.

Thrill me.

"Death Ship".

Your holiday in hell.

"Death Ship" is
about a bunch of people

on a cruise liner that sinks,

and the survivors get onto
this passing freighter

that turns out to be
haunted by Nazi ghosts.

It's like it's running itself.

This old ship seems to
have a life of its own.

The movie stars Richard
Crenna and George Kennedy.

This is my ship,
and I am the captain.

It was directed by Alvin Rakoff,

who primarily was a TV director.

And it was written by Jack Hill,

who was friends with
Francis Ford Coppola.

They actually went to
film school together.

And then afterwards,
they went and worked

for Roger Corman on a
movie called "The Terror".

"Death Ship" was a very early
example of Canuxploitation,

which was something created
by the Canadian government.

There was a tax break that
allowed it to be easier

for Canadian filmmakers
to make movies.

Thanks to Canuxploitation,

there were a lot more Canadian
horror films that were made,

as long as they included
Canadian actors and crew.

We commit her soul,

and we commit her body

to the deep!

No!

It's not a very bloody film,

but it's a very disgusting film.

It's blood!

It's blood!

Hold on!

There's moments in the film

where they discover
what the ship is.

They're going
through the bowels,

and they start opening drawers,

and they're finding gold teeth,

things that were leftover
from tortured prisoners.

Still running.

And it makes the
film a lot darker

than you would initially think.

Let's get the hell out of here!

Go!

Watching it now, it doesn't
have as great an impact

as it would have back in 1980.

It hit harder back then.

Because that was so much
closer to the Holocaust.

Something
terrifying has happened

to the children.

Pray you never meet them.

So many of these movies
have these idyllic beginnings.

It's like, look at this town,

look at these beautiful little
white children on a bus.

They're singing.

They love their life,
it's great.

There's a toxic
plant, there's a leak,

and the leak is, like,
leaking into the ground.

This yellow mist is coming
off of this toxic stuff.

Then we cut to the kids.

♪ Jolly, we love everybody

And they all drive
through this yellow mist.

So we know something
bad is going to happen.

♪ Cheers to the bus
driver, the bus driver ♪

The kids never come
home from school.

They find the bus
abandoned by a cemetery.

Convenient.

I just found the school bus,

about 100 yards from
the Ghoul place.

Motor's still running,

but no Fred, no kids.

This idea of creepy
kids is very pervasive.

It's universally scary,
because you don't want

to fear your child.

Daddy!

You want to protect
your children.

These evil kids are different,
because they smile at you,

and they reach for you,

and it's very hard
to not go to them.

And when children will kill you,

it's just terrifying.

Particularly if they're,
like, void of a soul.

Evil kids are always
gonna be scary.

Whoa.

Whatever did this
Billy, got Harry too.

Then once it gets into the
suspense part of the film,

I'm like, I know this music.

Mommy!

This is kind of
the same exact score

as "Friday the 13th".

It had a lot of

without the ch-ch-ch, ah-ah-ah.

The score of this movie
is by Harry Manfredini.

Of course, "Friday the 13th"
came out in May of 1980,

and "The Children"
came out in June.

Oh my god!

Daddy!

Harry Manfredini's score
was more than the budget

for the actual
filming of the movie.

Well, you get some violins
and you make them scream.

I had more money to spend.

So, consequently it opens
up way more choices.

There was a score by Jerry
Goldsmith called "Coma"

where all the violins go

like that, and I go
wow, that's cool.

That's effective.

And so I figured out
how I would do that.

I'd be running from
the kids, though.

I'll tell you that.

I'll tell you that
and three quarters.

I'd be like, nope.

Joni!

No!

Kathy, don't!

Don't get got

by your child with an
inexplicable manicure.

It is not your child.

Little Billy has
left the building.

He gone.

"Prom Night"

If you're not back by midnight,
you won't be coming home.

Slashers, a lot of times,

especially in 1980 as a
reaction to "Halloween",

they weren't necessarily
going very deep emotionally.

That real life
horror of prom night

is what kind of sets it
apart from a lot of different

slashers from that time.

Kill!

Kill!

The setup is so vicious that
you really felt the atrocity

of what happened.

Six years later,
it's prom night,

and somebody's gonna pay for
that little girl who died.

As we go through the
high school experience,

which everybody knows is
just a form of torture.

Certain people try to
rectify that experience.

All these people that had
been carrying this secret

for so long, you can't
hide stuff like that.

You just can't.

Not for long.

Not forever.

It's been a long time.

Tonight, it's my turn.

The suspense is great.

You know, the fact that
it's a backwards whodunit,

because you know, we're
trying to figure out

who's going to do
it, the whole time.

How about a muffin?

No, cookie.

Like me better now?

There's always red
herrings in the movie,

but then, of course, the
killer starts picking them off,

one by one, like at the prom.

Kelly!

You've got Jamie Lee
Curtis at her sassy best,

and I love her.

- I did it!
- Oh, shut up!

She has this little 80s
cut, this little flip thing,

which is everything that
I needed in my life.

She is not Laurie
Strode in this thing.

She's like a popular
girl this time.

It's reminiscent of so
many other influences.

"Carrie" is in there.

"Saturday Night
Fever" is in there.

♪ The feeling's right

It's sort of this last
bastion of disco culture.

♪ Tonight is the night

Jamie Lee Curtis was
dancing her little booty off

in this movie, and
I'm here for it.

One of the fun things
about "Prom Night'

is that at the end,
the song that's playing

is called "Love Me Til I Die".

♪ Love me til I die

♪ And keep me satisfied

Don't necessarily expect
prom to be the best night

of your lives, because a
lot of people could die.

- No!
- Now!

This one, along
with "Terror Train",

these were the movies
that really solidified

Jamie Lee Curtis
as a scream queen.

The big moment
for me is the end,

and the reaction from
Jamie Lee Curtis,

because she knows
who's behind it all,

and it's a real
traumatic moment.

♪ Imagine something
deep inside ♪

Watching severed heads
roll out on prom night

is pretty fun.

No!

He knows you're alone

And it's going to be
for the very last time.

You know, sometimes
our dogs of the week

are laughably bad.

This one borders on being evil.

Staten Island slasher.

Love a regional slasher.

This one you have
Caitlin O'Heaney

playing a young bride-to-be

who's being stalked
by a serial killer

right before her wedding.

And I like when a
slasher just tells you

who the killer is
at the beginning.

Here's Ray.

Ray.

This is the killer.

"He Knows You're Alone"
is a 1980s slasher

directed by Armand Mastroianni.

He, of course, went on to
direct other 80s entries,

like "The Clairvoyant",
"The Supernaturals",

and "Cameron's Closet".

This one's a bit of an outlier

because it's actually a
studio produced slasher.

MGMUA did it.

So it's got a little
higher production value.

♪ It's the night again

It's got your garden variety
slasher effects in there,

but there's a memorable
head in a fish tank moment.

Tom Hanks' first movie.

America's favorite, Tom Hanks.

I stretched out an extra
foot to make sure I'd trip you.

Why'd you do that?

Well, it seemed the
best way to meet you.

Apparently, he was
supposed to die in the film,

but they cut it
because of how great

his performance was.

Horror movies and
the roller coasters,

and the House of Horror ride-

I wanna go on that next!

You can face death without
any real fear of dying.

Everyone loves Tom Hanks.

They're like, we
can't fucking kill

this lovable, likable man.

He's a darling.

We're not gonna murder him.

It came without warning,

and now it's coming for you.

"Without Warning" is from
the great Greydon Clark

and it doesn't get nearly the
amount of praise it deserves.

It's got an amazing
cast, with Jack Palance,

and Martin Landau, who at
the time was mostly known

for "Space: 1999" and
"Mission Impossible".

And he's playing this
wild-haired conspiracy nut,

who's the only one who
knows about the alien,

and no one believes him.

Look, I warned you!

When they start eating on you,

don't come to me for help,

because you ain't getting any.

You've got this gigantic alien

who's on earth to hunt humans.

It throws these little
parasitic alien frisbees

that latch onto people.

The movie was shot
by Dean Cundey,

who is the award-winning
cinematographer of "The Thing",

as well as numerous other
John Carpenter films.

In 1987 during a press
tour, Arnold Schwarzenegger

stated that the movie
"Without Warning"

was a direct influence
on the movie "Predator".

It's done really well, and it's
such a creepy-looking alien,

when I saw it when I was little,

it scared the hell out of me.

And who's in the costume?

Kevin Peter Hall, who was in
the costume of the Predator.

The movie made its way to
a company called Filmways,

who didn't want to release it.

They actually wanted
to bury the film

Greydon Clark had
to threaten to sue

in order to get
the film released.

Knowing this was the creative
spark for "Predator",

you should absolutely
check it out,

especially if you
love that film.

You can see the influence
coming from here.

By the time they believe in him,

it will be too late.

"The Boogeyman".

Rated R.

In classic slasher tradition,

this movie starts with a
prologue with children,

who are being
traumatized in some way.

Its "Halloween"
DNA is very present

out of the gate.

With the music, and its POV,

and sort of a voyeuristic thing,

looking at folks engaged
in carnal frivolity.

What are you lookin' at?

They've walked in on their mom

making out with a fella

who then ties up the boy.

The boy's sister,
she cuts him loose.

The boy goes on to kill
the man who tied him up.

And he gets trapped
in this mirror.

He is suddenly a supernatural
presence in their lives.

I know he's here.

Who?

When I broke the
mirror, I released him.

Lacy, he's dead!

There's a guy
sitting in the car,

pricks him in the
neck with a knife.

His girlfriend comes in
through the passenger side

to, like, give him a kiss.

So they're skewered together,

and it's like a
double-death scene.

I never seen a kiss this long.

That was kind of
an amazing kill.

It gets very bizarre,
only because it's like

three different
things in one movie.

Like they were just kind of
throwing everything at it

to see what stuck.

Let's just do all of it.

Let's make it a weird
voyeuristic kinky slasher

supernatural exorcism
cyborg demon thing.

Get away!

There's some unique stuff
happening behind the scenes

on this one.

Susanna Love, and Nicholas Love,

actually brother and
sister in real life,

playing siblings in the film.

Moreover, Susanna is the
co-writer of the film,

and married to her
writing partner

and the director of
the film, Ulli Lommel.

An incredibly
underrated director.

He's imaginative,
he's different.

"Boogeyman" was
a low budget film

that was incredibly successful,

and that's what really
put Lommel over the edge.

The sequel is another
interesting one,

because the "Boogeyman 2"
predates the "Scream" franchise

in that in concerns a
Hollywood production

trying to make a film about
the events of the first film.

So it's very meta in that way,

and meta before there was a
whole lot of meta going on.

Boogeyman!

"Christmas Evil".

The night he dropped in.

I just love horror
set at Christmas.

And in the 80s,
there's tons of it.

Christmas is a time
when things are

supposed to be a certain way,

and horror films are
all about subverting

what it is supposed to be.

And so Christmas and horror
really go hand in hand.

Brandon Maggart plays
a middle-aged man,

doesn't have any friends,

doesn't have a girlfriend,
or anything like that.

Works at a toy factory,

and he likes Christmas
a little bit too much

to the point where he starts
to kill for Christmas.

I have superlative taste.

Merry Christmas!

"Christmas Evil" is a
movie that usually gets

classified as a horror film,

but it's really more of a
psychological character study

similar to "Taxi
Driver", or something,

where you're just
watching this lonely

socially isolated guy
just start to crack.

Lewis Jackson was
obsessed with Fassbender

and German expressionism
at the time of making it.

What are you saying?

I'm gonna play my tune now.

Everybody'll dance.

You'll see.

And adding that art side to it

I believe gives it the
more fantasy element,

and Christmas is based
around magic and fantasy.

The look of the film is great.

Every scene of this
movie glows of Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The holidays are hard
for a lot of people.

Even if you are
well-off, the holidays

are a very stressful period.

And "Christmas
Evil" captures that.

Harry?

Merry Christmas, Frank!

It's so nightmarish and weird.

You see him tug on his
beard and it doesn't move,

like it becomes a part of him,

like a horror version of Tim
Allen's "The Santa Claus".

Are we seeing him
become Santa Claus,

or is Harry seeing himself
become Santa Claus?

Merry Christmas!

It's a movie that
I think will surprise

a lot of people the
first time they watch it,

especially the ending,

because that comes out
of fucking nowhere.

Are we seeing what we're seeing

onscreen actually happening?

Or is this how Harry
is dealing with it?

"Christmas Evil" was
the title of the movie

that the distributor
gave that Lewis Jackson

did not approve of, and
actually didn't know

that it was called
"Christmas Evil"

until he saw the trade when
it was being re-released.

But the film was called
"Better Watch Out".

That's what he filmed
it as, and that's what

he knew it as, and
he still to this day

does not like the
name "Christmas Evil".

♪ Merry Christmas

Fun fact.

Brandon Maggart
would later go on

to become singer Fiona
Apple's dad in real life,

proving once again
that the apple

never falls far from
the Christmas tree.

One of the big reasons
that horror films

have remained so
popular is that it is

a guaranteed way
to make some money.

If you don't spend a hell
of a lot of money on it,

there's gold in those hills.

There are people out
there who are willing

to take a chance on any
kind of horror movie.

And the video
revolution came along,

and it changed everything.

Now this is a video
tape recorder, or VTR,

actually sometimes
they're called

video cassette
recorders, or VCRs.

The ability to play
a movie, or a show,

an entertainment,
at whim, at will,

that did not exist prior to
this home video revolution.

That's the thing that
most people today,

where everything's
accessible and fast,

don't realize that
it was not like that.

Now, some of the best
movies on television

aren't on television.

They're on SelectaVision.

Well, now it was instant
gratification time.

400.

Set it today.

It was a whole world
opened up to people.

Movies in the 50s
and 60s, I mean,

you hoped that a Hammer
film was gonna play

in your neighborhood,
because if it didn't,

you weren't gonna
see it for five years

until it went on television.

You largely couldn't
see it at all,

or if you could, you had
to see it chopped to pieces

on the 4:30 movie.

So when video appeared, it
was like this dam broke.

There was this new
distribution outlet

for these films that were
able to be repackaged

and given a whole
new lease of life,

or films that had only come
out in their native country,

then all of a sudden,
they had an outlet

in other territories.

"The Curse of the Devil".

The video tape revolution
brought a new appreciation

for some of my films,
especially "The Thing".

What really began video, like
with the internet, was porn.

What's it like to become

one of football's cowgirls?

Debbie Does Dallas
has all the answers.

I think the first
VHS I ever bought

was a porn tape that cost,
like, $80 back in the 70s.

How a lot of us consumed
media at that time,

it impacted the way
people made movies.

Especially the
beginning of the VHS,

all the video
stores were private

they're just pop-ups.

They had to buy product.

So they would go out and buy
5000 VHS's for their store.

What did they buy?

Sex and horror.

We cater to their demands.

Whatever, they tell
us what they want,

and we try to get it.

And we have a large
horror section,

and of course with real
heavy nude releases.

We get a lot of films
called B movies.

There's distributors who
were feeding that pipeline,

and they needed somebody
to make the movies.

Those movies, they
became products.

They needed to fit
a certain mold.

"Halloween" and
"Friday the 13th".

These two films
dominated the box office,

and then they
dominated home video.

Once horror started
doing well on video,

that's when everybody
realized it very quickly.

The 80s began the
period of crapola movies

made straight for video,

only to satisfy the
insatiable VHS market.

It was just tons and
tons of new horror movies

being made all the time,

especially the super
low budget ones.

I think everybody with
a camera and 10 bucks

made their own horror
movies back then.

Companies, they were
also buying cheaper films

that were independently
made to put in stores.

And those were your
direct to video days.

Shot on video brought
the price of making a film

down to $50,000, $40,000,
$30,000, and even less.

You could make a movie on Monday

and have it in the video
store by Wednesday.

You didn't need a big studio.

You didn't need to go begging
for someone to produce it.

You could just make your project

and put it out there on video,

which I did many,
many, many times.

Hello darling, and
welcome to another

fabulous Thriller Video.

Thriller Video.

We had a collection
of horror movies

that were kind of
old and tired and bad

that nobody wanted to see,

so I did my wraparound
thing on them,

and we released them to video,

and they sold like hotcakes.

Now this one's in kind
of a different vein,

jugular vein, that is.

There were more
distribution companies

than you could count.

Jack Valenti, the
head of the MPAA,

was whining that video cassettes

would destroy copyright law.

The studios wouldn't
license their stuff.

They saw video as
being a threat.

So there was open field
for anybody who wanted

to start a company.

Charlie Band took
advantage of it the most.

Charles Band was a
pioneer in this time,

creating multiple labels,
putting these films

in video stores.

This is a tough business,

but every business
is challenging.

It was rental that
made the thing explode

Come to the warehouse,

and rent the hit movies you
want when you want them.

Around 1982 is
when the video stores

started doing way, way better.

By 1985 there was around
12,000 video stores

in the United States.

You can
now rent a video overnight,

and hire these great
movies from only 99 cents.

Close to the late 80s,
there was around 40,000 places

that were renting tapes,
so this was a huge impact

for the horror
genre, because people

were renting horror films.

Tapes around that
time weren't $5.

They weren't $2.

They were typically
49.95 up to $100.

So if you had 40,000 stores
buying at least one tape,

you were lining your
pockets full of money.

And this was a million
dollar industry.

And a lot of video
labels had either one

to maybe 20 titles
in their catalog,

but that's all they needed,

because it was
millions of dollars

that they were making.

And then they started
producing their own stuff,

giving filmmakers $50,000,

because they knew that they
were gonna make millions

selling to video stores,

so it just revolutionized
everything.

Troma became a staple
of the home video market,

because we had accumulated
about 60 movies.

We wanted to own our movies,

we wanted to own all the rights,

and we wanted to have a
collection, have a library.

The theory behind Troma
was to own your negatives.

Lloyd Kaufman, Charlie
Band, and Roger Corman,

they were businessmen,
but they were filmmakers.

Those core three are
definitely a huge, huge reason

why the direct to video horror
was so impactful and huge.

As the 80s started winding down,

like every business,
it starts monopolizing.

By the 90s, you had
Blockbuster reading scripts

to give so much shelf space.

Any time there's
a new technology,

the majors, the
oligopoly, the cartel,

throws a monkey wrench into
it, tries to screw it up,

and then they take it over,
which is what happened

with video cassette, Blockbuster
put all the independents

out of business.

♪ Wow what a difference

♪ Blockbuster video

I've never seen 10,000
tapes in one store.

We can really, really
thank the mom and pop stores

out there, because they
carried the really interesting

innovative films that were
out there during the 80s,

films that someone like
Blockbuster wouldn't touch

with a 10 foot pole.

And Blockbuster sure didn't
have that little room

with the fancy
movies back there.

Today you can go out and
make a movie for no money.

I mean, the world has
changed dramatically.

It's still in the story you
tell, if it's compelling,

I mean, whatever the medium is,

you need to be able
to tell a story,

and put it together in
a format that people,

whether they're gonna
rent or buy or download

or view for free,
find entertaining.

That part has not
changed at all.

"Fear No Evil".

It'll scare the
devil out of you.

"Fear No Evil" is
thematically in the vein

of a lot of these
films in the 1980s

where it's like a guy
who gets picked on

has been underestimated.

Be careful who you pick on,

because he might
be the Antichrist.

"Fear No Evil" is
a hormonal overload.

I mean, come on.

High school's hard enough
without the inconvenience

of demonic possession, right?

"Fear No Evil" is like
if Damien from "The Omen"

was in high school,
and was pretty gay.

"Fear No Evil" was really
my coming of age story

in a lot of ways, and
so all that angst,

all of that confusion is
reflected in the film.

There's this scene
in "Fear No Evil",

it's a locker room scene, which
it's definitely the source

of a lot of anxiety
for a lot of people.

This scene is like,
ooh, very cringey.

Only the most
uncomfortable high school

shower scene since "Carrie".

Plug it up!

Plug it up!

Tony goes in to kiss Andrew,

and then Andrew uses
his special devil powers

to make the kiss last longer.

Like, that's his big revenge.

It's like, make the bully gayer.

It's Andrew who's
compelling this,

but Tony's latent homosexuality,

I mean, he hates women, right?

This guy, this thug, Tony.

He's a bully, you know?

Lots of these
bullies are, right?

They can't face
their own sexuality,

and so they take it out
on others in this manner.

Look, if you don't keep your
mouth shut about this, right?

Guess where that was shot?

At my old junior high school.

First day of the
shoot, what I do.

We go in there, we shoot
this, the shower scene.

Get in there with all these
naked guys in the shower,

they're kissing.

They didn't know anything
about it, of course,

until the film was released.

Come on, come on!

I mean, it has a
nice Gothic feel.

I wanted it to have
a Hammer Horror feel.

The iconography.

I mean it's so frightening.

All the iconography
surrounding Catholicism.

We raised, ultimately,
540,000 to make the picture.

We had no money to
finish the film,

and I was concerned
that if we got a bite

from a distributor,
that that would be it.

I'd lose control of the picture.

Damn you!

Avco Embassy.

They were the boutique low
budget horror distribution house.

They had control, total
control, over the final cut,

but they made me make the edits

with an editor that was
assigned to the picture,

and it was horrendous,
because little by little

I saw it restructured,
reorganized, chopped up.

The picture that at best
works in fits and starts.

But what really kills me
is I've read some things

about it being
possibly homophobic.

It's anything but
that, in my estimation.

I mean, it's a coming
of age story, right?

The people that are
particularly inclined

to love "Fear No Evil" are gay.

They consider it campy
enough to have fun with,

or it genuinely moves
them as to their own

coming out struggles.

Unlike "Jaws", where
you're not safe in the water,

this one, you're not safe
if you're on the beach.

"Blood Beach".

The tagline says it all.

Just when you thought it was
safe to go back in the water,

you can't get to it.

It's great to see John Saxon

from "A Nightmare
on Elm Street",

and Burt Young, who's
Paulie from "Rocky",

trying to solve this mystery.

He was foolish
enough to lie down

on this particular beach.

Never would've
happened in Chicago.

Yeah, one more remark
like that out of your mouth,

Chicago's where you're gonna be.

It's a charming movie,
and it has a real moody,

beachy feel, from
the opening credits

with this lingering monster
POV vision under the pier.

A $2 million union movie.

Jeffrey Bloom wrote
and directed it.

The coolest guy of all time.

The way our monster that
traveled through the sand,

we did this movie 10
years before "Tremors".

Please help!

Oh god!

Oh god!

What is happening?

Help!

That's me, and the effects guy

yanking those people
under the sand.

We got a tractor out
there on the beach

by the Santa Monica Pier,

and we dug a big pit,
and we built a big

rubber membrane
with a slit in it,

and he and I, down in the pit,

and when they are acting,
and flailing around,

they are kicking like crazy.

And we are grabbing
onto them like crazy,

yanking them under.

Ah, it was so much fun.

The monster didn't
turn out that great.

The effects guy, bless
his heart, did his best.

I know the director
was not happy with it.

But, you know, like not
showing the shark in "Jaws",

it worked to an advantage.

We built all these sets
onstage at Culver City Studios,

where this monster lived, and
it was all supposed to look

like Santa Monica
Pier, and whatnot,

but I brought
seaweed in my trunk

and threw the seaweed
behind the stage.

Begins to take on the shape,

where it slept.

I think Smell-O-Vision is a
very important part of sets.

You don't want it to
smell like latex paint.

We want it to smell like
whatever it's supposed

to smell like.

It really helped.

I ended up with the
monster on my ranch,

where my nieces and nephews
played in it for years

until it slowly withered away.

I saved its head in
my monster collection.

But that's the sorry end of
the "Blood Beach" monster.

It's also one of
those lost movies.

It came out on VHS,
and then that's it.

It's legendary for
being caught in limbo,

rights-wise, and
residual payment-wise.

Jeffrey Bloom, the
director, told me,

I don't think he's ever made
any money off the picture,

and he wrote and directed it.

It's really a
mishmash of problems.

I'd love to see that reissued,

somehow, if somebody
could untangle the issues

surrounding poor
old "Blood Beach".

Oh, "The Hand".

Oh my god.

Michael Caine in "The Hand".

It could have been so not good,

because it's about an artist
whose hand gets cut off,

and the hand goes
around committing crimes

that he's trying not to commit.

The hand goes and does it.

Oliver Stone, he had
gotten a lot of notice

with "Midnight Express".

And he thought "The Hand"
was gonna be a major movie.

Made and released
by a major studio,

but it had this really hopped up

kind of exploitation tone to it

that was very Corman.

It just was really
intense and outrageous.

I rented it as a kid
because I knew it dealt

with comic books, and
like a phantom appendage.

So there's this guy on the
verge of a nervous breakdown,

I guess, and he is
a comic book artist,

like a famous, established
comic book artist.

His marriage is on the rocks.

There's this scene,

as a kid, it was
really horrific.

It's Michael Caine, you know,
one of our greatest actors,

squirting blood
all over the place.

Anybody who messes
with Michael Caine

gets the hand.

Killing anybody that's
standing in the way

of his mission.

Or is it?

He doesn't know if he's insane,

or there really is a
disembodied hand chasing him.

Michael Caine's
a terrific actor,

but he went through a
period where he never saw

a paycheck he didn't like.

They call it the Michael
Caine School of Acting,

you know, when you
get a role, take it.

Even if the material
isn't good, he delivered.

I think that at least you-

I think.

You should get out of here.

And it always elevated
every movie he was in.

It's from a book called
"The Lizard's Tail".

We struggled for
many, many months

playing with that idea of
what is the sound of the hand?

Does it breathe?

Is it just fingernail
sounds when it's crawling?

Because whenever
the hand approached,

we wanted to get into
that sound design moment

of the universe, the
sound universe changes.

And we brought in a
team of trained actors

who would do group
vocalizations,

but we had them do what
we called Fellini-esque

vocalizations, so we did
weird breathing patterns,

and free form screaming.

It's really, really cool stuff.

For a disembodied hand movie,
it's quite well-written.

As I used to say in
marketing the movie,

it's one of the best
disembodied hand movies ever.

What happened to the hand?

Oh, mommy went to look for it.

But it ran away.

"Bloody Birthday".

A terrifying journey
into the bizarre.

Will you get out alive?

Three kids are born at
the same time in a hospital

during an eclipse.

It's
a boy, Mrs. Taylor!

And for some reason,
this has astrologically

made them evil.

When they get to be 10, they
sort of go on killing spree.

It plays on the fear
of how scary kids can be,

especially if they
don't have the influence

of discipline, and adults.

Like that scene with the cake.

That's terrifying.

He's trying to make her think

that he's poisoning the cake.

The poison was just
sitting on the counter.

I was putting it away.

You were not, you little liar!

That scene is so messed up,

because he knows what
he's doing as a child,

and taking advantage of
his seemingly innocence

for his own benefit.

Debbie, she's a
horrible little child.

I just love her as a villain.

Can you and Timmy
come over to babysit?

Sure.

What time do you
want me to come over?

11 o'clock.

Okay.

My little sister
is selling tickets

to watch me, you
know, get naked.

I was very young, it was
one of my first years

as an actress.

So many actresses, especially
at that time in the 80s,

that they had some sort of film

where they had to be naked or
topless or something, right?

It wasn't that uncommon.

So I thought, okay.

I wasn't gonna, like, be
topless in the audition.

So they said, well, we
need to see your boobs.

And I'm like, why?

And they go, because
what if you have

a weird boob or something?

So I took my top
off in the room,

and I took a Polaroid.

And then they let the
director look at it,

and they gave it back to me.

I don't know how
other girls are cast

for topless things, but
that's what happened to me.

And there's a little hole
between the closet and her room,

and I look in there, and
then they hit me in the eye

with an arrow, and
that's how I die.

They're dragging
my dead body around

for a big portion of it.

And that's depressing.

And at first I
wouldn't talk about it,

but then I thought,
really, who cares?

Right?

Even though honestly my
son doesn't know about it,

and he's never seen it.

So.

Debbie?

What's wrong, Debbie?

"Bloody Birthday" wasn't
well-received at all

when it came out,
because of the fact that

these were evil kids.

People would get so offended

by all the sexual and violent
situations placed in it,

but the kids were actually
having a great time,

and they thought
it was playtime,

and that was comforting to know,

because we wouldn't want
them to be traumatized

at all by the experience.

Does anybody know what
the word murder means?

Pray you're not invited.

If you get a great
image on the cover,

that's half the battle.

And when you see that
guy with his mouth open,

and the skewer, the
shish kabob is going in,

like, I'm in.

And Melissa Sue
Anderson, who is from

Little House on the Prairie.

This was gonna be her
big moment as an adult,

playing a high school
girl in a slasher flick.

This was more like the tail end

of the holiday murder movies,

so people were still
taking it seriously.

They were like okay, we're
gonna ride this wave.

This could be a massive hit,

so let's really, really
go for it, you know?

It's about this group of
kids at this elite school.

The killer is one of
them, because every time

someone gets killed,
it's like, oh it's you.

Virginia, who was kinda
new to this group,

we slowly learn that
she has these holes

in her memory.

And today I remembered.

Yes.

And tomorrow, you
will remember more.

Even the-

Even the accident.

Her friends are like,
they're disappearing

more than dying.

So she has all this trauma
around her birthday,

which should be a
moment of celebration.

Hi there.

Rudy!

Where have you been?

Who's doing the killing?

Is it her?

Because she's messed up?

Or is it not?

Lighten up!

You touch me again, I'm
gonna fucking kill you!

And that's a very
real, tangible,

real life fear, of having a
part of your whole memory gone.

What happened
before the accident?

You've got to try to remember.

The kills are great.

The gore is great.

There's some very good
tense moments in it.

One of the classic
kills from this movie.

We have Greg.

He's doing his weights,
he's very strong.

Okay, that's it.

Holds the weight above
his penis, and drops it.

Greg is dead.

From a weight to the peen.

Yup.

I panicked!

I came here, god I
thought you'd help me!

So the ending of
"Happy Birthday" to me

is what stuck with me

all my life, because it's crazy.

♪ Happy birthday to me

♪ Happy birthday to me

Pray for day.

"Hell Night".

One of my favorite
things about "Hell Night'

is just being able
to see Linda Blair

do something different.

Who's she?

Oh, that's one
of the new pledges.

They call her Marty.

And it feels almost like,

what if Regan survives
after "The Exorcist",

and she decides
to go to college?

She's gonna go and
be in a sorority,

and she's gonna have
this normal life,

and she ends up
stuck in this mansion

where it's like a
weird, mutant offspring.

It feels really unusual
compared to a lot

of the other sort of teen
and 20-something centric

horror movies that were
coming out in the early 1980s.

In 1850, Virgil Garth
built this mansion

with the gold that was
pouring out of his mines.

So they introduce
this whole backstory

about Garth Manor, and this
guy who kills his family,

like he kills his wife,
and he has mutated kids.

And then Raymond
Garth got a rope

and hung himself to death.

And then he hangs himself,

but two of the kids are missing.

It was like okay, we're gonna
throw a couple sorority girls

and a couple fraternity
brothers in a house overnight

and see what happens.

We'll see you four a dawn.

Just about six hours.

You have Peter
Barton and Linda Blair,

and they're sort of hanging out,

and then you've got
promiscuous gal,

and then the stoner surfer dude,

and they're gonna get
together and have fun.

Hey!

And then it evolves
into this whole

elaborate Gothic
nightmare for them.

Peter Barton, he actually
did get hurt during the film,

so there's a lot of the
movie where you see him

limping around, but
that was very real.

That wasn't because of what
happened to his character.

No!

They couldn't stop filming,

so they just had
to push forward,

and he basically had to
work through an ankle injury

for like half the movie.

It's got some issues,
but I think ultimately,

"Hell Night" really stands out

in comparison to a lot
of other horror movies

that were coming out
around the same time.

A gem I discovered on
cable back in the 80s,

and that I push on
people as often as I can

is "The Unseen".

The terror is unleashed.

No!

The horror is unequal.

"The Unseen".

"The Unseen" is about
an all-woman news crew

who are covering a festival
in Solvang California.

They screwed up, someone didn't
make a hotel reservation.

They have nowhere to stay.

They hit up this
museum where they find

the great Sydney Lassick, who
offers them a place to stay.

It's, it's not the Ritz,

but it'll run a close second.

Sure.

That's great.

The leader of this news
crew is Barbara Bach.

Of course, Mrs. Ringo Starr,

the Bond girl from
"The Spy Who Loved Me".

It's remarkable.

I'm impressed.

Scat.

Get off there, Ralph.

Sydney Lassick is one of
the great character actors

of the second half
of the 20th century.

He was in "One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

He was in "Alligator"
as the pet store owner.

He is off the chain.

He is just going
for it in this film.

Boo!

It's a delight to watch
him just chew the scenery.

Don't concern yourself
with that, Virginia.

Just get the room ready.

The secret sauce of "The Unseen"

is that it's very,
very talented people

doing something
very, very unsavory.

Sydney Lassick's wife in
the film, Leila Goldoni,

and he have a couple
of very intense scenes

about a secret that they
have in their basement.

They could find out.

Don't worry, my dear.

No one will ever find out.

Junior in the film is this
developmentally disabled

grown man wearing a diaper
living in the basement.

I see you've met Junior.

Played by Flounder
from "Animal House",

the late great Stephen Furst.

And you come to find out

he's accidentally
killing these women

because he doesn't
know his own strength.

"The Unseen" is,
in a lot of ways,

not a defensible film.

Ingestion is not endorsement.

I enjoyed it despite
how wrong it is.

Boo!

"The Prowler" is a
stalk slasher plot

with a group of kids getting
ready for a graduation party

and they're stalked and killed

by a mysterious
killer in a GI outfit,

in Cape May, New Jersey.

There's a little
historical thrill

to seeing Farley
Granger from "Rope"

and "Strangers on a Train"

in an 80s slasher,
as like the sheriff

with a mysterious past.

Just some deodorant.

No sweat.

Get it?

That keeps you on
the edge of your seat.

You're just like, oh
god, he's right there.

Oh god, ugh, you know?

It's Savini at his best, man.

The kills are fucking
crazy, the gore is nuts.

Tom Savini did some of
his best work in the film.

That kill scene in
the swimming pool

goes on forever.

It's unbearable to watch.

Also one of the first
exploding heads.

I don't think it was the
first exploding head,

but it was one of them.

It was the first pairing
of Savini and Zito,

who then went on to do
"Friday the 13th" part four.

Zito, man, say what you want,

but he had a great eye for it.

Putting aside George Romero's
relationship with Savini,

no director films
Tom Savini's kills

better than Jo Zito.

And I think that that
is front and center

of "The Prowler".

Not only how Savini
has designed them,

but that the director
has listened to Savini

in terms of how to
present those things.

There's something so
perverse about riffing

on the "Psycho" shower scene,

but with a pitchfork.

It's bright lights,
nowhere to hide,

just in your face kills.

I was just following
what they needed to happen

in the film.

I wasn't concerned with
how they were shooting.

Joe Zito, we showed everything.

So there became an
appeal for that.

I rode that appeal in
the movies of the 80s.

For me, it's the guy with
the hand over the mouth

and he's getting the
bayonet in the head.

The way it's edited,
and the way it's timed,

and it's just
whites of the eyes.

It's grizzly, and it
really, really works.

It's a magic trick, which
Savini's always said

his effects are magic tricks,

but that one is like, bang on.

Indonesia produced an
interesting horror film in the 80s

called "Mystics in Bali".

I'm surprised that
a pretty girl like you

would be interested in
learning black magic.

Well, I'm just curious.

It seems like a
bit of a fever dream,

what happens in this film.

But essentially,
it's about a woman

who wants to learn more
about the mystical stuff

that happens in
Indonesian culture.

You'll never forget this face.

And they're looking
around for this mystic,

and what they see instead
is a 50 foot tongue

coming out of the forest,
which is incredible.

It's like a snake-like tongue.

And what happens is this
tongue imprints words,

the name of the
creatures, on her thigh,

and then things go
from bad to worse

from that point, where
this woman manifests

into this creature, but
it's absolutely batshit.

I'm very interested in the
mythology of this creature,

which is very much
like a Manananggal,

because you see that across
all different Asian cultures.

So she has the ability to
split her body in half,

and the top half of her torso,

with all the entrails
hanging out, can fly around,

and jump on people and
kill them and eat them

while the bottom half kind
of scuttles around the floor.

One of the most
interesting scenes in this,

and kind of gross, is when
this disembodied torso

goes between the legs
of a pregnant woman,

and then basically
eats her unborn baby.

It is nuts.

Then it goes up a
level of nuttiness,

they call up the good
version of this mystic,

and they have this big battle
using magic and animation,

and it's very interesting.

The ultimate theme
of "Mystics in Bali"

really is curiosity
kills the cat,

because this woman wants
to know information

that she has no right knowing.

This supernatural stuff
is way too powerful

for a normal person, and I
don't know why she thought

that she could control
it, and harness it.

That particular
transgression ends up

in the consequences
that befalls them

and everyone around them.

Now police have been skeptical

of investigating these acts,

just as we are in
reporting them,

but there's no
question that something

is going on out there.

When we think about the 1980s,

we think about the Reagan era,

and a return to family values,

and there is
something in the air

about the way that
things should be.

There is sin and
evil in the world,

and we're enjoined by
scripture, and the lord Jesus

to oppose it with all our might.

Religious right somehow had
moved into the mainstream.

Demand those parties
and politicians

align themselves with the
eternal values in this book,

and America will be forever

the greatest nation
on this earth!

There was a lot of
stuff in the ether

as far as satanic cults
and the evangelicals.

Whether Satan exists
is a matter of belief,

but we are certain
that Satanism exists.

Their fears were sort
of in the zeitgeist.

Could it be?

Satan!

Growing up in the 80s under
the veil of the satanic panic,

you know, we were all
convinced by the far right

that there were these
cultists out there,

meddling with the dark arts
to try and abduct us kids

and suck us into their
covens to drink babies' blood

and perform witchcraft.

We were like, no, they're
just cool scary movies.

I'll do that when I grow up

and I have a house of my
own, thank you very much.

I dread going to
these kinds of movies.

It really has become
the most depressing part

of my job as a film critic.

And there we are,
in total agreement.

In the UK and here in the US,

the census definitely
clamped down

on what was allowed, what
was acceptable content.

Half of American households

now have video
cassette recorders,

and for many children,
they're a ticket

to R-rated gore that
the kids are too young

to see at the movies.

There were a lot of
city people running around

saying oh, we can't
have this stuff.

It's much too violent.

Well parents and psychologists
are very concerned.

I have very vivid memories
of the Video Nasty Panic.

I was probably nine
or 10 years old

when it started to hit the news

that this filth was
entering our homes,

and a lot of moral
do-gooders and church people

and politicians started to
talk about these movies,

saying that they were
dangerous for society,

because anyone seeing
them, it could cause them

to be scarred, and to go out
and inflict harm on society.

Even today, if one is
inclined to believe in Satanism,

it's a way to actually
see the devil,

and perhaps be inspired.

I think people
were really afraid

because they were told to be.

That was the beginning
off the cult of fear

in this country.

I don't believe in censorship.

But I do believe that
we parents and leaders

have a reason to be concerned.

It was such a simple
use of religious moralism

that they cracked
down on us in the 80s,

and in doing so,
really resurrected

a lot of these archaic ideas
about religious fundamentalism

that are so easy to
use when you're trying

to manipulate large
masses of people.

Sure, television should
present life the way it is.

You can't tell somebody
else they can't like it,

because you don't like it.

That kind of psychology
is so unhealthy.

We needed the movies
of 80s horror cinema

to release a little
of that pent up steam.

And finally, music.

Which is found here in the
neighborhood record store

under the category
of heavy metal music.

There's a link between
heavy metal and horror.

They're like some
strange cousins.

They always have been.

♪ We're the dream warriors

In the "Nightmare
on Elm Street" films,

the Dokken soundtrack
is a classic.

The satanic message is clear,

both in the album covers,
and in the lyrics,

which are reaching
impressionable young minds.

It's question of
content and values,

and parents need to tune in
to their children's world.

Anytime there's any kind
of a new wave of music,

there's always somebody who's
gonna have a problem with it.

And the fact that
you had Ozzy Osborne

supposedly biting off the heads
of bats onstage and stuff,

that certainly threw people
for a loop.

This is entertainment?

This is what our kids are
looking at for entertainment?

Yes.

So in the height
of "Satanic Panic"

as the most metal and
punk rock thing to do

from the film community,
is they did films

about rock and roll and Satan.

The times that
we were living in,

it was a perfect tapestry
for us to utilize

what was going on in the
world as far as politics

and us making movies.

♪ Get down tonight

I was in school in the 80s,

and there was a concern
among the whole caucus

of evangelicals that
Dungeons and Dragons

was a satanic sort of thing.

A lot of people hear
the phrase my sweet Satan.

♪ My sweet Satan

My sweet Satan.

The lyrics playing
backwards and all that stuff.

It was kind of a hysteria,

which doesn't feel all
that unfamiliar anymore.

It tells you how
to close the gate.

Parents just didn't know
it was the record companies

that were telling them that
if you spin records backwards,

you'll hear Satan.

Literally one of the best
ideas for record companies

to come up with in
the history of music

was getting stupid
people to believe that.

But they did conjure
up Sammi Curr.

All a part of the plan.

All right.

In the 80s, we had
a big controversy

with the lyrics, and
parents being very concerned

about what their kids
were listening to

in heavy metal with
the pentagrams.

There were Senate hearings,
and Congressional hearings,

that kind of thing,
and a lot of the wives

of the politicians
took up this cause

against heavy metal music.

♪ Rock and roll

♪ Rocking

"Trick or Treat", there's
a scene where Sammi Curr

is testifying against what's
supposed to be the PMRC.

If you were a parent,

would you want your kid
growing up around rock music?

Rock musicians?

I mean, with that
kind of values?

And he basically tells
him to go get fucked.

You cannot legislate morality.

- The teenage daughter-
- We will bring you down!

And that's the way
I was with my heroes.

That's the way my
fans are with me

when I'm telling
the establishment

to go fuck themselves, you know?

There will always be
a need for a platform

to give people hope in
a sea of hopelessness.

I carried an M16 and you,

you carry that,
that, that guitar!

What they came up with
was a warning system

on the albums.

They wanted to rate
them, like rated R,

and things like that,
but they ended up

with just sort of
a warning label.

But the album sold
better when they had

the warning label on them.

♪ We're not gonna take it

To me, horror and the
discovery of horror,

you start finding these voices
outside of the mainstream,

who are willing to push
a lot of boundaries

and question a lot
of the establishment,

and scaring the crack
out of all the PTA moms

and school superintendents
and Cub Scout leaders

that were trying to
make sure we all fit

right into the mold
that they wanted us to.

God!

God is dead!

- Hail Satan!
- Satan lives!

It's an ever-perpetual cycle

that the entire human experience
centers itself around,

that events are out of control.

There has to be something
that can set it right.

And there are many people
who will seize on anything.

They want a solution.

They want deliverance.

We fall for everything.

I recall that being the most
ridiculous waste of time.

It's been heading in that
direction for a long time.

Now we're totally
divided as a country.

And it's crap like
that that does it.

"Butcher,
Baker, Nightmare Maker".

Rated R.

Starts Friday at a
theater near you.

"Butcher, Baker,
Nightmare Maker".

I mean, that's an
incredible title.

That movie should
have done really well.

"Butcher, Baker,
Nightmare Maker"

is another of the Video Nasties.

So this is the cover
that I saw on the shelf

when I saw it in around 1983.

And it is Susan Tyrrell
covered in blood.

The kind of thing that
I would have rented.

I'm gonna get that
scholarship if I can!

I'm going away to school,
and no one's gonna stop me!

Not even you!

"Butcher, Baker, Nightmare
Maker" is about a kid

who wants to go off to
college, and an aunt

who doesn't want him to.

And the murder that she goes to

to keep him there.

Everybody's so obsessed
with the sex life

of a 17-year-old.

I was thinking, um,

can I invite Julia over
for my birthday dinner?

Julia again?

Sounds serious.

That's probably the most
real life part of this movie,

is everybody trying to
figure out if this kid's gay.

Do you like
girls, Ms. Roberts?

God, you're a pig.

"Butcher, Baker,
Nightmare Maker"

is about people
trying to out you.

So tell me.

Are you two making love?

I am not going to answer that.

The kind of twisted
perversity of the movie

is like really
interesting, I think.

It's cheesy, but
it's also queasy.

You're just kinda like,
is she trying to fuck him?

This is making me uncomfortable.

Ooh.

You're so cute.

It dealt with incest.

It dealt with
repressed sexuality.

Homicidal tendencies.

I mean, this is like
Tennessee Williams pathos

that we're dealing with in
this really messed up film

where these people gave these

really disturbing performances.

Will Asher seemed like
an odd choice to me,

having come from being
creator of Bewitched,

and having directed I Love Lucy,

but he had a way with actors,

and he really brought in
some great performances

in that film.

♪ Billy's got a
girlfriend, Billy ♪

Billy, don't do that.

That's disgusting.

It's kind of a tour de force

mad over the top performance

by Susan Tyrrell.

The only thing that's wrong

is that you are in my house.

Now get out of here!

Get out!

I just-

Get out of here!

I just want-

Where is her Oscar for "Butcher,
Baker, Nightmare Maker"?

Retroactively give it to her.

What do you think you're doing?

This performance is
like the performance

of the 1980s.

A new girlfriend.

Susan Tyrrell is just
getting more and more crazy

as the movie goes on.

Just a pleasure to watch.

It also has Bill Paxton
in it, by the way,

who's kind of playing
a bully character,

very similar to the
character he plays

in "Weird Science".

He was supposed to be
the lead originally

but they ended up
going with someone

who was then more famous.

Some of us think we're
better than others.

Some of us are
better than others.

Paxton was so gung ho at
the beginning of his career

that he would come
to the cutting room.

He was the guy who
really wanted to learn

about the whole
movie making process,

and he went on to have
such a great career,

and was gone way too soon.

I believe that
you and Phil Brody

were having a lovers quarrel.

It has these queer themes,
it plays on gay panic,

but in 1983 when
it's re-released

as Night Warning, it's
released into a world

that sees gay characters
a little bit differently.

Keep it limp like

AIDS, by 1983,

it was referred to as Gay
Plague, and Gay Cancer.

And that's what people
were afraid of at the time.

Do you know that homosexuals

are very, very sick?

Do you know that, Billy?

Coach Flanders is not sick!

I don't know if I'll
ever watch it again

for the rest of my life,
but I'm glad I saw it

when I was a kid.

Probably made me into the
weirdo that I am today.

I don't know.

"Parasite".

The first futuristic
monster movie in 3D.

"Parasite 3D" was
a Charlie Band movie.

And Stan Winston created
the Parasite effects for us.

Low budget.

We gotta do something.

Notable for Demi Moore
making her film debut.

Tell me where it is!

Go to hell!

It was set in a
post nuclear world,

and there's this character
who develops this parasite.

When it reproduces,
it will cast millions

of microscopic
spores into the air.

It grows over the
course of the film,

and it gets into people,

and absorbs them from within,

and eventually it
turns into this

big toothy creature.

Stan Winston, Stan
did my very first movie

in the early 70s called
"Mansion of the Doom",

and later on did "Parasite".

And Stan became
super successful,

and I couldn't afford him,
even though we stayed close

til almost the end of his
life, which was way too soon.

"Parasite" was one of the
first 3D movies in 20 years.

It did really well,
relative to a small movie.

I was hooked with
the gimmickry of 3D.

Why was that cool for a while?

Well, 'cause it was
another dimension,

and it was something you
couldn't really see at home.

Unless there's trickery or
stuff that comes at you,

and you're having fun
with the three dimensions,

to me it's not worth it.

I remember it being
pretty schlocky,

but the parasite effects
were pretty cool,

and the 3D was pretty cool.

In terms of pantheon of
Stan Winston projects,

it's not the one he's
most proud of.

"Madman".

There is no escape.

I really love "Madman".

He was a farmer
with this family,

wife and two children.

He was an evil man.

I have a "Madman"
poster on my wall.

He walked into his bedroom

with an ax in his hand and
chopped his sleeping wife.

It was kind of a
"Sleepaway Camp" movie,

that I think fell under
the radar a little bit.

His name is Mars.

Madman Mars.

Oh no, Madman Mars
is coming upon us

at the campsite, but
it was just like,

you loved it for the
feel, the energy,

the New York vibe.

You know, Betsy.

I don't have many women friends,

and I think you're one of them.

Oh, I am.

Hey, give me your
number in the city.

It's like, they're in the woods!

They're gonna get killed!

You just love that
the Madman was coming,

and you didn't know
who he was gonna kill.

We used to watch
it all the time.

My friends would laugh.

Most of them were
giggling, like ooh!

You know.

I couldn't even eat.

And the blood, and the effects.

It just all looked so
real to me, and scared me.

"Madman" always looked like
a big furry suit to me.

He was in a shadow, but
he looked kind of furry.

And I was like oh,
he's kinda cute.

I'm friends with Gary Sales.

He was really taken by surprise

with the success of the film.

With a lot of the 80s films,

there were no real boundaries.

They were just done, like
let's push the envelope.

Let's have fun, not to
intentionally hurt anyone,

but just because
we're batshit crazy,

and we're making a horror movie,

and I think movies like
"Madman" just went for it.

They were like,
let's just kind of,

you know, get a monster.

Have him running around
killing people, and woo-hoo!

And it's just simple,
but so fantastic.

It's like silly and
great, all tied into one.

Fans of Gothic horror

will not be disappointed.

Jackie Karen inherits
this rural estate,

and on the rural estate
is a retirement home

full of elderly patients,

and there are mysterious
deaths happening.

Bit of a murder
mystery, because someone

is committing these crimes,

and you're not sure who

among these cast of
characters it is.

Are there ghosts?

Are there supernatural
elements at play?

Because it feels like
you're in this dream.

It's kind of that moment
between asleep and awake.

Jackie discovers her mother's
childhood diary in the film.

Lights going on and off,

taps left running.

It comes to pass that
the things in the diary

start to happen to her
within the plot of the film,

which is all leading
up to this revelation

that her late aunt
might not be as late

as she was led to believe.

What's that?

Didn't die.

There are some
horrific images in this.

It's a man drowned
in the bathtub.

And he's just like bloated.

It's tragic, but
it's also very scary.

Something that just like
sticks in your mind.

"Next of Kin" was
written and directed

by Tony Williams.

In this film, you can
see a lot of horror DNA.

You can see some Clouzot,

you see "Les
Diabolique" in there.

You can see some Fulci in there.

Any time somebody gets
it in the eyeballs.

Linda!

Oh, it's rest home horror,

which is very cool,
but it's very Gothic,

and it's what we might call
today slow burn horror.

It's got that nice Australian
unhinged energy to it.

Australian horror from the 80s

doesn't get a lot of love,

but when there's a
nice example of it,

like "Next of Kin",
it's fun to revisit.

"Amityville Horror",
big boogeyman story

on the east coast in the 70s.

True crime, kid shotguns his
parents, and his siblings,

and he claims demonic
possession was part of it.

It gets turned into a book.

It eventually gets
made into a movie

with James Brolin
and Margot Kidder.

To this day you see those
windows, "Amityville Horror".

Three years later,
they're making

"Amityville 2: The Possession",

which is essentially
the "true story"

of the kid killing his family.

- "Amityville
-The Possession".

"Amityville: The Possession".

It has to do with possession,

but mainly it's about incest.

Take off your nightgown.

What?

This prequel is loosely
based on the DeFeo murders,

but the names have been changed.

Everything seems quite idyllic.

It's a nice little
lovely family,

until it's not.

The dad's a fucking asshole.

He's abusive to
everybody in the family.

- Think you're funny?
- What are you doing?

Huh?

You can't hit him-

Burt Young is maybe the
scuzziest dad in horror.

Please, don't hit that child.

Listen, this isn't your
business, you hear that?

We've got a teenage son
and a teenage daughter.

They've got a real weird
dynamic right off the get-go,

and it's one of those things
where you're questioning,

is it supposed to be like that?

Maybe the actors
were just having

a little too much chemistry

for brother and sister.

Until the brother
gets possessed,

and then gets it
on with his sister,

who is not possessed,
so I don't really know

what her excuse was.

Playing the young
daughter is Diane Franklin

from "Last American
Virgin", "Better Off Dead",

real apple pie, America's
sweetheart type stuff.

And if you wanna watch her
have sex with her brother,

"Amityville II" is
the film for you.

This skin-crawling incest
that happens in the film

was actually cut down from
what was in the original cut,

and it was apparently
a lot more graphic.

"Amityville II:
The Possession"

was directed by Italian
director, Damiano Damiani.

Written by Tommy Lee Wallace.

Best known for "Halloween
3: Season of the Witch".

And he co-wrote this
with Dardano Sacchetti

who often worked
with Lucio Fulci.

This one actually does have
really wonderful effects.

I mean, it's just
like 80s to the core.

Bladder effects,
like as the brother

is becoming more
and more possessed,

neck is just pulsing, or
his head will be pulsing.

My favorite moment in
"Amityville II: The Possession",

there's this part
where the camera

kind of goes overhead,
when he's like,

I guess the demon is
really going into his body.

"Amityville: The
Possession", and "Amityville"

the original first film are
two totally separate entities.

The tone is not the same.

The first one is just
straight up scary.

The second one has
kinds of all these weird

other tones in it.

You wanted it!

You feel very uncomfortable
for different reasons.

Look at them.

They're pathetic animals.

They'd be better off
if you killed them.

The second one is
just like fuck it,

let's go off the rails.

We're gonna loosely
use this title,

and then just go way off
into left field over here.

And it's for that extra
bit of sickening material,

and there's lots of
it in this picture,

that's the reason that
"Amityville II: The Possession"

makes my list as one of the
worst films of the year.

That no one
would ever forget the girls

in "The House On Sorority Row".

That mystical world of the
sorority fraternity culture,

in the 80s, all films
were pointing us

towards that's
where you're going.

If it's not "Revenge
of the Nerds",

it's "The House
on Sorority Row".

I wanna thank you for helping me

become what I am today.

Wasted.

And then it's like,
what crazy debauchery

is gonna happen within the walls

of that sorority house?

And how will we be punished

for indulging in
that debauchery?

You filth!

Evil house mother.

The house mother to
end all house mothers.

Is killed accidentally

by sorority girls,

and revenge ensues.

I got my start "House
on Sorority Row".

I'd just come out
of theater school.

I think we got paid $50 a day.

We worked really hard, you know.

We shot night for
night for weeks.

So we were like
zombies during the day.

The director, he
kept a firm hand

without ever being an
asshole, to be honest.

Which is saying a lot
for a first endeavor.

Everyone else is
wearing a cute frock,

and I'm wearing these
ugly beige pants

and this sweater, and
I had to run around

in that stupid outfit,
and put it on everyday.

And I did not feel
like I looked terrific.

She's alive.

We put her back in the pool,

and she was still alive!

He also colored my hair brown,

because of course, smart
good girls have brown hair.

Me being the good girl, the
one who stays in the house

while her friends are being
murdered left and right.

That always makes me giggle.

Would you not run away?

Are you gonna go roaming
around in this house

looking for clues?

But I was drugged, so I
do have that to defend me.

Just a mild sedative.

It definitely had a style

that a lot of low budget
films really don't have.

"The House on Sorority
Row" ended up being

one of those movies that became

a bit of a cult fan favorite.

As much as I like to say it's
all because it's great film,

I think some of it
is, you know, fun

in that it's a little
bit over the top,

and when you think that's part
of the appeal of the genre.

I never thought I'd
be talking about it.

You know, I'm 63.

I was 23.

Wow.

But I have no
regrets whatsoever.

It was fun.

As an actor watching films,

I certainly dial
into performances.

I sort of learned
my craft by doing.

I had taken dance lessons,

and so I started
out doing theater.

♪ Lady Godiva

The first television
project I did was Maude.

And it was a four camera sitcom

that we filmed like a play.

So stop asking
who I was out with,

what we had for dinner,

and did we go all the way.

And then my next
real film education

came when I did
"Someone's Watching Me"

for John Carpenter.

I played, I believe,
the first lesbian woman

in a television film.

And he had written
a fantastic scene

in which her
sexuality is revealed.

Who's he?

She.

And we did it, and
John came up to me

and he said that was
great, that was perfect.

Do less.

Don't worry.

You're not my type.

I'm not worried.

And it was the proverbial
light bulb going off.

Oh, because it's film,

because it's not theater.

Do less.

Now, especially something
like "Creepshow",

which was George Romero,

which was such an
outrageous character,

which was George saying
no, you can be bigger!

You can be bigger,
you can be bigger.

That was like, wait a
minute, wait a minute.

I just spent the last three
years learning to do less.

I mean, where would you be
without me to take care of you?

The important thing about
approaching a character

like Billy in "Creepshow",
who everybody will watch

the movie and say oh,
she's just a bitch.

When was the last time
you got it up, Henry?

Huh?

When was the last time
you were a man in our bed?

She's the most horrible,
and she needed to be

so that everybody
would cheer when Henry

arranged for her demise.

Don't you ever touch me again!

As an actor, you
don't play I'm a bitch.

You explore whatever
it is that made her

the way she was.

She's incredibly disappointed

in the way her life turned out.

Henry, goddammit!

How many times have I told you

to lock the goddam door?

You have to
understand what it is

that drives the behavior.

At least Henry has
me to take care of him,

don't you, dear?

I didn't see a lot
of films growing up,

but I do remember something
called "Donovan's Brain".

I don't know that I had
ever seen a horror film

besides "Donovan's Brain",
until John invited me

to the screening of "Halloween".

I had just done The Tonight
Show earlier that day,

and announced on Johnny Carson

that John and I were engaged.

And then I went to the
screening of "Halloween".

By the end of that film,
I suspect that he was

black and blue, because
I kept going, oh my god!

Oh my god!

I was like, oh, oh!

Oh my, oh!

You know?

It's the first horror
film I'd ever seen.

It was at that point
that Tom Atkins,

who is also at the screening,

leaned over to me and said Addy,

I'm not sure you
should marry this guy.

We cannot let
Adrienne marry this guy.

There's something
wrong with him.

He makes this kind of movie.

But she married him,

and they had a lovely
child together, Cody.

Well, stay up with me.

And I'll figure out some
way to keep you occupied.

When John first had me read
the script for "The Fog",

I was pretty involved
in social issues.

"Coming Home" was a huge hit,

and "The China Syndrome"
was a huge hit.

And I read it, and it was like,

uh, this is a horror film.

This is not about
women's rights.

It's not about abortion.

But, I mean, I loved the
character and everything,

and of course, since,
it's one of the things

that I am most proud of doing.

The one piece of merchandise
that I really love,

"The Fog" action figure.

I think that's a marvelous
piece of merchandising.

None of us knew in the 80s

that the work we were doing,

"Escape From New York", or
"The Fog", or "Creepshow',

would be as viable today.

The career of an
actor, when it works,

is a wonderful career.

"Xtro".

Some extraterrestrials
aren't friendly.

From New Line Cinema.

Rated R.

Roger begins with a
horror film called "Xtro".

That's X-T-R-O.

Remember that spelling,
remember that name.

So, "Xtro" is about an
alien that kills people,

but it's also the cliche
of the disturbed kid

with the powers, and
evil clowns, too.

It's kind of everything.

I'd say it's very confusing

slightly surrealistic movie,

and I'm not really
sure what it's about.

So a father gets
abducted by aliens.

The wife thinks that he
ran off with another woman.

The alien impregnates somebody.

Then the woman gives
birth to a human child,

and it turns out
to be the father,

who's been abducted and reborn.

I'm told that it's
about abandonment.

Some very smart
critic told me that.

And I just hung onto that
word every since then.

I can't remember
a thing until today.

I saw Tony in the streets, so-

You want to come home.

Like it was.

I think what makes
marketable film

of any kind is being unusual.

Bob Shaye, who's the
head of New Line,

and who started New Line,

I think Bob Shaye wanted
to have his own "Phantasm".

We just wanted to shock people,

and make our little horror film,

and we wanted to have
good acting and so on,

so you've got this
rather uneasy business,

between all these little
Shakespearean actors,

and all this nonsense
that they've got to talk.

You'll be able to
do lots of things.

Don't be frightened.

Use it when you need it.

The best part in "Xtro",

there's this creepy alien effect

where it's a person
doing one of those

backwards spider walks.

The prosthetic is
put on backwards,

so it looks very unsettling.

He's walking backwards
with his back to the ground

on all fours, but with
his stomach sticking up

to the sky, and the head of
the creature on backwards,

which was absolute
misery for him,

because it was cold,
and we were having him

walking through swamps,
and things like that.

A civilization develops
enough intelligence

to come all the way to
Earth from another star,

and then they don't
have enough sense

to not stand in the
middle of the road

when a car is coming.

When it came to
this birth scene,

which, I think nobody understood

except me and the
special effects guys.

We had to have a thing
with the false floor,

and all this sort of thing,
and trap doors, and whatnot.

We did a lot of it in one take.

As much of it as we
could in one take.

All sorts of nasty kind
of afterbirth stuff.

And then we had
the umbilical cord,

that we made out of
spaghetti, actually.

And he had to bite through that.

We were astonished we got it.

No, I wasn't a bit worried
about it going too far.

I was worried about it
not going far enough.

Bob, god bless him, was
always more for having

more weird things going on.

He said hey, you gotta
have a panther in there,

jumping out at someone.

Something like that.

He wanted his panther.

And he got it.

It's as if they're
so pretentious

that they're trying
to make some kind of

a philosophical statement.

It was garbage.

It was offensive.

Garbage is the operative word.

With little films like these,

the audience knows
it's a low budget film.

They know right away.

They can sniff it
from the first frame.

And they tend to
be more forgiving.

That was just at the
start of home video.

And I remember the first
week that we came out,

we beat "Poltergeist",
if you can believe that,

in the VHS ratings.

It grew legs, and
it just ran off.

It absolutely killed in
the home video market.

Amazing.

"Curtains".

The ultimate nightmare.

Canadian horror movie.

When you come from Canada,
you don't really realize

that the movies are from Canada.

Like Rush.

You don't think of it
as Canada's best band.

They're just a great band.

And what's the difference?

I mean, they're more friendly?

It kind of just blends in
with the American ones.

"Curtains" is about
a bunch of actresses

who go to a director's mansion
to audition for a role.

Red flag.

And there is a
killer on the loose.

And they're all also
competing for a part.

It gets messy.

An actress named Samantha
commits herself to a psych ward.

She's trying to,
like, be the part.

And then the director
fucking leaves her there

and goes to a mansion to
hang out with five other

younger, hotter actresses,

while a killer in a hag
mask goes after them.

It has these "What Ever
Happened to Baby Jane?" vibes,

just because there is that
element in the beginning

of the older actress who
gets left in a psych ward,

and has to escape
to get revenge.

What are you gonna do now?

What I love about the film

is it knows that Striker,
the director, is a creep.

Now seduce me.

No words.

You can make sounds if you like.

The horror in "Curtains" for me

is the way that Jonathan
Striker treats the women.

He forces two women
to seduce each other,

and she's topless,
and you can just tell

the women are not into it,

but they just do it because
it's requested of them.

He preys on them, ends
up sleeping with them.

Almost like an allegory
on the industry.

And there's that great
scene in the frozen pond,

where the one actress is
skating away from the killer

with this doll in her hand,

and the killer's got the mask on

with this side, like raises it,

Fucking insane, and
it's all in slow-mo,

and it's the weirdest
mask you've ever seen.

You don't know if
it's a woman or not.

It makes you fear the daylight,

and the emptiness in what
can happen when you're alone

in a seemingly safe space.

Originally, they wanted to
create a banshee creature,

but they didn't move
forward with it.

"Curtains" has a very
interesting kind of tone.

That's because it
was actually directed

by two different people.

It feels almost very slow,
and very mood building,

and then in some scenes,
it's very slash 'em up,

and darkly lit, that it feels
like an art house slasher.

"Curtains" is for
people who like dolls

and ice skating,
and old witch masks.

That has me written all over it.

So I'm sold.

"Hell of the Living Dead".

Also known as "Night
of the Zombies",

originally titled "Virus".

But known in England as
"Zombie Creeping Flesh".

This is the VHS tape,
and a perfect example

of the lurid artwork
that I would see

on the shelves of a video shop

and think that movie is for me.

There's a lab in
Papua New Guinea

that has a chemical that
accidentally gets released

that turns pretty much
everybody into zombies.

And you follow this
group of people

that travel around the globe

trying to stop this
grand conspiracy.

Or maybe you just get eaten.

This is an Italian film
that was dubbed in English.

It was directed by Bruno Mattei,

under the pseudonym
Vincent Dawn.

If you're familiar
with his work,

you know the dubbing
is pretty terrible,

but that just adds to
the awesomeness of it.

And we liked each other.

We'd be in the sack
together by now.

That's your opinion.

Bruno Mattei was the
copycat of Lucio Fulci.

"Hell of the Living Dead"
came about in the wake

of the success of
Fulci's "Zombie",

so essentially he was making
an Italian zombie movie

which was shot in Spain,

but using the tropes that
Fulci had come up with

on the back of ripping
off George Romero.

Set to the scores of Goblin,

but none of the score was
actually scored for this movie.

They used the soundtrack
from "Contamination"

and "Dawn of the
Dead" by Goblin,

and scored this movie
with those scores.

Father.

Father.

What's wrong with you?

When the pandemic
hit really hard,

of course I couldn't
stop making movies.

The idea of "Corona Zombies"
was these ditzy girls,

they turn a movie on
that was the footage

from "Hell of the Living
Dead", with all this

very funny clever new dialogue.

We have
just received shocking video

of what is believed to be
ground zero of the virus.

It was much like
"What's Up Tiger Lily?"

Is that one of
the corona zombies?

Shh.

"Hell of the Living
Dead", it's very ahead

of its time, and it's
very much against

man infecting the
earth with pollution.

And that is what's
causing the outbreak.

But it's also full of
Fulci-esque rotting zombies

and gore and splatter,

and eyes being poked out,

and guts being poked out.

This movie is entirely enjoyable

from beginning to end.

It was the first
example where I realized

that the Video Nasties
panic was nonsense.

Father help me.

"Possession" is a
film about a couple

whose marriage is
deteriorating fast.

What do you expect of me?

Look what you're doing!

Mark and Anna, you
can see that they are

extremely unhappy
with each other.

They're screaming at each other.

Isabelle Adjani is incredible.

But especially in
the subway scene.

And it's so disturbing.

One of the most effective scenes

of showing somebody just
completely losing themselves.

Sam Neill as Mark in this film

is a very anxious character.

Cinematography
really communicates

his inner feelings.

He's also very
paranoid about Anna.

Their whole
relationship together

is extremely hard to watch.

You know what this is for?

The lies!

Then you have to add much more.

They're very codependent,
and very bad for each other.

The dramatic elements are
really what drives the movie,

but then you have, it turns
into this creature feature.

My god.

He made love to me all night.

She actually in this movie
has sex with this monster,

which was created
by Carlo Rambaldi,

who most people
know is the person

who created E.T. for
Steven Spielberg.

I can't believe
that they talked her

into doing that entire scene.

And it looks so realistic.

"Possession" is the epitome
of relationship horror.

That feeling of how it
is to all out of love

with someone you care about.

Those moments of
desperation and loss

are so heartbreaking.

It's a lot to take in.

It's waiting to see
who will die first.

That is a movie that
deserved all the Oscar love,

because it really
took a lot of risks,

but it did a lot of
profound things as well.

"Devil Fetus" was made by a
bunch of first time filmmakers

that got a hold of themselves
some iconic actors.

And it's crazy.

The special effects are insane.

A woman buys a vase.

The vase has a demon.

He crawls out, and
he has sex with her

and impregnates her.

And that's the
devil fetus title.

Everybody dies around
her in miraculous ways.

That antique shop has
a lot to answer for.

Like, I hope she
kept the receipt.

It's a very weird movie.

What is cool about it is
these special effects,

and it has so much 80s charm.

You have this animated
thunder and lightning

coming out of people's hands,

you have them flying across
things, and floating heads.

The martial arts in this
is incredible, actually.

That's one of the
biggest selling points.

There's all kinds
of things happening

in this movie that's
hard to explain.

To us it might seem
like a fever dream,

but to the people who were
involved in the culture,

they may know all of these
things from childhood.

Very few category
three films were cut,

and this one was.

It has to deal with
gore and the assault

that happens in the film.

Cat three goes to 11.

You know?

It's a little bit higher
than 10 and NC-17,

but it's not quite X.

Which, X-rated films were
rated Cat three as well.

You think the film's
going this way,

and then it goes in a
different direction.

That's what's unique
about "Devil Fetus".

It has the most epic
last five minutes

of any movie you'll ever see.

"Eyes of Fire".

The secret is
sleeping in the trees.

"Eyes of Fire" is a weird one,

because it's set in the 1700s,

and it concerns a preacher
who is accused of adultery,

and is banished from town.

And he and his family
find themselves

in the woods beset by
spirits of Native Americans.

God damn them!

"Eyes of Fire" is an
American folk horror movie.

This valley is where
the lost blood gathers.

It's the home of the devil.

If you believe in it.

This film is entirely unique,

shot by a photographer
called Avery Crounse.

I don't believe he'd made
a feature film before this,

and he's only made
a couple since.

It is a very photogenic
folk horror movie

shot in the woods.

As opposed to the meat
and potato slasher stuff

of the 80s, there's a
lot of surreal imagery,

and surreal moments,
faces in trees,

just weird
hallucinogenic moments

that don't feel of a piece
with the 80s, necessarily,

which in itself
makes it exciting.

This is what makes it
really unique and stick out.

Folk horror is a
very broad subgenre,

but it had a real moment
in the 60s and 70s,

and was primarily
a British thing,

so the fact that you're
seeing a folk horror film,

A, in the 80s, and
B, set in America,

was a bit unusual.

It was independently
produced by Avery Crounse.

He basically moved on.

He didn't particularly connect
with the film industry.

We went to great
effort to find him

so that we could
include "Eyes of Fire"

in our All the Haunts Be
Ours folk horror box set.

He basically still
owned the movie.

He had the negative
in a storage unit,

and it had been sitting there
since the 80s, basically.

Had not been scanned since.

I can see again.

He sent it here so that
we could scan it here

at Severin office, and he
even had a previous version

called "Crying Blue
Sky", which was longer,

and we were able to scan that
and include that as well.

So the reason it had
been out of distribution

was just because he
was out of the business

and had not been
traceable since.

Don't worry, my child.

Luckily we were able to get it.

"Boarding House".

Rated R.

"Boarding House".

It was a movie
that didn't do well

that has gained a cult
following through the years.

John Wintergate, and
his wife Kalassu,

I believe they're
a little drunk,

and they watched a
horror film at home,

and they both have the idea

of we can do that.

An interview John
Wintergate was watching

where George Lucas stated
that video is the future.

He got this idea it was easy
to make a movie on video.

You buy a video camera
for a few hundred dollars,

and you buy some blank
tapes, and you shoot a movie.

What is that?

It's apple juice.

Oh my god.

You didn't have to say that.

They decided to
make a horror comedy.

They made the first big
shot on video movie.

But Wintergate and Kalassu

wrote, directed,
starred in this film,

did the music for it as well.

They were both musicians.

The husband and wife,
making something different.

When people watch the
movie, it's like wow,

this movie's crazy.

It's doing all these
sorts of things

that don't relate
to one another.

I'm preparing the Thorazine

for Mr. Ratchet's shock therapy.

Well, that's 'cause
it's heavily cut,

and that horror
comedy ended up being

two hours and 30 minutes long.

The distributors
did not like that.

They told to recut the
movie into what we got

with "Boarding House",
which is an hour and a half

of a crazy, bizarre movie.

They cut out all the
comedy in the movie,

and tried to cut it as
a serious horror film.

I think that explains
a lot of the weirdness

in "Boarding House".

Watch.

This was the first,
and probably only,

wide release of a
shot on video movie

to screen and theaters,

because he blew up
35 millimeter prints,

which was very costly.

"Blood Cult" is
sometimes considered

the first shot on video
film, but it is not.

"Blood Cult" was the
first shot on video movie

made for the video
market on home video.

"Blood Cult".

The first movie made especially
for the home video market.

"Boarding House" paved
the way for shot on video.

Filmmakers took notice that
you could buy a video camera,

or borrow your parents',
because they probably have one,

and then start shooting
movies with your friends.

That kick started the
shot on video boom.

You are trespassing.

This is my house!

Throughout the
80s, Asia were making

all of these horror films
that didn't really get

much seen across the world,

but they were producing
some incredible stuff,

from interesting places.

I grew up in a half
Asian household.

My mum is from Philippines.

She made sure I was
aware that monsters

and ghosts and
creatures are real.

Asian horror just really
gets under your skin.

The first time I was exposed
to Asian horror movies

was when the whole boom came
with "The Ring", "Ju-on".

"The Grudge".

That opened a whole
new world for me.

I just thought, okay this is
the stuff of my nightmares.

I think that Japanese
people don't care as much

in the realism.

It's more deep symbolism,

and much more thought
out inner mental things,

rather than just the
coherent storytelling.

That is more important to me.

Their points of
reference for what's scary

are often very different.

A lot of western horror,
there's a Judeo-Christian

sort of root to it.

And their fears and
their preoccupations,

and their boogeymen come
from a different place.

And it's exciting to see
that cultural difference,

exciting to see
what scares people

in a culture that's
not your own.

I was very attracted
to the Asian flow

of movies coming in that
are about dreamscapes,

that are about ghosts,
anything like that,

that gets me off in a
way that is both scary

and not as uncomfortable
as seeing a lot of blood.

My favorite Japanese
horror movie from the 80s

by far is "Sweet Home"
because it's so, so, so nuts.

At the same time, Capcom
released a game version,

which is almost better
than the actual film.

It's also the influence for
"Resident Evil" as well.

"Resident Evil".

So Kiyoshi Kurosawa, he's
the director of "Sweet Home".

And he went on to
do some of the best

Japanese horror
movies of the late 90s

and early 2000s.

If it wasn't for
him leading the way

making Japanese movies that
could potentially appeal

to a Western audience,
you wouldn't have had

this J-horror explosion.

When you mention
80s Asian horror,

a lot of people think
of "House" from Japan,

although that one's from 1977.

If you watch Japanese horror,

if you watch something
from Thailand,

if you watch something
from South Korea,

you're going to get a
different experience

from each of those.

South Korea's horror
movement that happened

just after J-horror explosion
has been incredible.

South Korea, Indonesia,
and the Philippines

kind of came into their
own regarding horror

a little bit later.

In terms of horror that's
commercially viable

in the Western world.

In the Philippines, there's
actually a lot of horror.

It's very sad that I can
not count on one hand

how many cross over to America.

One of the best
places for Asian horror,

especially out of
the 80s, was China.

A lot of it was based
on the mythology.

We see demons, vampires,
ghosts, poltergeists,

a lot of witches, a
lot of wizards as well.

Some movies you should
definitely check out

are "Kung Fu Zombie",
"Human Lanterns",

"Seeding of a Ghost",
and "Witch from Nepal"

with Chow Yun-Fat.

We know the Shaw
Brothers and Golden Harvest

as the purveyors of incredible
martial arts movies,

but they also dip their toe
in a lot of horror as well.

Asian horror cinema,

I like vampire movies for that.

Scary things that there is a
story of how they got scary.

The way they
present their monsters

is just so
fundamentally different

than how the Western
stereotype of a vampire

is just completely blown
up in an Asian film.

I'm completely obsessed
by the "Mr. Vampire" movies.

I'd never seen Jiangshi
vampires before.

I was mesmerized by
how comedic they were.

They hop.

When you watch "Mr. Vampire",

you see why people
are scared of them,

because they are relentless,

and you have to know
all of the tricks

in order to defeat them.

"The Jitters" is
an unusual film.

Plus "The Jitters" was
directed by John Fasano

and not a Chinese guy.

There's a little bit
lost in translation.

It played fast and loose
with Chinese mythology

quite a lot.

Someone thought that
since they're so popular

over there, we'd make
an American version

of these movies, and
see how that does.

I got him!

I'm uncomfortable
with the movie now,

because there's a lot of
racial stereotypes in there,

at the time, I didn't
really think was a big deal,

but it is.

Understanding horror
explored through the lens

of other cultures, it's
an important thing,

and it's a cool thing.

Different cultures have
all these different kinds

of mythologies to draw from,

and there's just this
endless well of stories

that we can build upon.

When you're talking
about Asian horror now,

people are looking at it
from a broader perspective

because they've been able
to watch these movies.

Whereas in the 80s, a lot
of them were available,

but they just never really made
it outside of their markets.

Asian horror was
somewhat inaccessible

to a lot of us in the 80s.

Video stores didn't
carry a lot of it,

and it's only after J-horror
came up after the fact

that then suddenly we're
retroactively going back

into these catalogs and
finding these titles

that were not on our
radar in the 80s.

In a way that's kind of cool,

because then that's a
bucket of 80s horror

that we can go back
and look for now.

School was
hell, but vacation was murder.

"The Mutilator".

It was originally
titled "Fall Break",

but the filmmakers apparently
felt "The Mutilator"

was a much more
user friendly title.

Four days of R
and R at the beach.

I'm in.

Sounds good to me.

I got a bad feeling about this.

College kids on
their fall break,

and they get picked
off one by one.

I'm coming to get you!

By different use of power tools,

and home repair tools.

One of the friends,
his dad hates him

because he blames him for
the death of his mother.

Just like this angry
dad who hates his son

and is gonna take it out
on him and his friends.

"The Mutilator" is
one of those that tries

to present as a comedy,
but isn't sure it wants

to be a comedy,
and you're not sure

if you're supposed to be
laughing at a lot of it.

Looks like the party's
over for this joker.

Oh.

Yeah.

My dad ran over him
with a ski boat.

It's dancing to the
beat of its own drum.

What's wrong with the water?

It looks like it's been
loaded down with chlorine.

Will that hurt you?

No, in fact it
probably prevents herpes.

The art for "The
Mutilator" has this tagline

that says by sword, by
pick, by ax, bye-bye.

Catchy title, catchy tagline,

and some eye-grabbing art.

The more extreme the
exploitation level is,

the more likely a teen
is gonna rent that.

And that's the idea.

And that's why we
love these movies

so much to this day.

My first film in America,

which is absolutely adored
doing, was "Maniac",

and I got to work with my
lovely Joe Spinell again,

who I first met in "Star Crash".

People connect with Joe Spinell.

He is a compelling
actor to watch.

I loved working with
Joe because he was

such a brilliant actor,
and a sweet, dear person.

"The Last Horror Film" is
about New York cab driver

who's obsessed with
Caroline Munroe,

and he follows her to
the Cannes Film Festival

where a serial killer
is on the loose.

It was called "The
Last Horror Film",

and then they called it
"Fanatic" after that.

This film was an unofficial
followup to "Maniac".

I got talent, ma!

I'm gonna be a great
director someday!

Don't yell at your mother!

It's great to see Joe Spinell

and Caroline Munroe together,

and I think the
pairing is fantastic.

Who is it?

We were an odd couple.

We were, weren't we?

Jana Bates is going to
star in my next movie.

It's all set.

I'm producing and directing.

Vinny, are you sure
you're making a movie?

He was wonderful in that film.

Very quirky, very quirky.

And my character, she
was spooked by Joe,

because Joe had an obsession
for this actress, Jana Bates.

Who are you?

Get out.

I thought we'd just have a drink

and talk about the film.

You'll be absolutely
perfect in it.

It was directed
by David Winters,

who was in "West Side Story",

and sure enough, they
just showed up in Cannes,

and started shooting this movie,

so there's a lot of
run and gun footage

of the Cannes Film Festival.

One of the first guerrilla films

to be made there, for sure.

And I had to run along
the Croisette in a towel.

They were all lined
up, real people,

to see Jack Nicholson,
Leslie Caron,

go on the red carpet.

They said Caroline, you're
just gonna have to run

along the red carpet.

I said what, I've
got a towel on.

They said that's okay,
just do your own thing.

Please!

Hot damn, that's Jana Bates!

"The Last Horror Film"
is not as gory as "Maniac"

but it does have a good
amount of kills in it.

There's a lot of meta elements.

There's one bit where
Joe Spinell's in a cinema

watching a new horror movie,

and he actually is
eating his popcorn,

and starts throwing up

because it's too
gross, too disgusting.

It's questioning horror movies

because "Maniac" got
a lot of backlash

because of how
misogynistic it was.

Now tell us why you're
such a failure, Vinny.

I'm a genius.

Jana Bates is going
to star in my movie.

She loves me!

It's a very bizarre film.

So I would think
the ultimate theme

for "The Last Horror
Film" or "The Fanatic"

would have to be obsession.

Obsessive love.

He loved her.

Or he loved what he
saw of her onscreen.

But he didn't know her.

Could you move your
head a little to the right

in this space?

Perfect, just perfect.

I always think it's
really interesting

when the protagonist
of a horror film,

especially in this
period, is a guy,

because usually we
associate the 80s

as the time where final
girls came into full force.

"Mutant".

"Mutant", originally released

as "Night Shadows" theatrically.

It turned up on VHS as "Mutant".

The two very capable
leads are Wings Hauser

and Lee Montgomery.

Our car broke down and we
just need a place to stay.

We'll be gone first thing
in the morning, I promise.

They end up in a dead end town

because their car messed up.

They go to the local bar,

and instantly these
locals beat them up,

rough them up.

Oh no!

They end up being patched
up by the local doctor.

And they start to get
their first inklings

that something is
wrong in this town,

that people are going missing.

This is toxic waste
infecting a small community

and turning them into zombies.

This mutation somehow causes

an increasing need for blood.

Just so many zombies.

They're all over the place.

It was obviously
inspired by George Romero.

And you see this
in a lot of films,

like "Return of
the Living Dead",

and you see it in a
lot of the Troma films.

Toxic waste was a
big thing in the 80s.

I like my zombies to be serious.

They definitely got
the vibe of what made

those movies so much fun.

No!

The effects are kind of hokey,

because when these
zombies approach you,

and they touch you, which
ultimately turns you

into a zombie, all this
steam comes off you,

almost like they're
pressing a shirt,

like a big life sized iron.

Jack?

But there's one
real cool sequence

where you just know
there's gonna be a zombie.

You just know it.

And then she slowly
goes over to him,

slowly pulls out the covers.

These locals just inherently
hate other people.

Some secrets should
remain secret,

and the way you do
that is by keeping

all the outsiders away.

"The New York Ripper"
is a very violent giallo

made by Lucio Fulci
after he'd already made

"Zombie Flesh
Eaters", "The Beyond",

and "House by the Cemetery".

Fulci was kind of riding
high at this point

in his career.

"Zombie" was a huge
success internationally

by the standards of Italian
exploitation movies.

He went on and decided
to make a thriller.

About a ripper in New York.

During this time, a lot
of Italian filmmakers

would come to the US and
shoot establishing footage,

and that's all tied into
how Italian filmmakers

were trying to make their
films seem American.

The killer in the
film has a Donald Duck

kind of quacking voice.

Said he called back.

Sounded just like a duck.

Like a duck?

Which adds to the
element of the bizarre

of this movie, and I
think it shows Fulci's

sense of humor as well.

There's a fair amount
of sleaze in the movie

as well, and nudity.

There's a very famous
sequence in the film

where an actress
is tied to a bed,

and essentially
gets razor bladed

in the eye and in the nipple,

and it's extremely
graphic and close up,

but it has that ocular violence

that Fulci had
become famous for,

and he was trying
to outdo, it seems,

in every movie that he did.

It definitely pushed
the boundaries

of what was acceptable.

This film made sure
that in England,

if you were found with a copy,

you were definitely
having it seized,

and you would
probably be arrested.

Like a duck?

Quack, quack, quack.

Just like that.

"The Initiation".

The ceremony that
will never die,

as long as new blood is pledged.

I rented that movie
the very first time,

because I loved Daphne
Zuniga in "Spaceballs",

and it was right when
Melrose Place was hitting.

And we've got a
girl in a sorority,

she's being hazed.

Her character, Kelly, is
having these nightmares,

so she actually goes
through a sleep study

trying to figure out the reason

behind her nightmares.

It's fairly common for
the subconscious mind

to fictionalize certain
emotional states.

There's a woman
committing adultery

with another guy.

A little girl comes
in and catches them,

starts stabbing the
crap out of somebody,

and then the guy goes on fire,

and she can't
remember what happens.

I was in a coma
for three months,

and they kept me in this
private hospital in Chicago.

When I came out of
it, I had no memory.

Her father, who's
played by Clu Gulager,

owns this big shopping building,

and she's tasked
with breaking in

and stealing a night
porter's outfits.

Course, a lot of
bad things happen.

It is a movie that
takes a little time

to get going, but once
they get into that mall,

there's some really fun kills.

You're finding bodies
all over the place

The security guard is a bummer.

There's so many wacky out
there things in the 80s,

where I guess they
just tried things

more than we do now.

You know, it takes
some leaps and bounds.

Spoiler alert, there's
a twist at the end.

Peter!

And you're left
sitting there like,

wait, what is going on?

You have to rationalize
it to yourself

so that you can
move on and finish

the rest of the movie.

It's a total shock at the end.

I've never seen
anything like that

before in my life.

The more I think about
it, the more I think

they just wanted
to blow our minds.

Scared the shit out of them!

The only reason that they
would set horror movies

on holidays is that they
had no marketing budget.

So it was a way to get
attention from the press.

Most decisions made in the 80s

were strictly
financial decisions.

A present from the people

who brought you
"Friday the 13th"

now comes "Don't
Open Till Christmas".

"Don't Open Till
Christmas" is a real curio,

a slasher film set in the UK

about a killer who goes around

killing people in Santa suits.

It's almost like
Fulci directed this.

It's so grimy and slimy,

and as soon as you step
foot into an alley,

you're dead meat.

The reason for the serial
killer killing Santa Claus

is obviously some trauma
from when he was a kid.

And you see this in a
flashback streaked dream,

and he's just been,
for all these years,

hellbent on getting
revenge on Santa.

The department store,
you have this big, fat,

Santa Claus guy,
who's going around

and leering at all the girls.

And as soon as he
gets to the toilets,

you know what's gonna happen.

And it's just blood
squirting everywhere.

He gets his apt punishment.

Caroline Munroe turns
up in this film as well,

which was a surprise.

She's like a dancer in a club.

Man, that woman is beautiful.

If you blink, you're
gonna miss me in it.

George Dugdale, my husband,

he did the effects on
"Don't Open Till Christmas".

They got the Piccadilly
Theater in London.

I went in for about two hours,

on the thing, and I
wiggled about the stage,

and kind of sang
"Warrior of Love".

Basically, that's my bit in it.

♪ I'm the warrior of love

♪ Yes I am

Father Christmas appears,
and the trapdoor,

just as I'm mid-sing,
and so I react to him,

the Father Christmas dead.

Maybe they just needed
a bit of a filler.

Maybe they thought, oh we've
got five minutes to spare.

Bang her in.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah

A lot of Santas
die in this film,

so if you are into horror movies

for the festive body count,
then this is the one.

There's a party going on!

Look, there's
no party here, mate.

I wasn't allowed to
watch horror movies

or sci-fi movies when
I was little.

Because I was too sensitive.

I was older when I
saw "The Exorcist".

That was the most frightening
movie I've ever seen.

I felt it could really happen.

This study of the human psyche

has always been
prevalent in my work,

and in why I want to work.

My whole method
is the less I know

what's gonna happen, the more
alive in the moment I am.

The most memorable scene
in "The Hills Have Eyes"

with Wes was when I had to
work with the tarantula.

They assured me that
it couldn't hurt me.

Afterwards, I found out that
oh yeah, it could've.

And I said Wes, I'm scared.

And he said, will you trust me,

that I will make sure
that everything is handled

so that you're safe?

And that's just who Wes was.

You did.

To me, "The Howling" was
the battle of good and evil,

which goes on within all of us.

There was so much
in "The Howling"

that elevated that film,
because of Joe Dante.

Joe brings more of who
he is into his films,

because Joe is very funny.

And he always finds a way

to bring that humor,

even if it's dark humor,

into his projects.

"Cujo" was always about
what a mother would do

for her child.

It was never a
horror film to me.

It was a statement of
how far a mother would go

to keep her kid safe.

It's not a monster,
it's just a doggie.

I've heard from so many people,

I watched it when I was younger,

and it was a horror film.

I watch it now
after I have kids,

it's a whole different film.

My father was a
severe alcoholic.

So for most practical
purposes, I had a single mom.

And she was a strong mom.

And I had a strong grandma
that helped raise me.

So I had some really
good personal material

to call on.

There were nine dogs
that played Cujo.

Two black labs that
could fit in a dog suit

if we needed it, and a
stuntman in the dog suit.

The dogs were all
trained to go after toys,

and we had to tie their
tails down with fish wire,

because they were
having so much fun.

Stephen King is the
sweetest, kinda shy,

very gentle man.

When he came on
the set of "Cujo",

I went, where does it come from?

And he just started laughing.

After "E.T.", I was
plagued with mother parts.

It's not that I don't
want to play mothers,

I just want to play everything.

Dear god, I probably
have 800 roles

of every kind of mom.

Psycho mom, sweet
mom, drugged mom,

killer mom, hooker mom.

Everything!

No!

No, no!

It was almost like poetry
to me, "Shadow Play".

And I wanted desperately to
work with Cloris Leachman.

I had to do that very
artsy dream nude scene,

and my husband was
not happy about that.

I don't think I've ever
told this story before.

He called me, and he said

if you do that scene tomorrow,

I think we're done.

I said Chris, don't make
me make that choice.

We got my therapist on
the phone at three a.m.

in the morning, and
we worked it out

that what was
really bothering him

was that he would have
to wait all those months

wondering what happened.

And if the director would
agree to show him the dailies,

he would be okay.

Now, this is pretty
funny coming from a guy

who had a huge naked love
scene in "The Howling",

and he expected me to
be just fine with it,

thank you very much.

But, you know.

That's a man for you.

Rubin Galindo Jr.

He's awesome!

Rubin has an amazing
lineup of movies,

and he really made
a stamp in the 80s.

Rubin,

The difference between
the Mexican horror films,

and international horror films,

we like to mix a little
bit of spirituality,

and to let some
things to the unknown.

We don't tend to try to explain.

My dad did Luchador films,

with monsters films.

"El Santo Contra Los
Asesinos De Ostros Mundos".

The saint against killers
from other worlds.

It's beautiful.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

That struck me hard,

and then one day,
my dad told me,

would you think it's a good idea

to make a film like Michael
Jackson's "Thriller"?

I said, yes!

It's a great idea!

I wanna do that!

It's a bunch of teenagers,

they wanna have
fun in Halloween.

They go to the morgue,
they steal a corpse,

and they pretend to
do a demonic ritual.

They woke up the
demon inside, Devlon,

who was a killer.

And all of the sudden,
Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

Pops out of the tombs.

I felt very compromised
with the budget.

I had a hard time.

The lousiest effect of all

is when the guy that
was taking a leak,

Alonso Garcia, finds
the girl lying all dead

with blood all over her,

and then there is a flying ax

that hits him in the face.

You could see that the
ax had a metal pole.

I wasn't looking
through the camera,

because I was playing the ax.

I think that's the charm.

It's kind of looking
at a kitsch art,

when you see a horror film

that was done with
such a low budget,

it's looking at like
an Ed Wood film.

The only guy that
believes in the film

is the director.

It's hard to say
what kind of influence

Stephen King had on movies,

because of so many
directors attempted

so many different kinds
of film, it's hard to say.

It depends on how
well done they are.

I know Stephen
King loves "Cujo".

Stephen King's "Cat's Eye".

Capitalizing on the
popularity of "Creepshow',

and Stephen King in general,

the studios decided
they should make

another horror anthology,

and that's how we
got "Cat's Eye".

"Cat's Eye" is by Lewis Teague.

He'd done "Cujo" at the time.

It is also co-produced
by Milton Subotsky,

who was kind of the king
of anthology horror.

He's the guy who produced
Tales From the Crypt,

and Dr. Terror's House
of Horrors, and Asylum.

"Cat's Eye" is three stories,

two of which are taken
from Stephen King's

short story book, "Night Shift".

Watch for the "Cujo" and
"Christine" references

in the beginning.

The first segment is called
"Quitters Incorporated",

and it stars James Woods
as a guy who's trying

to quit smoking, and the
problem is what they do

to get you to quit smoking
is incredibly extreme.

The second segment
is "The Ledge".

This is about a rich guy played

by Kenneth McMillan,

who discovers that Robert Hayes

has been sleeping with his wife.

He tells him that if he makes it

all the way around the
building on this ledge,

that he can leave
and take his wife.

Boogie, boogie, boogie!

You bastard!

I just wanna keep
you on your toes!

The third story was more or less

how the whole thing came about.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis
contacted Stephen King

and told him he wanted
him to write a story

specifically for Drew Barrymore,

because they had just worked
together on "Firestarter".

He wrote the script
in less than 24 hours.

Help me!

The movie's tied together
with this cat, The General,

who's on his way to try
to protect Drew Barrymore

from a troll that's
living in her walls.

The troll's trying to
kill the little girl

by stealing her breath
while she sleeps.

Carlo Rambaldi
created the creature,

and it is very realistic.

The troll was a little
person in a suit.

They're doing puppetry, they're
doing forced perspective.

It's fantastic.

The movie actually is in the
Guinness Book of World Records

for making the
world's largest bed,

and the world's largest pillows.

I love how the record
player comes into play

with this segment.

Watch out!

Anthologies are
kinda hit or miss,

but with this, I think all
three segments are strong,

with the last one, "The
General", being the strongest.

Anytime you have a movie
where a cat is a hero,

I am in.

"Phenomena", from Dario Argento

is another sort of wildly
weird movie in itself.

When I first saw it,
I actually saw it

as "The Creepers" version.

There's actually three
versions of the film.

"Phenomena" follows
Jennifer Connelly,

who's a young student
studying abroad,

who basically has a
psychic connection

with bugs, of all things,

and she comes across
Donald Pleasant,

who's an entomologist
that works with bugs

in a means to help solve crimes.

It is just like, is Argento
kind of of woke up one day,

and was picking
motifs out of a hat,

and was like,
here's "Phenomena",

but yet somehow it all works,

and I think a lot
of credit is due

to Jennifer Connolly's
performance.

Don't touch it!

Stop yelling!

It's a bee!

I know.

It won't hurt me.

Insects never hurt me.

Donald Pleasant is
always a welcome addition

to any cast.

You're in a position to
do extraordinary things

with that gift of yours.

Daria Nicolodi, who had worked
so many times with Argento.

It's one of the first instances

I can remember her being
a villain in a movie.

And she's so great in it.

Inga is the chimpanzee,

who is the assistant to
McGreggor in the movie.

And she is a delight.

Early on in the
movie, there's a point

where she's playing
with a scalpel,

and he's like, Inga.

I don't want you ever,

I don't want you ever, ever
playing with this again.

That moment has a payoff
in the end that I won't ruin.

But Inga actually becomes your
favorite part of the movie.

The "Phenomena" soundtrack
is a lot of fun,

because it marries contemporary
music of that time,

especially heavy metal music,

with these traditional
score from Goblin.

It's really interesting
that it's specifically

in "Phenomena" that Argento
would use heavy metal music

in these weird ways that
shouldn't work, and yet it does.

♪ The smell of
resigned leather ♪

♪ The sticky iron mask

♪ As you cut and thrust

♪ And parried at the fencing

Particularly during
the kill scenes.

It actually heightens
the tensions,

in those scenes in particular,

and makes them play in
a very different way

than I think you see
contemporary music

played in American horror.

What you love is the feeling

when you're stomping out life.

"The Doctor and the Devils".

"The Doctor and the Devils",

this is a classic British
Gothic horror story.

Quite lavish, quite
beautiful to look at.

What now would they be
doing for a living, lovey?

Grave robbers.

It's definitely one
that seems to be missed

off a lot of lists of
best British horror films.

Before we disturbed his sleep.

It's crawling with maggots.

I need fresh subjects.

Specimens that I can teach with.

This is, in fact, a decent movie

with a great cast,
and a good story.

And I believe that that end

justifies any means.

And it stars some amazing
British actors and actresses.

Dr. Rock needs fresh bodies.

Could we pay them, sir?

Only half.

Julien Sands, Jonathan
Pryce, Stephen Rea and Twiggy.

It was amazing to see
Timothy Dalton in it.

We're scientists, not moralists.

I need bodies.

They're not called
Burke and Hare,

but they're kind of
analogs of Burke and Hare.

Quiet as death tonight.

Praise be the Lord.

For those that don't
know, Burke and Hare

is the story of
two grave robbers

who used to steal dead bodies.

And it's a true story.

Steal dead bodies and
sell them for profit.

And when the dead
bodies run out,

they start killing
actual alive people,

and selling them on.

Quite the benefactors, the dead.

Their story kind of spins
out on the head a little bit.

Put them out of their
misery, Mr. Fallon!

That's what the
major said to me.

Pryce, quite unhinged in
the characters he does play,

and he looks evil, as well.

Fresh, Broom.

Fresh as new moon here.

This film was directed
by Freddie Francis,

who you may know made his start

with Amicus and Hammer,

doing some great
Gothic horror for them.

And this is kind of a
continuation of that.

And you can see a lot
of the things he learned

with Amicus and Hammer,

the kind of level of detail
in the period pieces,

in the architecture,
in the costumes.

And that kind of Gothic horror,

where you don't necessarily
need to see the killing.

Fresh bodies, fresh
bodies, fresh bodies.

You may just see a
shadow on the wall,

or the aftermath, just
that beautiful girl's

blood on her mouth.

The ultimate message in
"The Doctor and the Devils"

is if you want something
done, do it yourself.

But it's really well-done,

and I was actually surprised
how well this holds up.

This city has a
heart of goodness.

And the bowels of squalor.

For a good time, call-

"Transylvania 6-5000".

Is good, huh?

"Transylvania 6-5000" is
an incredibly underrated

horror comedy, or should
I say comedy horror,

from the 80s.

It's got a lot of
really fun moments.

And the whole movie
just has this uplifting

jovial feeling to it.

Ah, Radu.

Yes, master?

Everybody involved
looks like they're having

an absolute blast.

You've got Ed Begley
Jr., Jeff Goldblum.

Every time I give you-

Two reporters
from a rag newspaper

are headed to Transylvania
to try to find Frankenstein.

So I'm counting on you guys
for a Frankenstein story.

I'm sorry, you're counting
on us for a what story?

My favorite part is
when they first arrive

in Transylvania, and they
ask a point blank question,

hey, where can we
find Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, you know
Frankenstein don't you?

Frankenstein?

Yes, the monster.

Ah.

Instead of just
laughing them off,

they drag it off
and humiliate them.

And then they get the
mayor to come out,

played by Jeffrey Jones,

and with the straightest
face possible,

says gentlemen, we're
in Transylvania.

Don't you want to
ask us about Dracula?

And then just
bursts out laughing.

I've got Godzilla
in the back room.

I like it, it's a good one.

How about the Blob?

It wouldn't be much
of a monster movie

without the monsters
actually showing up.

You got the mummy, a
Frankenstein monster,

a werewolf who looks
like Chewbacca.

Geena Davis as a vampire.

And then there's Kramer,
Michael Richards,

playing an Igor type.

Is good, huh?

Is funny!

Wearing funny goggles,

riding a mechanical
animal in a closet,

and slipping on banana peels.

Look, it's a
beautiful day today!

Whoa!

- Hey, hey!
- Oh!

Are you okay?

This one would make for
a wonderful double feature

with "Saturday the 14th".

They both have the same
kind of sophomoric humor.

And fun creature effects.

"Guinea Pig:
Devil's Experiment".

This is a found footage movie

in the faux documentary style.

It has title cards,
has an end card,

it's separated
into acts, almost.

It is about three guys
abusing this woman

in sequentially horrible ways.

And is absolutely gruesome.

And really effective,
because it's done in a way

where it does feel
the closest you'll see

to seeing a snuff movie.

It was made by Satoru Ogura,

who wrote and
directed it in 1985.

And the effects are inventive,

but it's not something
you can just sit down

with a packet of
crisps and eat it,

because you'll be
so grossed out.

It's a really interesting movie

that I wouldn't recommend
to too many people,

but I will say, the
sequels get more and more

and more interesting.

I am absolutely obsessed

by "Guinea Pig 5:
Mermaid in a Manhole".

That movie manages to
keep the grossness,

but add a really
heartfelt story in it.

In the first one, there was
absolutely no redemption

for these characters.

But in the later ones,
they give the characters

a little bit more
layers to them.

But they're still
doing the wrong things.

Women still end up dying,

people still end
up being tortured,

and even in my favorite
moment in "The Manhole",

he thinks he's doing
the right thing

by saving this
mermaid in the sewer,

but he is effectively
taken her out of her home,

and is slowly killing
her for the sake of art.

These "Guinea Pig" movies
are kind of notorious

as being the precursors
to torture porn.

Things like "Hostel",
things like that.

And I don't really
see that type of movie

coming back again,
because I think it was

really surrounding VHS,
and the ability to share

horrific images with people,

which you can do at
the touch of a button

with the internet now,

but back then, the feeling
of having something

that you shouldn't
have, a snuff movie,

and passing that around,
is really the reason

why there's so many
"Guinea Pig" movies,

and that's why also the
"Faces of Death" movies

in the western world
were so popular.

Spielberg once said to me

I would love to make a
really vicious horror movie.

You wouldn't believe some
of the dark ideas I have

that would probably
challenge Cronenberg

as far as going the
distance in shocking stuff.

But I can't do that
because of who I am.

That was when he was best known

for "E.T." and "Poltergeist",

and more family friendly stuff.

He felt that that
put him in a box

that didn't allow him to
go to the other distance.

The most impactful horror films

will always come from some guy

in the middle of nowhere
with a bunch of friends

who've made a movie,
and it's really cool,

and is a huge success.

As soon as you have
a committee involved

in making a horror
film, it never works.

It's not a committee.

It's a singular vision.

Too many bones.

When you have one person
with one clear vision,

that comes through
in the final product.

So it's an important thing
that there is a director

that sees it through
from start to finish.

The lower the budget,
the more creative

a filmmaker can get to
realize their vision.

You just have to keep
everything in perspective.

We're making movies.

We're doing what we love.

I said I think my
ears are gonna explode.

I think that's really
an important part

of being a filmmaker.

I wanted to affect something.

And that at the
tenacity of the finish.

That's the whole thing.

Most people quit when
things get rough.

And they always get rough.

Really the best directors
I've ever worked with,

they hire the right people.

And they trust their talent.

When I think about the
three great directors

that I've worked with,
the ones that come to mind

are John Carpenter, George
Romero, and Wes Craven.

They have a bunch
of things in common.

They all knew exactly
what they wanted.

And all three of them
kept a very calm,

very supportive set,
a very happy set.

Playing mind games,
that's not the way

those three men directed.

Cut.

Prints, thank you.

I would argue
that John Carpenter

was probably the most underrated

great American filmmaker ever.

And he's not probably
largely viewed that way

by people who should
view him that way.

He's certainly very
revered by most people

who like horror,
but he's much more

than a horror filmmaker.

Cronenberg, because
he was headier,

I think got more due,
and more acceptance

by the snobbier film community.

The relationship between
humanity and physicality

is something that
Cronenberg explores a lot,

whether it's "eXistenZ",
or "Rabid", or "Shivers".

"The Fly".

He regurgitates on
his food, it liquefies,

and then he sucks it back up.

It's a theme that he
would come back to a lot

Oh my god.

John Carpenter's biggest
influence on 1980s horror

was "Halloween" from 1978.

That really kicked
off the slasher boom.

And paved the way for
so many copycats after.

His legacy is that the
genre was taken seriously,

and he wanted to
give the audience,

not just a thrill, but
just show how movie making

can be an experience.

♪ Just the two of us

I didn't watch as
many horror films

as I should have during the 80s

because I was so busy.

But I remember a lot of the
movies I saw in the 70s,

"The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre" being a big one.

I loved that movie.

Tobe was a close friend.

Really upset by the
passing of Tobe.

A very sweet man.

Really wonderful guy.

He made the cinematic
experience for moviegoers

a lot more brutal I think
than they were used to.

The two greatest movies
that Tobe Hooper made,

"The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre", and "Poltergeist",

were both used against
him to say well,

he didn't direct one, and
the other one is crap.

And so he struggled
his whole life

to become more
accepted as a director.

I feel like every
movie Wes Craven makes

was like a statement
piece, was groundbreaking,

wasn't like oh,
here's a horror movie.

It was like, this
has changed the face

of what we're watching today.

He was making films
and having a blast.

He was very kind of, in the
New York intellectual scene.

Night and day different,

were Wes Craven's
movies and who he was.

George Romero,
for someone who made

such really creepy,
disturbing films,

he was such a bear.

Just a cuddly, sweet,
delightful presence.

My god.

George was a master, and he
was always ahead of his time.

That's what was so remarkable
about George's films.

They get better and
better with age.

Dario Argento, he was
consistently impressive

as a filmmaker, right up to
and including "Two Evil Eyes".

What's special about Dario

is his operatic
style of filmmaking.

He revels in murder.

He has a fetish for creating

these amazing murder set pieces.

Steward Gordon
was a provocateur.

He liked to make movies that
really provoked a reaction.

Stewart was the
king of the party.

He made sure that everything
was big and bold and body.

He has a different personality

with pretty much
every movie he does.

"Dagon" has a
different personality.

"Dolls" has a
different personality.

"Stuck" has a
different personality.

"Castle Freak", everything's
a little different.

Kathryn Bigelow,
in my estimation,

Mary Lambert, they broke
the mold a little bit.

They were very bold.

I think they knew they
were gonna be able

to find advocacy within
the studio system.

I think they had
that confidence.

And that confidence radiates
from those products.

Fasten your fucking seatbelt!

It was very, very
difficult for women directors

to either put together
a film themselves,

or to get a job
directing any film.

Well come on, baby!

Light my fire.

Now it's opened a lot more.

But we have a lot to
ground to make up.

It was bad.

We're not as far
along as we should be.

Let's just put it that way.

We have to get to a point

where women are not labeled

as female filmmaker, or like me,

Mexican-Canadian,
blah-blah-blah, filmmaker.

Like, you can have
all the labels.

My last name's
already long enough.

I just want us to be
recognized as a good filmmaker,

and it's taken all this
time to finally get here.

But it's our responsibility
as storytellers

to challenge audiences,
and to challenge studios

to accept that.

Welcome to our house!

Puta!

We'll keep working hard.

And we'll keep
challenging everybody

that watches our
movies to accept it.

The Puttermans
finally got themselves

a pet, but they never even had
a chance to give it a name.

"TerrorVision".

"TerrorVision" was one
of the movies we made

during those amazing
three years or so

at Empire Studios
in Rome, Italy.

That's when that, you know
you conceive something,

you have a great poster,

and then it morphs into
something entirely different.

It was originally gonna be
a straight up horror movie

that this monster
comes out of the TV

and eats the family.

But Ted had this kind of
strange dark humor, and-

Whoa!

I just kind of pondered

how to make a monster coming out

of a satellite dish, have some
kind of social commentary.

You must heed my warning!

Its appetite is insatiable!

Its curiosity is boundless!

I had to capture
this moment of the 80s

about the overwhelming
garbage of television.

Channel 69, Pops.

Stanley!

Man, it exploded into this
technicolor kind of wildness.

Look out!

To the film's credit,
or maybe its detriment,

I don't know, I made
these characters

that are sort of
really reprehensible.

My parents wanna meet you.

Oh, whoa.

What a drag.

I wanted our monster in
"TerrorVision", Hungry Beast,

to be a sympathetic character.

Well, he's just a pet
who really couldn't help

that he was hungry.

John Buechler and his crew

were kind of like the Charlie
go-to makeup effects people.

John just looked at me like
I was completely insane.

Once we found the basic design,

John threw himself into it

and created this character
that is just like

the most doofus-y
looking monster

that you could imagine.

No!

It was big and
heavy and hot inside,

and required five
or six puppeteers

just to make him work,

and shipping him over to Italy

must have been just
ridiculously expensive.

♪ TerrorVision

That main title theme
is just so perfect.

Sets the time
period of the movie,

sets the tone of the movie.

We talked to Frank Zappa
about doing the score.

Then I talked to The Cramps.

But The Fibonaccis, the
quirky quality of their music

was perfect for the
main title song.

♪ TerrorVision

My favorite sequence
of "TerrorVision"

is the creature is
sitting in the big hot tub

watching "Earth Versus
Flying Saucers" on TV,

and laughing uproariously
as flying saucers

smash into the monuments.

The kids come in
and try to kill it.

That little sequence
there, to me,

kind of captures the
chaos and the humor.

Sis!

I was so pleased
that it came out

as well as it did.

And then when it went
into the theaters

for its one week run,

it was a fucking disaster.

Nobody came.

The reviews just hated it.

Man, this is the
dumbest movie I ever saw!

What a bunch of crud.

But over the years, it's
been really satisfying

to see how it became
kind of like a

let's get stoned
and watch this film,

and that's like kind of
what it was intended to be.

I'm really happy that it's kinda
reached as many people

as it has.

In "Rats: Notte di
Terrore", which is

"Rats: Night of Terror",
ragtag band of survivors

after the last apocalypse are
searching for food and water

in a no man's land.

They would find
evolution has taken

a pretty nasty turn.

This is a really
low budget movie,

and it's the first
movie where I'm a lead.

It was only a gag.

Listen up.

Gags we don't need.

Any more and I'll blow
your fucking brains out.

Get it?

They actually had cast
my roommate at the time

to play my role.

Completely different
type, American girl.

She's got red hair.

Completely different girl.

The budget was so low, she
goes I'm not doing that.

Somehow I guess
they heard I would.

Oh my god!

I won't even tell you

what I got paid per week.

That's how low it was.

They were paying you by week.

Not Diana, no!

The script was in Italian.

But I did my role in English.

And then that movie,
everyone with the exception

of maybe two people,
could speak English.

And then everyone else
would be dubbed around it.

You made a bet with me
and you lost, Chocolate.

You know it.

Put it on my bill.

Tonight I don't feel like it.

Now here's a fun
thing about the set.

It's actually Sergio Leone's

old America from "One
Upon a Time in America".

All the saloons, and all
the stores they're going in.

It's the same set.

Mere weeks before,
De Niro was in town,

and he was everywhere.

You could see him anywhere,
and they were doing that.

And then we got to use the set.

Here's where my
four-legged friend came from.

Look.

There's a whole nest of
the sweet little things.

We don't have any
actual rats in the movie.

We have lab mice.

Because only lab mice
have the red eyes.

They dyed all of their hair.

It was a different
time, a different era.

I wouldn't say that all
of them were treated

the way we would do it now,

but we weren't going around

stomping on them, or anything.

And as you see the movie,
there's real no CGI.

You can tell we got rubber rats

on the roller, you know?

The movie was so low budget,

they recycled the dead ones

to throw on us in
the other scenes.

I've been on some
smelly sets before.

But you've never been on a set

that's been housing a
garbage can that big

of dead rats.

Suddenly they're
gassed, and they die.

And in the most feminine
faint in history,

I kind of faint like this.

It was a good beginning.

If you haven't seen
the movie before,

pay great attention
to the last scene.

And if you have seen
the movie before,

here's the hint.

That's a split scene.

And I played both characters.

The terror
starts the moment you stop

for "The Hitcher".

It's a straightforward thriller

that grips you
and never lets go.

Tobe Hooper used
to say horror films

are the new westerns.

Their mythology is all
about trying to reconcile

the evil within oneself,
the evil within a society,

the evil of a certain act,

with those who want
to correct it, fix it,

fight it, avenge it.

Don't you know who he is?

You got the wrong man, Lyle.

The monster in the film
is not a guy in a mask,

but he is exactly like Jason,
Leatherface, Michael Meyers.

He's simply hitching
a ride in the rain.

And this horrific story ensues.

You wanna know what
happens to an eyeball

when it gets punctured?

The movie truly only
has three characters,

and I love that economy.

It has C. Thomas Howell,
Jennifer Jason Leigh,

and Rutger Hauer.

He's one of the
scariest human beings

on the fucking planet.

His presence fills the screen.

That gun is empty.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Yeah?

It's a film about
being paranoid,

and knowing something
really bad is happening,

but nobody will believe you.

Jesus!

Oh my god.

He put that there!

He put that there!

To this day, when
I'm eating fries,

I always look at the
fry that I'm eating.

He's eating, and he gets
there, and it's a finger,

and you're like, fuck!

It's a finger!

They've got the
girlfriend connected,

chained up between
the two trucks.

Do something!

If we shoot him,
his foot is gonna come

off that clutch, and
that truck is gonna roll!

And he just looks
at C. Thomas Howell,

and there's that moment
of, is he gonna let her go?

TriStar released "The Hitcher",

and they were a little skittish
about the script stuff,

is because in 1984, the last
horror movie they released

was "Silent Night Deadly Night".

And that only had
a two week run,

and it was protested
out of theaters.

So taking a chance on a
movie like "The Hitcher",

they saw this script,
and they were like

remove the slasher elements.

Figure it out.

"The Hitcher" was in
that crossover period

where things were
starting to get

a little bit less splattery.

Style, that 80s video style,

was starting to
permeate thrillers.

Directed by Robert Harmon,

written by Eric Red,

who also wrote "Near Dark",

which is another
example of that stylized

horror movie making.

Where are you from?

Disneyland.

The late great Rutger Hauer.

I could do a
complete dissertation

on just how fucking
unappreciated he was.

No!

He could have been the head
of every horror family ever.

You useless waste.

So good.

Something fantastic in the 1980s

happened where they were like

"Gremlins",
"Critters", "Ghoulies".

There are tiny creatures,
they are going to take over,

and I'm into it.