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Can you believe we're actually finally past the halfway point of this project? It hasn't been easy, believe you me. But now that we've officially exited the first Golden Age of the slasher film, we're entering a particularly interesting period. According to accepted slasher wisdom, A Nightmare on Elm Street was the project that kicked the slasher back into high gear, with a new boost of supernatural inspiration driving the storylines.
This is true, but it takes a little longer than average to make an effects-heavy movie like that, even a cheap, shitty one. As such, those films wouldn't really start showing up until a bit later, so the period between 1985 and 1986 felt more like the genre was drawing a deep breath before really going full throttle in 1987, speeding directly into a Silver Age spurred on by the increasing popularity of direct-to-video and shot-on-video offerings.
What we're left with in 1985 doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Yes, we've got Friday the 13th revving back up after its first alleged "final chapter" and Elm Street 2 already cementing the franchise's long reign of terror over the back half of the '80s. Other than that however, it's a real grab bag of random holdouts that couldn't quite muster up the energy to make it to the market by 1984, when they were already past their sell-by date. 1985 saw 34 slashers in total, just 5 more than the previous year. It's a slim year when compared to former years and upcoming year, but that's still so goddamn many. Let's take a gander at what's coming down the pike, shall we?
Movies in bold are films I have already reviewed at the time this post was published. Once I write each review, I will link to it from this page.
Too Scared to Scream (January 4)
Trapped by Fear/Atrapados en el miedo (March 15)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (March 22)
Blood Cult (May)
Too Scared to Scream (January 4)
Trapped by Fear/Atrapados en el miedo (March 15)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (March 22)
Blood Cult (May)
Eternal Evil (May 1)
Bloodstream (June 6)Zombie Apocalypse/Cementerio del terror (July)
The Hills Have Eyes Part II (August)
Phenomena (August 2)
Formula for a Murder/7, Hyden Park: la casa maledetta (August 10)
Interface (September 11)
Hot Water/Junior (September 13)Appointment With Fear (October 25)
Blood Tracks (November)
The Ripper (November)
Screamplay (November)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (November 1)Nothing Underneath/Sotto il vestito niente (November 7)
Confessions of a Serial Killer (November 14)
Terror at London Bridge (November 22)The Nail Gun Massacre (December)
Bits and Pieces (unknown)
Blue Murder (unknown)
Cheekh (unknown)
The Dark Power (unknown)
Haveli (unknown)
Horror House on Highway Five (unknown)
Murder Elite (unknown)
Murderlust (unknown)
The New York Centerfold Massacre (unknown)
Night Caller/Ping an ye (unknown)
Psycho Girls (unknown)
They Don't Cut the Grass Anymore (unknown)
Outside the extremely obvious, that's not much I've seen from this year. Which makes me suspect there's a whole lot of stuff that failed to make much of an impression.
ReplyDeleteThis is the year I had seen by far the least from at the time I started this project, and it seems extremely clear why that would be the case.
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