"Published four times a year, Stranger With Friction is a magazine that reaches outside of St Rooster Books’ publishing orbit to artists, writers and musicians who we admire and/or are inspired by. It encompasses outsider literature, punk rock, and horror movies which have informed St Rooster Books’ mission statement from the start. Featuring essays and reviews, interviews, fiction and poetry, and artwork, Stranger With Friction is printed as an oversized, perfect bound book-zine through a print-on-demand service and available to e-readers. St Rooster Books seeks to create a unique reading experience by mixing an eclectic group of writers and artists in an entertaining and collectible riot of a combination of Slash Magazine, Rue Morgue, and the Evergreen Review."
Based on the 1976 novel, The Space Vampires, by Colin Wilson, Lifeforce (1985)was the first of a three picture deal Tobe Hooper had signed with Canon Films. It was also the follow up to his Steven Spielberg collaboration Poltergeist (1982). Hooper had made a name for himself with the notorious 1973 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 77's Eaten Alive, and 81's The Funhouse. Poltergeist, despite it's PG rating was a phenomenal film that split the difference between Spielberg and Hooper's aesthetics, giving us the goriest, scariest kid friendly film I've ever seen. Hooper was next set to tackle the living dead Return Of The Living Dead, which would have been called Tobe Hooper's Return Of The Living Dead, but left the project when the Canon deal came through. Writer Dan O'Bannon (who wrote the screenplay and wrote Alien) was brought on to direct and was also tapped by Hooper to adapt The Space Vampires.
Though it was a critical and financial bomb at the time, Lifeforce is an ambitious film with a sturdy cast, really good, if not great special effects, and a truckload of memorable moments. For me, it's only second to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 as Hooper's most enjoyable film to watch. There are apparently some call backs to Hammer Films' Quatermass films, but I'm not familiar with those and can't speak to that, but I did catch some nods to Lifeforce in this summer's Universal The Mummy. Also, we've seen the idea of vampires from space before with Vampirella and Mario Bava's Planet Of The Vampires (which was one of the films that inspired O'Bannon's Alien). Lifeforce and Planet Of The Vampires would make an amazing double feature, by the way.
The story is about the space shuttle Churchill intercepting Haley's Comet to study it and discovering a 150 mile long spacecraft that's full of bat-like creatures and three pods each containing a nude humanoid, one female, two males. The pods are brought back on to the Churchill and thirty days later the Columbia is sent to rescue the Churchill which is drifting off course back to earth with no communications. The Columbia crew finds the ship gutted by fire with only the three pods remaining intact and bring them back to earth for study. As the original title suggests, space vampire wackiness ensues.
If you haven't seen Lifeforce, Scream Factory's Blu-ray is an absolute treat and I don't say that lightly. The colors and visual effects really pop in this restoration. As sci-fi horror flicks go, it tends to be a bit more bonkers than scary, but that just makes it more fun. O'Bannon's script is solid, and if anyone knows sci-fi horror, it's the guy that wrote frigging Alien! As a director, at least up to 93's Night Terrors, Hooper had been really solid and consistent, working in film and television. His filmography may not be as distinguished as John Carpenter's, but I think Hooper's less loved films, particularly Lifeforce and Invaders From Mars is due a reassessment. Even TCM2 tends to get some undue hate to this day. Lifeforce stars Steven Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, and Patrick Stewart, but Mathilda May owns the film. Her bold, fully nude performance is without a doubt the centerpiece of the film. Her background in dance gave her the ability to move in a way that communicates both threat and allure. Lifeforce was her first feature and she barely spoke English, but you'd never know from her confident and commanding performance.
John Dykstra did the special effects, mixing puppetry, animation, and miniatures. Sometimes the effects look a bit dated, but no less charming and still beat out most CGI by a country mile. Friday The 13th's Henry Mancini did the score with additional music from Michael Kamen (The Dead Zone, X-Men). I haven't read Wilson's novel, but apparently he hated the film. The Canon group was very excited about the project though and gave Hooper $25 million, in hopes of elevating the film above their usual low budget fare and getting the film taken seriously. Unfortunately, this wasn't meant to be as critics and fans didn't get it and didn't care and the film flopped, not even making back half its budget. But like Halloween III, Lifeforce is simply too good of a film to be relegated to the dustbin of history and has been kept alive by a steady cult following. Any flaws the film has are minor compared to its many strengths.
It's almost here, kids, the big day and all month our pals have been giving their top three favorite horror films, in case you were stumped for the perfect flick for your Halloween night! Well, another one of my favorite groups, Wolfmen Of Mars, have shared theirs. If you don't know Wolfmen Of Mars then you must be new around here. Since 2011 they've dropped a dozen releases on their Bandcamp page, inspired by horror soundtracks of the 1970s and 80s, but with more of a rock vibe. Their latest release, WARP SUBURBIUM, shows an amazing band continuing to evolve their sound, while staying true to what made them good to begin with. Hit their page HERE and download their catalogue for the perfect soundtrack for your Halloween shindigs!
Confession time kids, WoM have picked two films I have not seen! And frankly, I have no excuse for the first one. Tobe Hooper made two of my all time favorite films, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 1 and 2, as well some staples of my youth POLTERGEIST, LIFEFORCE, and SALEM'S LOT. In 1981, Hooper made a film called THE FUNHOUSE. In the film, a group of friends try to hide out in a carnival overnight, but wind up bearing witness to a nasty little crime and get discovered by the crooked carnie barker named Conrad and his deformed son Gunther. After that the kids are fighting to survive against this twisted duo. After reading up on the flick and watching the trailer, I'm sorely disappointed in myself for passing up on this...but to be honest, that fucking clown on the cover of the VHS box was rather unsettling to me as a kid and knowing it was by the guy that made TCM? Well, Hooper scared the shit out of me with TCM and now he's going to do it with a clown? I wasn't touching that movie! But I do believe I'll be remedying that soon.
The next one I have not seen is a
film called HAUSU. Directed by Japanese filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi, HAUSU is about
six young girls who travel to one of the girl's aunt's house, only to one by
one be devoured by the house. Pretty standard horror fare, I'd say. Produced by
Toho, who are probably best known to American audiences for their GODZILLA
films, they approached Obayashi to make a film similar to JAWS. Well, I don't
know what inspired the tangent he went off on with this flick (which is now
available from the Criterion Collection) but the trailer is a delirious two
minutes in itself. In fact, I wonder if Sam Raimi saw this movie before making
EVIL DEAD, because the mix of genres and mediums just in the trailer are nuts
and I can see those same qualities in the first two EVIL DEAD films.
And now that brings us to a film I have seen and hold in high esteem. Would I immediately consider it when looking for a horror movie to watch? No, but would it exist without the horror genre, probably not! THE BURBS, starring Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Tom Hanks, and Corey Feldman is a fantastic, fun, creepy, and wonderful film. I've showed it to my kids and they got a kick out of it. It's probably my favorite thing outside of BOSOM BUDDIES that Tom Hanks ever did. Directed by the great Joe Dante (THE HOWLING, GREMLINS), THE BURBS is about a quiet suburb that gets turned upside down when the weirdo Klopeks move in. It's about neighbors who can't mind their own business and let paranoia run wild, or is it just paranoia? THE BURBS reminds me of a classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode, stretched out with some zany 80s comedy. The cast is fantastic and it's a nearly flawless horror comedy, of course it's way more comedy with the horror being very understated for the majority of the film.
If you've been around here a while, you know how big a fan I am of Werewolves In Siberia. Masterminded by Chris Cavoretto, WiS are one of the best horror-prog projects out there. He's created modern classics of the genre with THE RISING (2013), BEYOND THE CITY OF THE DEAD (2014), and THE DEAD HOUSE (2015). In addition, earlier this year WiS provided the soundtrack to the excellent slasher comic SLICE. Along with those stellar albums, you can find some fantastic covers and mixtapes over at the WiS Bandcamp page HERE.
So continuing with our series of Top 3 Favorite horror films (scroll down for previous lists from Jeffery X Martin, Albert Muller, and Ghoulish Gary Poulin) I asked this lycanthropic synth fiend for his...
What the hell else can I possible say about John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN??? Especially for this time of year, it's a must watch. Somehow the barebones approach and premise of this 1978 classic is able to stand the test of time, remaining scary against almost four decades of stiff competition. And that music- my kids haven't even seen the movie, but I can walk up behind them and hit play on the music from my phone and they scream. That's how powerful Carpenter's synth game was. HALLOWEEN will always be remembered alongside such indispensable classics like THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and PSYCHO. And Michael Myers aka The Shape is as iconic a monster as any that's graced the silver screen before!
THE FOG was one that Jeffery X Martin picked as well and called it "the best American ghost story filmed in the last forty years." I'm not going to argue with that dude and neither are you, punk!
"Legend says that Antonio Bay was built in 1880 with
blood money obtained from shipwrecked lepers, which no one believes. On the eve
of the town's centennial, many plan to attend the celebrations, including the
murdered lepers." (*from IMDB) That's just plain creepy and the film is even more so. Starring Tom Atkins (HALLOWEEN III), Jamie Lee Curtis (HALLOWEEN), Adrienne Barbeau (SWAMP THING), and Janet Leigh (PSYCHO), and directed and scored by John Carpenter THE FOG is a trick or treat bag filled with full sized Snickers bars and for parents looking for something a bit more stout than IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, but aren't quite ready to break out THE THING for the young'uns, THE FOG is fairly bloodless and boobless. As creepy as it is, it's totally appropriate for 10-12 year olds.
Rex Reed called TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE "the most horrifying picture I have ever seen." Anyone would be hard pressed to argue against that statement. The 1974 shocker featuring a band of lost teens dummying upon a lone farm house where a family of crazed cannibals resides has shocked audiences around the world, been a standard bearer for horror films that followed, and threw down the gauntlet as a challenge for future film makers. With it's documentary style intimacy and twisted Americana through the looking glass sensibility, TCM remains the one to beat 42 years later. On top of all that and a terrifying score, uncomfortably realistic sets, and devastating kills, TCM also gave birth to one of the scariest horror icons to ever terrorize the silver screen, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen).
What do you know about The Ramones? I mean really? How deep does your knowledge go, how many albums do you own, what are your favorite deep cuts? I can't imagine anyone not, at the very least, owning a best of or the first couple of albums. To the uninitiated or casual fan, the assumption is that The Ramones made one great album and kept making it. Well...yes and no.
The Ramones didn't evolve from album to album as radically as The Clash, but they certainly improved as songwriters and musicians and the production value generally improved as well. They kept the songs fairly simple, straightforward, and short-occasionally adding synths or horns or strings, but at heart, it was always "1-2-3-4!" and go! They always took great 60s pop and played it with the speed and tone of a buzz saw, throwing in a few pretty ballads along the way. To me, there were albums that weren't as good as others, but there has been no Ramones studio album that I would call awful. At worst, an album like Pleasant Dreams was perhaps not as good as Subterranean Jungle.
Other than being great innovators and inspiration for countless pop punk clones, what makes The Ramones specifically relevant Stranger With Friction? The Ramones recorded some great horror punk songs. Some even before the kings of horror punk, The Misfits. Here's a 6 song playlist of great horror moments and dark humor from 'da brudders'...
"Mama, where's your little daughter?
she's here, right here on the altar
You should never have opened that door
now you're never gonna see her no more
You don't know what I can do with this axe chop off your
head
so you
better relax"
"You Should Never Have Opened That Door", from Leave Home (also available as a demo on the 1st album) is about, well, you read the lyrics. That's it. A mom walks in on some sort of witchy ceremony and whoever has her daughter is going to chop off her head if she doesn't relax. Dark as hell stuff in a super catchy song. Think of The Misfits' "Last Caress", what a sick song, but you'll never get it out of your head!
"Oh, oh, oh
Sitting here with nothin' to do
Sitting here thinkin' only of you
But you'll never get out of there
She'll never get out of there.
Texas chain saw massacre
They took my baby away from me
But she'll never get out of there
She'll never get out of there
I don't care, wohoho
When I saw her on the corner
She told me told me told me told me
She wouldn't go far
Ooh, now I know I'm so much in love
'Cause she's the only girl that I'm ever thinking of"
"Chainsaw" kicks off with screeching sound of a bandsaw, whatever, before launching into such a "Ramones" kind of love song, full of longing trumped by apathy. It's such a funny little tribute to one of the most horrifying films ever made, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
"Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy
That's what they want to give me
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy
What they want to give me
I'm a teenage schizoid, the one your parent despise
Psycho therapy, now I got glowing eyes
I'm a teenage schizoid, pranks and muggings are fun
Psycho therapy, gonna kill someone
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy
I like takin' tuinal, it keeps me edgy and mean
I'm a teenage schizoid, I'm a teenage dope fiend
I'm a kid in the nuthouse, I'm a kid in the psycho zone
Psycho therapy, I'm gonna burglarize your home
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, hey
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy
Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapy"
No, not specifically horrific, but considering how often mental illness plays into horror movies, "Psycho Therapy" fits right in.
"Everybody said so man you could see it on T.V.
They stood there ashamed with nowhere to go
Nobody wants them now the kids are alright
Every day is a holiday and pushin' people around
I'm making monsters for my friends
I'm making monsters for my friends
Someone caught one I could see so myself
I had to call 254 so they wouldn't blame me
We wanted to know how much trouble there was
When we asked our daddy he said it's just because
I'm making monsters for my friends
I'm making monsters for my friends
I don't wanna open a can of worms and
I don't want any Spagetti-Os
And I could always tell when
someone is holding a grudge
I'm making monsters for my friends
I'm making monsters for my friends
I'm making monsters for my friends
I'm making monsters for my friends"
I can barely make heads or tails of these lyrics, but it's got MONSTER in the chorus and so it goes on the list. Great song from The Ramones last album, Adios Amigos.
"Hey, daddy-o
I don't want to go down to the basement
There's somethin' down there
I don't want to go
Hey, Romeo
There's somethin' down there
I don't want to go down to the basement"
Pretty typical of the debut album, short set of catchy lyrics repeated for about two minutes. It speaks directly to that kid in all of us who didn't want to go down into that dark, lonely basement with all the spiderwebs and shadows. Here's a cool fan made video to go along with it.
"Under the arc of a weather stain boards
Ancient goblins, and warlords
Come out of the ground, not making a sound
The smell of death is all around
And the night when the cold wind blows, no one cares, nobody
knows
I don't want to be buried in a Pet Sematary
I don't want to live my life again
Follow Victor to the sacred place
This ain't a dream, I can't escape
Molars and fangs, the clicking of bones
Spirits moaning among the tombstones
And the night, when the moon is bright
Someone cries, something ain't right
I don't want to be buried in a Pet Sematary
I don't want to live my life again
The moon is full, the air is still
All of a sudden I feel a chill
Victor is grinning, flesh rotting away
Skeletons dance, I curse this day
And the night when the wolves cry out
Listen close and you can hear me shout
I don't want to be buried in a Pet Sematary
I don't want to live my life again
Oh no, oh no
I don't want to live my life again, oh no, oh oh
I don't want to live my life again, oh no, no, no"
There was a great synergy to The Ramones writing "Pet Sematary" for the film adaptation of the great Stephen King novel, since King references The Ramones in the book. This is certainly one of their top 20 songs of their career.
If anything I hope you're inspired to dig deep into The Ramones' catalogue. There are several great tracks just as good as "Blitzkrieg Bop" or "I Wanna Be Sedated". And don't forget, if you're not in it, you're out of it!
There's not many directors as polarizing as Rob Zombie. From
his difficult-delivery debut, HOUSE OF A 1000 CORPSES, to his last film, LORDS
OF SALEM, Zombie has driven critics and fans alike crazy, especially when he
took on the untouchable masterpiece HALLOWEEN and then followed it up with a
weirder, more 'Zombie'-like sequel. Recently, I saw someone on Twitter remark,
"I know Rob Zombie and Eli Roth have good movies in them, but they haven't
made them yet. 31 isn't going to change this." 31 is Zombie's latest,
currently with a 6.3/10 on IMDb. Which means more than half the critics liked it, but with
a fair number of detractors. So it goes for Zombie-but is it because his movies
aren't all that good or because they occupy a niche market that will just
naturally repel common folks?
Zombie, once a production assistant for PEEWEE'S PLAYHOUSE,
gained international fame with his original band White Zombie, before going
solo in the late 90s. The thing that always impressed me about Zombie was his
visual aesthetics. Whether it was painting the set of HEADBANGER'S BALL or
directing a segment in BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA or all the music videos
he directed, I always admired his taste and style even if some of his music
left me cold. When word came that he'd be directing a film (THE CROW 2037,
never released), I, like many, was intrigued, but it would take a few years for
HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES to finally come out.
Originally working with Universal, who refused to release
the film because of the violent content, before getting picked up by Lionsgate,
H1kC was met with mostly bad reviews upon release in 2003. It's not a perfect
film by any stretch, coming off more like an extended White Zombie music video
mixed with the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, but the years have been kind to the
picture and I enjoy far more these days than I did when I first saw it.
Set in 1977, H1kC follows a group of young people who run
into the Firefly family, basically TCM's Sawyer clan as seen through the
trippy, kalaidescopic, rock and roll eye of Zombie. We meet Otis (Bill Mosely),
Baby (Sherri Moon Zombie), Mother Firefly (Karen Black), Tiny (Mathew McGrory),
Dr Satan (Walter Phelan), and Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig)-a colorful cast to
say the least all cult film stars. (A bit of trivia; McGrory's film debut was
in the zombie flick HATE THE LIVING! which featured a mad scientist that looked
like Rob, called Dr Eibon.) All the elements were in place for H1kC to be a
killer throwback grind house horror flick, which it is, though it may have been
a couple years ahead of it's time, as evidenced by the fact that it's sequel,
THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, didn't suffer as much critical backlash and is considered
by many to be Zombie's finest film.
Stylistically HOUSE and DEVIL'S is quite different. Where
HOUSE is a visual orgy, DEVIL'S plays more like a Sam Peckinpah (THE WILD
BUNCH) western. A very fucked up, grind house western. Picking up in the
aftermath of H1kC, TDR has Otis, Baby, and Spaulding on the run from a crazed
lawman out for revenge. Mosely shines as Otis, delivering some amazing,
unforgettable lines, like "Boy, the next word that comes out of your mouth
better be some brilliant fuckin' Mark Twain shit. 'Cause it's definitely
getting chiseled on your tombstone." and "I am the Devil and I am
here to do the Devil's work." He is absolutely chilling, even outshining
his signature role of Chop Top from TCM2. While TDR may visually be a more
subdued film, Zombie pulls no punches with gut churning violence and squirm
inducing situations.
Zombie's love of TCM is all over these films, so much so he
would have been the perfect choice to head up the remake of TCM, instead he
took on a different 70s classic, John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. Bloody Disgusting
named HALLOWEEN Zombie's worst film and lots of reviewers agreed. Many of the
complaints stem from the fact that Zombie stripped the original story of it's
subtlety and mystery and gave us a full blown Michael Meyers origin story with
nothing left to the imagination. Something I balked at upon first viewing
myself, but subsequent viewings have revealed what a well made film HALLOWEEN
actually is. I love the cast, the cinematography, the intensity. It's a great
Rob Zombie film, but sadly it's not a great HALLOWEEN film since it betrays the
original to such an extent. I've reconciled that though, to me all Zombie's
films feel like they take place in the same world-a Zombie-verse, if you will.
His Michael is just the Michael of the Zombie-verse and doesn't diminish
Carpenter's in that sense. I would venture to say that if more of the
detractors could compartmentalize the films and really set Zombie's apart, they
may find a better film than they remember. Not to mention that Tyler Mane plays
an amazing Michael. Loved him. And Malcolm MacDowell as Dr Loomis? Fantastic
choice.
As I mentioned before, Rob went full Zombie on HALLOWEEN II
and for the most part it paid off, though there were moments that dragged the
film down and could have been left on the cutting room floor. Sherri Moon
Zombie played Michael's mother in the first film and returns as a malevolent
guiding spirit in II. It adds a weird, dreaminess to the film that feels so out
of place in a HALLOWEEN film, but makes sense in a Zombie film, with loads of
cool and creepy visuals that may have been a warm up for his follow up feature,
LORDS OF SALEM.
If you think of Zombie's films musically, his first four are
exactly what you'd expect from the man behind such shock rock metal classics as
"Dragula," "Living Dead Girl," "Thunderkiss '65,"
and "More Human Than Human". LORDS OF SALEM, though, was a more down
tuned doom metal. A much more serious, solemn, mature, and slower film. LoS
still fits the style of the Zombie-verse, but embraces more a ROSEMARY'S BABY
vibe rather than TCM.
Starring Sherri Moon Zombie, Ken Forree, Jeff Daniel
Phillips, Dee Wallace, and Meg Foster, LoS is about a rock DJ, Heidi (Sherri),
who receives a mysterious record that triggers hallucinations and flashbacks to
her town's dark past. On the surface it's a witchcraft film and a disturbing
one at that, but since the first time I saw it, I've wondered if there wasn't
some subtext there, as with the aforementioned ROSEMARY'S BABY, which also
contained a subtext that spoke directly to it's era. To me LoS sort of seemed
like a metaphor for impending motherhood, but specifically for someone with a
checkered past that would lead to fear and anxiety about the prospects of the
responsibility. Maybe I'm over-thinking, but LoS feels like a much deeper movie
than the surface content would suggest. Unfortunately though, as well made as
it is LoS is my least favorite of Zombie's films, mainly because it reminds me
so heavily of Roman Polanski and like Polanski Zombie doesn't quite land the
film in a satisfying way. It's all build up and right when it gets good it's over.
It's why I don't like ROSEMARY'S or NINTH GATE. It's really too bad, since LoS
is Zombie's classiest and most ambitious films. That said it's certainly still
worth watching.
This year, Zombie has returned with a film that looks like a
return to H1kC roots. The trailer for 31 gives us Malcolm MacDowell dressed
like a Victorian-era aristocrat, Sherri on the run through a fucked up labrynth
and a shit load of psychotic, homicidal clowns. Zombie has promised us a film
full of blood and madness just in time for Halloween and I can't wait to see
it. It also stars Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Kevin Jackson,
and Meg Foster. It's about five carnival workers who are kidnapped and forced
to play a game where you win by surviving a life and death struggle against the
psycho clowns for twelve hours. It sounds like the most typically Rob Zombie
film of all, which I think will probably also make a pretty fun ride.
People whine on-line that all Zombie's films look like the
70s never ended, but I want to know why that's a problem. It's a style, as I
said-his own universe and it's consistent and well done. Look at David Lynch's
films, especially BLUE VELVET and TWIN PEAKS, there's an idyllic 50s look and
feel to those works, though they aren't period pieces. And take John Water's
films, they certainly exist in their own Waters-verse, taking and leaving what
they need from pop culture. There's certainly more than a little of both Lynch
and Waters in Zombie, just like the way his music pulls from such wildly
varying sources-metal, disco, hip hop, industrial, and rockabilly. While for
now, Zombie probably won't stop being a polarizing filmmaker, I think history
will be kind to his films. Even Cronenberg was savaged by the critics and now
his films are indispensable classics.
(Final note, I did skip Zombie's animated filmTHE HAUNTED
WORLD OF EL SUPER BEASTO. So, no need to point that out, thanks.)
(Original Rob Zombie logo at the top of the article is by King Vulture, 2016.)
Since seeing Texas Chainsaw Massacre in middle school whenever someone mentions Texas my mind always flashes on the image of Leatherface played by Gunnar Hansen. Fair or not, the above image will always be Texas to me. But the big man behind the skin mask was actually born in Iceland and didn't move to Texas until he was 11. He majored in English and mathematics and worked with computers before landing the role of Leatherface in the landmark 1974 film. Afterwards he took time off from acting to focus on writing. He did return to acting and appeared in several films over the decades.
Nothing he did, though, could ever eclipse his portrayal of the mentally disabled, chainsaw wielding Leatherface. For me, the scene that I'll never forget is the moment Leatherface first appears, filling a doorway, in front of two unsuspecting victims. It sucks the air out of the room and makes me recoil-still! It just strikes at some primal fear in my psyche and I can't relax until the scene is over.
I never met the man, but anything I've ever read about him told the story of smart man with a big heart. I don't know how he died, I just hope it was peaceful and easy. Rest in peace.
When I was in the 4th grade my family got HBO. There must have been some promotion/special price, because there was never any money for such extravagence, but we had it and I had something special to go along with it...a lack of supervision! This was during the slasher boom of the 80's and on top of the cable I had a friend named Joey who collected Fangoria and brought them to school all the time, so I was hip to what was coming out and what was worth watching. And by my recollection there was no escaping the tv spots for Friday The 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. Hell, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince did a song about Freddy and Robert Englund appeared on Nickelodeon!
When I was a teenager I started working my way through my local video store's horror section, finding brilliance and stupidity in equal numbers. Halloween become my favorite of the slasher franchises. For some reason Michael Myers captured my imagination and I continued to love all the sequels up to H2O. I thought the Friday the 13th films were a bit spotty, my favorites being parts 4, 5 and 6. Part 3 was the only one I found to be unwatchable (until Jason Takes Manhattan...bleh).
The thing about these films was that they were cool and sometimes cartoonish, but never very scary. Halloween and Friday both had moments that would haunt me, but I didn't find them to be particularly horrifying. Then I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Leatherface hit a nerve with me and I found myself half buried under a blanket on the couch by myself at two o'clock in the morning hating myself for putting the movie on...but I couldn't turn it off. I had to see how it ended. Gritty and grainy, super realistic. I mean, look at that pic to the left! Freddy's wise cracking doesn't compare. Even though you knew they would be back for another film, Freddy and Jason always got beat in the end. Leatherface was just left on the side of the road pissed off! Free to torture and maim beyond the credits! Nothing new now, but I was only in the 6th grade and had only experienced these mainstream slasher films, nothing so nihilistic.
Unencumbered by rationale, the Nightmare On Elm Street films were by far the most imaginative and fun. Anything could happen, because it all happened in dreams. Freddy could be anywhere or anything, leaving the series wide open and limited only by the imagination of the writers and directors. Johnny Depp's death scene, in the first film, is still one of the most memorable death scenes I can remember. The only time I found myself disappointed with the series is about half way through part 6, Freddy's Dead, where what started off so promising began to feel like the film was just running out the clock trying to get to the conclusion with standard slasher filler. Wes Craven's return to the series (first time since the first film) with New Nightmare was nice and a fresh take and would have been a good final farewell to Fred, but who can say no Freddy vs. Jason, even if it sucked how could you not see that film if you grew up on these this stuff?
So these days we have all these modern classics getting remade. When they announced the TCM remake I was entirely unenthused, I watched it of course, and it wasn't bad at all, the same with the remakes of Friday, Halloween, Nightmare, My Bloody Valentine or whatever. The remakes are fine movies, sometimes they even improve some aspects of the original (remakes of The Fly, The Thing, and The Blob in the 80's certainly did), but why don't the studios just run the originals in the theatre again? I'd pay to see TCM 2, Nightmare 3, or any of the first five Halloween's on the big screen and I know I'm not alone. The other aspect of the remakes that rubs me the wrong way is that for every remake coming out that's an original film not being made. As a struggling writer I'm not encouraged by the trend of repeating. Of course, how many different Frankenstein films have I paid for? Oh well, when is the Halloween 3 remake coming out?
And just because I don't want to hear any complaining that I didn't mention Child's Play...
