Showing posts with label 1982. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1982. Show all posts

Saturday, August 19, 2023

The Moment I Feared: Part 7

A recurring question I often ask myself when I zone out of reality is "what's the G.O.A.T horror anthology?" I'm often torn over a bunch of Amicus's classic portmanteaus, with From Beyond the Grave (1974) being my personal top choice. But then there's George A. Romero and Steven King's collabarotive return to the old school effort, Creepshow (1982). The legendary comic book publishing company EC Comics plays a major hand in both films as one was sourced and the other clearly inspired by the defunct publisher's tales of terror.

Creepshow achieved the impossible by turning Ted Danson into a frightening zombie in the short story Something To Tide You Over; who, along with his lover played by Dawn of the Dead's Gaylen Ross, seek revenge upon their murderer played by Leslie Nielsen. Along with Danson's gargled dialogue and the terrifying sight of him shuffling in all that zombie makeup, it would continue to instil fear upon me whenever I caught sight of him on an episide of Cheers (1982 - 1992). Kind of funny that one of the most frightening moments from a film to leave a permanent mark on me - especially one that includes: cockroaches bursting out of E.G. Marshall's corpse; the oncoming doom of an alien weed taking over the world; a severed head for a cake; and of course Fluffy - it's the one with Ted Danson and Leslie Nielsen in it.

Creepshow (Beach Zombies Scene)
George A. Romero, 1982
 

Dada Debaser Bonus Feature:

Didn't realise until writing that Martin (1978) review earlier this year that John Amplas played the zombie Nathan Gratham in the Father's Day segment.

Monday, October 10, 2022

Picks of 1982

Film snobs can talk as much as they want about over praised shite like Gandhi and Tootsie, but those films were the Voight-Kampff test which separated folks like me from them. 

1982 was the year we finally kissed goodbye to the last vestiges of the nihilistic seventies and saw the start of over the top eighties excess; and what a year it was.

48 Hrs. (Walter Hill)
Basket Case (Frank Henenlotter)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
Class of 1984 (Mark Lester)
Conan the Barbarian (John Milius)
Creepshow (George A. Romero)
Death Wish II (Michael Winner)
The Entity (Sidney J. Furie)
First Blood (Ted Kotcheff)
Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog)
Five Elements Ninjas (Chang Cheh)
Human Lanterns (Chung Sun)
The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
The Living Dead Girl (Jean Rollin)
The New York Ripper (Lucio Fulci)
Next of Kin (Tony Williams)
Pieces (Juan Piquer Simón)
Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper)
Q the Winged Serpent (Larry Cohen)
Rocky III (Sylvester Stallone)
The Slayer (J.S. Cardone)
Superstition (James W. Roberson)
Tenebrae (Dario Argento)
The Thing (John Carpenter)
Turkey Shoot (Brian Trenchard-Smith)
Vice Squad (Gary Sherman)
Visiting Hours (Jean-Claude Lord, 1982)
Who Dares Wins (Ian Sharp)

A bunch of slasher films that I wasn't confident enough to list and really ought to revisit are: Alone in the Dark, Girls Nite Out, Humongous, The Dorm That Dripped Blood, The Slumber Party Massacre and Unhinged. To highlight how mainstream the subgenre was back then, even Chuck Norris had his own slasher film this year. A pity that it's awful, though. Also, I've been mixing up Visiting Hours with X-Ray all this time, thinking they were the same film under alternative titles.

Other 1982 films I haven't seen in ages, but remember liking were The Dark Crystal and Night Shift.

Unpopular Opinion: 

I never cared for Tron.

Film Fact: 

The first S.O.V film granted a theatrical release was from this year, and it was indeed terrible.

Boardinghouse (Trailer)
John Wintergate (1982)
 
 

Dada Debaser Bonus:

Picks of 1992, 2002 and 2012.