Singularly one of my favorite movies. No, I’m being serious here. There is almost nothing about this film that I didn’t love, and finally getting a copy of it after many many years of telling people about it was fantastic. Considering that there was a time when low-budget filmmakers could hire established actors, considered past their prime, for name-value, this film has an amazing cast. I also really enjoyed the young heroine and her new beau. She came off as smarter than average, and yet vulnerable. I know there was a huge backlash against the “final girl” motif in horror films after Halloween, but, let’s be honest about this. In the event that a terrible thing happened to EVERY ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS in the course of a single night, don’t you think that you would have a difficult time dealing with it, and would probably have a bit of an issue thinking straight? Now, compound that with the realization that there are aliens, with biological weapons, hunting you down and your only hope is a fairly creepy old backwoods hunter, I’m betting this is a fairly honest portrayal of someone doing a great job of dealing with the situation.
Thanks for including this in your reviews.
This movie scared the crap out of me when I was little. I stayed up way past my bedtime to watch it and when they showed the alien I nearly ran out of the house screaming. It was done so well and so unexpected, there are some modern movies that should take notice.
I feel that now we do have a similar market for low budget features with the Asylum…unfortunately, they are super, duper low budget and while I do enjoy some of them, most are just bad. I will say they are getting better but they don’t have the charm of the old Empire Pictures/Full Moon Productions of the 80s-90s. For me, that was when DTV movies were tops. Still, we do get some good ones but it is increasingly hard since the market is so huge.
You bring up a point I often argue. When someone in a movie does something “dumb”, people are always “well, why didn’t she just do this it’s so obvious, etc”. My argument is that the person is under duress and are not thinking 100% clearly. You are sitting there on a couch watching a movie. The character is running for their life, they are bound to make a mistake or two in their frenzy. I’m fine with a genuine “dumb” move, unless it is something really,really stupid.
Just announced for August as a BD/DVD combo pack from Scream Factory! Now on home media for the first time ever! Big month there between this, Motel Hell, Legend of Hell House, Dog Soldiers, Phantom of the Paradise, and Leviathan.
Unfortunately with a bunch of my old videos the links were broken by Blip. I’ve contacted them numerous times but never got any response beyond “we’re looking into it”. I think the lights are on but no one is at the wheel over there. They are pretty much just waiting until the site is completely absorbed into Maker.tv.
My older videos were a learning process and a lot of them I can’t bring myself to watch. If Maker does inherit Blip stuff than I’ll see if I can get the links fixed there. I’m not uploading them to youtube because they would just get shredded by people that don’t realize they are 4+ years old.
follow:
Singularly one of my favorite movies. No, I’m being serious here. There is almost nothing about this film that I didn’t love, and finally getting a copy of it after many many years of telling people about it was fantastic. Considering that there was a time when low-budget filmmakers could hire established actors, considered past their prime, for name-value, this film has an amazing cast. I also really enjoyed the young heroine and her new beau. She came off as smarter than average, and yet vulnerable. I know there was a huge backlash against the “final girl” motif in horror films after Halloween, but, let’s be honest about this. In the event that a terrible thing happened to EVERY ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS in the course of a single night, don’t you think that you would have a difficult time dealing with it, and would probably have a bit of an issue thinking straight? Now, compound that with the realization that there are aliens, with biological weapons, hunting you down and your only hope is a fairly creepy old backwoods hunter, I’m betting this is a fairly honest portrayal of someone doing a great job of dealing with the situation.
Thanks for including this in your reviews.
This movie scared the crap out of me when I was little. I stayed up way past my bedtime to watch it and when they showed the alien I nearly ran out of the house screaming. It was done so well and so unexpected, there are some modern movies that should take notice.
I feel that now we do have a similar market for low budget features with the Asylum…unfortunately, they are super, duper low budget and while I do enjoy some of them, most are just bad. I will say they are getting better but they don’t have the charm of the old Empire Pictures/Full Moon Productions of the 80s-90s. For me, that was when DTV movies were tops. Still, we do get some good ones but it is increasingly hard since the market is so huge.
You bring up a point I often argue. When someone in a movie does something “dumb”, people are always “well, why didn’t she just do this it’s so obvious, etc”. My argument is that the person is under duress and are not thinking 100% clearly. You are sitting there on a couch watching a movie. The character is running for their life, they are bound to make a mistake or two in their frenzy. I’m fine with a genuine “dumb” move, unless it is something really,really stupid.
No problem. ^^
Saw this on IFC channel a few months back. Specifically set my DVR to record because of you Cecil!
Sweet! I hope you liked it.
Just announced for August as a BD/DVD combo pack from Scream Factory! Now on home media for the first time ever! Big month there between this, Motel Hell, Legend of Hell House, Dog Soldiers, Phantom of the Paradise, and Leviathan.
I am giddy with these releases.
No video. Not on your youtube channel, either.
Doesn’t work on blip, either.
Unfortunately with a bunch of my old videos the links were broken by Blip. I’ve contacted them numerous times but never got any response beyond “we’re looking into it”. I think the lights are on but no one is at the wheel over there. They are pretty much just waiting until the site is completely absorbed into Maker.tv.
My older videos were a learning process and a lot of them I can’t bring myself to watch. If Maker does inherit Blip stuff than I’ll see if I can get the links fixed there. I’m not uploading them to youtube because they would just get shredded by people that don’t realize they are 4+ years old.