UNK SEZ: Happy Friday the 13th! Not only is today the favorite day of our pal Jason but it is also the day that THE CABIN IN THE WOODS opens in a theater near you! Go see it! Horror movies are like teeth, if you ignore them they'll go away! In the meantime can you identify the cabins and merely cabin-ish dwellings below? Good luck! If you need me you know where I'm at!
JUST BEFORE DAWN is sort of like your run of the mill, early eighties killer in the woods flick except it's not because it's so fantastic and pretty. The set-up is as familiar as the sun and in my case, just as necessary. A camper filled with young folks in skimpy attire heads to the mountains blasting BLONDIE's HEART OF GLASS. Various oldsters warn the group to scram if they value their lives and, thankfully for me, they truck on. Familiar ground rarely looks this good and there are enough idiosyncratic flourishes to insure that the viewer isn't quite as sure they've seen this all before as they originally thought. Nobody wears a mask in JUST BEFORE DAWN because nobody needs to. Our killer here is often brazenly center stage; a lumbering, drooling hillbilly clown who's not afraid of daylight or accessorizing with fluorescent orange. Scampering behind trees and fading into waterfalls, this grimacing goon is straight out of Looney Tunes territory. He's a mountain of Elmer Fudd and he's everywhere at once.
If you give me some GEORGE KENNEDY we're good; you don't need to supply me with anything more. JUST BEFORE DAWN though, insists upon stuffing my semi-celebrity swag bag to overflow with a highly agreeable cast. Constant DePALMA co- cohort GREGG HENRY is present in an early role, as is RALPH SEYMOUR (KILLER PARTY, PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE), CHRIS LEMMON (WISHMASTER), JAMIE ROSE (PLAYROOM) and MIKE KELLIN of SLEEPAWAY CAMP fame. Final girl honors go to DEBORAH BENSON who learns the value of being proactive, wearing make-up and choking somebody with your fist in swift order. Her method of monster disposal may produce the oddest kill in slasher history (it's almost an answer to Ash's porn mag attack on Ripley in ALIEN) and there's a nifty gender role switcheroo within the film's denouement that lingers like the dying campfire smoke that frames it.
Most importantly, JBD has several stylin' slash-happy set pieces that include but are not limited to: a suspenseful rope bridge standoff, a graveyard mix up involving a Velma-esque optical predicament, and a sexy underwater salute to THE HAUNTING's "Whose hand was I holding?" routine. Plus have you ever seen a lady climb up a tree only to have a hillbilly chop down said tree with a machete? You should.
Director JEFF LIEBERMAN wears a diamond-studded king's crown in my head because he not only made this baby but also the super fun SQUIRM and the phenomenal BLUE SUNSINE too. JUST BEFORE DAWN may not explode with originality in the story department and I thank it for that. Why build a brand new house when you can simply redecorate? The atmosphere is singular here and LIEBERMAN is almost working in black and white with green substituting as white and shocking orange stepping in for black. The simple but dramatic visuals married with the great BRAD (FRIGHT NIGHT) FIEDEL's eerie, ominous score create an almost alien planet climate out of the Oregon woods in which this was filmed. I doubt everything intended was accomplished, several ideas feel dropped and left behind like burdensome backpacks but what we're left is my cup of tea and then some. I wouldn't complain if Mr. KENNEDY had more to do but I can't begrudge the guy some well earned paid recreational horseback riding. If you like the woods and you like horror then this is the perfect place to be and if you dig humongous hillbillies with machetes, you'll find JUST BEFORE DAWN the perfect time.
I often tell people that I'm lucky. I grew up in a time when children's entertainment was at its best. These were before the days of BLUE'S CLUES and TELETUBBIES giving kids everywhere ADD (you know it's true, people!) Back in my day (why hello, Grandpa), family entertainment was wholesome, but not completely braindead like a lot of it is now. The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon had only recently hit the airwaves and they weren't afraid to take chances. In many ways, The Disney Channel was sort of like the TCM of its day. It was there that I'd end up seeing a good majority of all the old MGM musicals, the delicious TEEN WITCH, and the goofy ROGER CORMAN produced STEPMONSTER (yes, Disney used to show CORMAN movies.) Hell, even Nickelodeon used to air the slightly subversive and spooky ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?
Out of all the great kid friendly things to come out of the ‘80s and ‘90s (of which there are many), the film adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1988 novel MATILDA goes straight to the top of my list. I first saw it in theaters back in '96. Two twins in my 1st grade class decided to have their birthday party at the movies and they picked this one to go see. Pretty much the entire class showed up, not knowing that we were about to have our minds blown.
The story centers around young Matilda Wormword. Matilda's white trash parents hardly even know she exists and spend their days selling used cars for unfair prices, getting their hair dyed, and playing bingo. Little do they know that, even from an extremely young age, their daughter has had an abnormally large IQ. Since she's so neglected at home, she becomes self-sufficient and even braves the big city to seek out a library so that she can quench her thirst for knowledge.
When she finally asks to go to school at age 6, her parents send her to Crunchem Hall, a school that looks more like a correctional facility than a place of higher learning. There, she comes face to face with the butch Agatha Trunchbull, the school's stern headmistress, who has a thing for tossing disobedient children out windows, over fences by their pigtails, and into the Chokey, an iron maiden-esque contraption filled with nails and broken glass. Thankfully, Matilda ends up in the classroom of Miss Honey, a kindly teacher who appreciates the quirks of every student she teaches and starts to believe that Matilda might be exceptionally gifted. Did I also mention that Matilda has psychokinetic powers? Oopsy! The story is like PRECIOUS meets some sort of bizarre JOHN WATERS movie meets CARRIE…but for kids.
What stands out most is how the story never speaks down to children. It's that special something that Roald Dahl had. If you look at his other works such as THE WITCHES and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, you'll see what I mean. His stories are never inappropriate, but they also never gloss over some of the darker themes that most children's writers would. They're sort of like the Grimm's Fairy Tales of our time. As a kid, I respected that. I looked up to the storytellers who knew we were brave enough to handle the injustices that life might throw at us. Plus, Dahl always delivered his stories with a playful wink in his eye and his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.
MARA WILSON (who I loved in MRS. DOUBTFIRE, too!) plays Matilda and is super adorable. Real life couple DANNY DeVITO (who also directed the film) and RHEA PERLMAN as Matilda's trashy, inept parents threaten to steal the show at any moment. They're hysterical! EMBETH DAVIDTZ radiates a genuine warmth as Miss Honey. She's the teacher we all wanted as kids. You just want to give her a hug and let her adopt you. PAM FERRIS should probably join the ranks of Kindertrauma Traumatizers for her portrayal of The Trunchbull. She commits to the role in such a way that leaves your jaw on the floor. There's not one bit of vanity in her performance. She just looks like she'd smell really bad. I actually just recently looked up a recent picture of her and was shocked that she was such a beautiful lady in real life. This is real acting, folks!
A few traumatizing moments include:
Matilda still holds up as a surprisingly fun and refreshing viewing experience. I've probably seen it over a hundred times since its first release and I still never tire of it. It's just as warm, touching, funny, and poignant as the first time. In fact, Dahl has gotten surprisingly lucky in terms of film adaptations. Both THE WITCHES and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (I'm talking about the one with Gene Wilder, not Johnny Depp!) were also adapted into stellar films worthy of coverage on Kindertrauma. God knows I have my own horror stories about watching those two. As a matter of fact, those films still make me a little uneasy when I watch them. There's something about them that gets under my skin.
Special kudos go out to the film's composer, DAVID NEWMAN, who also composed HEATHERS, which is another one of my favorite film scores. His music is at times quirky, scary, suspenseful, and often heartbreaking. Take a listen to this suite (HERE). Also, what kid of the ‘90s doesn't immediately think of this song when this movie is brought up?
UNK SEZ:: Thanks for covering this fondly remembered movie Chris! I'm a fan myself. Folks, don't forget Chris'movie PERVERSION is available HERE!
The "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s was in full swing in my small town when I was introduced to one of the main recruiting tools of the dark lord, Dungeons and Dragons. TSR's role playing game was a one way ticket to a steady diet of brimstone and piping hot Fresca for all eternity. A few of my older friends had mentioned that they were starting to play, and I was more than just a little interested. I had stumbled across a copy of the "Dungeon Masters Guide" at my local Waldenbooks and was captivated by the cover, a wizard or mage type person fought valiantly with a Paladin companion against a giant red devil wielding an equally giant scimitar. I remember glancing around the bookstore hoping that the devil or one of his minions wouldn't notice me as I dared to pick up the book. As if on cue a small black pamphlet fell out of the book and on the floor. It was the infamous Jack Chick tract, "Dark Dungeons."
Jack Chick tracts had already traumatized me for a few years prior to this point. The tract, "Bewitched" had exposed me to the horrors of drug use and the day to day battle that praying grandmothers had with Satan himself. The image of poor Ashley Wilson's face melting off as she looked into a mirror during a drug "Freak out" had insured that I would stay away from drugs until I was at least out of middle school!
"Dark Dungeons" is one of the mostly widely known and parodied Chick tracts. Poor Marcie and Black Leaf ! The horrors of role playing games were spelled out as people died with their characters, while other cast, "Mind Bondage" spells on their parents so they could play more. The reclusive Jack Chick spread his hysterical propaganda with a formidable output on many subjects, Halloween and Catholicism being rich and oft visited targets. It's debated whether or not Jack Chick is one person or a group of people writing under a pseudonym, but what is not debated is that his methods impacted readers.
I eventually learned by playing Dungeons and Dragons, that it wasn't a portal to hell and damnation, but rather a conduit for the imagination. How many people wrote stories about their adventures and went on to discover great fantasy literature or even developed the games that we play today. Dungeons and Dragons hysteria also produced the seriously awful movie, "Mazes and Monsters", starring a pre-fame Tom Hanks as a role playing fan that takes things a little too seriously.
Every once and a while I feel like pulling the dice out of storage and dusting off my trusty cleric character sheet, but then I realize that there is real life to attend to, and that Greyhawk has passed me by. Hopefully my son will gravitate towards role playing games and exercise his imagination with me on a campaign someday.
— Eric J.
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I have a vague memory of a movie I saw as a child that has stuck with me all my life. Someone was taking a shower when the water suddenly turned red. This person jumped out of the shower, unscrewed the shower head and found a note inside. The note stated something like, "This is dye, next time it will be acid."
That's literally all I remember and I can't be sure how accurate my recollection is. I saw many films as a child that I was probably too young to see, I think my parents preferred to sneak me into the drive-in rather than pay a babysitter. If this was a film I saw during that time period it would have been somewhere in the mid to late '70s. This has been bugging me for years, so any help would be appreciated. Love the site.
ONCE
I wasn't sure I wanted to catch DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE. When I was around 13, my best friend was taken to see it by his father and the tale he returned with rattled me. I was immersed in horror films at the time but DON'T, at least as my friend described it, sounded like it was on the deeper end of the pool than I was familiar with. It was about a guy who lived in a house (that you'd better not go into), who captured women, tied them up in a metal room and then burned them alive with a flamethrower. What?! Why would anyone want to do that?! Listening to my pal's war story was thrilling but worrisome. He talked as if he was lucky to make it out of the theater alive himself. The movie he made in my head was close enough. DON'T didn't sound like much fun and being tied up and burned alive sounded way crueler than a nice quick axe to the head. I wasn't ready to go into this particular house. I wasn't even all that tempted…yet.
THEN
A bunch of years passed and I (wrongly) believed I had exhausted every 1980s horror flick I could. Obviously it was high time I took the plunge and went inside that darned house my friend had told me about. Even if the film did not live up to my nervous expectations, I'd have a decent time visiting the dark shadow it once cast in my head. I ended up appreciating the movie a lot more than I expected. I found the depravity I bargained for and the lead actor was sympathetic enough to carry me through. I suppose there is a misogynistic element skulking about but such is the price you pay for free range horror. I missed DON'T in its heyday and I missed it in its awkward years too. By this point it captured a specific valued bubble of time. Friendly disco music and a weirdly effective undercurrent of melancholy balanced out whatever sleazy behavior it indulged in. The house itself is my favorite type of authentic location you only seem to find in low budget films. The awesome icing on the cake is DGITH's awkward dubbing. The original soundtrack was unusable so everything had to be re-dubbed later which adds something as off-putting as it is endearing. Background characters jabber hilariously and incidental dialogue jumps to the forefront. It's wrong but I love it.
NOW
Watching the film a second time I find myself even more taken. The psycho killer with mommy issues routine is nothing rare but the unscalable wall of alienation maniac Donny Kohler bangs up against is not limited to his history or home. He's harangued at work, his competency is perpetually up for debate and every time he tries to connect with a lone ally, some snide comment questioning his sexuality is made. Donny's abusive past (his mother tried to burn the sin out of him) would be enough to unhinge anyone but the consistent debasement he receives in the ugly universe he inhabits is just as destructive. (Okay maybe he shouldn't have thrown that lit candle holder at that pushy girl's head at the disco but it's not as if he wasn't perfectly clear about not wanting to dance.) In the end Donny's last victim is not a woman but a priest who has failed him and there's an epilogue that suggests that the evil we've witnessed is not limited to Donny's twisted mind. In the messed up world of DGOTH it seems every kid we encounter from extras on the street to the children of Donny's friend are victims of hostility and the voices that haunted Donny are ready to "help" them ("the weak and the wounded" to borrow from SESSION 9) too. Sure, the "evil finds a new host" epilogue may be cliché but it strikes a truth about the fallout of abuse.
DON'T ends up being my favorite type of movie. It can be seen as crude and humorous on one level but on the other hand there's something hard to shake creepy about it too. The old house, with its bizarre angles and funky furniture and the sudden flashes of Donny's white-haired, blue-skinned, scarecrow of a dead mother give it some timeless gothic flavor while the music, fashion and unrepentant violence speak specifically of its own era. I also really like the performance of the main actor DAN GRIMALDI. I think he's really interesting in this and I'm not surprised he went on to other things including playing twins on THE SOPRANOS. I can't really say this movie ends up being as scary and as effective as the movie that my pal constructed in my head long ago but it does have a better soundtrack and I have a feeling it's only just begun to speak to me.
Hey Kindertrauma,
I remember seeing a trailer in the late 90s, perhaps 1999, or early 2000s, in a Pay-Per-View channel back in the day. It used to play constantly, almost every 5 minutes or so. The trailer showed shots of a house, a woman screaming, perhaps a shot of a knife. All I can remember is that it ended with a house darkening its lights and then the title. Somehow I thought it was the Psycho remake, but it's only because the word "psycho" was somehow engrained into my memory of this trailer. I know it's not much to go on, but it's something that's been bugging me, cause it's one of the only things in my childhood that scared me a bit.
I've got a fondness for movies in which characters build a doomed cocoon against the outside world. I'm thinking THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE, SECRET CEREMONY, and now STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING. I know it never ends well but there's inevitably an eye of the hurricane moment of serenity where I want to stay and set up camp. Sometimes these cocoons involve two people connecting and sometimes it's just one person building a shelter against the hurricane of psychosis (PIN, BAD RONALD, and REFLECTION OF FEAR). Either way something about these precariously built nests strikes a nerve. Maybe it's due to my family moving a lot when I was little. I remember wanting to be a beaver or a turtle because they both had homes. While my brothers drew racing cars, I drove the interiors of vans. It's beyond simply having a nice place to hang out in and a roof overhead. The most important thing is that not everyone is invited and different rules apply.
Brenda Thompson (RITA TUSHINGHAM) is a skittish, mousy type who leaves her mother behind to brave an ultra-groovy, early seventies era London. Her head is stuffed with fairy tales of her own invention and she's looking for a prince to share in her delusions. She finds a cool job but doesn't quite fit in and after being overlooked in favor of her prettier roommate, she stalks the streets until she finds an abandoned dog. The dog's owner is Peter (SHANE BRIANT of DEMONS OF THE MIND) and once Brenda gets a gander at him, she kidnaps the dog so she can return it and play hero later. Unlike Brenda, Peter was not born yesterday and instead of being pissed at her deception, he invites her to live with him. Peter is not a prince so much as a gigolo serial killer who regularly slashes up his benefactors. Because he believes he is only valued for his looks, he hates anything beautiful. If you are pretty, he will cut you up with a box cutter and record the whole thing.
Obviously this relationship can never work out and things are going to go south real soon. Be that as it may, for a while there, these two kooky kids almost have it all. Brenda changes her name to Wendy and they hang out in a really excellent apartment sitting on the floor inventing and recording fairy tales. And check out that Peter Pan reference! There's Wendy and Peter and the dog's name is even "Tinker"! All that needs to happen is Wendy must not discover that said dog has been murdered for wearing a nice bow on its head and that Peter screwed and killed her ex-roommate. She also must never go to the room upstairs, always clean up after him and never try to look too pretty because that will drive him completely insane. Unfortunately, one day Wendy decides to get a new hairdo and well, everything unravels.
STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING is an unlikely HAMMER film directed by PETER COLLINSON the same guy who did that FRIGHT movie I recently reviewed (although he's best remembered for THE BANK JOB.) It's got a bunch of severe funky edits, some spooky voiceovers and it bounces around in time a great deal. Some will certainly find it as annoying as I found it fascinating. It's also got a cameo and a theme song from ANNIE ROSS of BASKETCASE 2&3 and WITCHERY fame and that's nothing to sneeze at either. Even if you don't care for the story or the frustrating characters, I think I'd have to recommend this one for the time period alone; the London shown here has got to be seen to be believed. It's a shame about what befalls poor head in the clouds Brenda/Wendy but at least she got to learn the lesson (albeit too late) that life is no fairy tale in such killer covet-worthy digs.
