In our ‘Forgotten’ series we look at horror movies from the past that don’t get the love they deserve or have just become lost in the unforgiving sands of time. We start with the late, great Eighties.
Every worthy horror fan has seen these gems from 1981…
An American Werewolf in London
The Burning
The Evil Dead
Friday the 13th Part 2
Halloween II
The Howling
My Bloody Valentine
Scanners
…but here are some that have slipped through the cracks. Some have for good reason and some just haven’t gotten the credit they deserve.
Dawn of the Mummy
The gore is there but the plot isn’t. A group of tomb raiders uncover the lost burial site of Pharaoh Sefirama. The greedy trio’s plans to horde the finding and all of the treasures for themselves hits a snag when a…Get this!…models and photographer from a nearby fashion shoot discover the site too. Without even a “Howdy do!” they take over the site as the perfect setting. All of the activity awakens Sefirama who begins gouging out the eyes and ripping off the heads of the interlopers. You have to sift through a lot of needless exposition, bad acting and terrible dialogue before getting to the good stuff.
Where to watch: Tubi.
Dead & Buried
Potters Bluff should be the tourist mecca of New England but it is not. They have a decent hotel so that can’t be the problem. The town is near a beach and the ocean so that can’t be the problem. The local restaurant has decent food so that can’t be a big problem. Oh, yeah. THE TOURISTS KEEP ENDING UP DEAD. NOW, that’s a problem.
Featuring a young Robert (Freddy Krueger) Englund and Jack Albertson’s (Chico and the Man, The Subject Was Roses) last on-screen film role, Dead and Buried was supposedly written by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. They also both wrote Alien. Later, O’Bannon would claim he only submitted story edits to Shusett and didn’t actually write Dead and Buried. No matter who penned it, the film is a creepy, sometimes gory tale in the vein of the Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt.
Sheriff Dan Gillis (James Farentino) finds himself sifting through a curious case when tourists are either murdered or disappear into thin air in Potters Bluff. Gillis’ investigation runs into roadblock after roadblock as the townsfolk either don’t know very much or are not very forthcoming. Gillis begins to grow increasingly paranoid to the point that he even interrogates his own wife (Melody Anderson as Janet). Getting nowhere fast, Deputy Dawg reaches out to a local doctor who quickly discovers that a recent hit and run victim actually died four months ago.
From there, the strange case of Potters Bluff takes some unexpected twists and turns which would have Rod Serling smiling. Special effects virtuoso Stan Winston, known for his mind-blowing work on Aliens, Invaders from Mars, Monster Squad, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park III and other blockbuster films, is another reason Dead and Buried is above your standard small town spookfest. Besides the death-by-toxic-fluid scene which stars a department store mannequin spitting up Jell-O, Winston’s creations are bloody and unnerving. Perhaps the best is a transformation scene which is so startling and so unsettling you won’t be able to take your eyes off of it.
Dead and Buried has its fair share of cheese, especially the random encounter which turns into an erotic photo shoot at the beginning of the film, but if you stick with it, it will stick with you for a very long time.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Shudder.
Deadly Blessing
As hard as horror master Wes Craven tries this just doesn’t work although you have to admire him for even going on this journey in the first place. A religious community sort of, kind of, like The Mormons is the backdrop for a very odd slasher film. While a vengeful figure dressed in black carves up residents the daughter of a neighboring farmer who is seen as an outsider and an evil force starts having visions and nightmares. The entire scenario just isn’t that enthralling or gripping although Ernest Borgnine puts in another commanding and creepy performance.
Where to watch: Tubi.
The Funhouse
This movie is about as fun as your hometown fair on rainy day. Tobe Hooper of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame doesn’t have much to work with here and it shows in the final product. After regaling us with their teenage angst and lust, a very small group of teens (therefore a very small body count) gets trapped in a carnival funhouse with maniac dad and his deformed adult son Gunther. Once the trespassers are discovered it is kill or be killed until the dawn breaks. The special effects to create Gunther are great. He looks rather hideous and grotesque. There just isn’t much here for horror fans besides lots of bumbling around in the dark. The novelization by Dean Koontz under the pen name Owen West is actually much better with an entire backstory and a more complex plot, characters.
Where to watch: Tubi.
Graduation Day
The slasher genre would burst at the seams as the eighties motored on but this one deserves special mention. It isn’t half bad at all. After a promising track star dies her estranged sister and U.S. Navy officer (Patch Mackenzie as Anne Ramstead) arrives back home to attend her funeral. A serial killer sometimes dressed as a fencer knocks off the other track team members one by one until they and their sinister motives are uncovered during the big finale.
Where to watch: Plex, Tubi and Peacock.
The Hand
One of the only “killer hand on the loose” movies that you won’t laugh and snicker at. That’s all because of Michael Caine’s ghoulish portrayal as comic book artist Jon Lansdale. Landsdale loses his hand in a bizarre traffic accident that you have to see to believe. His hand is never found so it cannot be reattached. As his marriage and life begins falling apart Lansdale begins having dark urges, thoughts and dreams. The body count starts to rise with the question being is a disturbed Lansdale disassociating himself from the crimes or is his severed hand acting on its own? This is Oliver Stone’s fourth film and there are glimmers of the cinematic genius that is to come.
Where to watch: Prime Video.
Happy Birthday to Me
Just like the last scene of Carrie has been replicated and duplicated in so many other horror movies so has the grisly conclusion of Happy Birthday to Me. A group of elitist college students, I mean they call themselves the Top Ten for cripes sake, are getting knocked off in all sorts of ghastly ways. In a departure from her Little House on the Prairie days, teen queen Melissa Sue Anderson and soon-to-be Young and the Restless regular Tracey E. Bregman do their best Sherlock and Watson to catch the creepy killer. The original unmasking sounded much better than what the filmmakers eventually went with which is kind of Scooby Doo corny. Still, Happy Birthday to Me is one of those horror movies that doesn’t get enough praise or recognition which is the reason why we do Forgotten Horror to begin with.
Where to watch: Prime Video.
Hell Night
When scavenging the video store shelves in the eighties Hell Night was a rental I always avoided. The bargain basement cover art made the film seem just as cheap and cruddy. Checking it out years later on a whim I couldn’t believe misleading that packaging was. The Exorcist’s Linda Blair and Peter Barton of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter star as a group of college students who are peer-pressured into staying in a creepy mansion overnight. It may not be that original but it is certainly superior to most low-budget slasher films.
Where to watch: Plex, Tubi, Shudder.
The Prowler
The director of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter shot this whodunit slasher thriller three years before joining the long line of people who have failed to kill off Jason. FX legend Tom Savini provides the special effects and . A World War II veteran doesn’t take being brushed off by his love very well. Years later, the murders begin anew.
Where to watch: Prime Video.
Wolfen
You won’t ever find a more boring killer wolf movie than this one. The shock and surprise here is that a police procedural, creature feature about a string of unsolved murders in New York City can be so long and so damn boring.
Where to watch: Prime Video.
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