The occult, the murderer, the alien, the consumerist...
The horror movie masters of the 1980s incorporated a variety of elements into horror movies.
Strange, thrilling, maddening, funny, a classic from this.
In this issue, we still reminisce about the horror films of the eighties, continue to be thriller, continue to...
[Portrait of the Killer]
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Directed By: John McNaughton
Starring: Mary Delma / Michael Luke / Anne Bartoletti
Produced by: Usa
Release date: 1986.9.24
Runtime: 83 minutes
Who is Henry Lee Lucas?
America's first serial killer was also.
Wearing this "biopic" hat, [the killer's portrait] could have made a big fuss about Lucas's life:
He had an unhappy childhood, killed his mother as a teenager, squatted in prison, and stayed in a mental hospital.
While driving with his gay boyfriend, he killed a hundred or so people, and finally killed and then ate them first, a sadistic love ice love life and death love.
[Portrait of a Killer] could have been born ten years earlier than [Born Killer].
A good pair of murderous road movies of "the desert is lonely and straight, and the long river is full of sunsets".
But director John McNaughton doesn't play this set with you.
In the era of exploitative cinema, [portraits of killers] appeared almost in front of people in an alien posture.
In 1989, the film was rated X at its premiere at the Chicago Film Festival, a warning of loyalty.
In the deep alleys of Chicago, in the neon lights of cheap nightclubs, in apartments with gray cement walls, in damp and deserted streets, Henry kills people here.
He kills, not to test Freud's theory, not because he likes to kill, but because he is bored, because of this fucking life.
When Henry finished killing and dismembering, Tracy drove with him in the darkness.
"Where are we going now, Henry?"
"We'll find a place."
"Do you want to listen to the radio?" ——
In the 1980s, the most desperate scene was here.
[Cat's Eye]
Cat's Eye (1985)
Director: Lewis Teague
Starring: Drew Barrymore / James Woods / Alan King
Produced by: USA
Release date: 1986.10.10
Runtime: 94 minutes
Most of the time, Stephen King's screenwriting stories aren't cool at all, and what he fiddles with is some low-key, solid fear.
However, even if it is all Stephen King's story, the style of the film in the end still depends on the director.
When it comes to a director like Lewis Teague, [Cat's Eye] is very serious and educational in the flesh-and-blood, naked-screen horror films of the eighties.
The three stories of a cat, a three-part, [cat-eye man] can be summed up as:
Quitting smoking is hard, high altitude danger, and elves are bad.
A sloppy "quit contract" puts James Woods' wife in danger of being locked up in the grid and losing her little finger;
Retaliation after a derailment, so that the perpetrator and the abused person reverse their identities;
The evil elf behind the bedroom wall will constantly dilute the girl's yang after she falls asleep.
The danger, pain, and suffocation of tall buildings are the ancient fears of those who are close to them, expressed by Stephen King's unprovoked violence and the revenge of the chapter body.
The old man seemed to have a dictionary of notes on "horror."
[Cat's Eye] is one of the films in which he makes effective use of these terms.
[Ghost Chaser 2]
Phantasm II (1988)
Director: Dan Cascarari
Starring: Angus Sgling / Rigg Barnisst
Release date: 1988.7.8
Runtime: 97 minutes
In the seventies and eighties, the two most important contributions of this series of films were:
First of all, the hell it shows is an endless dry land and a deep red sky, a fantasy that is enough to be imitated by future generations;
Secondly, the shape and setting of the killing ball was a very advanced consciousness setting at that time.
Metal housing, rotating movement, blood spray function...
This cool killing device should not appear in stories set in cemeteries and crematoriums, but should be used in science fiction films.
Nine years apart, [Ghost Chaser 2] is no longer just the story of the little boy Mike fighting the cremator.
Dan Cascarali added more settings that would normally be chosen in eighties horror films:
The monster that lifts the flesh out of the woman's back,
A strange creature with tentacles on the head of the cremator,
The girl shows the degree of decay of the scalp in a hair-plucking motion.
These moments, which are dispensable for the plot, can be carefully recalled in the form of GIFs and photos among fans.
In addition, the second part has achieved the point of omnipotence in the killing tools:
Chainsaws, drills, axes, machetes, medical oxygen tools, and even cross necklaces that rise in the air.
"Ghosts chasing people" is actually more like "people chasing ghosts", and no one cares about the definition of ghosts and people.
As long as you're exciting, bloody, whimsical enough to show evil.
[Extreme Space]
They Live (1988)
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Roddy Pipen /Keith David /Meg Foster
Release date: 1988.11.4
Runtime: 93 min
"Television waves controlling the human brain" was one of the most important issues in horror films of the 1980s.
In the era when television, consumerism, and the media were just flourishing, "television" was a reasonable medium for the subject matter of horror movies.
[Extreme space] is Carpenter's perfect and obvious metaphor —
Aliens who attempt to occupy the earth transform into human forms and blend into the middle of the crowd, corrupting and controlling the minds of earthlings through new cultures such as television, advertising, and magazines.
When John Nada put on the pair of "sunglasses" he had taken from the revolutionaries, he saw all that the world was trying to show people:
Obedience, buying, marriage and procreation, consumption, watching more TV,
Don't think, don't have independent thoughts, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep,
The dollar is your God.
You have to shudder because Carpenter is so straightforward about showing the facts on the silver screen.
[Extreme Space] isn't a joke or a satire, it looks more like all the serious works of anti-totalitarianism and dystopianism.
It's anger, it's a worry, it's a mission to pack, process, deform, and show it to you.
[Extreme space] can also be seen as a weapon of Carpenter's personal vendetta.
In addition to slamming consumerism and the mission of the Reagan administration.
The old man also turned the Brazilian plastic surgeon Ivo Bitegay and the famous American film critic Roger Ebert into aliens.
In short, whoever he hates, he turns whoever he turns into an alien.
Interestingly, Ebert appreciated the film so much that he didn't say anything less nice about [extreme space] in the eighties.
[Fierce Fire]
Firestarter (1984)
Directed By: Mark M. L. Leicester
Starring: Drew Barrymore / David Kens / Martin Sheen
Release date: 1984.5.11
Runtime: 114 minutes
Horror movies especially like to make a fuss about children.
But they always appear as the discoverers or victims of horror.
On the screen in the 1980s, violent children were relatively rare.
Little Lori Sharine in [Fierce Fire] is a combination of victim and violent child image.
Since the film is based on Stephen King's novel, [Fierce] is often seen as a children's version of "Carrie the Witch".
Sharlene's parents met in an experiment that gave Shaline's father the ability to control her mind and gave Herlene superpowers after birth.
Sarene and her family are therefore being tracked down by an organization called The Shop.
In the process, Sarene's uncontrollable superpowers erupt again and again, and the scenes are much more amazing than in [Carrie the Witch].
The film's original director was John Carpenter, but for commercial reasons, Universal had Carpenter take over the relatively larger production of "Strange Shapes".
And the overall production of [Fierce Fire] seems to be rushed.
The biggest highlight in the film is Drew Barrymore, who was only nine years old at the time.
As the center and focus of the people in the film, this little girl navigates the emotional changes very smoothly, especially when using superpowers to burn people to death.
[Night Fog Killer]
The Fog (1980)
Starring: Adriana Babio / Jamie Lee Curtis / Janet Leigh
Release date: 1980.2.8
Runtime: 89 min
Danger is approaching quietly when people are neglecting to guard against it, and after many tragic cases, it is still difficult for people to see the true face of the perpetrator...
This is the usual scary routine in Carpenter horror movies.
The film was inspired by Carpenter's trip to England.
When he visited Stonehenge on a foggy day, he immediately thought of ghosts.
Then, at the suggestion of the producers, he made the film.
The film also bears the supernatural or mystic themes that Carpenter has always been involved in.
He set the story in an isolated frontier town.
As people prepare to celebrate the town's 100th birthday, an eerie fog from nowhere gradually surrounds the town.
What's even more bizarre is that the mist is also emitting fluorescence.
The people of the town were killed one after another by the strange people in the fog, and the fog was approaching more people in the fog.
The unknown is the most terrifying element of Carpenter's films.
For example, in "Strange Shape" and "Moonlight Panic" until the end of the film, Carpenter does not give the reason for the event.
In this way, [Night Mist Killing Machine] is much softer.["
The film not only explains the reasons for the murder, but also shows the appearance of the perpetrator at the end of the film.
[Demon Rangers]
The MonsterSquad (1987)
Director: Fred Decker
Starring: Andre Goyle / Stephen Macht / Duncan Reger
Release date: 1987.8.14
Runtime: 82 minutes
It's a teenage horror movie with a "monster club" like the kids who were chosen in Japanese manga.
When monsters strike, only they can shoulder the task of saving the world;
It can also be used as a juvenile version of [Ghostbusters], the threshold of the "Monster Club" is not low, and if you want to join them, you must know the legendary monsters well.
In the 1980s films full of strange powers and chaos, [Demon Rangers] is not unusual at all.
It's like a follow-up of a hot monster, with vampires, werewolves, fish monsters, and Frankensteins that appear in them, all of which are old faces, and there is no innovation, and the costumes are copied as they are.
The vampire's robe still looks a little rustic, but the film was still named one of the 50 great monster movies by Time Out magazine.
Probably people will still be touched by children's simple fantasies and courage, and they also need positive energy to fight against the evil of the beast.
The film gently treats the more terrifying Frankenstein and becomes good friends with the little girl, which is the warmest point in the film.
The seemingly icy Frankenstein not only did not kill the children against the vampire's will, but also became the savior of the children at a critical moment.
In monster movies, Frankenstein is often set up as a clumsy and cute personality, which contrasts with the appearance.
Another commendable point is:
The film is very realistic in terms of children's fantasies, and every child will have some monster friends when they are teenagers.
[Alien Exotic Flowers]
Little Shopof Horrors (1986)
Director: Frank Oz
Starring: Rick Moranes / Alan Grini / Vincent Gardenia
Release date: 1987.7.16
As a horror film, [Alien Strange Flower] is a bit too cute.
The strange plant "Audrey II" was a presence used to attract the attention of customers when he was a child, and everyone would enter the florist to admire it and buy other flowers by the way.
Audrey II of this period had the initial characteristics of a demon.
It has brought prosperity to the florist, and all it needs must be an unequal exchange, and it demands more than it can give.
Soon after, the male protagonist Sim found that he was in a deep quagmire, and Audrey II fed on flesh and blood.
The amount of food it eats is not small, and its growth rate is also very amazing, and after a while, Sim's self-sacrifice cannot satisfy it.
In the world of plant monsters, Audrey II had another kind of person, that is, the tree baby in Sven Meyer's [Gluttonous Tree].
The inability of plants to fill their stomachs became a horror that coexisted in both films, and in order to satisfy their appetites, the breeders had to attack the humans around them.
[Alien Flower] takes a more humorous and light-hearted approach to depicting plants eating people, and neither of the two people it eats is a positive image in the film.
One is the bastard dentist who abuses the heroine Audrey, and the other is the boss who is lustful.
In addition, the film uses a song and dance drama to increase the sense of joy, and the giant plants and the set of the advertising plot also have a certain degree of visual surprise.
The film has two endings, and the unreleased version is a disaster-style ending:
Audrey II ate audrey and overproduced, and these giant-billed plants destroyed houses like monsters to destroy humans.
However, it was hated by the audience at the test screening, and the crew had to change the ending, so there was a small flower in the release version that did not smile with good intentions.
What's your most terrifying movie moment?