June 26th, 2003"HOLLYWOOD BOUND"
Everyone has to start out somewhere and in the World of film it's usually doing low-budget horror movies. I'm not quite sure why this is, but if you look back at all the people who are sucessful (or became sucessful) in the studio system you'll see a lot of horror movies that have either started a career or been wiped clear from a resume. This grab bag focusses on four individuals who started out all "horror" and became a whole heck of a lot more... The Burning [1981] was a humble beginning for the Weinstein brothers. Bob co-wrote the screenplay and Harvey produced this so typically 80's slasher flick that takes a tale of urban legend and has a summer camp caretaker called Cropsy being burned in a prank by some campers and returning years later with a sharp pair of hedge clippers to eliminate a whole new group of campers (that include pre-stardom Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame). This is actually one of my more favourite 80s slashers and it's thanks mostly in part to the pretty kick-ass gore scenes (the raft massacre is the best) but it's also entertaining and has some mild suspense. The Weinstein's would go on to form indie powerhouse Miramax, who ended up bought by Disney and always seem to have a slew of pictures up for Academy Awards every year. The Evil Dead [1982] is a low-budget masterwork. Made by a bunch of Michigan State college buddies this gruelling horror flick introduced us to not only genre favourite Bruce Campbell (my hero!) but to Sam Raimi and his kinetic direction. If you're a true horror fan you've seen this tale of a group of college friends heading off to a cabin in the woods and becoming possessed by demons. You've seen the spooky "speeding demon" camera shots, you've seen the almost offensive "tree rape" scene and you've thrilled at the crimson splattered all over the place (and mostly on hapless "hero" Campbell). But this was one Hell of a way for Raimi to get his foot firmly in the door. He made two sequels to this (1987's slapstick sequel and 1993's equally goofy Army Of Darkness), executive produced two of the most popular 90's syndiacted shows (Xena and Hercules) and directed some decent Hollywood films with 1995's western The Quick And The Dead and the awesome 1998 thriller A Simple Plan. But it was with 2001's Spider-Man that he really hit his stride. A box-office smash (with two planned sequels in the works) this gave Raimi a chance to get tons of money to use his hi-octane direction but also put his experience making semi-superhero flick Darkman to use. Critters [1986] was the debut for director Stephen Herek. It was also one of the more fun "guilty pleasures" to come out in 1986 along with Fred Dekker's Night Of The Creeps. This has the Brown family, their farm and the small town of Grover's Bend falling victim to some escaped "intergalactic" prisoners that turn out to be small furballs with sharp, sharp teeth that love to eat. There's two bounty hunters on their trail one who takes the form of a popular pop star, the other the local priest. It's "Krite" smashing mayhem as the furballs eat anything in their path and the hunters blow them all to Hell. I've always loved this movie ever since seeing it during the constant "free weekend" trials of the movie channels in the mid-80's as it's a highly entertaining time that's purposely campy, funny and just plain fun. Plus the Chiodo Brothers (who did Killer Klowns From Outer Space) created the Critters. Herek would go on to direct 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and find himself pigeon-holed in directing such Hollywood comedies as Mighty Ducks, Holy Man and Rock Star. Plus he also did the 1996 drama, Mr. Holland's Opus. |
