Film Review: WITCHERY (1988)

Fabrizio Laurenti (as Martin Newlin) directs Witchery (1988) which was released in Italy as La Casa 4.  For those of you that didn’t know, The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 were released in Italy as La Casa and La Casa 2, respectfully.  This film was released as an unofficial sequel to those hit films to capitalize on their popularity.  Ghost House (1988) was released in Italy as La Casa 3 and this film was the next in line for the series.  Neither of these films have anything to do with the popular Sam Raimi films or each other. 

A rich family venture off to an island in   There is also a photography couple looking to discover the truth about the witches and the history of the hotel and they all get stranded on the island during a storm.  Now, waiting for the day to break them each come face to face with the nightmares of the building that begins to take them one by one.

Massachusetts to buy an abandoned hotel only to discover that the former resident is still living their but as a witch who wants to see them all dead.

The film has its moments including starring turns from Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff and despite it being a very predictable horror film the witch elements make it more interesting.  The film is not so much a slow burn but the decaying of each of the ensemble of characters as you watch them become distanced from one another as they die one by one.

The film will satisfy fans of ‘80s Italian productions but audiences who don’t realize the genre (and country) of the film won’t be able to appreciate the film for what it is.

"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 30: “The Magnificent Heather Langenkamp!”

Week 30: “The Magnificent Heather Langenkamp!”

The ‘80s were filled with names of female actors who would one day be labeled “scream queens” but few have had as big an impact as Heather Langenkamp.  Considering that the film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) put her on the map and she starred in two subsequent sequels her resume is pretty empty of any other horror films.  She mostly stuck to television series and guest appearances on several famous shows.  Keeping with my series surrounding Wes Craven and his films I thought it would be a good idea to explore one of the actors that became an icon due to his films.

The original A Nightmare on Elm Street was a major role for Langenkamp.  It was her first starring role which fortunately gave her a lot of range.  She wasn’t just a victim who was quickly dispatched by the killer.  Audiences experienced the nightmare through the eyes of her character Nancy Thompson and would get to see a dangerous relationship develop between her and nightmare killer Freddy Krueger (Robert England).  As Nancy’s friends are killed one by one she decides to discover the truth about the man who may kill her in her dreams but soon discovers that her parents as well as the other parents in the neighborhood may have had something to do with the murder of Fred Krueger.  It’s something she’s lived with her entire life.  Despite living in the perfect neighborhood where nothing ever really happens, the truth is deeper and darker.  She comes from a broken home; her mother is a drunk and separated from her police father whom she barely speaks to and whom doesn’t understand her.  Looks are deceiving.

Nancy has the perfect BFF in Tina (Amanda Wyss) and an understanding boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) and everything is fine until her and her friends all dream of Fred Krueger at the same time.  Now one of the great things about this film is the great chemistry with the entire cast and Langenkamp is the leader.  She’s able to make all the relationships genuine and believable in a film in which everything becomes unbelievable.   Part of buying into the world that Craven crafted is believing all the characters that inhabit it and the entire cast does a great job which is why the film endures to this day.  Although it was England who became the household name as the wise talking burned serial killer Freddy Krueger, it was Langenkamp that ushered in a new type of horror film heroine.  Her character of Nancy just didn’t scream and run she found the strength and mindset to fight back when she didn’t have any one else to fight for her.  She became self-sufficient and strong, something you’d see future horror films emulate.

It would only be a few years later that Langenkamp would return as Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987).  The events of the original film have had an effect on Nancy who is now a psychologist that specializes in helping teenagers deal with their nightmares.  In this film she shows up at a hospital after Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) has already tried to kill herself because of her nightmares.  Kristen is one of a group of teenagers who are all being haunted by Fred Krueger in their nightmares and Nancy is the only one who believes and understands them.  In this film Langenkamp gets to play an older and wiser Nancy who gets to use her knowledge to help save others in the same situation that she was once in.  Nancy and Krueger have a different relationship as she is the one that beat Krueger so there is personal animosity present that wasn’t there in the previous film; this is the first film in which Krueger would face off against a previous foe.  Nancy has an almost kindred spirit connection with Kristen; a very sister like bond that’s not explored by any other characters in subsequent films.  This film allows Langenkamp the opportunity to see her character grow and mature and ultimately sacrifice herself.  This is a fitting end to one of horror’s most enduring female characters.

This film ultimately became a fan favorite helping to make Langenkamp one of the few heroines to actually gain as much notoriety as Robert England himself.  Her popularity and star status would not rise as fast as Jamie Lee Curtis or Linda Blair due to the fact that she did not star in a string of successful horror films throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s.  The Elm Street films are generally the only horror films that provided her with a large enough role to actually matter.

Despite not having the opportunity to fully play the iconic character of Nancy Thompson again (death will do that sometimes), she did return to the franchise one final time playing herself in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994).  This was Craven’s chance to return to the director’s chair to craft a whole new story based on the iconic characters that he created.  Langenkamp would be herself, the mother of a young boy who was married to a man who is secretly working on a new Elm Street film with the real Craven.  Fact and fiction are about to collide when the nightmare world starts to turn Langenkamp’s life upside down.  After the death of her husband, her son starts to experience debilitating nightmares of Freddy Krueger, who has stepped into the real world to ensure that he lives on in the minds of future generations.  Craven melds the real life world with the world of film and the fandom created by the Elm Street series and Freddy Krueger himself.  Nancy Thompson has grown up and become a mother and a storyteller instilling in her child the fantasy that the world of film is nothing more than a fairytale to be passed down from generation to generation.

Langenkamp (the real person) has the opportunity to play her most complicated character and she does so effortlessly.  In a career character spanning three films she’s been able to accomplish something that very few actors get the opportunity to do.  This has not only made her one of the great heroines in horror film history but allowed the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise to live with its own legacy despite the mediocre sequels that have come and gone before and after.  

The reason why Langenkamp had such an impact on me growing up is because with these three films the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise was at its strongest.  No other horror franchise had an internal trilogy that mattered this much (although some would argue Jamie Lee Curtis’ three film Halloween trilogy comes close excluding that abysmal Resurrection film)).  I continued to watch these films sans the rest (as I’m sure many fans have done as well).  Langenkamp has always had that next door neighbor “every girl” quality that endured her to fans.

Her only other major impact would’ve been the television series Just the Ten of Us (1988-90) which gave her, her longest role.  Some may remember her as Nancy Kerrigan in the TV movie Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story (1994), which I only saw when it was originally released.  She also had a part in the cult film The Demolitionist (1995) but most of the rest of her roles have been small.  She has yet to be given another amazing opportunity of a Nancy Thompson but that doesn’t matter since that is the character that she will always be remembered for and we fans will be thankful for.

Companion to “Conversations in Horror” - “The Best in ‘80s Slasher Films”

Companion to “Conversations in Horror”

“The Best in ‘80s Slasher Films”

In the podcast “Conversations in Horror” hosts Ron McLellen and I look at different aspects of the horror genre in order to entertain and educate fans.  This article is a companion to the show as a means to touch upon things that the show doesn’t have time to.  Enjoy.

I have a deep love for ‘80s horror films.  The ‘80s were a great time for filmmakers to explore every sub-genre of horror film out there.  It also happened to be one of the biggest decades for the slasher genre so I’d like to take a few moments to look out at all of my favorite ‘80s slasher films.  Some you may have seen while others you may have only heard about in whispers but all (in my opinion) are worth taking a peek at.  Films are presented in alphabetical order rather than in a list leading to the best of the best.

BOOGEY MAN, THE (1980)

This is an indie little slow burn of a psychological film that has a lot of atmosphere and mood.  Not necessarily considered to be an excellent film but it has its charms and its one of director Ulli Lommel’s best films.   When I first saw it as a kid I was expecting a monster film but I ended up with a film that was so much more so now I fondly remember it as a film that wanted to be something more than a simple slasher horror film.

CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980)

Next to Black Christmas (1974) this is one of my favorite Christmas themed horror films.  Director Lewis Jackson’s blackly comic film about a crazed Santa Claus who decides who is naughty enough to be killed.  Unlike the similarly themed Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) this film doesn’t take itself too seriously and is a lot more fun.  I enjoy both films but this is the one I put in every Christmas (next to Black Christmas that is).

FRIDAY THE 13^TH (1980)

Everyone loves a great slasher and it doesn’t get any better than the original Friday the 13^th (even without Jason).  I’m still a fan of this film and prefer the mystery aspects of this film that was lost in the sequels (except for maybe Part V).  More modern audiences may scoff at this film since it doesn’t have Jason in it but it does contain the amazing special FX make up talents of Tom Savini which means this film never disappoints from beginning to end.

FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 3 (1982)

Jason is a force to be reckoned with and nothing makes that more true than this film which is in 3-D and Jason gets his signature hockey mask.  The 3-D effects may be dated (and don’t hold up so well in 2-D) but this film is one of the most fun of the sequels.  I’m not a huge fan of the franchise (sorry, but I’m a Michael Myers fan) but this is one of the most entertaining of the sequels and not one to be missed.

FUNHOUSE, THE (1981)

 I will say this for the Tobe Hooper directed film – it grows on you.  I was not a fan of this film when I first saw it.  I thought it was a badly done film with nothing interesting to say.  At the suggestion of my best friend (and co-host of the show) who loves the film, I decided to give the film a second chance.  This, like many of Hooper’s films, are better the second time around.  Hooper’s films generally lack a strong story but make up for it in visuals and flare which this film has abundance in.  Growing up I never took his films all that seriously so I never really cared for his style but that’s what makes his films so entertainingly good – Hooper has style and it permeates every one of his films, so, even if his films lack a good story they more than make up for it in different ways.

HALLOWEEN II (1981)

This is not my favorite of the Halloween sequels but it is one of my favorite sequels of the ‘80s.  Before the sequels post-Part IV came I watched this film (with the original) every Halloween as if they were one film.  For the longest time I couldn’t watch one without the other.  There are a lot of great things about this film that still resonate but I loved the fact that sacrifices had to be made to end pure evil at the end of the film and there were no true winners (at least until part IV reveals that neither Myers nor Loomis actually died at the end).  This was supposed to be the end of the Myers story and a start of something different for subsequent sequels but we all know how that ended.

HELL NIGHT (1981)

Whatever you have to say about this film “boring” isn’t one of them.  Linda Blair is fantastic in this by-the-numbers slasher.  Despite the film being pretty predictable it’s never boring and always entertaining from beginning to end.   My opinion of the film may be a little bit misplaced as I’ve always been a huge fan of Blair’s.  I had a crush on her from way back which still allows me to enjoy her films more than I probably should (hey, I’m someone who thinks that The Exorcist 2: The Heretic isn’t a bad film).

HUMONGOUS (1982)

This was one of the scariest movies I ever saw growing up.  This is probably because I remember seeing a dark and grainy version of the film so everything horrifying was amped up any more.  This was also one of my mother’s favorite horror films so I saw this plenty of times growing up and it still holds a special place for me.  Most of my friends had never heard of the film before I mentioned it to them and it seems to be one of those films that were quickly forgotten upon release but it is a film worth seeking out.

MANIAC (1980)

This is one of my favorite films that I don’t plan on watching a second time in a while.  This is part of the same list that includes Martyrs (2008), Cannibal Holocaust (1980), and The Human Centipede: First Sequence (2009) which are films I think are great but not films I’m going to stick in the DVD/BD player and re-watch when I want to be entertained.  This is a polarizing film with a gripping performance by Joe Spinell and beyond fantastic make up FX (again) by Tom Savini.

MOTEL HELL (1980)

A cult favorite and one of my favorite films of the ‘80s.  This is one of those rare ‘80s films that got the comedy and horror right without being an all-out spoof.   This may be a little dated but it is also one of the most entertaining films from the ‘80s that has been overlooked for far too long.  Check this film out if you never have.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)

Next to Halloween this is one of the greatest films that depict the derailment of a holiday.  This is a great film from beginning to end and still holds up very well even to this day.  I love a good killer in a mask and this film has one of the truly very best.  This is probably one that everyone has seen.

SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, THE (1982)

Okay, this is a guilty pleasure film if there ever was one!  This may not be a great film but it is entertaining from beginning to end and one of the best of the ‘80s hands down.  These types of “throw-away” films may not be everyone’s cup of tea and it might be dated but it’s still one of my favorites to just put in the DVD/BD player with a beer in hand and just enjoy which you should as well.

Okay, so here is a small sampling of some of my favorite ‘80s slasher films.  There are MANY more that I never mentioned that are favorites but these should get you started.  Enjoy and if you want to hear more go to the actual “Conversations in Horror” podcast – “Talkin’ ‘80s Slasher Films” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wc9g-QrU6U or visit our Facebook Page at - https://www.facebook.com/conversationsinhorror?fref=ts