Yes part of this is a B-movie with soap opera style subplots. The other part features one of the best killer getups and masks in any late 80s slasher as well as some of the best kills and practical effects. It also has some of the best Halloween ambience of any movie. The party and some of the decorations just looked real. There is also a great satanic panic subplot that adds to the fun. It has some of the most nudity you'll ever see in an 80s slasher. To me there really isn't much this movie does wrong though you know from some of the acting it is a B-movie but in the technical and fun aspects it delivers. Since this was made by someone from India a bunch of Bollywood aspects like music and dancing are added in a slasher way. The interpretation of Halloween by a foreigner is as bonkers as it gets.
The film starts with a creepy satanist grandfather (Hy Pyke) going to give his son Tommy a pumpkin for Halloween. Tommy lives with his mother and father and his two siblings, Roger and Vera. Tommy cuts himself while carving the pumpkin and says one of the many funny lines in this movie, "Grandpa gave it to me and I like the taste of blood he says its good for me." To this his mother is horrified and as she wants her father to stay away from her kids. Bill (Michael Potts) Tommy's father goes to confront Grandpa and he says "Tommy never belonged to you, he belongs to something bigger." He is knocked out by some other satanists and burned alive in his car.
Flash forward about 10 years or maybe a little more. Roger (Jeff Brown) is now the town Sheriff. Tommy (Gregory Scott Cummins) is a full time satanist. Vera's (Carla B.) friend Beth (Patricia Christie) takes an interest in Roger. Meanwhile Tommy is dating Nora (Jeanna Fine).
Jeanna Fine, looking mighty fine in this movie
While a killer clad in red and black robes with a devil's mask and a three-pronged-rake begins killing people around Tommy. That takes a backseat to the soap opera plots with everyone. I enjoy the line exchange between Vera and Beth when Beth says she is into Roger. "I hope this doesn't turn into anything X-rated or illegal." "I hope it does," says Beth." Later when Beth and Roger hook up in the cemetery he says something about how he can't have sex in a cemetery and she says a clever pun about bodies and his penis. "They all rise to my will." Beth is awesome.
A look at the killer's awesome devil getup in this movie
Meanwhile Grandpa shows up and talks about Tommy's initiation ceremony on Halloween night. He implies toward Tommy's mother (Katina Garner) that he may actually be Tommy's father and he admits to still liking his daughter in an incestuous way. He later hits on Vera. Yes a fantastic man that grandpa. Roger eventually confronts Tommy as he spends all his time in his room daydreaming about being the antichrist and being in a metal band. Tommy later shows Roger his awesome Satanist chapel in his closet complete with pentagrams, candles, a skull, and a goat's head. Yet his brother hilariously only says "Now I know why Mom is so concerned with you spending time with Grandpa.
Nora meanwhile is killed by the Satan costumed killer after going in the pool and taking a shower. Jeanna Fine is the first of three women in this movie who go full frontal. Earlier in the movie Beth had scared Vera by putting a fake spider in the tub. Vera is topless. This movie seemed to either have a kill or nudity every five minutes.
Later we finally get to the best part of this movie which is the Halloween party. Vera and her boyfriend Brian (Larry Coven) make some awesome black and orange ribbons and hang the balloons. The party is awesome and features a fun bit where a real standup comedian (Will Bill Turner) does his tight five to some guests outside the party for a couple of minutes.
Spoiler Section
To the real highlight, the kills. The three pronged rake causes some havoc. Nora gets it through the throat. The effects there are great. The best kill is the shovel to Brian's head. While not that pleasing aesthetically there is an original kill where the killer suffocates a woman by tying her corset too tight then knifing her. Remember that cemetery sex scene from earlier? Yeah, Roger and Beth were having sex on top of Brian's body. At the ceremony they sacrifice a random naked woman. More nudity! Not to mention earlier there was a random naked woman dancing with a snake at the party! Anyways Beth and Vera show up at the ceremony after finding Brian's body. Vera goes in to confront Tommy as she believed he had killed Brian as he beat him up earlier in the film. Grandpa demands he kill her for seeing the ceremony but he cuts the ropes. Grandpa denounces Tommy and pursues Beth and Nora back to party where they warn Roger who leaves. Grandpa shows up and kills a random woman in the bathroom and then Beth who wanders in. Suddenly another person in a devil getup fights Grandpa and stabs him with a three-pronged-rake. Roger shows up and thinks it is Tommy so he shoots them. As the person in costume stumbles through the woods outside Tommy finds them and it is revealed to be his mother dying of the gunshot wound. The movie ends with someone who looks like Roger now leading the initiation in the barn. What a stinger!
A look at some of the awesome FX on one of the kills.
The awesome shovel to the head kill
This is going to be a Halloween staple for me every year. I love the ambience, the fun characters. Hy Pyke
is great. There's some awesome kills and nudity. A random music video sequence, pentagram tattoos on the ass, and plenty of beer product placement. All the ingredients, some random, of a movie I would like. Even the way this movie is shot is good with some great shots of the sunset and the trees at the beginning.
SLASHER MOVIE ANATOMY:
- Prior Evil: An Satanic incestuous grandpa takes interest in his son/grandson and wants to make him the antichrist in a satanic ritual
- Body Count: 8, if you include the music video daydream sequence
- Whodunit: Yes, but it's quite obvious who is doing the killing
- Mask or outfit: Satanic outfit and devil mask
- Locale or organizer: Small town Halloween party and Satanic Ceremony
- Best Kill: Shovel to the brain
INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH
Three-pronged-rake: 3
Knife: 1
Shovel: 1
Strangulation: 1
gunshot: 1
Hammer Claw: 1
SLASHER MOVIE TAXONOMY
· Kingdom: B-Movie late 80s
· Phylum: Serious, with some levity provided by the B-movie acting, soap opera subplots, and Wild Bill's tight 5
· Class: Slasher and Satanic Panic movie
· Order: 1988
· Family: Upper body nudity from five women, Full frontal from 3, and rear nudity from two
· Genus: An easy guess as to who the killer is. Focuses just as much on Satanic Panic elements as the slasher elements
· Species: Some really gory and FX driven kills
Rating: 8.5/10
Trivia: Apparently the porn stars were in the movie because no pubic hair and full frontal meant the distribution rights would sell for more in Japan. I got this from the Last Drive in with Joe Bob Briggs.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHl183rTxM
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