Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

 

Watched December 23, 2022

1987

Director: Lee Harry

Starring: Eric Freeman (Ricky), Elizabeth Kaitan (Jennifer),  Darrel Guilbeau

It's awful! Garbage day indeed.

Ricky (Eric Freeman) is a dead eyed dude in a white room where a psychiatrist comes to interview him and record it on a reel to reel. Ricky tells the story of Silent Night, Deadly Night the movie. Billy is Ricky's older brother who witnessed Santa kill his parents. Ricky was a baby at the time but he seems to have all of Billy's memories. We re-watch Santa killing the family when they stop their car to help him. When Billy acts out about Santa fear he is punished by Mother Superior, the nun at the orphanage where both boys ended up after the murders of their parents. Billy sees two adults, who are supposed to be teen orphans according to the credits, having sex. Mother Superior belts them and Billy too. The younger, nicer nun had told Billy to go outside to play. Mother Superior gives a speech about what the older orphans did was naughty so they must be punished.

 

 It keeps cutting back to Ricky in the white room, it's awful. Then Ricky tells that Billy got hired at the toy store. Around Christmas time, they made young Billy be Santa. At the Christmas Eve party at the toy store, Billy sees a co-worker sexually assaulting another co-worker. He rescues the woman, strangles the man but then kills the woman too. Billy kills the husband and wife toy store owners too. He's on full naughty Santa kill rampage. We get a 'best of' of all the kills from the first movie. Billy kills a couple that were about the have sex, he hangs the woman on a rack of antlers, then kills the dude. He kills some bullies who were night sledding. The cops are now on Billy's tail, but since he's dressed as Santa they keep running into other people dressed as Santa. They think Billy is headed for the orphanage, it's Christmas morning now. At first a deaf Santa shows up and is killed by a cop, but it's not Billy. Then Billy does show up and kills that cop in the basement. Billy makes it into the building but is shot by the detective before he can kill Mother Superior in front of all the kids. 

 

Now that's we've watched the best of the first movie, we get back to Ricky. After Billy died, Ricky was adopted and it was mostly good. He freaked out at some nuns, but his adoptive parents were trying to make it work.Then his adopted dad died, he's supposed to be 15 at this point but he is played by Darrel Guilbeau who was 25 at the time. 

 

While wandering the woods, Ricky sees a picnicking couple. The get romantic, but the woman stops it stating that the guy is getting too aggressive. The guy gets the point, stops and goes over to his jeep, he turns around to suddenly see Ricky in the driver's seat. Ricky drives over the guy about 6 times. 

 

Later Ricky gets a job cleaning up at a restaurant, while taking out the trash he notices a guy beating up another guy, loan shark style. Ricky takes the extorter and stabs him with a closed umbrella, which he then opens. The rain starts to wash the blood away.

 

The doctor interviewer shows Ricky a photo/headshot of a woman and asks "What about her?" "Jennifer was my love" Ricky replies. It shows how Ricky met Jennifer (Elizabeth Kaitan), she ran her car into his motorcycle. They said nothing to each other but she got on the back of his motorcycle and they were dating. They have sex, holding each other and not moving at all. At a movie date, some heckler is making Ricky nuts. He leaves Jennifer seated, but the she is accosted by her ex-boyfriend, Chip who wants to get back together with her. She's not interested. Ricky kills the popcorn heckler and his embarrassed friend. 

 

Taking a suburban neighborhood walk, Jennifer and Ricky run into Chip, who's car has broken down. Ricky gets mad and electrocutes Chip with a car something. Jennifer tries to stop him, but he strangles her with a car antenna. Ricky is on a tear now. He grabs a gun from Chip? He walks the neighborhood in broad daylight, and the infamous garbage day scene happens here. No real context, I guess it could be that Ricky is taking out the garbage but he shoots someone taking out their garbage for now apparent reason. The cops do try to stop him, but he gets away? He steals a Santa suit from a Salvation army bell ringer. Goes to the 666 address that is Mother Superior's house. The younger nun is back in the mix. Mother Superior is wheelchair bound now and apparently had a stroke, but also has bunch of facial boils. Ricky attacks her, she falls down the stairs. The cops shoot Ricky and he falls out a window. The End.  

No fun.

Ricky is a bad actor there's no arc to his character. Ricky is bad, he does bad things and dies. He's killed a lot of people but doesn't care or get punished himself. The Santa trauma is still hard to explain especially for Ricky over Billy. There isn't a naughty/nice determination to killing. I do not recommend, this movie bummed me out a lot. The garbage day clip is it's own thing because even within the context of the movie it's nuts. I have seen the first one, and I knew this one had a lot of clips from the first movie, or most of the the footage from the first movie. It takes a lot of what is fun in a horror movie and cuts it out, it thinks you just want to see the kills but you need to have context to have the kills be interesting. It doesn't work and is a chore.

Airborne

Watched December 9, 2022

1993

Director: Rob Bowman

Starring: Shane McDermott, Seth Green, Jack Black, Edie McClurg, Alana Ubach. 

Mitchell "Goose" Goosen (Shane McDermott) is a laid back So-Cal dude. He rollerblades with his buddy to the beach to go surfing. Then they walk back home carrying their boards and blades. Mitchell comes home to his parents telling him they got a grant to study in Australia for 6 months. He's psyched! Australia's got surfing but he can't miss that much school. So he is sent to his Aunt & Uncle in Cincinnati for the Winter!

Mitchell brings his surfboard for no reason, it really shows how out of his element he is. His cousin Wiley (Seth Green) is a weirdo. Mitchell's California house is modern, whereas the Cincinnati house is grandma cozy vibes. California and Cincinnati couldn't be more different! Goose is set up on a cot in Wiley's basement room that has a hodge podge decor of motorcycle posters, an Eraserhead poster and hair metal bands.

Goose's first class in his temporary new high school is speech where everyone gets up and says their name and deal. Jack Black plays a bully who likes video games. Mitchell is a cool California dude who loves surfing. Wiley pretends to be into hockey, his dad is but he really isn't. Two girls drool over Mitchell and have a fantasy sequence of him sitting in swim trunks. After class, the main hockey dude is mad that his girlfriend is talking to Mitchell. Apparently there is non-school affiliated hockey games with this group playing the preps. Two of their players are out that day, so they force Wiley to play. Wiley gets hurt so Mitchell is brought in. He scores a goal in the wrong net and they are all pissed. Before playing hockey, Mitchell was sitting in the stands and he meets Nikki (Brittney Powell).

 After the ice hockey game went bad,  the hockey bullies play pranks on Mitchell all over school. They soak all the toilet paper while he's pooping, then infer that he didn't wipe and walked around with shit on his butt? They steal his clothes while he showers, but he finds some combination of clothes so he doesn't leave the locker room totally nude. They fill his locker with sand and dump water on him on the stairwell. 

Mitchell is bummed. The weather gets slightly nicer and his rollerblades arrive in the mail, yay! He goes out and runs into Nikki and takes her to a botanical garden greenhouse and skates around her. They makes a date for Friday but Mitchell said that he's hanging out with Wiley. Nikki brings her friend Gloria (Alana Ubach) so they can double date. Fashion montage of Wiley figuring out his look for the night. At first Gloria is not into Wiley. Mitchell and Nikki walk on the riverwalk and kiss then they all go to the teen diner. But the main hockey bully is Nikki's brother and he doesn't want her hanging out with Mitchell. He tries to fight Mitchell but Mitchell is too chill. But Mitchell makes the mistake of saying he'll be leaving town soon so there's nothing keeping him there. This makes Nikki upset and she runs off.

Mitch makes some rollerblading buddies, they skate around town on ramps and stuff. They run into a rematch street hockey game beteween the bullies and the preps. Mitchell ends up pantsing the main prep and you see his ball in his jock strap (?!) After this the bullies come to Wiley's house and tell Mitch how cool he is. They ask if he can help them with the devil's backbone race against the preps. It's a hill to waterfront race where a certain amount of each team needs to get to the finish line to win. The two teams set off down the hill and a bunch of folks eat it. Some preps make it. Mitch falls or something, then jumps off a flatbed truck. Mitchell ends up helping the main bully up and they skate together to the finish line into a huge crowd. Wiley and Gloria kiss and Mitch and Nikki kiss. The End. 

Mitchell has no growth. He doesn't want to go to Cincinnati, he thinks it'll suck and it does. Even with him being chill then doing the Devil's backbone race doesn't change that he'll head back to California at the end of the semester.

 One idea to have some sort of arc is that  Mitchell used to not be chill and get into fights but surfing helps him calm down so when he's prompted to fight he could turn to rollerblading. The other could be having some sort of stakes about staying in Cincinnati, like falling for Nikki makes him was to graduate high school there. His parents should have gotten an grant to study somewhere landlocked not Australia, or any other place not know for surfing, also they have schools in Australia where Mitchell could have gone for a semester.  The rollerblading is whatever, it's too muddled with hockey and surfing. Not X-treme enough either. Mitchell falls flat for me. Also two too many showers scenes.

Prayer of the Rollerboys

Watched November 18, 2022

 

1990

Starring: Corey Haim, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Collet, Julius Harris, Devin Clark

Directed by Rick King

This takes place in the not so distant future. After another big stock market crash, the entire US economy was decimated, losing its global power. Tons of kids were raised in chain link orphanages  presumable because their parents couldn't afford to take care of them. Griffin (Corey Haim) and his brother Miltie (Devin Clark) live in a tent on the property of Speedbagger (Julius Harris) who runs a bike and Rollerblade repair shop. 

 

Griffin works at Pinky's Pizza, delivering pizza in an armored van. After a pizza run, Griffin comes across a burning home, two people run out of, but someone is still trapped inside. Griffin rams the back of the van into the building, creating an escape hole and helps the guy get out. Griffin seems to recognize the guy, the cops show up and arrest Griffin, while the other guy flees. The burning building was a Rollerboy drug house. At the police station, Griffin's pizza job checks out and he is let go. 

 

Griffin is practicing rollerblading in a parking lot with Miltie when Gary Lee and the Rollerboys show up. Gary Lee thanks Griffin for saving Bullwinkle from the fire. Griffin doesn't want a reward in return. Gary Lee gives Miltie a cross with a dragon on it and says to ask if they need anything. 

 

Pinky is pissed that the van was destroyed and Griffin owes Pinky a lot of money to get a new one. Miltie shows up in a new minivan to replace the old one, courtesy of the Rollerboys. Griffin doesn't want to take it but Pinky does. Griffin isn't into the Rollerboys or Gary Lee even though they were friends as kids. The Rollerboys are white nationalist fascists who blame the 'other' for the woes of the US.

 

At the boardwalk, Casey (Patricia Arquette) asks Griffin for drugs, assuming he's a Rollerboy, but he isn't and doesn't have any drugs so he gives her the brush off, for now.

Miltie likes the Rollerboy lifestyle and goes to a circus carnival themed party with oil lady wrestling, champagne and mermaid girls on a carousel. Casey is there too. Griffin tries to get Miltie to leave but he's having fun. Gary Lee keeps trying to convince Griffin to beocome a Rollerboy. Griffin leaves the party, Casey follows him still asking for drugs. They make out and he takes off her underwear, he hands it to her and calls her easy. Griffin rollerblades through what looks like a sex worker alley and runs into two plainclothes police officers. After the police chase after Griffin, they take him to the police station. 

 

Detective Wakowski talks to Griffin about trying to stop the Rollerboys drug ring. Griffin doesn't want to do it. Here we learn that Casey isn't just a drug seeking Rollerboy groupie, she's an undercover cop. 

 

Miltie starts dealing drugs anyway, the Rollerboys sell a proprietary drug called Myst. Griffin tries to get Miltie to stop but then a rival Rollerboy gang does a drive by then chases Griffin and Miltie. They are cornered, Bullwinkle kills the rival gangmembers ans tells Griffin they're even for the fire rescue now. Griffin decides to works for the cops so he goes to Gary Lee's office to talk. Gary Lee is buying guns from overseas. He has a bunch of TVs on mannequins leg stands as decor in his offic. Griffin shoots one, Gary Lee is into it, and he invites Griffin to the real initiation.

 

At a shipping port, three guys are all trying to be Rollerboys, they're on rollerblades holding onto ropes attached to the back of a van. They have to grab a security badge and get out of the port alive. The first guy is shot in the back, lots of hot rollerblade action. Griffin makes it, the other guy is close but Gary Lee shoots him anyway.

 

Casey reveals to Griffin she's an undercover cop trying to help him, using them kissing as cover. She tells him he's got to work the drug kitchen so they can bust the Rollerboys with the equipment and drugs.

 

Speedbagger know how racist the Rollerboys are so he's very disappointed that Griffin has joined and Grifinf can't tell him that he's undercover. Speedbagger tells Griffin to get his new RV off of his property. Miltie takes Myst and gets in trouble with Gary Lee. No Rollerboy is supposed to get high off his own supply. Griffin goes to Casey's apartment, they make out, it looks like she's going to blow him but then she just takes his underwear and throws it in his face and says 'get to work!'

 

Bullwinkle tells on Griffin to Gary Lee that he's still friends with Speedbagger. Gary Lee says Griffin needs to be a more enthusiastic gang member. The Rollerboyss raid the rival gang, Bullwinkle again catches Griffin letting people go instead of killing them. 

Bullwinkle spies on Speedbagger. The gang has a big beat down where thy are skating around a hooded person punching them and kicking them. That person turns out to be Speedbagger. Miltie is now disillusioned with the gang, they get Speedbagger to the hospital, he's ok.

 

Griffin goes to Casey saying he's leaving town with Miltie and she can come if she wants. Her brother died as a Rollerboy so she wants to stay to stop them. They kiss and Griffin spends the night. In the morning, Bullwinkle barges in yelling at Griffin. Casey's police badge is on the table, Bullwinkle threatens to shoot them but the two cops surveilling Casey barge in. Bullwinkle grabs Casey but the second guy shoots Bullwinkle. The detective says they'll dump the body so it looks like MI6 (the rival gang?) but Griffin has to get the kitchen job now. 

 

 Gary Lee visits Griffin's house/RV and tells him Bullwinkle is dead. Gary Lee knows it was tense between Griffin and Bullwinkle but Griffin has the kitchen shift tomorrow. Griffin tells the detective to come. 

 

At the kitchen lab, Griffin paired with Bango (Mark Pellegrino) and Bango loves kitchen duty, he's having fun. Griffin learns the day of the rope is about poisoning Myst users so they can't reproduce: racial Eugenics. Miltie's only done it a couple times so I guess he'll be fine.  The cops show up, Griffin fights and hits Bango so he can't destory the operation with acid. The two undercover officers are corrupt and they're just gonna take the money but Casey shows up and shoots them plus the real detectives shows up. They leave the lab to find Gary Lee with Miltie and a bunch of Rollerboys. Shoot out then Griffin and Gary Lee, then a big roller chase with Gary Lee shooting at Griffin. Griffin then does a pole swing and gets Gary Lee's gun. He punches Gary Lee before Gary Lee can stab him. Ends with Griffin and Casey driving and making out with Miltie and Speedbagger in their RV heading to Oregon. But Gary Lee is in jail with his lawyer planning to get Griffin. Sequel set up that never happens.

Miltie is not great. Probably that's part of what made Corey Haim so special is that he was a good kid actor. I'm sorry that drugs took Corey Haim's life.  Being a child star/teen heartthrob seems brutal. Both Corey's were talents but had a hard time getting past stuff but at least Corey Feldman's is still alive.

 

I only on this rewatch realized that Gary Lee is played by Christopher Collet, who played Paul in Sleepaway Camp another favorite movie of mine from my high school years. 

 

Beautifully stupid and just my cup of tea. I also really love Corey Haim, so I've seen many stupid movies what he was in. The yellow filter over everything is a bit much. Lots of great rollerblading though! Rollerblading seems very challenging to make look dynamic on film. Turns out the screenwriter W. Peter Iliff was really on a Rollerblade kick because he also wrote the story for the made for TV movie, Blade Squad. I haven't watched it yet, but it's on my list.

 

We decided through randomness to watch rollerblade movies in November 2022. Compared to skateboard and roller skate movies there aren't as many Rollerblade movies even though it was big fad in the late '80s to the '90s, I'm looking at you jolly rancher commercial.

Rocktober Blood

 

Watched October 28, 2022

 

1984

Director: Beverly Sebastian

Starring: Donna Scoggins, Tray Loren, Cana Cockrell

At a recording studio/house, Billy Eye (Tray Loren) is laying down the vocal track for his song "I'm Back." His band is really into it, but Lynn (Donna Scoggins) is less impressed. It's 4:30 am but Billy leaves for a hook up. Lynn antagonizes him about cheap dates. He says he wrote the song "Rainbow Eyes" for her and she's about to record the backing vocal. Lynn does two takes but it's not working, she heads to the jacuzzi alone. Black leather pants and boots walk down a bunch of stairs- it looks like Billy is already back from his date. He kills the producer by slitting his throat. He hangs another woman in the studio on a rack. Lynn comes out of the jacuzzi, back to the studio to find Billy. Billy makes some subtle jokes about killing two people. He then attacks Lynn. Somebody shows up? and stops Billy so Lynn gets away.

Jump to two years later. 

An MTV style VJ does an interview with Lynn about her new show at a party. He explains it's been two years since Billy went crazy, killed two people, was convicted and executed. Lynn dealt with the trauma but now is the lead of Headmistress, the same band and using Billy's songs. They are having a pre tour launch party with a guy breakdancing in a gorilla mask. Everyone looks '80s metal awesome. Lynn goes upstairs to the spooky office and is attacked by the breakdancer but it's actually Billy! She tells the blond producer Tony (Tony Rista) so he punches the breakdancer, but it's not Billy anymore! Tony tells Lynn to head out of town to relax as they continue to get the show ready.

 

 Lynn heads to a Lake Tahoe cabin (seems like the same studio as the beginning). She is up there with two friends and she is attacked by Billy while hiking in the woods, but it can't actually be him, he's dead! The women get a bunch of creepy phone calls. They do a bunch of jazzercize leotard work outs. They go on a speedboat. Lynn's brunette friend is planning to fly to San Francisco but checks the jacuzzi and it's unexpectedly on. Billy bursts out the water and drowns her. He then hacks up her body, where she cries out even though she has already drowned. Lynn takes a bath in her strange bedroom that has a bathtub in it (on carpet, no less) then Billy chases her in and out of the house. The producer calls, Lynn wants to see Billy's body since she's convinced it's him. Tony says he's British and will go lose his green card if he digs up a grave, good point. Lynn goes to the cemetery anyway with her blond friend. The friends stays in the car, which has an open top while Lynn goes to dig up the grave. Once Lynn has just about finished, Tony shows up to help. They open the coffin, Lynn hallucinates that it's Billy's living face but it's just a rotting skeleton. 

The night of the big show, everyone is getting ready. Billy is stalking around the venue, he kills the blond friend with an iron! Lynn gets her wig on, then Billy reveals he's John, Billy's twin brother! He's been the killer all along. He's the talented one but managed to blame it the original murders on Billy who Lynn thought was the killer. But Billy/John is still pissed that Lynn is using his songs. Billy/John pulls out a big bottle of ETHER! and knocks out Lynn and places her in a coffin, that's happens to be part of the stage show. 

The show starts! Song 1: There are four women in white, gauzy clothes tied up around the stage. Billy kills two of them but it seems like part of the show. The security guard and Tony know it's Billy/John now. The coffin with Lynn rises to the stage and Billy/John makes Lynn sing rainbow eyes while poking her with a spear. Then Billy handcuffs himself to Lynn and sings "I'm Back." Lynn manages to get away and Tony hits Billy/John with a guitar. Blood runs down Billy/John's face and it ends with a freeze frame.

For the Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare theme, this is the best of the three (Slaughterhouse Rock, Black Roses, Rocktober Blood.) The backing band is Sorcery from the wizarding world of Stunt Rock. They're great. The Stunt Rock trailer has all the best stuff,  but the full length movie lags, just a heads up. The acting is bad, Lynn does some casual nudity while taking a jacuzzi and baths. They make the most out of the limited sets and at least make some interesting choices with shots.

Slaughterhouse Rock

 Watched October 14, 2022

 

1987

Director: Dimitri Logothetis

Starring: Nicholas Celozzi, Tammy Hyler, Tom Reilly, Donna Denton

 

We watched this as a continuation of the Rock 'n' Roll nightmare theme.

The title credits are great. Then it opens in a dank, flooded dungeon hallway. A rotting corpse is being eaten by rats. A person is shackled, he grabs a machete out of the corpse and tries to break the shackles. But the monster keeps moving towards him. Instead the man cuts off his own hand.  Alex (Nicholas Celozzi) wakes up, it's a dream but his hand is still cut off... double dream!

 

Jump to a random university, based on the SF Bay area setting I'm guessing it's supposed to be Berkeley. Alex lives with his older brother Richard (Tom Reilly) and two guys who are all college students. As they walk out of class, one of them reads an article from a newspaper about Sammi Mitchell (Toni Basil) going to Alcatraz and dying. It seems like Alex has been having dreams longer than one night. 

 

Two girls show up at the college student's group house, Richard's girlfriend Krista ( Hope Marie Carlton) and Jan (Tammy Hyler) who is interested in Alex. Krista and Richard go to his room and immediately start having loud sex, while Alex and Jan awkwardly sit in the living room and try to make small talk. There is old mac n cheese stuck in a pot on the coffee table, so they go out for burgers. This scene is so weird, we see almost everyone else in the restaurant before we get to Alex and Jan sitting at a table. Alex is being plagued by the demons even during the day, Jan is talking but he can't seem to focus. He is having a waking nightmare about a hand grabbing him through the wall. 

 

In his Intro to Psychokinetics class with Professor Carolyn Harding (Donna Denton) Alex has another waking nightmare that his cheek is crawling with worms and he spits out a worm. He screams, attracting the attention of the whole class. Later on at the bar the gang is hanging out but Alex is still depressed and sleep deprived. Jan wants to watch over him as he sleeps and she says she'll sleep on the couch. 

 

That night Prof. Harding comes over, talks to Jan, smells smoke and they see that Alex is on fire in his bed. They manage to wake him up and the fire stops. Prof. Harding takes Jan and Alex to her office, it turns out the class Prof. Harding has an old book that she thinks explains the haunting dreams. After the civil war, an old Commandant shacked up on Alcatraz and started killing and eating sex workers (alive!) Prof. Harding is convinced the ghost of the old man has something to do with Alex's nightmares. She convinces them to go to Alcatraz that night.  One of the roommates has a relative with a boat.

 

 I was convinced they couldn't get actual Alcatraz footage but I guess they did. They make it to the island and start wandering around the old jail. Alex gets separated from the group and finds  the ghost of Sammi Mitchell. Sammi explains that she found an old book in the library and brought back the spirit that's killing everyone and haunting Alex. Sammi helps Alex astral project to talk to the spirits. Richard is attacked and becomes possessed by the old commandant. Richard attacks and rapes Krysta but she manages to escape.  Richard creeps around and kills the two roommates and one of them he punches through the head! He kills Krysta by biting her neck. Alex goes to the basement of his dreams trying to open a door. Meanwhile Prof. Harding and Jan lure the Richard monster to an old shack and then light it on fire. Prof. Harding doesn't make it out. Alex manages to open the dream door revealing light that kills the spirit version while the ladies burn the physical version, completing the demon vanquishing.

It ends with Alex and Jan at her sister's nice house playing piano, all their friends are dead.

  

It's never explained why Alex is the one having these nightmares, his connection to either the Commandant or Sammi Mitchell is never explained. One idea fix to the weak plot, it starts with a Sammi concert in San Francisco. Alex is a huge fan, he gets an autograph so they actually get a face to face connection. Sammi is a big occult fan and she gets the book, opens it and unleashes the commandant but connects with Alex so there is an actual reason he's having these dreams. And instead of just creepy torture dreams, Alex also dreams of Sammi asking for help.

 

A lot of fog shots and Alcatraz shots setting even though I thought they were fake. The special effects are great. Jan and Alex have no chemistry so it's hard to root for them. Alex is a terrible, unsympathetic main character. The two roommates have some comic relief moments, but doesn't fix the plot problems. The cannibal commandant is good but weird. The music is by Devo, which is awesome but doesn't make it a worthwhile movie.

My favorite part is the reason that Alex is taking Professor Harding's Intro to Psychokinetics is that he thought it would be an easy A.