(1986) ***
This is one I'd seen once a long time ago and decided to revisit. Deborah Foreman (Valley Girl!) plays Muffy, a rich girl who invites her college friends to her family's island for the weekend. Things go south immediately upon arrival when one of the ferry workers gets horribly injured, yelling "they did it!" His ire is based on a prank the kids just pulled, but I thought it was actually his own damn fault.
Now, at this point in the Horrorthon I've seen a ton of pranks. You'd think that would put me off this movie, in which the whole house is laid with mild, funny booby traps. But as a theme (instead of a fakeout scare), it was pretty amusing. The minor bits of unreality opens the mood to worse events, and sure enough members of the group start disappearing. A trick doorknob is a totally different thing when you're running for your life. And what's with Muffy? It's like she was replaced in the night by an evil twin...
There's something about this movie that really works, and it's the cast. On the surface, their banter doesn't seem too far off what we're used to: this guy wants to get laid, that guy wants in with Muffy's rich family, etc. But the actors really manage to feel like an actual group of friends, and that makes all the difference. Worth enough of a look that I'm not going to spoil the ending.
6 comments:
This also stars the Hero Girl who faced off with Pillowcase Jason, and the friend from Just One of the Guys. And Deborah Foreman! You know, from Valley Girl!
Did I say that already?
Valley Girl!
Eric DeHart and I used to watch Valley Girl so much we knew all the lines. Guess I should have figured out then that he was gay, huh?
Point being - Yay, Valley Girl!
D.
I recall the "twist" pissing me off.
Happy Birthday to Capt. Howdy Girl! Hope it was good.
I disliked the ending when I first saw this, too, but the second viewing was a lot better.
Well, c'mon, I didn't want to risk ignoring the birthday of our one reader who didn't know us already!
I don't think I've ever seen Happy Birthday to Me. Slasher knockoffs was a subgenre I attacked more last year, deciding this year to hit the source material itself.
You know, the whole modern classic roundup was JPX's idea, but somehow I did all the work. Hmmm.
My plan worked brilliantly!
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