July is Unmasked Month at Retro Slashers!
Masks make the slasher. But sometimes what’s under the mask is so scary – or downright pitiful – no mask is needed. Joe Spinell in Maniac is a good example. Other times you wish they wore masks, like the bland killer with the bad haircut in Final Exam. Welcome to Unmasked Month at Retro Slashers.
July will see the longed-for release of Romano Scavolini’s Nightmare. Code Red will issue the 30th Anniversary Edition 2-disc set on the 26th so that horror fans can have more time to complain about the status of the company’s Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker DVD.
So why Unmasked Month and not Nightmare Month? Because Nightmare is a depressing fucking ride, boys and girls, and if I tasked our writing team with nothing but material on that film they’d be foaming at the mouth just like George Tatum in the film. So the common theme we’re covering are very human psychos who wear no disguise on their mug.* As sweat drips from their face and veins in their forehead bulge, these fiends will look you in the eye as you die.
*Towards the conclusion of Nightmare, George dons a mask that’s sort of a Tor Johnson with bushy brows and fish lips. It always struck me as a nice reversal of mystery-plot slasher films where masks are worn throughout the films and only come off in the final reel.
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well…I guess Asian slashers can wait.
While we’re at it, you guys think you could make a nice little review on Irving Wallace’s Owl Mask? That would be great! Plus that cool wolf mask from Deadly Dreams!
Nightmare is depressing as hell. So bleak
Yeah, Asian Slashers can wait…for August.
That being said, I am looking forward to this. A good tribute to those guys who say “I am beautiful, and I kill!”
The good maskless ones tend tend be either really savage or find some other way of making the killer interesting.
The Hitcher and Candyman don’t wear masks, but are like folk-story mythological figures with hints of tragedy.. Maniac, the mutilator and Nightmare go down the brutal root.
The slumber party killer and the Stepfather are the odd ones, because they are essentially cyphers for social commentary.
August….Asian/Anime Slasher Month.
There, I said it. Now I will leave.
So if this is gonna be about killers who wanted some air going through their faces, then how about we cover some of the good-looking ones. Brian Woods character from Cutting Class? I don’t know about you, but he’s pretty decent looking for a killer. or Amber Heard’s character Mandy Lane? I know a lot of you would find this annoying, but she’s hot, and as a killer/accomplice in that movie, hotter.
then there’s the miserable ones. Those who’re unhinged enough to never bother hiding their faces cuz, well, maybe it never came cross their minds. Dr. Alan Feinstone from The Dentist is a good example of this, so is Frank Zito from Maniac and, well George Tatum, this month’s star, the guy who foams in the mouth more often than a dog with rabies in the heat.
and finally there’s the weird ones. Barbara from Sexykiller/ “Moriras Por Ella” satires the sexist nature of slasher flicks, as well as showing what would happen if a female killer decides to call the shots. Destroyer had a hulking, sweaty uber-bulk madman Ivan Mozer who’s really confident of his killing skills, he doesn’t even need to hide his identity
This is gonna be a helluva month! >8)
(sorry, I didn’t understood what was this month’s all about. I thought it said “unmask” rather than “unmasked”…stupid me.)
Depressing? Try watching it on acid! A bag full of dead puppies would be less depressing.
Got My 2 Dvd Set Of NIGHTMARE Today Sweet!!!!
Cannot wait till my NIGHTMARE set ships from Amazon, especially as Ted Post’s legendary THE BABY is on the same order [will keep the Image disc though as the colours are fab].
Anyway- NIGHTMARE depressing? Are you sure you should be watching Horror..? Barney the Dinosaur DVDs are cheaper y’know : ) NIGHTMARE is a superb fillum – I find it quite ‘cosy’ actually. Try Denis Donnelly’s TOOLBOX MURDERS [another mask /unmask film] for real downbeat, failing that THE EXORCIST, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, GIALLO A VENECIA, or VIDEODROME should have you reaching for the Citalapram quick enough.
PS – Anyone know of an online review for NIGHTMARE yet? Want to read up on the full/wide prints [whether the wide is faked - after the apect hoohah - or whether it actually has more side detail]
PPS – BBNM, who cares at this point?! There are shovel loads of films out between now and September.
I think Robert Wise’s The Haunting, The Brood and curiously Unhinged have a certain morbid cold bitterness to them. But I suppose what people find depressing is as individual as what people find funny,
And the Eye thanks for reminding me about The Baby, it’s a really weird one. I’ve got it on tape, but thought there was not a chance of it being on DVD.
whats bbnm?
are you guys gonna look at don’t go into the house?
I am so shocked that Nightmare is finally coming out!! We have been hearing about Code Red’s release of this for at least 3 years now. It is actually one of my favorite slasher films of all time. I have a “thing” for depressing horror, some of the best of the sub-genre are: Nightmare, Maniac, Unhinged, Madhouse, Mountaintop Motel Massacre, and Death Dream. Thanks for the cool idea, I am think of a “depressing Horror film retrospective/list for my site now….LOL!
THE BABY was out on dvd 3 times. One thru Image, then Geonen, then east-west dvd. You can pick it cheap thru the past release since severin got the film the same company TV matters.
‘Code Red’ – aren’t you forgetting all those DVDs were full frame and not from the original negative?
The Image disc is fab – nice colours, isolated score [why this has never appeared on one of the many Gerald Fried CDs I will never know], BUT the other two were mere bare bones re-issues of that same print.
Severin have, apparently, gone back to the original neg for a clean 1.85:1 source print, and the extras are definitely worth a listen – an interview with David Manzy [Mooney]!!! Although DVDBeaver’s review did seem to show paler colours [esp in dark scenes] than the lovely lurid Image DVD, and a slight loss of top/bottom info despite additional [widescreen] side info, most people who’ve seen it say it is the best disc by a country mile.
I am presuming that you are not actually ‘Code Red’, otherwise you’ve developed a sudden disregard for quality after trumpeting your own neg sourced, proper aspect, remastered releases : )
Hey hey… it’s not what I’d call a review – not by DVD Beaver standards anyway BUT here is the first online article I’ve seen, which at least has some screen shots of ONE of apparently 3 PRINTS of SCAVOLINI’S NIGHTMARE from the CODE RED two disc set -
http://www.chud.com/61421/renes-review-scavolinis-nightmare/
Looks like a nice enough print save for some dirt – most evident on the ‘masked phonecall’ shot. The ratio looks lovely – lets just hope it is proper 1.85:1 [ looks too wide for 1.78:1 ???] and not a matted fake of a 4:3, as Code Red were arguing at one point 1-2yrs ago that a wide print would cut off the entire blood spurting neck – hence the $64,0000 question about fake matting…