On Friday nights, IndieWire After Darkish takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.
This September, we’re celebrating Again to College Night time with 4 midnight films that aren’t simply academically themed but additionally educate the teachings important to understanding this college of cinema.
First, learn the spoiler-free bait — a extraordinary decide from any time in movie and why we predict it’s value memorializing. After you’ve watched the film, come again for the chew — a breakdown of all of the spoiler-y moments you’d wish to unpack when exiting a theater.
The Bait: Comfortable New World Photos Day!
“IT GETS BAD ON FRIDAY THE 13th,” reads the inscription in an historical e book with sufficient energy to rule the world. “BUT IT GETS WORSE ON SATURDAY THE 14th!”
That’s all you really want to know earlier than watching author/director Howard R. Cohen’s haunted home spoof from 1981. It’s a powerful sufficient decide for any time throughout pre-spooky season that turns into a really perfect midnight watch on the second unluckiest date of the calendar 12 months.
Produced by Julie Corman, there’s greater than meets the attention to this youngsters’ B film and residential video triumph from New World Photos. This (largely) sensible monster mash noticed the bonafide scream queen of indie style improvement take free inspiration from the slasher juggernaut “Friday the 13th” and mix it along with her and husband Roger’s previous success in horror comedies. The result’s a quietly good instance of the kind of household leisure this infamously controversial studio did surprisingly properly.
When John (Richard Benjamin) and Mary (Paula Prentiss) inherit a notoriously cursed dwelling from their oddly vengeful uncle, the couple defies all widespread sense and strikes their youngsters, Debbie (Kari Michaelsen) and Billy (Kevin Brandon), onto the property instantly. As soon as there, 10-year-old Billy wastes no time discovering an off-brand Necronomicon to learn and wakes up a legion of creatures that quickly assaults his household from all sides. However unusual occurrences — like Mary discovering a human cranium in a cupboard, mindlessly dusting it off, and placing it again? — recommend an excellent stranger, extra sinister power at work.
A pair of outrageously over-the-top vampires, Waldemar (Jeffrey Tambor) and Yolanda (Nancy Lee Andrews), skulk round the home’s perimeter. They’d been hoping to safe the e book that was value looking out 300 years to search out earlier than the household discovered its darkish secrets and techniques, however the arrival of a mysterious owl exterminator…. or is he a bat exterminator?… named Van Helsing (Severn Darden) sends the dwelling into additional disarray. With a “Creature from the Black Lagoon”-type monster clogging up the bathtub, might issues at [checks notes] 329 Elm Road get any hairier?
“Saturday the 14th” is a phenomenally shabby affair that will get lazy with its movie references and might’t maintain a candle to most Jason Voorhees outings. Watched in the suitable spirit, nonetheless, it’s the sort of movie that may go away you in stitches with its deadpan “Airplane!“-meets-“Addams Family” humor and a wacky dedication to visually realizing a world that makes virtually no sense. The script goes everywhere and is rife with plot holes, however it ought to go away inquisitive midnight lovers craving to know extra concerning the rag-tag crew behind strains comparable to: “That’s like closing the barn door after the horses EAT your grandchildren!” or “If you weren’t immortal, you’d kill yourself.”
Not in contrast to the so-called “discoveries” of Christopher Columbus, the pioneering work of this yesteryear indie studio feels historic sufficient to benefit a nonsense vacation — or at the least to debate the worth of creating one. With this properly named however surprisingly executed parody, followers of the husband-and-wife Corman duo have been given an annual (technically, it’s each 212.35 days… however who’s counting?) excuse to revisit a vibrant and thorny legacy.
If final week provided an After Darkish 101 on the significance of fringe filmmaking group (“The ABCs of Death” producer Ant Timpson instructed IndieWire all about recruiting 28 administrators for a micro-budget horror anthology premiered at TIFF in 2012), then this week underlines the significance of giving boundary-pushing artwork each a schedule and a construction. Generally you want an excuse to observe a film simply as a lot as you want a purpose to make one. “Saturday the 14th” is appointment viewing in each senses. Comfortable New World Photos Day! Have you ever finished your vacation streaming but?
These courageous sufficient to hitch in on the enjoyable can stream “Saturday the 14th” on Tubi.
The Chunk: Did They Simply Steal That Cop’s Home?
It might probably really feel oddly magical if you notice that the important thing to unlocking “Saturday the 14th” is greatest summed up as: “Who knows? Who cares? Hit THAT monster with THAT book!”
Sloppy, foolish, and disinterested in lifeless air, the Hyatt household’s renovation journey is full of as many jokes because it has owl-bats. And but, it was criticized upon launch for missing in the comedy division. At only one hour and 16 minutes, it’s received dialogue jammed into that home’s each nook and cranny (“Oh, that’s better, darling… They don’t look nearly as dead!”) and the forged is aware of its means round a visible gag higher than most ([to her dead husband’s severed head] “Ernie! Oh, thank GOD you’re here!”)
This imperfect however fizzy movie was Cohen’s function directorial debut and it ought to get extra love when it’s this straightforward to catch on streaming. The author/director had labored with Corman on a number of initiatives earlier than and returned for the sequel “Saturday the 14th Strikes Back” in 1987.
In an interview with Julie Corman in the 2018 docuseries “Cult-tastic: Tales from the Trenches,” the producer spoke about her secret weapon for the film’s comedian timing: filmmaker Cohen, sure, but additionally… Van Helsing himself. Actor Severn Darden emerged from the Chicago comedy scene as a beloved Second Metropolis performer and also you’ll discover the extent to which his shock antagonist, decidedly missing in the particular results division, however drives the again half of the movie.
Right here’s extra to take pleasure in about this hidden gem, screened for After Darkish on Saturday the 14th Eve in 2024:
The Rod Serling-inspired narration coming from the TV that may solely play “Twilight Zone” features a nod to the present’s historic roots: “It’s destination is… Cincinnatti, Ohio.” Serling examined an thought for the same present titled “The Storm” out of WKRC-TV earlier than his sci-fi hit aired on CBS.
As moderately well-established stars at that time, Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss had been at one time hesitant to work with a second unit, per Julie Corman’s feedback in “Cult-tastic.” They reportedly modified their minds after a single afternoon filming with the alternate crew, which was important to maintaining manufacturing prices down.
“Saturday the 14th” launched Julie Corman’s assistant/the movie’s post-production supervisor to its editor. Per Corman, the pair later received married. Benjamin and Prentiss had been additionally husband and spouse.
Regardless of struggling the brunt of the movie’s vaguely inappropriate aquatic terror, teen daughter Debbie is nowhere to be seen on the “Saturday the 14th” poster. Actress Kari Michaelsen appeared in many sitcoms, together with a 1989 episode of “Full House.”
“Saturday the 14th” was not broadly praised by critics, however it was amongst New World Photos’ best-selling bodily media releases.
In keeping with IMDb, Craig Coulter — aka the Supply Boy — has been in greater than 100 commercials.
If you happen to had been to host a screening of “Saturday the 14th,” you then would haven’t any selection however to serve the right Van Helsing get together: onion dip, potato chips, membership soda, and Barbara Streisand data.
This movie has an outrageous variety of sarcastic rhetorical questions, however “What do you want me to do? Bring out a Monopoly set?” is top-tier dwelling invasion humor.
329 Elm Road is a Freddy Krueger reference and 1827 Maple Road is one other nod to “Twilight Zone.” Please contact After Darkish if you determine the place 4386 Brentworst Drive is from…
The finale appears to indicate that as a result of the cop and his spouse had been murdered…the Hyatts simply moved throughout the road and into their home? Which Mary needed from the start? Very suspicious.
IndieWire After Darkish publishes midnight film suggestions each Friday night time at 9:30 p.m. ET. Learn extra of our deranged recommendations…
