DESTROYER (1988) d: Robert Kirk. c: Anthony Perkins, Deborah Foreman, Clayton Rohner, Lyle Alzado, Tobias Anderson, Lannie Garrett. A muscle-bound mass murderer (Alzado), executed 18 months earlier, seemingly comes back from the dead and stalks a group of filmmakers making a women-in-prison flick in the now-abandoned jailhouse where Alzado was put to death. This pre-Shocker slasher is better made then it deserves to be and has a good cast – Perkins, Foreman, and Rohner are all in fine form – but stiff direction, slow pacing, and cut-rate gore FX keep the movie from being terribly interesting. C
FINAL EXAM (1981) d: Jimmy Huston. c: Cecile Bagdadi, Joel S. Rice, Ralph Brown, DeAnna Robins, Sherry Willis-Burch, Timothy L. Raynor. On the last day before Spring Break, the remaining students of Lanier College are terrorized by a knife-happy killer (Raynor) who stalks his victims in a black van. This is a textbook example of an ’80s slasher flick, complete with a killer who stays in the shadows, the disbelieving sheriff, the opening murder sequence, and a cast of teens that now seem like a cliché, including the nerd, the bimbo, and frat jock, and the virginal good girl. Heavily inspired by Halloween, Final Exam can’t hold a candle to that classic; its pacing is often too slow and the killer is presented rather lifelessly. But there is stuff for the hardcore slasher fan to enjoy, including a student (Rice) who’s obsessed with serial killers and horror movies – a prelude to Randy from Scream, perhaps? A solid final 20 minutes helps the overall positive effect of the film. B–
HATCHET (2006) d: Adam Green. c: Kane Hodder, Joel David Moore, Deon Richmond, Amara Zaragoza, Richard Riehle, Mercedes McNab. A spirited, and appropriately gory, homage to ‘80s splatter, this low-budgeter has more verve and energy than most “bigger” Hollywood movies. When their tour boat sinks in the middle of the New Orleans swamp, a group of tourists are stalked and slaughtered by the hideously deformed bayou legend, Victory Crowley (Hodder), with veteran actor, Riehle, as a poor victim who gets literally ripped in half. One of the best independent horror flicks of the 2000s, Hatchet is funny, fast-paced, and features a spate of wonderfully inventive make-up FX that will please any gorehound. Look for cameos by Robert Englund, Joshua Leonard, and Tony Todd. B+
SILENT MADNESS (1984) d: Simon Nuchtern. c: Belinda Montgomery, Viveca Lindfors, David Greenan, Sydney Lassick, Rodrick Cook, Solly Marx. A man (Marx) diagnosed as criminally insane is accidentally released as the result of human error and immediately goes back to the sorority house where he massacred several students 20 years earlier to do some more slicing and dicing. Talkier than the typical slasher of the time, and featuring a cockamamie subplot involving two bumbling hospital orderlies-turned-assassins, this is better made than you’d think and has a good cast, including spunky final girl Montgomery, and a couple of impressive kills, some of which look great in the original 3-D version. A silly but watchable time passer. B–