VOTING CLOSED - WINNER: THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN
Thanks to everyone who voted!
The slasher film, as a genre, emerged in its final state with the release of Halloween in 1978; but that development came only at the end of a half-decade during which the rules of formula began to coalesce out of bits and pieces of horror and thriller films dating back as far as the late '20s and early '30s. This week, the vote will be between three movies that were released during the final years before Halloween finally set the rules in stone.
Drive-In Massacre (1977)
From IMDb: "Two police detectives try to catch a serial killer who is stalking a rural California drive-in theater, randomly killing people with a sword."
Home for the Holidays (1972, TV)
From IMDb: "An ailing man summons his four daughters home for Christmas and asks them to kill his new wife, who he suspects is poisoning him."
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
From IMDb: "A Texas Ranger hunts for a hooded serial killer terrorizing the residents of a small town, set in 1946 Arkansas. Loosely based on a true story."
28 May 2014
13 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
These all sound pretty interesting, but a 2.8 on IMDB is just too much to resist. "Drive-In Massacre" it is!
ReplyDeleteI should learn not to trust horror films with cool titles, but it's just so hard to resist the siren call of Drive-In Massacre.
ReplyDeleteHoly hell, Home for the Holidays sounds UH-MAZING.
ReplyDeleteThe Town That Dreaded Sundown was actually decent if I'm remembering it correctly, so I'm going to make up for voting for Cheerleader Camp last week.
ReplyDeleteHoping for The Town That Dreaded Sundown since I watched it recently and quite enjoyed it. It's a lesser-known gem, so I would love to read your thoughts on it.
ReplyDeleteHow about you just review them all instead? I really can't decide. The Town That Dreaded Sun Down is really good but the Drive-in Massacre has a Drive-In massacre. Damn.
ReplyDeleteActually, watch the trailer for the hilariously misspelt "Drive-in Masacre". I think it'll change a lot of votes.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn between The Town That Dreaded Sundown and Drive-In Massacre. The latter has such a compelling hook, but the former looks actually watchable, and that would be a nice change-up after cheerleader Camp. I think I'm going to err on the side of Drive-In if only because Sundown was already covered, albeit briefly, on this blog before.
ReplyDeleteThe Town that Dreaded Sundown does have death by trombone. I'll just throw that out there. But it really plays more like one of those re-enactments from "Unsolved Mysteries." Still, it's one that every fan of the slasher should see. Its minimalist approach when it's actually interested in being a horror film is really quite effective. It also has some other interesting tidbits that I won't mention should you choose to write about it. I'm sure a lot of your readers are already familiar with the film's director, though, thanks to MST3K.
ReplyDeleteSelfishly, I would LOVE for you to tackle Sergio Martino's Torso. But if you don't, maybe you could do that for the Italian horror blogathon ;)
Alice, Sweet, Alice is another interesting proto-slasher.
I was really having a hard time deciding how to cast my vote...until I saw the trailer for Drive In Massacre. Holy shit! That looks nearly as awful as Mardi Gras Massacre. I really hopes this wins.
Can't decide between The Town that Dreaded Sundown and Home for the Holidays-both sound like actual GOOD movies! Can't wait for this Summer of Blood :D
ReplyDeleteAnything involving a Texas Ranger is automatically a quality film.
ReplyDeleteI'm just fascinated to see how a movie could both be appropriate for early 1970s television AND be a proto-slasher. That seems like quite the tough needle to thread.
ReplyDeleteSo The Town That Dreaded Sundown seems actually decent, since it's kind of a Western and it has Ben Johnson in it. It's also "loosely based on a true story" which is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteBut Home for the Holidays has the most interesting-sounding plot, and it has a young Sally Field and an old WALTER BRENNAN in it, and an old Walter Brennan in a proto-slasher has got to be something to see.