Horror Films @ MindSay

Call me crazy, but I've got good memories associated with horror films, one of which is 1986's "Trick or Treat" about a loser kid who idolizes a rock star, Sammi Curr, who comes back from the dead to haunt his hometown's high school that rejected him.  Featuring a kick ass soundtrack by Fastway and cameos by Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne, this film has to come out of obscurity to haunt a new generation.  When this film came out, I was still living in Springfield, Missouri as a mixed up teen myself rebelling against a preppie middle class Christian society determined to rein me in.  Heavy Metal was the kind of music that scared the shit out of the people I went to school with.  Ozzy, Gene, and even Alice Cooper were the boogeymen of the music world.  People associated metal with Satanism, black magic, and pornography.  Hell, it was considered worse than porno, it was the soundtrack of a horror film.  The music was enough to influence my mother to send me into Christian counseling and eventually get kidnapped by a cult deprogramming group.  That experience taught me to lie and has instilled in me a love for the dark side.  In 1986 it's no surprise that eventually a horror film centered around an undead rock star.  I can't think of anything that was more powerful than Heavy Metal back in the mid '80s.  Metal still holds a power over me even today. 

If I had the power and influence, I'd revive this film for today's audiences.  Can you not think of anyone more scarier than a 1980's metal icon come back from the dead?  Take a peek at the first chapters of the film I found available on YouTube:

After reviewing this film, it puts me in a mood to list all my favorite metal inspired films...

that's me.

I just seem to stay up later and later. Tonight's after midnight agenda included a sushi run to Empire Szechuan, a trip to the 24 hour Associated to pick up a few sales items, a hot bubble bath and watching the IFC channel.

Tonight IFC is running The Celluloid Closet and The American Nightmare. Celluloid Closet is about the depiction of homosexuality in film. I'm an old film buff so I was delighted to see scenes from many of my all-time favorites.

• Johnny Guitar - Joan Crawford is sizzling in her black cowboy shirt.
• Rebecca - Who could forget Mrs. Danvers opening the underwear drawer, stroking the fur coat's sleeve against her cheek, and marveling at how her hand could be seen through the black negligee.
• The Maltese Falcon - Check Peter Lorre nibbling on the his cane handle. Yowza!
• Rebel Without A Cause - Sal Mineo's face when James dean gives him his jacket for keeps - he cradles it like a child.
• The Children's Hour - Shirley MacLaine admitting that what they are saying.
• Rope - One of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films, the scene when the murders breathlessly describe how they felt when they killed is a play on orgasm.

The American Nightmare is all about the golden age of horror films. And I am the first to say you rarely see a good one anymore. The recent remake of Dawn of the Dead was good, but most others fall short. The most recent films that really had me on edge was the The Sixth Sense. It was so great to see a film that did not rely on dazzling the audience with ten thousand special effects.

Well time for a Diet Coke.

Take care all.