Category Archives: Films Released in 1989
PET SEMATARY
PET SEMATARY-United States-1989
Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed
Denise Crosby as Rachel Creed
Miko Hughes as Gage Creed
Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall
Brad Greenquist as Victor Pascow
Why in the hell is Stephen King’s novel Pet Sematary better than the movie? They’re both creepy as hell and both contain some pretty effective scares. Shoot, King even wrote both the book and the screenplay. So why is the movie not better or even equally as good as the book? It’s because it doesn’t have the scene in it.
The scene is that part of a book that is so scary or so creepy that you just know that it has to be in the movie exactly the way it was written. For Pet Sematary, it’s when Gage Creed comes back from the dead and has a confrontation with old Judd Crandall. Last time he saw Gage was before he’d been hit by a semi and splattered all over a Maine highway. Judd’s ready for him; he knows this isn’t any cute little two year old coming back to see him. This Gage is something straight from Hell itself. What he doesn’t realize is that Gage has brought back-up in the voice of Judd’s recently deceased wife, Norma. The creepiness level begins to rise when dear, departed Norma tells Judd that she was a whore the entire time they were married and that she even ‘rutted’ with a few of Judd’s friends. Now they’re all in hell and they’re laughing their asses off at old Judd. It’s bad enough to lose your wife, but when she talks to you from beyond the grave and tells you things you sure as shit don’t want to hear, that’s when it gets real damn creepy. That was the scene in Pet Sematary the novel.
Unfortunately it is nowhere to be found in the movie. Judd’s wife is nowhere to be found in the movie. Because of this the film feels watered down, a sort of Pet Sematary Lite. The acting is decent; what we’ve come to expect from a Stephen King film. It’s still scary, but without the scene it’s just not the same.
TRIVIA
Related articles
- Did Stephen King Really Say ‘F*** You’ On Facebook? (huffingtonpost.com)
- Chiller 13: Horror’s Creepiest Kids 2011 (horroraddicts.wordpress.com)
- B-Sides: I Don’t Want to Be Buried in a Pet Sematary (dreadcentral.com)
HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS
HALLOWEEN 5: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS-United States-1989
Donald Pleasance as Dr. Sam Loomis
Danielle Harris as Jamie Lloyd
Ellie Cornell as Rachel Carruthers
Beau Starr as Sheriff Ben Meeker
Wendy Kaplan as Tina Williams
Tamara Glynn as Samantha Thomas
After watching a bunch of cute little kittens running for their lives from a vacuum cleaner, I decided to write this review for Halloween 5. So what have we learned here today, ladies and gentlemen? Well, first we learn that Dr. Sam Loomis is nuttier than a fruitcake and will break every child endangerment law in the country if that’s what it takes to stop Michael Myers. I’m serious, the dude is freaking insane. Other than that, Halloween 5 is just another in a long line of mediocre sequels to a film that was done better by Rob Zombie. Yeah, I said it!! At least the Michael in the Zombie remake looked big enough to hurt somebody. Where the hell do they get these guys from; Wal-Mart? Don’t even get me started on the kills. The best one was the pitchfork through the guy when he was pitching’ his fork in the girl. News Flash: Friday the 13th Part 2 did it better; Jason achieved double-penetration. How that’s for double entendre?
I know I said that I was going to review the Halloween films for the month of October. But dear God in Heaven I should have my head examined. The Halloween films are the worst damn series in the history of horror films. At least the Friday the 13th films had imaginative kills going for them. Halloween has a wimpy looking dude in a half-finished Captain Kirk mask. If Part 6, H20 and Resurrection aren’t any better I may just be writing my next review from inside the rubber room. Take care and stay scared!
Oh, wait, before I forget. The plot of Halloween 5 is as follows: Michael has a niece, Jamie. Jamie is psychically bonded to Michael. Dr. Loomis knows this and uses Jamie to get to Michael. Stabbings, gunshots, pitchforks, kittens (scary) and dead bodies ensue. Yippee.
Trivia
The bus that the Man in Black gets off of stops outside the exact same store where Jamie and Rachel went to get a Halloween costume in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.
Don Shanks revealed in an interview that many of the scenes involving the man in black had him playing the character, because of speculation that he was a blood relative of Michael Myers. He also admitted that even the writers uncertain about the man in black’s identity.
The film was released straight to video outside of North America.
Related articles
- 5 Ways to Get in the Halloween Spirit (desmoinesisnotboring.com)
FRIDAY THE 13th PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN-United States-1989
Jensen Daggett as Rennie Wickham
Scott Reeves as Sean Robertson
Peter Mark Richman as Charles McCulloch
Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees
Directed by Rob Hedden
Written by Rob Hedden and Victor Miller (characters)
So, Jason takes Manhattan. What, there weren’t enough horny teenagers coming to Crystal Lake for him to slaughter? He had to go all the way to the Big Apple to find more of them? I mean why not “Jason Goes to the Police Academy” or “Jason Goes on the Tonight Show” or “Jason in Space”? Well, wait, the space one was done two films later. But what I am getting at is that it’s ludicrous to take Jason out of his element. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, they put him in outer space in Jason X. That worked, oddly enough. I really can’t put my finger on why the whole Manhattan thing didn’t work. It wasn’t Kane Hodders’ fault. He went above and beyond the call of duty as Jason. I suppose the best thing to say about the movie is that it didn’t stink as badly as Part V. It comes pretty damn close, so I know it’s not for lack of trying. I mean, even the kills in this one are lame as hell. The best one being when Jason decapitates the captain of the high school boxing team with one swift uppercut to the chin. Don’t even get me started on the acting. Other than the great physical acting of Kane Hodder as Jason this one is seriously bad.
I have said before that I am a huge Friday the 13th fan. It is my personal opinion that Jason Voorhees is one of the coolest movie villains ever created. However, this is one of the worst films in the series. So, skip this one. Enough said.
Trivia
The original posters for the film featured Jason ripping through an “I Love NY” poster. In the first poster, Jason is holding a bloody knife which was cleaned in a second poster for fear that the blood was too graphic. However, both posters were dropped following a complaint from the New York Tourism Committee.
In the scene where Jason reaches through the porthole and grabs Rennie, Jensen Daggett was reportedly really terrified. Her face was just inches from a large and very sharp piece of glass that had become stuck in the window frame, and the actor who played Jason was (unknowingly) pulling her towards it.
In the original script, when Jason makes it to the dock, a dog starts barking at him and he kicked it. Kane Hodder, who was playing Jason, felt that kicking the dog was going too far and so the scene was dropped.
Trivia
