Latest / Midnight Movie Theatre / Great Non-Franchise Horror: Part 1
Transcript
- 0:18Speaker 1: Tonight, we're going over some of my favorite non franchise
- 0:23Speaker 1: slasher movies out there, no sequels, no remakes. The first
- 0:27Speaker 1: one we're talking about is a movie called Just Before Dawn.
- 0:31Speaker 1: This movie was directed by Jeff Lieberman and was inspired
- 0:34Speaker 1: by the movie Deliverance. Although they do leave out the
- 0:37Speaker 1: squeal like a pig scene in this movie, so you
- 0:39Speaker 1: don't have that to worry about. I'm pretty sure. It's
- 0:42Speaker 1: about a group of friends that go to the mountains
- 0:44Speaker 1: in Oregon to do some camping on some property that
- 0:47Speaker 1: one of them recently inherited. One of the things that
- 0:50Speaker 1: I really like about this movie is that it has
- 0:52Speaker 1: one of the most reasonable sounding harbinger of doom characters
- 0:56Speaker 1: that I've seen in a movie. Typically, it's someone that's
- 0:59Speaker 1: covered in dirt, they've been wearing the same clothes for
- 1:02Speaker 1: months and probably stink like shit. But this guy is
- 1:04Speaker 1: just a nice looking park ranger that spends time with
- 1:07Speaker 1: his horse and he grows plants inside his house. He's
- 1:11Speaker 1: not smoking meth or snorting fin or anything. The guy
- 1:14Speaker 1: that inherited the land is just like, Hey, get the
- 1:18Speaker 1: fuck out of my face. This is my property. Now
- 1:21Speaker 1: I live on these mountains and they completely ignore his warning.
- 1:24Speaker 1: Of course, the cold open for this movie starts off
- 1:27Speaker 1: with the bang. We just see these hillbilly killers attack
- 1:30Speaker 1: these hunters and they even chop off one of the
- 1:33Speaker 1: hunter's dogs right off the bat. So that's always a
- 1:36Speaker 1: great way to start out your movie. If you're gonna
- 1:39Speaker 1: do a dick removal, you might as well do it
- 1:41Speaker 1: at the beginning and get it out of the way.
- 1:44Speaker 1: This movie was pretty hard to find when I first
- 1:46Speaker 1: saw it, but it is worth tracking down. I think
- 1:49Speaker 1: I eventually landed on a really shitty quality version of
- 1:53Speaker 1: it that was on YouTube, probably still is on YouTube.
- 1:56Speaker 1: I clicked off of it and was trying to find
- 1:58Speaker 1: some other versions out there wherever I could on the internet,
- 2:02Speaker 1: but I think the second best one I found was
- 2:05Speaker 1: in Spanish, and I'm not that deep into dual Lingo yet.
- 2:09Speaker 1: I haven't figured out that much Spanish yet, so I'm
- 2:12Speaker 1: still working on it. Eventually i'll be able to watch
- 2:14Speaker 1: the illegal streams that are just straight up in Spanish,
- 2:17Speaker 1: but for now we'll take the YouTube shit quality. It
- 2:21Speaker 1: looks like someone's pissing in your eyes the whole time.
- 2:23Speaker 1: And the thing that got me with the YouTube version
- 2:25Speaker 1: that I watched was that some of the audio is
- 2:28Speaker 1: missing pretty early on, and it's like when the friends
- 2:31Speaker 1: are driving to the mountains and the camper, so it's
- 2:33Speaker 1: when you're kind of getting to know the characters, and
- 2:35Speaker 1: I just I didn't want to miss out on that,
- 2:37Speaker 1: so I think I went from YouTube to a random
- 2:40Speaker 1: stream that I found on Google, and then back to
- 2:44Speaker 1: YouTube because the random stream eventually turned to Spanish. I
- 2:48Speaker 1: think it's really a really strange way to watch this movie.
- 2:51Speaker 1: I need to just probably buy a bootleg copy of
- 2:53Speaker 1: it somewhere or something, because I kinn't track it down.
- 2:56Speaker 1: And this movie came out in nineteen eighty one. It
- 2:58Speaker 1: feels like a great addition to some of the well
- 3:01Speaker 1: known exploitation movies out there, like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- 3:05Speaker 1: and The Hills Have Eyes. There's also a great final
- 3:08Speaker 1: girl sequence in this movie and a really unexpected finishing
- 3:12Speaker 1: move at the end. So Just Before Dawn definitely worth
- 3:16Speaker 1: a watch. It's worth tracking down. The second movie on
- 3:19Speaker 1: my list is going to be High Tension. This is
- 3:21Speaker 1: a movie I've talked about before. I have a video
- 3:24Speaker 1: up about High Tension comparing it to the Dean Koon's
- 3:27Speaker 1: novel Intensity, because this is essentially an unofficial adaptation of Intensity.
- 3:33Speaker 1: I'm also going to be putting out another video right
- 3:36Speaker 1: after this, diving in to the twist at the end
- 3:40Speaker 1: of High Tension. So if you're curious about that at all,
- 3:43Speaker 1: check that video out.
- 3:44Speaker 2: That's what I'm gonna say.
- 3:45Speaker 1: And this is the only this is the only movie
- 3:47Speaker 1: on this list that almost breaks the rule of being
- 3:50Speaker 1: a non franchise, non sequel, non remake criteria that I'm
- 3:55Speaker 1: going for here, not because it really has any of
- 3:58Speaker 1: those things. But there is a made for TV movie
- 4:02Speaker 1: version of Intensity out there that I haven't seen yet,
- 4:05Speaker 1: So eventually I'm going to watch that, probably do another
- 4:07Speaker 1: video about that, comparing Intensity the movie to High Tension
- 4:12Speaker 1: the movie, and see how they stack up, see how
- 4:14Speaker 1: they match together. But I don't think that really counts
- 4:17Speaker 1: for what we're doing here tonight. So this movie came
- 4:19Speaker 1: out in two thousand and three. It's also known as
- 4:22Speaker 1: How Tension, and this is a brutal French slasher directed
- 4:26Speaker 1: by alexandre Aha. Two college friends, Marie and Alex. They
- 4:30Speaker 1: travel to Alex's rural family home for a quiet study
- 4:33Speaker 1: weekend before finals. That peace in quiet is quickly disrupted
- 4:37Speaker 1: when a sadistic killer breaks into the house in the
- 4:40Speaker 1: middle of the night, murders Alex's whole family and one
- 4:44Speaker 1: of the most brutal killings in a movie that you
- 4:48Speaker 1: can imagine.
- 4:48Speaker 2: It's a.
- 4:51Speaker 1: It's pretty intense. It's worth mentioning that this movie has
- 4:54Speaker 1: one of the most wild introductions to a villain in
- 4:58Speaker 1: any movie that I've seen. So basically, the killer that
- 5:01Speaker 1: we're following around is this like short, stocky guy that
- 5:05Speaker 1: drives around in this big ass cheepers creepers truck. And
- 5:08Speaker 1: right away after I think we see a little bit
- 5:11Speaker 1: of the two ladies driving together, and then we cut
- 5:14Speaker 1: to this guy in his truck fucking a severed head
- 5:18Speaker 1: and he throws the head out the window. And that's
- 5:21Speaker 1: how you get to know this guy right off the bat.
- 5:23Speaker 1: And when you see him, he's just like this short, stocky,
- 5:26Speaker 1: like potato built guy, mister potato head ass looking guy.
- 5:30Speaker 1: He's just on like a NonStop killing spree throughout the movie.
- 5:34Speaker 1: It's crazy, crazy, crazy ass movie. Where are we? So,
- 5:39Speaker 1: after Alex's family is killed, she gets abducted. Marie escapes
- 5:44Speaker 1: and pursues the killer, determined to save her friend. What
- 5:47Speaker 1: follows is a tense, bloody game of cat and mouse
- 5:50Speaker 1: through isolated countryside gas stations in back roads. What really
- 5:54Speaker 1: stands out to me in this movie is the pacing
- 5:57Speaker 1: and the gore. So once it starts, ever stops, this
- 6:00Speaker 1: movie just goes and goes, and it feels like you're
- 6:04Speaker 1: just sprinting through this movie the whole time. And as
- 6:07Speaker 1: far as the gore goes, it's part of the new
- 6:09Speaker 1: French extremity wave. I believe the R rated version is
- 6:13Speaker 1: on TB. If you want to get the full effect,
- 6:15Speaker 1: check out the unrated version. It is a nasty one.
- 6:19Speaker 1: One of the things that really adds to the tension
- 6:21Speaker 1: of this movie is the lack of dialogue. It really
- 6:25Speaker 1: does its job by just using visuals and background noises,
- 6:30Speaker 1: and even though it does kind of keep this frantic pace,
- 6:33Speaker 1: I feel like the movie knows when to slow down
- 6:37Speaker 1: enough to let that tension build, and I think that's
- 6:39Speaker 1: what makes this.
- 6:40Speaker 2: Movie a really great watch.
- 6:42Speaker 1: So, as I mentioned earlier, there is a twist ending
- 6:45Speaker 1: that I'm not going to talk about right now. I'm
- 6:47Speaker 1: going to dive into that in another video that I'm
- 6:50Speaker 1: about to record right after this. Basically, I just kind
- 6:53Speaker 1: of wanted to go over why I think the twist
- 6:57Speaker 1: ending is misunderstood. That's something that I see a lot
- 7:01Speaker 1: of people complain about. It's one of the things that
- 7:03Speaker 1: Roger Ebert really hated about this movie. So I want
- 7:06Speaker 1: to dive into that a little bit more and maybe
- 7:08Speaker 1: clear some things up, or at least give my point
- 7:10Speaker 1: of view on it, because I feel like the twist
- 7:13Speaker 1: ending in this movie almost has gained a reputation for
- 7:17Speaker 1: ruining the movie, and I just don't think that's the case.
- 7:19Speaker 1: I don't agree with that. The third movie on the
- 7:21Speaker 1: list is going to be The Prowler. This is a
- 7:24Speaker 1: nineteen eighties classic. It came out in nineteen eighty one.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Directed by Joseph Zito with legendary gore effects by Tom Savini.
- 7:32Speaker 1: It's this movie. It takes place in a small town
- 7:34Speaker 1: during a graduation dance. The film follows a group of
- 7:37Speaker 1: students celebrating their big night, but decades after a tragic
- 7:41Speaker 1: wartime love triangle ended in a murder, a mysterious figure
- 7:45Speaker 1: in military gear returns to seek revenge and kill everybody's asses.
- 7:50Speaker 1: So while this party's going on, the killer he's just
- 7:52Speaker 1: stalking around the whole town. He's fucking everybody up, picking
- 7:56Speaker 1: off victims using a bayonet, pitchfork, and other brutal weapons.
- 8:01Speaker 1: A local sheriff and a resourceful student begin piecing together
- 8:05Speaker 1: the connection between the past and the present before the
- 8:08Speaker 1: night turns into a full blown massacre. So if that
- 8:11Speaker 1: sounds like something you're into, definitely check out The Prowler.
- 8:14Speaker 1: This movie has incredible special effects, some of the most
- 8:20Speaker 1: brutal Tom Savini effects out there. I'd have to go
- 8:23Speaker 1: through and watch like a real highlight reel of Tom
- 8:27Speaker 1: Savinia effects to know for sure, But after watching this one,
- 8:30Speaker 1: I was like, God, damn, this has to be the
- 8:33Speaker 1: best Tom Savinia effects out there.
- 8:35Speaker 2: And I don't know.
- 8:36Speaker 1: I'd have to think about like his zombie movies, his
- 8:39Speaker 1: Friday the Thirteenth movies, everything else that he's done and
- 8:42Speaker 1: worked on Creep Show. Too many great special effects moments
- 8:47Speaker 1: to just think of on the top of my head.
- 8:49Speaker 1: I'd have to put a list together just for that.
- 8:51Speaker 1: Maybe that'll be an upcoming video. Let me know in
- 8:54Speaker 1: the comments if you want to see a Tom Savini
- 8:56Speaker 1: effects ranking in the near future, and there are there
- 9:00Speaker 1: are a couple of kills in this movie that I
- 9:02Speaker 1: think are unforgettable, maybe even three well, I don't know.
- 9:06Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 9:06Speaker 1: All the kills in this movie are extremely effective. The
- 9:09Speaker 1: two that always stand out to me are the there's
- 9:12Speaker 1: a guy that gets a bayonet through the top of
- 9:15Speaker 1: his head and there's a lady that gets pitchfork stabbed
- 9:18Speaker 1: in the shower, and both of those effects are just
- 9:21Speaker 1: like mind blowing, like how did you pull this off?
- 9:25Speaker 2: With the way that it looks some of.
- 9:27Speaker 1: The best work out there as far as like practical
- 9:29Speaker 1: eighties effects, and this movie does feel like very grounded
- 9:33Speaker 1: in reality, which I think makes the kills that much grittier,
- 9:38Speaker 1: like that much more impactful. There's not like a supernatural
- 9:42Speaker 1: killer in this movie. You know, it's a World War
- 9:44Speaker 1: Two VET that's covered from head to toe in like
- 9:47Speaker 1: this green military outfit. He's even got his face covered
- 9:50Speaker 1: up with some damn green green mesh, if you know
- 9:53Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And it was also pretty uncommon to
- 9:57Speaker 1: have a World War Two VET as the villain, even
- 9:59Speaker 1: in for nineteen eighty one, the more obvious choice would
- 10:02Speaker 1: have been a Vietnam VET because that war was more
- 10:05Speaker 1: heavily criticized than World War two. One of the things
- 10:09Speaker 1: that this movie does really well is the slow burn.
- 10:13Speaker 1: It has more of like a stocking pace and atmosphere
- 10:16Speaker 1: to the whole movie, and also some pretty decent red herrings.
- 10:20Speaker 1: I mean, the movie's basically who Done It? You're kind
- 10:23Speaker 1: of guessing the whole time, like who's in that World
- 10:26Speaker 1: War two outfit? Really?
- 10:27Speaker 2: Who could that be in? There?
- 10:29Speaker 1: Is it old man Jenkins? That you motherfucker? And as
- 10:32Speaker 1: far as the who done it vibe goes, it feels
- 10:35Speaker 1: similar to like a scream revealed to me almost when
- 10:38Speaker 1: we get to the end. It's all connected to this
- 10:41Speaker 1: small community. You'll understand when you watch the movie. I
- 10:43Speaker 1: think this one's also on to Be to Be the
- 10:46Speaker 1: Go obviously, that's where you can see all these movies.
- 10:49Speaker 1: Apparently I saw that it was maybe on Netflix, but
- 10:52Speaker 1: I don't know if that's.
- 10:53Speaker 2: Accurate or not. I didn't really check.
- 10:55Speaker 1: I was just kind of doing a little Google search
- 10:57Speaker 1: to see where to recommend watching these movies at. Of
- 11:00Speaker 1: course tob I think that's where I watched most of these.
- 11:03Speaker 1: Honestly was toub so Go to Be Also Apple TV
- 11:06Speaker 1: popped up for any motherfuckers out there that use Apple TV.
- 11:09Speaker 1: It's any of these sorry, any of these sorry bastards
- 11:12Speaker 1: out there, you watching TV on fucking Apple TV. Geez, sorry,
- 11:17Speaker 1: sack of shits, get a fucking Tube account, motherfucker's it's free.
- 11:21Speaker 1: And the last movie we're gonna be talking about in
- 11:23Speaker 1: this video today is the movie Curtains, which has one
- 11:26Speaker 1: of the sickest cover arts that I've ever seen in
- 11:29Speaker 1: my life. It's got like a fucking melty ass face
- 11:32Speaker 1: with a little doll sticking out in the middle like
- 11:35Speaker 1: where the mouth is, and the melty ass face kind
- 11:37Speaker 1: of looks like curtains opening up. It's fantastic, and you think, like,
- 11:42Speaker 1: oh damn, is this gonna be a killer doll movie.
- 11:45Speaker 2: It's not. It's not.
- 11:46Speaker 1: There is a doll in it, though, so there's that.
- 11:49Speaker 1: Curtains is a Canadian slasher film that came out in
- 11:52Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, directed by Richard Kwi Paka. I cannot
- 11:57Speaker 1: say it's cute, kyopka kah. How the fuck do you
- 12:02Speaker 1: say that guy's name? Richard Dick Cupcake is what this
- 12:05Speaker 1: guy's fucking name looks like to me right now. A
- 12:07Speaker 1: group of actresses are invited to a secluded mansion to
- 12:11Speaker 1: audition for a mysterious and demanding director. Each woman is
- 12:15Speaker 1: competing for the same role, and tensions quickly rise as
- 12:18Speaker 1: their personalities clash. But the real danger isn't just the competition.
- 12:22Speaker 1: Someone wearing a creepy, expressionless hag mask begins stalking and
- 12:26Speaker 1: killing the actresses one by one. As paranoia builds, it
- 12:29Speaker 1: becomes clear that anyone could be the killer or the
- 12:32Speaker 1: next victim. God damn, it's a great little uh, great
- 12:37Speaker 1: little synopsis right there for this fucking movie. It also
- 12:41Speaker 1: has a great cold open, which I think is I
- 12:43Speaker 1: think it really like sets up the movie. I remember
- 12:46Speaker 1: starting this one off and just thinking, what the fuck's
- 12:48Speaker 1: going on right now? You think somebody's getting killed. Maybe
- 12:51Speaker 1: they're not, maybe they're acting, who knows. But the way
- 12:55Speaker 1: it kicks off is great because this lady who is
- 12:58Speaker 1: an actress that's trying to get this role, this guy
- 13:02Speaker 1: basically tricks her into committing herself into a mental institution
- 13:07Speaker 1: and then he ditches her ass so that he can
- 13:10Speaker 1: invite all these other women to try out for this
- 13:13Speaker 1: role that she was going to get. But then she
- 13:15Speaker 1: gets out of the mental institution, she shows up to
- 13:18Speaker 1: the big audition it's like they're all It's almost like
- 13:21Speaker 1: a real world road rules type of situation because they're
- 13:25Speaker 1: all living in the same house, they're all competing for
- 13:28Speaker 1: this role. It's a really fantastic setup, honestly, And the
- 13:32Speaker 1: thing that I really like about this movie is that
- 13:34Speaker 1: it is a straight up traditional who done it. It
- 13:37Speaker 1: feels like the horror version of the movie Clue, which
- 13:41Speaker 1: is just an adaptation of and then there were none
- 13:44Speaker 1: by Agatha Christie, so there's something that feels really classic
- 13:48Speaker 1: about all of that. I mentioned the hag mask earlier.
- 13:51Speaker 1: That is one of the things that really makes this
- 13:53Speaker 1: movie stand out. It's one of the eeriest, most underrated
- 13:57Speaker 1: slasher looks. This mask not only appears on the killer,
- 14:01Speaker 1: but during the auditions as well, so it really puts
- 14:04Speaker 1: each character in the position as a potential red herring.
- 14:07Speaker 1: This movie does have a dreamlike quality to it at moments,
- 14:11Speaker 1: because a lot of characters' dreams will be shown and
- 14:14Speaker 1: they'll kind of bleed into reality like you're not sure,
- 14:17Speaker 1: like Okay, is this just something that's happening right now,
- 14:20Speaker 1: and then it'll.
- 14:20Speaker 2: End up being a dream. But they do it really well.
- 14:23Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like super corny or anything, because what's
- 14:25Speaker 1: happening in the dreams doesn't seem that realistic, Like it
- 14:29Speaker 1: almost seems like, what the fuck's going on here? Well,
- 14:32Speaker 1: is this like some supernatural evil dollshit? Now, No, it's
- 14:35Speaker 1: just a dream because this movie's living in reality. Okay,
- 14:39Speaker 1: there's no evil dolls in this movie. I'm just gonna
- 14:42Speaker 1: go ahead and spoil that for everybody that's trying to
- 14:44Speaker 1: watch evil doll movies all the time. But if you
- 14:47Speaker 1: are trying to watch a creepy doll movie, there is
- 14:50Speaker 1: a little creepy doll in this movie that enters the
- 14:52Speaker 1: movie pretty early on. This thing just kind of looks
- 14:55Speaker 1: like a big ass American girl doll, but instead of
- 14:58Speaker 1: like having a nice looking face, it's got this like
- 15:01Speaker 1: creepy ass looking frown for some reason. And I don't
- 15:04Speaker 1: know if there's really any significance to it. I don't
- 15:06Speaker 1: think there was, but it does like start popping up
- 15:09Speaker 1: in some interesting ways that just makes you ask more
- 15:12Speaker 1: questions and makes you think, like, is this going to
- 15:15Speaker 1: be connected to anything or any of the characters.
- 15:17Speaker 2: Who knows? It's a mystery.
- 15:19Speaker 1: The thing about this movie that's going to stand out
- 15:22Speaker 1: the most is the ice skating scene. I would say
- 15:24Speaker 1: it's this haunting chase where this lady, one of the
- 15:28Speaker 1: ladies that gets invited to the house, her profession is
- 15:31Speaker 1: that she's an ice skater. I didn't mention this, but
- 15:33Speaker 1: every woman that's invited to this house has like a
- 15:37Speaker 1: different profession. They're not all even actors. They're just like,
- 15:41Speaker 1: you know, some of them are a music or one
- 15:43Speaker 1: of them is like a musician, one of them's a gymnast,
- 15:46Speaker 1: one of them is an ice skater, one of them's
- 15:48Speaker 1: a professional skateboarder, one of them a professional dick beater,
- 15:52Speaker 1: professional ass eater, professional blown, professional dog sitter. And there
- 15:57Speaker 1: is something about this movie that feels satirical, like it's
- 16:00Speaker 1: almost poking at the acting industry because you're kind of seeing,
- 16:04Speaker 1: like how far will these women go for this role?
- 16:07Speaker 1: Are they willing to kill each other for it? Some
- 16:10Speaker 1: of them might be. Overall, it has more of an
- 16:13Speaker 1: eerie feel to it than explosive. It leans into quiet dreads,
- 16:17Speaker 1: strange imagery, and psychological on ease rather than NonStop gore.
- 16:21Speaker 1: This movie is almost bloodless, which is impressive when a
- 16:24Speaker 1: slasher can resist making the movie in effects. Real feels
- 16:28Speaker 1: cold both literally and emotionally, and it also takes place
- 16:32Speaker 1: during the winter, if you know what I'm saying, so
- 16:34Speaker 1: extra cold and hey, guess what else, This movie's also
- 16:38Speaker 1: on fucking tub. Get your ass to tub the real
- 16:42Speaker 1: fucking deal. I also think you can see this one
- 16:44Speaker 1: and several of these other movies on the night Fly app.
- 16:48Speaker 1: They always have a bunch of wild ass movies on there.
- 16:50Speaker 1: It's where I've found some of the greatest occult classics
- 16:54Speaker 1: out there. So shout out to night Flight. Let me
- 16:57Speaker 1: know if you check any of these movies out. If
- 16:59Speaker 1: you have any non franchise slashers to recommend, leave them
- 17:02Speaker 1: in the comments below because we're definitely going to do
- 17:05Speaker 1: a part two. Sign up for my Patreon to help
- 17:08Speaker 1: out the show. Thanks for listening, Good Night,