May 1981 continues with more slasher mayhem and a Hal Ashby car crash
Is anything worse than Robert Blake in SECOND-HAND HEARTS?
It feels good to have this project back on track.
There is something particularly soothing right now about spending my mental time in the early ‘80s. For one thing, it was a real film culture, with a wild assortment of high and low art crowding theaters almost every week, and I miss that. There is a distinct pleasure in looking at how these films were released and what rubbed up against what in pop culture at each particular moment. It feels like time travel when I’m working on this. I still vividly remember the release of all of these films, and as I’m working on this, I feel like I’m building a sort of autobiography through movies.
It’s also good because I hate leaving things unfinished. ‘80s All Over is something I’m very proud of, but I am frustrated by the fact that we were unable to finish it. I will finish this project, one way or another, and taking a few months off while I was working on the TV show only made it more clear to me how much I want to reach that December 1989 finish line. There will be a day I hit publish on my Tango & Cash review, and I will be overjoyed to reach it. No shortcuts, though. The only way to get there is to write every single one of these reviews. Let’s knock off another weekend, the second in May 1981, and you can see just how much people were already chasing the success of Halloween and Friday the 13th, and how even this far into the decade, we’re still dealing with a lot of long-shelved ‘70s detritus.
If you want to convince someone to subscribe to this newsletter by sharing this edition, feel free. The more people who read this, the more likely it is we make it to that finish line together!
MAY 8
The Burning
Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua, Jason Alexander, Ned Eisenberg, Carrick Glenn, Carolyn Houlihan, Fisher Stevens, Lou David, Shelley Bruce, Sarah Chodoff, Bonnie Deroski, Holly Hunter, Kevi Kendall, J.R. McKechnie, George Parry, Ame Segull, Jeff DeHart, Bruce Kluger, Keith Mandell, Jerry McGee, Mansoor Najee-ullah, Willie Reale, John Roach, K.C. Townsend, John Tripp, James Van Verth
cinematography by Harvey Harrison
music by Rick Wakeman
original story by Harvey Weinstein & Tony Maylam & Brad Grey
screenplay by Peter Lawrence and Bob Weinstein
created by Harvey Weinstein
produced by Harvey Weinstein
directed by Tony Maylam
Rated R
1 hr 31 mins
A prank goes wrong and a mysterious killer takes vengeance on the kids at a summer camp.
I’m going to see how many films from this point forward can use that exact same synopsis. I’m guessing it will definitely be more than zero. While the nascent slasher genre was still developing at this point, it’s safe to say that May of ’81 was when it went from zero to sixty. Not only did you get the first Friday the 13th sequel, turning a one-time hit into a budding film franchise, but you also got the first wave of films that felt like direct reactions to Friday’s success. Of them, none feel more egregious or intentional than The Burning.
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