1980s

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

I think there are a handful of reasons why I chose this one for the curriculum. This is not a film that I was naturally drawn to in my childhood when I would be browsing the boxes at the video store. In fact, quite the opposite. And by the time I was in my VHS horror rental prime when I was around the age of 10, the sequel to Sleepaway Camp had already been released. And the video box art for the sequel, even when I was at the tender age of 10, felt to me like it was too silly for my time and attention. The box art for the sequel features a young adult woman. She's hiking through the forest. She's got a backpack on and in that backpack we see Leatherface's chainsaw. We see Jason Voorhees' requisite hockey mask. And we see Freddy Krueger's razor glove. And to me, even at that age, this was preposterously silly. It felt like a parody or a comedy. It didn't feel like something that was going to scare me.

Is it Horror? | The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989)

Is it Horror? | The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989)

I don’t remember what drew me to this film. I saw it in Boston with a college pal, Jon Higgins — but its effect on me and those around me was titanic. Not only because the film was a work of staggering genius, with sumptuous costumes, vibrant production design, and daring performances, but its score, by the great Michael Nyman, became the soundtrack to my life.

Haunted Honeymoon (1986)

Haunted Honeymoon (1986)

Haunted Honeymoon came out in the summer of 1986. I was eight. I remember sitting outside on the patio in the summer and seeing an ad for it in the newspaper, The Scranton Times: “Haunted Honeymoon, a comedy chiller.” Can you imagine my excitement? But by the time I'd convinced my parents to take me to see it, probably 10 days later, it was gone. And when a few months later, it arrived on VHS on the shelves of Montage Video, I could not wait to get it first into my hot little hands and then into the waiting maw of our Magnavox VCR. And for eight year-old me, it was 10,000% worth the wait.

I, Madman (1989)

I, Madman (1989)

I, MADMAN is a bit of a wild card. I've seen it so many times that I can't recall my first viewing. It might have been on VHS. I remember seeing the trailer a lot, probably in theaters before other movies and the poster at the video store, which said, at the top, “Spend the night with a madman.” It’s practically an unknown gem of late-eighties horror. 

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