SATURDAY THE 14TH (1981)
Saturday The 14th is a strange little film, it isn’t some unofficial Friday The 13th sequel, nor is it a slasher rip off. This film is its own thing, think The Monster Squad via the way of Troll 2. In short this film is fun, cheesy, campy and very dated. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and it borderlines on intentionally silly and unintentionally silly. This film is good for a laugh, and over all it just an entertaining 76 minutes.
The story is simple, there is a crazy old looking house, two vampires want to get in (one played by Bluth senior Jeffrey Tambor) and collect something. But they are unable to, as a family has inherited the house. The parents seem to be the type who left their brains behind … but anyway they move in and the house gives them the creeps. The son finds a book (what the vampires were after) and he unleashes its power. Soon weird creatures from the book show up at the house to terrorism them, so they seek out someone to exterminate them and his name happens to be Van Helsing.
If that plot synopsis doesn’t make you want to seek this one out, well you take life way too seriously. The film is supposed to be funny, although the people playing the parents just actually seemed like bad actors not let in on the joke. There are scenes in the film where the mother tells the kids owls are making the noises outside, and she looks outside and can clearly see a bat there. Whether or not this was written that way or a miscommunication, it is insanely silly and face palm worthy. It isn’t like she is lying to the kids or kidding herself; she just seems that utterly clueless! Her logic with curtains being able to keep the outside noise out is pretty funky and I honestly nearly fell off my chair laughing. It is meant to be a kind of spoof but it doesn’t really feel like one, which just adds to the humor. The father character does not fair too well either, it was a special kind of performance. The kids are actually better actors than the adults; they were silly but still had a sense of what was going on. I am not sure I have seen anything like it before. The Van Helsing character reminded me of Tommy Wiseau, the accent, the acting, it was glorious!
The effects in this film looked dated for 1981, there are poorly done cartoon creatures and the costumes for the other creatures were so cheap. It kind of adds to the charm of the film, it feels cheap and it looks cheap. It is pretty hilarious to see the actors attempt to be scare of the creatures when it’s obviously a person in a costume. As I said this film is a good entertaining laugh, know what you are going into and you should have a good time.
Rating:
The Super Network 