ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 31st

"THE LOST BOYS" released in 1987

Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die...  It’s fun to be a vampire.

What would happen if the lovable Peter Pan and his band of Lost Boys, were in fact vampires? Both never grow old, can fly, and like to visit people through their windows at night - this simple notion would become the genesis for director Joel Schumacher's classic 80's vampire film, The Lost Boys!

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After the divorce of their parents, Arizona teenagers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) move with thier mother, Lucy (Dianne Wiest) to the California seaside town of Santa Carla, to live with their Grandpa (Barnard Hughes). The first night in town the brothers attend a rock concert on the Boardwalk, where Michael becomes infatuated with a local girl Star (Jamie Gertz). His attempts to talk to her are stalled by the appearance of Star's boyfriend David (Keifer Sutherland) and his motorcycle gang, Marco (Alexander Winter), Paul (Brooke McCarter) and Dwayne (Billy Wirth). Meanwhile Sam meets the Frog brothers, Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander), a pair of self-proclaimed vampire hunters who run a comic book store for their parents. Later, Michael manages to approach Star and is goaded by David to join them on a motorcycle race, where Michael is almost killed. Taking him back to their home, David offers Michael a drink from an ornate wine bottle. Although he is warned by Star not to, Michael drinks anyway. The next day Michael starts to feel the effects of the 'wine' with an impulse to drink blood and almost attacks Sam until the family dog Nanook saves him. Michael leaves to confront Star, while Sam calls the Frog brothers for help which they conclude that Michael is only a half vampire after drinking David's blood, and won't fully turn until he makes his first kill. In an attempt to force him into killing, David takes Michael to stalk a group of beach goers and instigates a feeding frenzy, but Michael manages to resist. Michael, Sam and the Frog brothers are forced to confront the gang of vampires and kill David, believing it will lift the vampire curse from Michael and Star before it's too late!

Sam Emerson: [to Michael] Look at your reflection in the mirror. You're a creature of the night Michael, just like out of a comic book! You're a vampire Michael! My own brother, a goddamn, shit-sucking vampire. You wait 'till mom finds out, buddy!

Top:   Michael (Jason Patric) moves to Santa Carla;

Above:   Sam (Corey Haim) discovers his brother is turning

into a vampire

The original inspiration for the movie's title came from James Jeremias, who caught upon the simple notion that if Peter Pan could fly, visited Wendy and her brothers at night, and never grew old - then what if Peter Pan was actually a vampire. In Jeremias and co-writer Janice Fischer's first draft of the screenplay, the character of David was actually called Peter and the rest of his gang were named after various other Lost Boys from JM Barrie's novel, and  the two brothers were Michael and John (which was later changed to Sam) and the mother's name was Wendy. Jeremias and Fischer's draft also included the vampires as a bunch of "Goonie's-type 5th-6th grade kid vampires", with the Frog Brothers being "chubby 8 year old cub scouts", and Star being a boy instead of a love interest. Director Joel Schumacher however hated that idea and told the producers he would only sign on if he could change them to teenagers, as he thought it would be much sexier and more interesting. Executive producer Richard Donner had originally intended to direct the movie himself, but as production languished, he moved onto Lethal Weapon (1987).

David: Initiation's over, Michael. Time to join the club!
[turns to Michael, revealing his vampire self!]

Top:   David (Kiefer Sutherland) and the other lost boys reveal their other side!;

Above:   Star (Jamie Gertz) explains to Michael that they are both half-vampires only

until they make their first kill.

Kiefer Sutherland was originally reluctant to star in it until he heard that the director had lined up INXS and Jimmy Barnes to sing some of the songs on the soundtrack (including the hit song, "Good Times"). Kiefer had spent a summer in Australia when he was a child and became fans of their music. Sutherland's hesitation may have also been caused by the fact that despite being one of the lead cast members, he has the fewest lines amongst all leading and supporting cast members - yet at the same time, he has the most dialogue among the four vampire lost boys. Jamie Gertz actually suggested Jason Patric to Schumacher (who at the time was looking to cast a blonde lead) for the role of Michael, having both previously starred in Solarbabies (1986). Keenan Wynn and John Carradine (a veteran of vampire films) were both original choices for Grandpa, a character that was written in by screenwriter Jeffrey Boam during later drafts, until Barnard Hughes was cast. The Lost Boys would also be Corey Haim and Corey Feldman's first film together, which marked the start of a popular 80's trend "The Two Corey's" in which Feldman and Haim starred together in a number of teenage films.

[fleeing from the vampire's cave]
Alan Frog: We blew it, man, we lost it!
Edgar Frog: Shut up!
Alan Frog: We unraveled in the face of the enemy!
Edgar Frog: It's not our fault, they pulled a mind scramble on us! They opened their eyes and talked!

Top:   Self proclaimed vampire hunters, the Frog brothers,

Alan (Jamison Newlander) and Edgar (Corey Feldman);

Above:   Alan Frog: [after Laddie vamps out] Holy shit! It's the attack of Eddie Munster!

The majority of the film was shot in the city of Santa Cruz, California, and in the surrounding Santa Cruz Mountains, with the amusement park scenes being filmed at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (the same boardwalk which featured in the Dirty Harry sequel Sudden Impact). Both the bandstand that Timmy Cappello sings "I Still Believe" the first time Michael sees Star and the Frog Brothers comic book shop were destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Several thousand local residents answered the casting call for family types, street people, punks, surfers, roller skaters and one "brain dead hippie". Some 2,000 of the applicants were signed for several nights work on what was the largest film production ever brought to the area at that time. Corey Haim later characterized his experience on the shoot as "one of the greatest personal times in my life". Precluded from the nightly parties held by the older actors, Haim bonded with Corey Feldman as they stayed in the hotel watching movies and visited the local arcade. Filming for The Lost Boys concluded in April, 1986 after three weeks of production.

TRIVIA:   Billy Wirth's character Dwayne is never actually mentioned by his name in the entire movie!

Top:   David and the rest of the lost boys (L-R) Dwayne (Billy Wirth), Paul

(Brooke McCarter) and Marco (Alexander Winter) confront Michael at the

end of the feeding frenzy;   Above:   Death by stereo!

Check out the full "death by stereo" clip from The Lost Boys here, at IHdb's video section!

G Tom Mac, aka Gerard McMann, wrote the theme song "Cry Little Sister" to the movie after only reading the script and without ever seeing a frame of the film. Other songs on the soundtrack would include, "People Are Strange" by The Doors, "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" performed by Roger Daltrey and written by Elton John, "Walk This Way" remix of Aerosmith's song by Run-D.M.C., and "Ain't Got No Home" hilariously sung in the movie by Corey Haim.

Critical reception for The Lost Boys was generally positive on its release. Roger Ebert gave the movie two-and-a-half out of four stars, praising the cinematography and "a cast that's good right down the line," but ultimately describing Lost Boys as a triumph of style over substance and "an ambitious entertainment that starts out well but ends up selling its soul."  Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus was the film was "Flawed but eminently watchable, Joel Schumacher's teen vampire thriller blends horror, humor, and plenty of visual style with standout performances from a cast full of young 1980s stars." The Lost Boys would gross over $30 million at the box office, making the film a certified hit.

Above:   Director Joel Schumacher (center) on set with the cast of The Lost Boys

Plans for a Lost Boys sequel were already in the early stages of development during production of the film. Notably, when Kiefer Sutherland's character David is impaled on a pair of antlers he does not explode or dissolve in any way (like the other vampires had when destroyed). He was intended to not be dead, which would be picked up in a sequel, The Lost Girls. Scripts for this and other sequels circulated, and the original film's director, Joel Schumacher, made several attempts at a sequel during the 1990's. A direct-to-DVD sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe, was released more than 21 years after the release of the original film with Corey Feldman returning as Edgar Frog, with a cameo by Corey Haim as Sam Emerson (who in the sequel is now a vampire himself). Kiefer Sutherland's half-brother Angus Sutherland played the lead vampire in the film. Feldman would star and produce the next film, Lost Boys: The Thirst, this time with Jamison Newlander also returning as Alan Frog.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   72%

ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 30th

"THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" released in 1999

In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. 

A year later their footage was found.

- opening titles, The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project, one of the most successful independent films of all time, resurrects the pseudo-documentary genre first developed by Ruggero Deodato for his film Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Marketed via the internet as "recovered footage", the myth surrounding the film would cause as much a controversy as the events it records and helped reinvigorate the 'found footage' style of filming for decades to come! 

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Film student Heather Donahue enlists the help of cameraman Joshua Leonard and sound recordist Michael C. Williams to camp in the woods outside of Burkittsville (formerly Blair township), Maryland for the weekend to help shoot a documentary for her college project about the legend of the Blair Witch. Arriving in town, the crew interview some of the locals about what they know about the witch story, many of whom express their own experiences in the woods. One local tells them the story of Rustin Parr, a hermit who kidnapped seven children in the 1940's and brought them to his house in the woods to torture and murder them, later claiming to police that the spirit of Elly Edward, a witch hanged in Blair in the 18th century, influenced him to do it. The next day, Heather interviews two local fisherman who expand that Elly Edward was responsible for the three-day disappearance of a small girl in 1888 and the ritualistically murder of the five man search party that went out to look for her, found bound together at a place called Coffin Rock. The three filmmakers trek into the woods the next day to find Coffin Rock and shoot footage of the surrounding area. Filming completed, they attempt to hike back to their car but cannot find their way despite the map and the compass assuring them they are going in the right direction. The next day they discover a multitude of humanoid stick figures suspended from trees and that night, unknown forces shake their tent causing them to flee into the woods. With tensions running high in the group due to their situation, they soon come to realize that they are not alone in the woods and that there may be more to the legend of the Blair witch after all!

Michael Williams: [sees dozens of stick-men hanging from trees] No redneck is this creative.

Top:   Heather introduces the documentary at a cemetery outside

Burkittsville;   Above:   The filmmakers find hanging stickmen everywhere

outside their tent! 

Developed in 1993 by first time filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, they first came across the idea for the film after realizing that they found documentaries on paranormal phenomena scarier than traditional horror films. In developing the mythology behind the movie, the filmmakers used many inspirations. Several character names are near-anagrams; Elly Kedward (The Blair Witch) is Edward Kelley, a 16th-century mystic. Rustin Parr, the fictional 1940s child-murderer, began as an anagram for Rasputin. Writing a brief 35-page outline under the titles The Blair Witch Tapes (before being changed to The Black Hills Project), Myrick and Sanchez advertised in Backstage magazine for actors with strong improvisational abilities. Typically, the candidate entering the audition room would immediately be presented with a description like "you've just served 10 years of a 25-year prison sentence. Tell us why you should be due for parole". If the candidate hesitated to long, the audition would be over. Heather Donahue's response was "I don't think you should." Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard soon joined the cast, with the actors agreeing to play fictionalized versions of themselves; additionally, Leonard was given a brief crash course on using the 16mm camera (having past experience as a cameraman) and  Donahue, who had never operated a camera before, also spent time learning how to operate the video camera; the three principal actors would shot nearly all of the completed film as there was not an omniscient camera filming the scenes. 

Heather Donahue: I hear it.
Joshua Leonard: I don't hear shit.
Heather Donahue: [branch snaps in distance] Did you hear that?!

Top:   Cameraman Josh and sound recordist Mike prepare to camp in the woods;

Above:   The group flee into the woods when their tent is attacked

Deciding early on to remain in character for the entire eight days of filming, the actors would only break character only after collectively reciting their safety word, "taco". Donahue said she modeled her character after a director she once worked with, citing the character's self assuredness when everything went as planned, and confusion during crisis. Heather, Mike and Josh were under strict instructions to follow trails and directions given to them by the movie crew left in milk crates and found with Global Positioning Satellite systems, to ensure they would reach each designated site to camp in for the night. They were given individual instructions that they would use to help improvise the action of the next day. The directors also kept in touch with the actors via walkie-talkie to ensure they did not get lost. To keep the tension high, the actors were given less and less food each day and the directors deliberately did not let them know of the noises and other disturbances they would be making during the nights. The sounds of children heard at night was taken from kids playing around the house of director Eduardo Sánchez's mother, with the tape played over boomboxes in the forest (Josh's shouts in the final scene were also pre-recorded and played through speakers hidden away in the woods). The scene where Heather, Mick and Josh are running through the woods, when Heather screams "What the fuck is that?!" she is seeing one of the movie crew standing on a hill dressed in white with a ski-mask on! Josh was holding the camera as ran behind her and didn't manage to catch the image on film. 

Heather Donahue: [filming her last video diary] I'm scared to close my eyes, I'm scared to open them! We're gonna die out here.

Top:   With Josh's disappearance, Heather records her final thoughts on video;

Above:   Heather finds Josh's remains outside the tent in the morning.

At the very beginning, the actors were requested to interview the townspeople, who often, unbeknownst to the actors, were planted by the directors. As a result, the expressions on the actors' faces were unrehearsed as they listened to the stories prompting them to believe that although the film was fake, the legend surrounding the Blair Witch was actually real (only realizing when the film was released that the myth was false too). During the night shoots, the crackling sounds in the woods were made by the director and friends walking up to the camp's perimeter, breaking sticks, and then tossing them in various directions. The scene where Heather, Josh and Mike are sleeping in the tent when it shakes violently was unscripted and performed by the director's themselves, scaring the actors for real. Heather and Mike were also not informed that Josh was going to disappear near the end of the shoot. Originally intending for Mike to disappear, Myrick and Sanchez decided to change it to Josh as his and Heather's constant bickering was starting to become disruptive (most of the Heather-Josh arguments were edited out in post-production). The directors had left a note for Leonard instructing him to wait for the others to fall asleep, and then leave the tent. They had to wait for 45 minutes before calling him out, telling him "you're dead." - Leonard was actually glad to leave because there was a Jane's Addiction concert he wanted to go to. The teeth found by Heather (supposedly Josh' teeth) were real human teeth, supplied by director Eduardo Sánchez's dentist. The hair really belonged to Joshua Leonard.

TRIVIA:   The production company, Haxan Films, borrowed its named from Benjamin Christensen's witchcraft documentary, Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922), a source of inspiration for the film. Häxan is the Swedish word for the witch.

Top:   Archival photograph of the house of murderer Rustin Parr;

Above:   Heather finds Mike in the ruins of Parr's house in the woods

It took eight days to shoot the film, but eight months to edit it, with more money being spent on the movie afterwards than before its completion. The directors estimated the initial production budget of the movie to be around $20,000 and $25,000, but this rose to somewhere between $500,000 and $750,000 (over 20 times the original budget) after the studio did some additional post-production. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, The Blair Witch Project was acquired by Artisan Entertainment for $1.1 million, spending $25 million in marketing and advertising. One key strategy was promote the events in the film as being "real", with the movie's official website featuring fake police reports and "newsreel-style" interviews, and the filmmakers distributing flyers at Sundance asking viewers to come forward with any information about the "missing" students. The IMDb page also listed the actors as "missing, presumed dead" in the first year of the film's availability, leading to Heather Donahue's mother receiving sympathy cards from people who believed that her daughter was actually dead or missing!

Above:   Sample of flyers handed out by filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival 

to promote the movie

USA Today has opined that the film was the first movie to go "Viral" despite existing before many of the technologies that help the spread of such phenomena, The Blair Witch Project opened to enormous box office gross; eventually earning $248,639,099 worldwide. Critics too were blown away by the film with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times giving the film a total of 4 stars, calling it "an extraordinarily effective horror film". Numerous fans were so convinced of the Blair Witch's existence (or at the very least, believe that it is a re-enactment of a true story) that they flocked to Maryland in hopes of discovering the legend - they apparently did not read the closing credits of the film. It also resulted in the Burkittsville town sign being stolen three times, the first occurring on the opening night of The Blair Witch Project. 

Above:   Co-directors Daniel Myrick (left) and Eduardo Sanchez

In the wake of the films huge success, Artisan immediately began prepping a sequel in conjuncture with the release of a number of novels, comic books, and a trilogy of video games (Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr, Blair Witch Volume 2: The Legend of Coffin Rock, and Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale). Starring Jason Donovan, Kim Director, and Erica Leerhsen, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was released the next year to a poor box office performance and panned by the critics. The consensus of the sequel's failure was due to the film being so stylistically different from the first film, and not utilizing the "found footage" format opting for a more traditional approach. Rumors of a Blair Witch 3 were rumored for years but with nothing eventually being made until July 22, 2016, a surprise trailer for a sequel to the film, directed by Adam Wingard and entitled Blair Witch, was released at San Diego Comic-Con. The film was originally marketed as The Woods so as to be an exclusive surprise announcement for those in attendance at the convention. The film, produced by Lionsgate, is slated for a September 16, 2016 release and stars James Allen McCune as the brother of the original film's Heather Donahue.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   84%

And check out the trailer for the sequel, Blair Witch below!

ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 29th

"ZOMBI 3" released in 1988

Finishing off the trilogy that began with Zombi (1978) (in reality, a re-edited version of George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead by giallo-filmmaker Dario Argento for it's European releases), Zombi 3 concludes the series when a group of scientists accidentally release a biological weapon called Death One - that reanimates the dead - which spreads across a tropical island infecting all but a handful of survivors, who must now try to escape the zombie apocalypse!

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Disillusioned with experiments reanimating the dead, senior researcher Dr. Alan Holder (Robert Marius) resigns. While surrendering the deadly Death One serum to the military, the lab is attacked by a group of unknown terrorists; all but one of the criminals is killed and, during the ensuring police chase, the serum canister is damaged and the toxin is released. General Morton (Mike Monty) promises Holder that he and his men - including the brutal Tracey (Bruno Mattei) and Cheney (Claudio Fragasso) - will capture the remaining terrorist, but by the time they locate him he has already been turned into a flesh-craving zombie and infected a number of staff at the hotel he was hiding out in. The military "clear out" all the remaining zombies at the resort and burn the bodies before Holder can stop them. As the ash rises into the air infecting a flock of birds, a chain of events begins that will spread the virus throughout the entire island. While Dr. Holder and his team start work on an antidote to counter the effects of Death One and General Morton's men start to eradicate the zombies, a stranded busload of tourists and a trio of vactioning GI's seek refuge at the Sweet River Resort. Attacked by both zombies and Morton's "clean up" crew, the remaining survivors, Kenny (Deran Sarafian), Patricia (Beatrice Ring), Roger (Ottaviano Dell'acqua) desperately search for a way off the island!

Roger: [Roger runs out of ammo in front of a crowd of zombies] It's empty! Looks like I've had it!

Top:   Kenny and Roger get ready for a zombie assault;

Above:   Gen. Morton (Mike Monty) watches on as the infected bodies are burned

(director Bruno Mattei (left) and screenwriter Claudio Fragasso (right) cameo as the

two soldiers)

Although Claudio Fragasso recieved the sole writing credit for Zombi 3, it was his wife, Rossella Drudi, who developed and co-authored most of the script. Their script set the film in the Philippines which at the time was a mecca for cheap exploitation filmmakers during much of the 70's and 80's. Director Lucio Fulci (otherwise known as the Italian "Godfather of Gore") stated that he deemed the original script to be "dreadful", and rewrote much of it with his daughter Camilla Fulci, who had accompanied him to the Philippines for principal photography. The rewrites also included the scene where the skull flies out of the freezer, which Fulci later remarked that he felt it was one of the most clever things he had come up with, and was the only thing about the movie he was truly proud of. Marina Loi auditioned for the part of Patricia, but it wound up going to Beatrice Ring. However, Lucio Fulci took a liking to her and gave her the role of Carole. Like many Italian movies shot for the international market, most of the cast delivered their lines in English and were then re-dubbed for the US release anyway. Only a few members of the cast actually spoke Italian.

Glenn: I'm feeling better, Patricia, but I'm thirsty... for your blood!

Top:   Patricia (Beatrice Ring) survives the bus, only to be trapped in the resort;

Above:   Lucio Fulci's famous "skull flying out the freezer" scene!

After shooting for six weeks, Fulci eventually delivered a film a little over 70-mins in length which, according to Fragasso by "simplifying" his screenplay, played like a one hour and ten minutes slow montage. Producer Franco Gaudenzi cut the film down even further to 50-mins and hired second unit director Bruno Mattei (who was in the Philippines at the time filming Strike Commando 2) to work with Fragasso on new scenes. Since Gaudenzi could not get the main cast back for reshoots, Mattei and Fragasso re-edited Fulci's footage to be more of a subplot, with Mattei claiming that he shot about 40% of the film including all the early scenes in the film and the scenes where the men dressed in white anti-contamination suits (including brief cameos by Mattei and Fragasso as soldiers in the crematorium scene). Two conflicting stories were given for Fulci leaving the film, the first being that due to a stroke leaving Fulci unable to complete the film and the second being that he was having disputes with producers; Fulci himself would later state that, "I don't repudiate any of my movies, except Zombi 3. But that movie's not mine. It's the most foolish of my productions. It has been done by a group of idiots."

GOOF:   15 minutes into the film, a room service boy enters the infected mans bedroom to bring him water. After he leaves, he asks a female colleague to clean the room. When she enters, it is clearly a completely different room.

TRIVIA: Zombi 3 was also released under the title Zombie Flesh Eaters 2

Top:   Original Zombi 3 director, Lucio Fulci in 1996 ;

Above:   Replacement director Bruno Mattei in 2007

Due to the change of direction in the plot, Zombi 3 is an in-name-only sequel to Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979), while other films were released internationally promoting themselves as also being a direct sequel to Zombi 2, including Andrea Bianchi's Burial Ground (1981) - released as Zombi III: Nights of Terror - and Return of the Zombies as Zombi 3. Though not as successful as the other entries in the Zombi series, retrospective reviews were fairly positive with Video Watchdog commenting that the film had "slow patches" but plenty of exciting (and extremely gory) highlights throughout." Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle said, "Most of the movie is a quilt of scenes and motifs shamelessly pasted together from Dawn of the Dead and Return of the Living Dead, but fast pacing and continuous shooting help distract from the absence of plot or character development." Claudio Fragasso would also release his own zombie movie, After Death,  the following year (this time giving his wife Rossella Drudi full writing credit for her work) which was marketed and released in Japan and the US as Zombie 4: After Death.

IMDb SCORE: 4.8/10

ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 28th

"FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN" released in 1989

Get ready New York, because Crystal Lake's favorite mass murderer is about to take a huge slice out of the Big Apple, and he'll be taking in all the sights while he's here - the delightful sewers chasing his teen victims, a quick stop by a drug den to drown a victim in barrel of toxic waste (that's just simply laying around for some reason), and, of course, stop by Times Square to greet the natives, in Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan!

Watch the Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan trailer below!

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Still at the bottom of Crystal Lake after the events of The New Blood, Jason Vorhees (Kane Hodder) is accidentally resurrected again when a passing boat's anchor drags an underwater electrical cable straight into his path. After quickly dispatching the two teens aboard the boat, Jason then sneaks aboard another ship, the SS Lazarus. On the Lazarus is group of high school seniors heading to New York for a field trip, chaperoned by biology teacher Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman) and English teacher Colleen Van Deusen (Barbara Bingham). Among the group is McCulloch's niece Rennie (Jensen Daggett), who suffers from aqua-phobia ever since her uncle threw her into Crystal Lake when she was a child and encountered Jason, and her boyfriend (and son of Lazarus's Captain), Sean (Scott Reeves). As the ship gets underway, Jason starts to pick off the group of doomed teens one-by-one in various ways; impaling a wanna-be rock star with her own guitar, punching a hot sauna rock into a boxer's abdomen, and slicing up mean-girl prom queen Tamara (Sharlene Martin) with a dozen mirror shards in the shower. When Jason inadvertently starts an electrical fire while killing one of his victims, the Lazarus starts to sink in the storm. With the other students dead, McCulloch, Van Deusen, Rennie, Sean, and Julius (V. C. Dupree) escape aboard a life raft, and eventually find their way to the Port of New York. But Jason is not far behind, and begins an epic final chase throughout the streets and sewers of New York!

Rennie Wickham: Look, you don't understand. There is a maniac trying to kill us.
New York Waitress: Welcome to New York.

Top and Above:   Rennie (Jensen Daggett) and her boyfriend Sean (Scott Reeves)

think they're safe in New York - but Jason (Kane Hodder) never gives up!

Due to the ever declining box office of the Friday the 13th series, Paramount would eventually sell the franchise rights to New Line Cinema, making Jason Takes Manhattan the last film in the series to be produced and released by Paramount. Writer/Director Rob Hedden (who had previously worked as a writer for Paramount on the TV show MacGyver) originally wrote more of the movie to be set in New York, with scenes set in Madison Square Gardens (where Julius and Jason's boxing match was to take place), the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building. Paramount however told him the budget could not possibly cover the expense of shooting in New York for that much time, and the script was rewritten to include most of the action taking place on the Lazarus. None of the rewrites however would explain how a cruise ship being on a lake would end up in the Atlantic Ocean and none of the cast , who were just happy to be working on a Friday the 13th movie, mentioned this rather large plot-hole to the producers or the director!

Mugger #1: [Jason kicks a gang's boom-box out of his way] You're deadmeat, slimebag!
[Jason turns to the gang and lifts his mask]
Mugger #1: [terrified by what he sees] Yo, man. It's cool. It's cool, man. It's cool.
[the gang runs off]

Top:   Remaining survivors Rennie, Sean, Julius (VC Dupree), and teachers McCulloch 

(Peter Mark Richman) and Van Deusen (Barbara Bingham) finally make it to New York;

Above:   Jason deals with some muggers in Times Square!

Lar Park-Lincoln, who played heroine Tina Shephard in The New Blood, was asked to reprise her role for Jason Takes Manhattan. Not wanting to take the part, Park-Lincoln used a similar trick employed by Amy Steel (Ginny from Part 2) and John Shepherd (Tommy Jarvis from Part V) and purposefully asked for way too much money during sequel negotiations, knowing the producers would turn her down but not alienating them in the process. The role of Rennie was therefore written, with Elizabeth Berkley and Dedee Pfeiffer auditioning for the role before actress Jenson Daggatt was cast. Hedden actually wanted Daggatt to have a nude scene in the movie to rebuke the traditional horror-rules that the "slutty girl" always gets killed, but Daggatt refused the many attempts Hedden made to wear her down, even refusing to remove her blouse! Sharlene Martin (playing Tamara) was also uncomfortable being nude in the film, until, during the filming of the shower scene, Hedden also got naked to put her at ease. Actor Lee Coleman was cast as Sean but the lack of chemistry between the two young stars led to the recasting of the role with Scott Reeves, who had to reshoot all the scenes Coleman had played. Jason Takes Manhattan would also be the feature film debut of Kelly Hu, who would later go on to star in the films The Scorpion King and X-Men 2.

TRIVIA: In the final cut scene, Julius throws punches at Jason for exactly one minute and sixteen seconds!

[Julius is exhausted after boxing Jason]
Julius Gaw: Go ahead. Take your best shot, motherfucker.
[Jason punches his head right off]

Top:   Julius rallies the survivors on the SS Lazarus to hunt down Jason;

Above:   Julius loses his boxing match with Jason!

And of course, the legendary Kane Hodder donned the hockey mask again for his second outing as Jason Vorhees. Despite the nature of the film and adverse filming conditions, it was Hodder who provided several moments of levity which were appreciated by the cast. Following several death scenes, for example, once director Rob Hedden called "cut," Hodder would do a brief disco dance in full makeup, making the cast laugh. While filming the climactic boxing scene Hodder encouraged actor V. C. Dupree to actually punch him to sell the shot - Hodder being 6'3", a muscled 250lbs, and wearing plenty of padding was not injured. For Hodder, his favorite moment was filming Jason's arrival in Times Square. Spectators were lined up and down the block watching the filming and Hodder, not wanting to ruin the illusion by taking off his mask, got a great kick where every once and while he'd turn his head and look at them and watch them all go crazy!

TRIVIA: Kane Hodder vomited on cue in the final scene after drinking several pitchers of water. This was not a special effect!

Top:   With acid thrown in his face, Jason desperately holds on as the

sewers start to flood;   Above:   Is Jason finally dead this time?

At a running time of 1 hour and 40-minutes Jason Takes Manhattan was the longest Friday the 13th film by far, and also the bloodiest; Manhattan held the record with a body count of 20, until it was surpassed by Jason X over ten-years later. With a budget of $5 million, Manhattan would go on to gross nearly $15 million at the box office making it a modest hit, but ranked as the second lowest grossing film of the entire Friday the 13th series. In promotion for the film, Hodder appeared as Jason Vorhees on The Arsenio Hall Show completing the entire interview silent, still wearing his bloody hockey mask and carrying his machete! 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, and were withdrawn after complaints from the New York Tourism Committee. Like the rest of the films in the series, Manhattan received mainly negative reviews from critics. But it was the first time fans were vocal in their disappointment that Jason did not spend enough time in New York, given the title was Jason Takes Manhattan.

TRIVIA: The scene in which Jason kills Eva (Kelly Hu) in the disco took over fourteen hours to complete!

TRIVIA: The deckhand who's warning everybody that they're "doomed" is based on Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981).

Top:   Crew prepare to shoot the disco-death scene on the Lazarus;

Above:   Writer/Director Rob Heddon (left) with Timothy Burr (playing a young Jason)

In Hedden's original screenplay, Jason was to have been melted by toxic waste during the end of the film. Producer's quickly changed their minds and the scene was not shot, mainly due to the fact they did not want to rule out the possibility of another sequel. And more Friday the 13th movies were indeed still to come! Under the new umbrella of New Line Cinema, Jason Goes to Hell was released in 1993, and Jason X (taking Jason into space!) was released almost 9-years later in 2002; both films featured Hodder in the Jason role. The following year, the horror icon mash-up Freddy vs Jason was released, without Hodder to much fan outrage. Ironically, stuntman Ken Kirzinger who played the Jason role in Freddy vs Jason also worked on Jason Takes Manhattan - he was the man Jason threw into the mirror in the diner scene!

Want more Jason action? Check out the Jason interview on The Arsenio Hall Show!

CLICK HERE!

IMDb RATING:   4.5/10

ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 27th

"THE AMITYVILLE HORROR" released in 1979

Inspired by one of the most infamous "haunted house" cases in American history, The Amityville Horror is based on the alleged supernatural experiences of the Lutz family in their isloated farmhouse in Amityville, New York, where, 3-years earlier, Ronald DeFeo Jr. brutually murdered his entire family. After just 28-days, the Lutz's fled in the middle of the night, abandoning their home and belongings, never to return.

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Newly married couple George and Kathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) buy their dream home in Amityville, New York, unaware of his dark and bloody past. Almost immediately, the family - including children Greg (K.C. Martel), Matt (Meeno Peluce) and Amy (Natasha Ryan) - start to experience odd occurrences; George begins to be more sullen and angry over perceived cold in the house, a babysitter being trapped in a closet despite it not having a locking doorknob, and the family dog obsesses over a secret room in the basement. Although not strongly religious, Kathy asks Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) to bless the house after witnessing a glimpse of two red, swine-like eyes outside the daughter's second-story bedroom window. Delaney is assaulted by a horde of out-of-season flies during the blessing, and later, as he continues to assist the Lutz's, experiences further stranger events (including blisters on his palms while touching a telephone) until Delaney suffers a breakdown and goes blind. The situation also worsens at the Lutz house; Amy starts seeing an "imaginary" friend Jody, the family witnesses a bubbling black ooze coming up from all the toilets, and George's persistent waking up at 3:15 am, feeling he must go check on the boathouse. Desperate, Kathy researches the house and discovers that a Satanic worshiper named John Ketchum had once lived on the land, and that the house was built atop a Shinnecock burial ground. Believing that George's unstable behavior is due to paranormal influences, Kathy must now protect her family from the malevolent spirits before the Lutz's become another tragic story in Amityville's bloody history!

George: [shouts] I'm coming apart! Oh, mother of God, I'm coming apart!

Top:   George Lutz (James Brolin) starts to come apart from the noises;

Above:   Kathy Lutz (Margot Kiddor) sees her daughter's "imaginary" friend, Jody

The real life experiences of George and Kathy Lutz were adapted into the novel of the same name by Jay Anson in 1977. It immediately drew controversy for claiming to be based on a true story, and was the subject of several lawsuits. The Amityville Horror was originally planned to be a made-for-TV production for CBS with producer Ronald Saland directing. But when executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff purchased the rights, Saland was persuaded to step aside in favor of the more experienced Stuart Rosenberg to direct, and dismissed Jay Anson's draft of the screenplay opting for a version written by Sandal Stern.  James Brolin was hesitant when first offered the role of George Lutz. Told that there was no script, he obtained a copy of Anson's novel to read and Brolin read the book until two o'clock in the morning. He had hung up a pair of his pants in the room earlier and during an especially tense passage of the book, the pants fell to the floor. Brolin jumped from his chair in fright and agreed to do the movie. Because the movie was made on a relatively modest budget, Brolin took less money up front but with a promise of 10% of the gross sales after its release - this decision would prove to be a huge financial windfall for Brolin later.

Father Delaney: I checked into the murders. And I checked into the twenty year old boy who killed his parents, and his four brothers and sisters. And when he was at trial, he testified that he heard voices in the house. He heard voices in the house and the voices told him to do it! Now, I was in the house and I heard the voices, too! And I also felt their presence in the house! I'm telling you, there was a presence in that house!

Top and Above:   Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) struggles to help the Lutz Family

The town of Amityville denied American International Pictures permission to film any scenes whatsoever in Amityville in an attempt to distance themselves from any publicity (even the current owners had replaced the "evil eyes" windows with normal rectangle-shaped windows after too much unwanted attention). So the exteriors of the famous house were filmed at Toms River, New Jersey, with AIP finding a two-story Dutch-Colonial home that resembled the Amityville house enough and adding the third-floor facade. While shooting the scene where Kathy Lutz is startled by the red eyes in the window, director Stuart Rosenberg wasn't impressed by Margot Kidder's reaction. According to Kidder, Rosenberg then tried to hold up a "a day-glo orange stuffed velour pig with glass eyes" in an attempt to startle Kidder. She said the result was only hysterical laughter, not fear. Local police and ambulance workers would play extras in the film, while the Toms River Volunteer Fire Company was used to provide the "rain" during several scenes.

Jackie: Amy! Amy open the door... Amy? For Christ's sake, open the door!
[closet light turns itself off]
Jackie: [screams] Amy!

Top:   Amy's (Natasha Ryan) babysitter Jackie (Amy Wright) gets trapped in

the closet by Jody;   Above:   Kathy begins to have visions of George murdering

the family, just as the previous owner of the house did!

Most the Amityville house was recreated on the sound stages at MGM studios. Cinematographer Fred J. Koenekamp admitted to having a hard time filming the scenes when Father Delaney is attacked by the flies, as he claimed to be scared of insects. He says that whenever he was to film a scene with a close-up facial shot of a fly right in the camera, he would look away or close his eyes and hope for a good shot. He also lost nearly 30 pounds because he refused to eat, saying the flies made him lose his appetite. For the scene, honey was rubbed on Rod Steiger's head to draw the flies to him. During production Brolin became friendly with George Lutz and his children, although both he and Kiddor were highly doubtful of their story. With filming concluded after seven weeks, composer Lalo Schifrin began working on the score. Contrary to popular belief, Schifrin's Academy Award nominated score for Amityville was not the legendary rejected score composed for The Exorcist six years earlier.

Carolyn: [possessed] Find the well... it's the passage... to hell! COVER IT!

Top and Above:   George, Kathy and his sister in law Carolyn (Helen Shaver) find a 

secret room behind a wall in the basement, and Carolyn immediately starts to feel the 

evil from within!

In hopes of creating more publicity for the film the studio would concoct stories of "weird" occurrences on the set of the film, and had stars Brolin and Kiddor visit the actual Amityville house as part of a publicity junket. Released in 1979, the film was a critical disappointment. Roger Ebert wrote, " In order to be a horror movie, a horror movie needs a real Horror. The creature in Alien was truly gruesome. The case of possession in The Exorcist was profoundly frightening. The problem with The Amityville Horror is that, in a very real sense, there's nothing there. We watch two hours of people being frightened and dismayed, and we ask ourselves... what for?" Despite the reviews, The Amityville Horror was a huge box office success. Brolin's profit participation would eventually earn him about $17 million (or close to $60 million in 2016 dollars), but the star would later claim that he was unable to get work for two years because of his performance in the film. Margot Kiddor would also later go on record with her friends that she hated the film.

Above:   Director Stuart Rosenberg (right) with Brolin and Kiddor on set

The Amityville Horror's success would eventually spawn two theatrically released sequels; Amityville II: The Possession (1982) (an official sequel/prequel) and Amityville 3-D (1983) (not an official sequel). Although neither film received any where near the same box office gross of the original, five more direct-to-video low-budget sequels would released from 1989-96; Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989), The Amityville Curse (1990), Amityville: It's About Time (1992), Amityville: A New Generation (1993), and Amityville Dollhouse (1996). In 2005, Platinum Dune's Michael Bay and Andrew Form produced The Amityville Horror remake, starring Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George as George and Kathy Lutz. The remake, like the original, received mostly negative reviews but was considered a hit at the box office.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   24%