Guilty Pleasures: Saturday the 14th Strikes Back
If you’re my around my age (22-31) you grew up in a magical time where channels like HBO, Showtime and Cinemax were a new and exciting channel. Like many of us who grew up in those days you would see some weird movies on those channels. Due to being a new channel they could only get strange movies at first. Movies like Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Re-Animator, Freaked and Little Monsters.
There was one particular film I always remembered but the title escaped me. All I ever remembered about the movie was that (a) smoke rose from the house, (b) a couch ate someone and (c) the kid gets nailed into a coffin. When the internet first started to become a viable source of information I’d search website after website for some clue as to what this mystery movie was. It wasn’t until one day on the badmovies.org forums when I finally got a lead. Someone said it was either Saturday the 14th or it’s sequel Saturday the 14th Strikes Back, but they warned me that they’re pretty terrible.
Now I’m not going to say this particular movie is “good” but it’s certainly better than the original. The film doesn’t follow any characters or plot points of the first Saturday the 14th but instead is a random and slapsticky comedy/horror in the same realm as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
Our main character is 16 year old Eddie Baxter. His family moves into a new house that they inherited from his uncle. The house has cracks in the basement where smoke is constantly rising. Eddie realizes that this smoke contains various evil demons with in it. These demons possess his family members as well as bring random pieces of furniture to life and allows various monsters to reside in the house. Eventually Eddie is the only member of the family left without being possessed. It’s up to him to save the family (and the entire world).
You know that when the biggest names in your horror film are Ray Walston and Avery Schreiber that you’ve got a movie that’s 90% comedy and 10% horror. Sadly 90% of that comedy fails to actually provide laughs. However there are also points where the absurdity levels reach a point where you have no option but to chuckle at the straight faced way that they deliver the more insane moments.
This is definitely a film that basically survives strictly on nostalgia. If you watch this movie having grew up with it you’ll know that it’s bad but you’ll be overwhelmed by the memories of the film. You’ll know it’s bad but you won’t care.
The film isn’t completely terrible though. There’s some cool looking puppets as well as entertaining stop motion throughout. There’s something moderately charming about the fact that the film never takes a second to stop. It’s one bad gag and bad joke after another. While the film doesn’t hold the same level of “so bad it’s good” praise that a Troll 2 or Plan 9 will receive it’s probably the only film where you get to see a werewolf spy on an olympic gold medalist in the shower.
