Nostalgia for B-Movie Horror Nights
Back in the 1980s we (an old schoolfriend and I) had a passtime we enjoyed. We would go to the video rental store and pick a bad horror film - deliberately. We had gotten to know the staff in the store quite well and they would run lists of the least watched films in store from the computer system, which we then used to guide our viewing.
This meant we watched some serious drivel, straight-to-video B-Movies that looked as though they had been made by a group of friends over a weekend on a whim. Some of them probably were.
It became somewhat of a game, and fun for the insults you could throw at the screen during the film. Well all good things come to an end and after we both graduating from University we no longer met up as often - my friend had disappeared over to California to work for NASA so it made it kind of tricky.
Last night, however, it was relaunched in a totally unexpected manner. We have had my wife's parents staying with us over the holidays. Normally with them if we suggest a dodgy looking movie they are less than interested and in most sf/horror flicks my father-in-law will quickly fall asleep.
Last night, though, he picked out a movie and chose The Forest, starring Chase Masterson (played a regular irregular in Deep Space Nine). It's not the best movie ever made by a long stretch. It's predictable plot-wise, the characters are very second-hand in feel and the make-up of the group is so typical of the kinds of films I used to watch back in the 80s I almost felt like checking the film's date.
But it was wonderful fun and my in-laws joined in the banter with it, telling the characters what to do, what not to do, where the monster was etc; laughing at the "really good" effects; and rewriting the script as we went along.
Just goes to show you do not need an Oscar-winning movie to have entertainment and there are times when you simply have to go completely the other way. I have missed doing that for too long.
This meant we watched some serious drivel, straight-to-video B-Movies that looked as though they had been made by a group of friends over a weekend on a whim. Some of them probably were.
It became somewhat of a game, and fun for the insults you could throw at the screen during the film. Well all good things come to an end and after we both graduating from University we no longer met up as often - my friend had disappeared over to California to work for NASA so it made it kind of tricky.
Last night, however, it was relaunched in a totally unexpected manner. We have had my wife's parents staying with us over the holidays. Normally with them if we suggest a dodgy looking movie they are less than interested and in most sf/horror flicks my father-in-law will quickly fall asleep.
Last night, though, he picked out a movie and chose The Forest, starring Chase Masterson (played a regular irregular in Deep Space Nine). It's not the best movie ever made by a long stretch. It's predictable plot-wise, the characters are very second-hand in feel and the make-up of the group is so typical of the kinds of films I used to watch back in the 80s I almost felt like checking the film's date.
But it was wonderful fun and my in-laws joined in the banter with it, telling the characters what to do, what not to do, where the monster was etc; laughing at the "really good" effects; and rewriting the script as we went along.
Just goes to show you do not need an Oscar-winning movie to have entertainment and there are times when you simply have to go completely the other way. I have missed doing that for too long.
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