SATURDAY THE 14TH (1981)

 

Written & Directed By: Howard R. Cohen  Story By: Jeff Begun  Cinematography: Daniel Lacambre  Editor: Kent Beyda & Joanne D’Antonio

Cast: Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Jeffrey Tambor, Kari Michaelsen, Kevin Brando, Severn Darden, Roberta Collins 

Primarily a spoof of the Friday the 13th series, but also takes shots at several other horror films. After his family moves to a new house, a young boy discovers a mysterious book describing the curse hanging over the date of Saturday the 14th. Opening the book releases a band of monsters into the house, and the family must join together to save themselves and their neighborhood.

This was a movie that I would always see the poster or the box for when I went to video stores as a kid but never pulled the trigger to rent it. That now later in life I finally got a chance to catch up with.

If I saw this as a kid I wonder if the film would have been funny to me with its goofy humor and spoof spirit. That for all its failing would make it a nostalgic favorite.

As I watch it now the movie is terrible all around. It has a loose non-existent plot. It’s not funny and the monsters all seem to be wearing obvious costume suits. The film makes little sense and just seems to try to string together scenes and find an excuse for a monster to come forth.

Not that it was ever In Danger of being scary. You hope that once in a while it will at least be funny, but most of the time it seems like they are throwing jokes against the wall to see what will work and none of it does. Instead, it keeps making a mess.

One would hope with the names in the cast there would be something redeeming about the film and a reason they would say yes to being in the film. Unfortunately, there isn’t.

Richard Benjamin’s character never seems to see any of the obvious things happening around him or at least never acknowledges it and then when finally when gets on the page with the other characters he never quite seems to react 

The film isn't even fun to sit through. Though it must have had some kind of success as it had a sequel several years later.

Grade: F