I wont get too long winded (maybe lol), but still continuing on my binge of horror franchises, some bad some good...
It's Alive: Another trilogy helmed by Larry Cohen (previously did a look back at his Maniac Cop franchise). A pretty strangle trilogy of films with interesting societal concepts, but weird execution on these films. First had a bit of creepy charm and the acting (particularly from the lead, the guy who gets killed off in the second film) was atrociously hilarious. But the story behind how the first film ended up getting re-issued and re-promoted by WB after they completely shit on it years before was interesting.The second film almost had parody tones of the first, was still a pretty solid followup. The third film was pretty bonkers with strange turns in the overall storyline of the creatures kind of being treated like equals, yet there was never any mythology explored on why these babies were what they were. By the end of three though, I felt underwhelmed. Then came the remake, which I had never heard of until I started up on these. Maybe one of the most tone deaf remakes ever, Bijou Philips with a god awful performance. That one is free on YouTube and rightfully so.
Massacre Franchise: This was a wild ride of 9 films, some very hard to find but bless further YouTube rabbit holes to find them. The Slumber Party Massacre trilogy (as well as what I would call part 4 in the most recent SPM through Sci-Fi) were really fun and worthwhile (mostly connected to each other well), but getting into the offshoot series of films connected to the SPM ones....oy vey. The uniqueness of particulary SPM films is that they were all done by female directors AND writers. Even the newest one kept that tradition alive. As the films move to Sorority House Massacre, there is still an attempt with some of these to connect strangely to the original SPM with mixed results. Sorority 1 is almost an homage to Halloween in a sense, still has that same tone and feel that the SPM trilogy had. At this point was when the entire Massacre franchise hit the skids and off course.
Part 2 and 3 of SHM was done by Jim Wynorski on almost a whim, and the second part was thrown together without Roger Corman even greenlighting it beforehand. Ultimately, Wynorski went on a run with these films that were super rushed, super low budget to the max, and really super bad. Part 3 was in many ways a remake to part 2 since the story went that Jim filmed part 2 super fast (7 days) to have it ready to show Corman's wife upon a vacation away from the action. Corman apparently felt a sequel then was warranted from that piece of shit, and part 3 ended up more or less just being that. It essentially was just a remake of the second one in a different setting, with even the same actors and in the same roles generally. How fuckin bizzare. A fourth SHM was apparently directed by Wynorski, but never got released. Probably for the best. It's still being teased as being released in the near future by Jim himself.
Speaking of a fourth, then came a few films to finish off this mess with Cheerleader Massacre parts 1 and 2. The first was once again a Wynorksi film (and every one just got worse) and was originally supposed to be Slumber Party Massacre 4 until Corman changed it. There was a very loose connection in that they brought back Brink Stevens in one single scene, along with a heavy amount of flashback scenes to the first SPM. But it was one of the worst tie-ins I've ever seen in horror, and I get why Corman made the call to not make this a part 4. Wynorski didn't do Cheerleader Massacre 2, which was even worse than any of the previous films. It was beyond the D level bad stuff that was the norm here at this point.
Sleepaway Camp: This is one I'm still technically working on, as I have not been able to locate online a copy of Return to Sleepaway Camp yet so might have to throw down on a spendy DVD of it (or just keep looking online). On a side note, there is a decent amount of retrospective stuff on YouTube in short docs on the filming of each of the original trilogy (prob ripped from the Survival Kit DVD box set that's now out of print), as well as location geeks finding the original spots these were all filmed and seeing how they hold up today. The original still has that wacky and off-putting charm that holds up well, and the sequels.....well, certainly a different turn (more comedic and campy) and it's too bad the original screenwriter and director stepped away at this point, but I still had fun with them. I can't remember seeing Bruce Springsteen's sister in anything else besides these and probably for good reason as she was as hollow as fuck and insanely pretentious in her role as Angela. After some deep searching, also found a part 4 as well called The Survivor that was very forgettable and barely would I even consider it a film, more an attempt to make a film from minimal footage. It only filmed for a day and with only 3 actors in a really loose connection to the first. I guess production halted at that point, leaving this footage avaliable to be used eventually if the demand was there. Someone finally went at it and what it ended up being was half of the film (and this barely clocked in at over 60 minutes) of archival footage from the other ones, intermixed with what little was filmed. But for what it was, I guess it was cool to see them making something out of nothing.
