Black Christmas

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Black Christmas!

Original image located here. Accessed 17th October 2025

Its well documented that I have a strong distaste for slasher movies. But, for some reason I will never understand, I still ended up watching this one. 
In this case, this movie has reputation for being one of the earliest entrants in the slasher genre. Some even say that the mighty Halloween owes a considerable debt to.

Watching this movie, there is a lot going for it: The 'dumb teenagers' trope that so frustrates me with slasher movies is thankfully absent. The tension is unbearable. The trick of 'what you can't see' is put to good use. And the killer is nothing less than unsettling.
The real treat however is the cast - in particular there are some names I have seen previously: Olivia Hussey (1968 Romeo and Juliet), Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Margot Kidder (Superman). It is indeed a treat seeing these faces in roles completely different from what I' knew them from. Kidder in particular is a treat to see as a smoking/hard drinking curmudgeon. 

So yeah, a slasher that does things differently is always welcome in my book. 
Still not sold on the genre though...

Young Frankenstein

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Young Frankenstein!

Original image located here. Accessed 15th August 2025

Seems that this is one of Gene Wilder's fondest remembered performances alongside Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Being well aware of the other movie, this seems like a challenge.

But this is still a Mel Brooks movie, so expect some biting satire walking hand-in-hand with jokes that bounce from hilarious to the inane. And this one delivers: Right from the get-go this is clearly paying homage to the Frankenstein mythos, and not just the original movie. The mood is still the same and I recognised some scenes from the James Whale movie but this time it's loaded with jokes.
Jokes that range from the dumb to the side-splitting. 
So yeah, this was kinda dumb but still pretty funny. 

Dark Star

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Dark Star!

Original image located here. Accessed 24th January 2025

Here's a question: Can anyone tell me, without looking it up, who created the Alien franchise?
My experience with sci-fi nerds - or any nerds for that matter - is that they tend to venerate creators who come up with successful IP. By way of example: George Lucas gave us Star Wars, Gene Roddenberry gave us Star Trek, J. Michael Straczynski gave us Babylon 5 and Joss Whedon gave us Firefly.
All recognisable names to be sure - so who created Alien?

The answer is two people: Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. The former wrote a movie called Dark Star and it impressed the latter to a point that they joined forces, worked on some of the ideas from said movie and gave us the horror/sci-fi hybrid that we all know.
And if that isn't enough, this movie was the directorial debut of one John Carpenter. It was originally a student film but, with some additional funds, it was expanded upon.
Quite a pedigree one would think.....

Let's get this out of the way: This is a B-Movie. The sets look shoddy, the sfx are cheap, the premises are ludicrous and there is no attempt to hide it. The monster in this movie is a beachball and the cast act like they're stoned. Certainly there are some elements that will crop up again in Alien - blue-collar space-farers working for a faceless corporation - but both films are so removed from each other it's hard to make the connection both came from the same writer. 
And yet, this movie still works: There are plenty of laughs and the cheap nature of it makes it endearing. It certainly does say a lot about doing a lot with limited resources and you must give props to a student film that made the leap into a full feature. 
Funny how big things would come to those behind a mere student film....

Blazing Saddles

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Blazing Saddles!

Original image located here. Accessed 29th December 2023

So how do I see out 2023? By watching one of the most funniest/offensive movies ever made.

It's a popular statement nowadays to declare that this movie wouldn't have a hope in hell of being made today but I feel such a declaration is selling the movie short. Because it is still really funny. There are some genuinely laugh-out moments and there is some biting satire. I knew from watching Spaceballs in my youth (many many times) I thought I'd know what to expect from Mel Brooks' brand of humour but this movie still manages to surprise.
Indeed, I do remember, quite vividly, seeing the climax but seeing it now, and with proper context, it is still a riot (pun intended).

Anywho, this concludes this series for 2023. Thank you for joining me on this journey and for following these ramblings over the past twelve months.
Next year will be 2024 - and thereby making it ten years since I started this series. So do I have something special planned for the tenth anniversary? Well it's funny you should mention that..

Stone

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Stone!

Original image located here. Accessed 9th July 2021

For my non-Australian readers, that title may seem unfamiliar. However, it should be noted that this movie is a product of it's time: It came out in the 1970s when Australian cinema was experiencing a fertile period and was coming into it's own.
And from this period came Stone: one of the more famous/infamous movies which told the story of an undercover cop infiltrating a biker gang (and not to give too much away but it goes as well as one might expect)

It should come to no surprise that this is a brutal film. Granted I may have seen worse, but this is still a brutal film. It's clearly shot on a tiny budget, the violence is tough to stomach and the characters are definitely people you wouldn't want to look at. And yet there are moments of beauty (the beach swim scene and the oft-referred funeral procession).
It's not an attractive film but I can't say it was dull.