Samstag, der 14. schlägt zurück

My review was written in June 1989 after watching the movie on MGM/UA video cassette.

This unnecessary, unfunny sequel to he 1981 parody received some theatrical play last year ahead of current home video availability.

Filmmaker Howard R. Cohen again maximizes the references to familiar horror icons, but dialog is lame and level of spoofing obvious rather than inspired.

First pic had the team of Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss fronting the action. This time teen Jason Presson is slated by an assortment of baddies -ranging from Michael Berryman's mummy to Leo V. Gordon's Evil One ringleader -to take over the world on his birthday, the title date.

While monsters, including pretty vampire Pamela Stonebrook and werewolf Tommy Hall, come up out of the basement, the dingbats in Presson's family never notice anything wrong. Armed with a bell and amulet presented by his fake grandpa Ray Walston, Presson does battle with evil, culminating in an embarrassing montage of stock footage including shots from number Roger Corman films, even including "Avalanche" and gangster pics.

Poverty budget is apparent in chintzy special effects, as well as stillborn ideas like Stonebrook suddenly belting a song with a 3-girl chorus appearing to dance around the room amateurishly. Thoug "Bad Seed" Patty McCormack is cast as Presson's mom, Cohen fails to make any refernce to her film background.

Horror fans, movie fans, and people in general are reluctant to say anything good about the 1981 horror spoof Saturday the 14th. All would have to admit though, that it is far funnier than this film, that is if they were tricked into seeing this one. It's pretty much the same story. The young boy in the family is the only one who notices the monsters wandering about the house. Simple humor can work, but it does not carry a second movie. It was pretty cute how in the first film the kid was trying to hide the monsters in order to protect his parents. This time the less likeable pre-teen is trying to warn his family and of course they don't believe him.

I liked the first movie. I admit at first I was laughing at it, but later with it. I barely cracked a smile watching this video. One almost successful scene involved an English sport of horse shooting on TV, but the joke went on too long with the shooter showing up at their house. Another potentially funny moment spoofed the news sensation of the child falling down the well in the 80's. They used the joke twice because I guess they knew it was one of their better ideas.

Comparing the sister-in-the-bathtub scenes in both movies shows why this one does not work. Having her get sucked through the pipes is just plain stupid while having the Creature from the Black Lagoon rise up next to her is edgy. Michael Berryman is in the medicine cabinet as a mummy, but his role as one of the leading monsters is not reason enough to see the film. I'm a big fan of Berryman and his monster is the best one in the movie, but the movie should probably be avoided.

Teenager Eddie has to save The World from ancient evil forces that are coming from a crack in the family home's basement. On Saturday the 14th. In my opinion the original movie was a reasonably entertaining monster romp. This, the sequel, is just plain awful, a painful 78 minutes. It isn't funny, it's dumb. The only two things that I sort of liked was the Gramps character and horror legend Michael Berryman playing a Mummy, though this is undoubtedly the worst movie that I have seen him in and he looked embarrassed to be in it. Under no circumstances would I recommend this trash.

What an idea to produce a sequel to 1981's utterly silly and forgettable horror-comedy "Saturday The 14th". But since in the glorious '80s decade film producers could get away with practically everything and due to the fact the original had been a modest video rental hit - how could it not have been, with its title clearly spoofing the immensely popular "Friday The 13th" movies at the time - it simply had to happen, I guess. So, 7 years later Howard R. Cohen returns to write & direct the lamentable "Saturday The 14th Strikes Back". It's the same concept of a family moving into a haunted house in a quiet neighborhood. In the cellar there's this crack in the floor that's supposed to unleash all the evil in hell on the following Saturday the 14th. It's up to the teenage son of the family to battle the evil and stop the invasion of ghouls & monsters. The film's simply beyond ridiculous and everything about it ranges from bad to worse, including the jokes. Although some moments are actually dumb enough to provide a couple chuckles. And it stars Ray Walston (from cult horror favorites like "Galaxy of Terror" and "Popcorn") as a senile gramps craving for eggs & bacon. But he doesn't save this movie. Far from, actually. All the other sources of laughter, will merely come from gazing at all the levels of ineptness. This bunch of silly nonsense includes: a repairman getting turned into a chicken, a hungry sofa, a cookie-munching critter under the bed, a musical interlude with female vampires singing, Michael Berryman as a mummy, the family's daughter getting sucked down the bathtub drain through the pipes and a lot of stock footage from other films during the climax where evil is supposed to emerge on a global level. It's not really that the movie manages to entertain with all this, it's more likely to keep you watching just because of the 'What the hell were they thinking?' question. Watch the two films back-to-back and you're sure to leave the room cross-eyed in desperate need for some intellectual stimuli. Or a good drink.

The original Saturday the 14th was not good, but it had some funny moments with Paula Prentiss, Richard Benjamin and Jeffrey Tambor. The horrible "special effects" were comical because you knew it was just a spoof on horror movies. With that being said, the first Saturday the 14th was a lousy movie, but watchable. Jeffrey Tambor made for an interestingly ominous vampire, and the strange behavior of Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss as a couple before things got weird just fit with the crappy B movie theme.

Saturday the 14th Strikes Back has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. There is no story line, the acting is just dreadful, and I just can't figure why it was written and then green-lighted for production. Watching grass grow or paint dry for 74 minutes would be far more entertaining than this movie.