Women in Danger: Friday the 13th, Halloween, I Spit on Your Grave, Silent Scream, When a Stranger Calls, Don't Answer the Phone

In recognition of the fact that today will be the last day for the program "At the Movies" to have an original episode with current hosts, Michael Phillips and A. O. Scott, I'm reviewing the first two movie critics that initiated this trend of doing a film review program, the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, during their early TV career on PBS's "Sneak Previews". The earliest I've been able to review of that program on YouTube is this special episode that they did in 1980. They're discussing the trend at the time of having pretty young women being targeted and killed, not to mention raped, on film in a way that, according to them, makes you identify with the deranged stalker. They start with a TV commercial for Don't Answer the Phone, go to the Carol Kane phone scene from When a Stranger Calls, show a particularly disturbing trailer from The Bogeyman, and many disturbing P.O.V shots from the original Friday the 13th. Of particular scorn is visited upon I Spit on Your Grave especially by Roger when he mentions a middle-aged man sitting next to him really encouraging the rapes and killings occurring in that movie which also has a pretty depressing clip shown of the woman sunbathing in a boat getting disturbed by two men and another one swirling around her. One film that they don't consider part of the trend, because to them it doesn't make you have empathy for the killer, is the original Halloween which is shown of the scene where Jamie Lee Curtis hides in the closet while Michael Myers closes in on her. Now, some might argue Siskel and Ebert might have contradicted themselves because in the beginning scene of Halloween we are seeing things from Michael's point of view and thus partially identifying with him but it's only for that scene and not throughout like in the original Friday the 13th. Still, I agree with many of the comments printed below the YouTube screens that many of these movies they cited were mainly meant to simply provide extreme scares and not because of some possible trend of the mainly male filmmakers wanting to put the liberated woman back in her place. Though I have to admit, I have yet to watch many of these movies they've mentioned...

Sneak Previews (1980)

Women in Danger

Of all the episodes that Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert did throughout their various television programs, this one here is perhaps the most controversial. This episode takes a look at the growing popularity of "Women in Danger" pictures, which are known to most peopel as slashers. The critics discuss and really trash movies like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, THE BOOGEYMAN, PROM NIGHT, FRIDAY THE 13TH, DON'T GO INTO THE HOUSE and various others while praising John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. If you're a fan of horror movies then I'm sure you've come across the hatred that Siskel and Ebert had for these slashers but I think it should also be pointed out that every other critic hated them as well. If you weren't a horror fan then you really didn't get these movies so I can understand the bashing.

With that said, I really thought both critics were a bit too melodramatic here and especially their thoughts on why these films were popular. They claimed that these films were enjoyed by men who enjoyed seeing women being murdered. That the women in these films were being murdered to keep them in their place. Really? They both failed to mention that these films always had a woman surviving and eventually killing the murderer. They also failed to mention that men were killed in these movies as well. Look, I love everything Siskel and Ebert did and I grew up watching their show and continue to watch old episodes. But there's just no question that they were way off base with some of their comments. Their opinion of the movies is their own opinion and they have a right to it. With that said, I think their comments on why these films were popular were really off the mark.