The Third Saturday in October

"The Third Saturday in October" is one of those movies that just doesn't work. It has far too many characters, too many locations, too much dialogue. Too little focus. You forget what kind of movie it is supposed to be. It's like it remembers it's a slasher every half-an-hour or so and we get some pretty lame, unconvincing violence. Then it goes back to following its uninteresting, undifferentiated characters around and showing whatever it is they're doing, without ever giving us a reason to care.

The movie is an attempt to make a slasher that actually could have been made the year it's set, in the late '70s somehow. Therefore the footage looks washed out, like they left it in the sun too long. Everything looks yellow.

And of course the characters all wear '70s fashions, drive old cars, have oldschool hairdos, whatever.

I can imagine the conversation that ensued when this movie was pitched to the producers:

"We want to make an oldschool slasher flick that looks like it was actually made in the heyday of the slasher craze, like a lost movie from 1978."

"That's a great idea! Here's a bag of money."

"But.. don't you want to know about the ideas we have for a story?"

"No. You don't need a story, nor ideas. Just the concept of a lost movie from '78 will get slasher fans lining up to see it. In fact, I don't want you to use a story nor a screenplay. Just wing it with a lot of tedious scenes of characters the audience doesn't care about doing nothing of interest. We don't even really need violence so I'm not going to provide special effects guys. You'll have to just make that up on the spot."

"But... but..."

"Forget your buts. Here's some money. Shooting starts immediately. Now get out of my sight."

So straight Joe Fryer, a sad Sheri Moon Zombie wannabe, discount Tituss Burgess, Jennifer Hud-clone, Astronaut Alan Hale Jr, someone who might actually have Chris Elliot and others make a silly horror movie set during a semi-fictional (but equally silly) college rivalry game.

Surprisingly it captures the 70s grindy-housy exploitation feel quite competently.

It's intentionally campy with groovy, jive-talking characters. There is a green shag carpet at one point.

Well, if you like Dr. Pepper knock-offs with a side of free kittens, you'll get what I am trying to say here by saying what I am saying.

I gave this movie two stars for trying. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to try. The movie does not deliver and scares.

The entire movie has a retro look -- like those grindhouse films from the 70's. In fact everything from the sets to the clothing, the cars...everything is 70's.

Additionally, they put some sort of grainy overlay on this to make it appear as if it was shot on film.

So they put effort in the movie, which has one huge fatal flaw -- the killer.

The guy can't act to save his life and isnt meanacing at all.

All of the death scenes fall flat because of him.

What a disappointment. After all that work, they couldnt have gotten a better killer?

On the eve of a massive football rivalry, residents of a small town gather to celebrate the execution of a mass serial killer before going about their lives, but when they come to believe that the supposedly dead killer is still rampaging through the community band together to stop him.

Overall, this was a rather fun and enjoyable slasher throwback. One of the better aspects here is the rather fun atmosphere this conjures up playing into the old-school aesthetic that it's trying to ape. The small-town atmosphere here, with the amount of effort spent on the rivalry between everyone here while also trying to deal with the details of the serial killer's execution taking place, serves this quite well with the interlocking storylines expanding onward once the execution is thought to have taken place. With the focus after that part shifting to the rest of the teens in the community who are hanging out and going about their lives unaware of everything but the next chance to get laid, high, or the upcoming game, this all comes off rather fun at building an effective small-town life. When this is all completed with the technical prowess and grain featured here with the look and feel of everything from the time period, it all gets an effective atmosphere. This all serves the film incredibly well in generating the kind of effective short shock slasher-style ambush sequences that generate a lot of fun. The initial resurrection sequence in the cemetery where the fog-enshrouded land and secretive nature of the burial mission makes for a somewhat chilling first encounter, while the later scenes of the killer running rampant through the community including him scalping victims, breaking their necks, or just showing up unexpectedly at the scene leaving a clue as to what's going to happen next. This all gets the finale ready with a stellar and generally effective series of stalking that manages to highlight the indestructible nature of the killer who's come back from the dead to be quite fun with how these scenes take place which also serves this nicely with a series of wholly effective practical effects for the kills. These are enough to hold this one up overall even though there are some minor drawbacks with this one that brings it down. One of the bigger detriments is the rather sluggish pacing that takes up a lot of the running time running through setup instead of dealing with the slasher running amok. Despite being out and loose from the very start, the detailing of the residents' lives hanging out smoking drugs, worrying about the game, or whatever else is going on in their lives which makes for a very long time before this one goes for a more overt genre attitude. With almost all of the action relegated to the finale, this can take quite a while before it gets interesting for some regardless of the way this one manages to interject kills along the way to keep it moving. As well, there's also the problem here with the killer who's just not that threatening with a lackluster physical presence and just not that much about his motivation for the rampage which can make this somewhat of a struggle to get into and are what holds this back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and drug use.

For Third Saturday in October

"For a movie with a micro budget like this one, I was totally unprepared for the visual extravaganza I was witness to with this film. I don't know that I've ever seen more authentic sets and locations with any slasher set in the past, and I have no idea how they were able to pull it off. Pay attention to the Halloween decorations: those are real period decorations from the 1960's & 1970's. The movie not only looks like it was set in the 70's it feels like it came out of the 70's. Shrum makes an amazing final girl, and Darius Willis and KJ Baker's on screen chemistry is magical. This movie is destined to become a Halloween Classic and I'd put Antonio Woodroof's Harding right up there beside Freddy, Jason, and Michael!"