Sábado 14 - Reunião Infernal

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.

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.

It is truly a rare occurrence that I can say there is almost NOTHING in the film worth seeing, but this is one of those few cases! This movie was AWFUL! I couldn't believe how bad it was. This is most definitely the worst sequel I've ever seen to a movie. I didn't think the first "Saturday the 14th" was anything great, but at least it wasn't horrible, this film is just BAD!

The acting is quite bad, the story is stupid, the comedy is nearly non-existent, the directing is less than top-notch, the make-up effects and special effects are really bad. The only good thing I can say about this film is the acting of Ray Walston, I don't know why, but I've always liked his acting (although I can't imagine why he would choose to do this role). Other than Ray, this movie is virtually worthless.

I would definitely recommend spending 74 minutes of your life doing something else or watching a better movie, but if you absolutely must, be my guest. Thanks for reading,

-Chris

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.

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.