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Trick Or Treat (1986) ***1/2

Marc Price, best known as Skippy on FAMILY TIES, plays a bullied metalhead name Eddie (pretty sure STRANGER THINGS borrowed the name as a nod to this film for their metalhead, Eddie Munson) who's death rocker idol is Sammi Curr, a local-boy-made-good, unexpectedly dies after he was just about to perform at his local high school until the moral majority shut that down. However, Skippy comes into a demonically possessed final recording of Curr that might allow him to return from the grave for his revenge on his old town. TRICK OR TREAT hits all of the classic 80s Satanic Panic buttons, and that's a ton of fun; heavy metal turning kids into Satan worshipers, secret messages when you play music backwards, and so on. Ozzy Osbourne even makes a hilarious cameo as a reverend protesting Curr's music. You also get Large Marge from PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, also protesting the devil music. Also, the metal soundtrack is a lot of fun and actually made me realize there were not a ton of 80s movies featuring heavy metal. RIVER'S EDGE is still the best movie to feature metalheads, although that one is a pretty serious drama. Outside of that and ROCK AND ROLL NIGHTMARE and sort of MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, I'm stumped. TRICK OR TREAT was the first film directed by actor Charles Martin Smith, best known for his supporting roles in AMERICAN GRAFFITI, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and THE UNTOUCHABLES. He handles the action nicely and gives the film a surprisingly sweet tone for a horror movie. He also plays a teacher. I suppose anyone expecting a scary movie might be disappointed, but it's a fun movie despite a lack of any scares or actual ghoulishness. TRICK OR TREAT also boasts some surprising talent behind the camera before they were famous. I noticed the cinematography in the film was better than you usually get in cheap hour flicks, and when I looked up who was the director of photography, it was Robert Elswit, who won an Academy Award for THERE WILL BE BLOOD and has worked with PT Anderson on just about all his film, as well as tons of other major Hollywood movies, including multiple MISSION IMPOSSIBLE installments. You also get Christopher Young as the film's composer during his early exploitation film phase of his career before moving on to bigger movies like SPIDER-MAN or SINISTER. The film also has uncredited script rewrites by Glen Morgan and James Wong, who later went on to be pivotal writers on THE X-FILES and the FINAL DESTINATION franchise. Morgan also has a supporting role as Eddie's nerdy best friend. The film also has fun cameos by Kiss' Gene Simmons as DJ Nuke and Ozzy Osbourne as an anti-metal televangelist. The metal music in the film is actually not that bad either. I read that all songs in the movie are written by Fastway, which consisted of former Motorhead, UFO, and Flogging Molly band members. TRICK OR TREAT also just has a ton of old-timey 80s nostalgia. Besides the hilarious satanic panic, the high school and outfits were much more down-to-earth and realistic compared to the more stylish and fashionable ones of MOST 80s teen movies. And references to old timey technology, like:

"We just got call waiting. Pretty cool, huh? I feel like a total bigwig."

Despite spotting a boom mic a couple times (maybe I was watching an open matte cut?), TRICK OR TREAT is a ton of fun and was a nice way to celebrate the life of Ozzy Osbourne the day of his passing.

AI CAPSULE REVIEW: A nostalgic blast of 80s metal mayhem and Satanic Panic fun, Trick or Treat mixes teen angst, demonic vinyl, and campy cameos into a surprisingly sweet and entertaining horror-lite romp. Not scary, but loaded with charm, headbanging energy, and enough cult appeal to win over any metalhead or retro horror fan.

Totally hetero cop Ryan O'Neal (WHAT'S UP DOC, PAPER MOON) goes undercover in the LA gay scene to stop a killer and is partnered with closeted gay police officer Sir John Hurt (ALIEN, THE ELEPHANT MAN). Problematic comedy ensues! For film nerds, this plot is exactly the same as William Friedkin's CRUISING, which had hetero cop Al Pacino going undercover in the NYC gay leather bar scene to stop a serial killer. Both films were reviled upon initial release as a gross representation of the gay community when there was almost no representation in mainstream films at the time. However, CRUISING has since been reclaimed by the gay community as a time capsule of a specific time and place and as a brilliant thriller that is essentially an American Giallo film. PARTNERS, on the other hand, has not been reclaimed by anyone, and this ODD COUPLE comedy version of CRUISING is wrong in so many ways. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not above loving problematic movies. THE BAD NEWS BEARS is wildly offensive beyond belief, but is one of my most favorite comedies of all time. This film, while also wildly offensive, is charmless and, worse of all, is not that funny. Here's some of the cringe dialogue, and this is just about as funny as the film gets:

Benson: Let me ask you something, Sir. Why did you choose me for this job?

Chief Wilkins: Because you're a good cop, Benson, a real good cop. And because of your cute ass.

When the film's dramatic center is that O'Neal is worried his gay partner is going to fall for him, you know the film is in trouble. PARTNERS is the only theatrical film directed by James Burrows, who is one of the most successful TV comedy directors of all time, who's done everything from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Cheers to Friends, and a whole lot in between, and is still working today. However, his directing style is not suited for film. You can feel the awkward pauses where there would normally be a laugh track, and instead you have awkward silence (because even in a theater, I'm sure there were no laughs from the audience). Interestingly, the film was written by the screenwriter of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES 1 and 2, but whereas those are considered classics, this one is the exact opposite. I read that Paramount rushed this film and a few other stinkers into production because of an impending writers' strike. Paramount vice-president of production was Don Simpson, who hated this script and the others being rushed into production, but said he would make them if he could make this one movie no one else liked the script for, which was AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. That was the only one of these rush jobs that was successful. The other included the not-so-good SOME KIND OF HERO, JEKYLL AND HYDE... TOGETHER AGAIN, and I'M RUNNING AS FAST AS I CAN. I only give the film one and a half stars because I was kind of interested to find out who the killer was, but overall, the only reason to watch this film is for just how awful and problematic it is. FUN FACT! The leads were originally offered to Clint Eastwood and Woody Allan. Eastwood agreed to do it if Allen agreed, but Woody declined the role.

AI CAPSULE REVIEW: A tone-deaf attempt at mixing buddy-cop comedy with the gay club scene, Partners is awkward, offensive, and mostly laugh-free despite its intriguing premise and talented cast. A cringe-worthy relic best viewed as a cautionary tale in how not to handle representation-or comedy.

Quaint small-scale entry in the 70s cycle of disaster films, such as EARTHQUAKE, AIRPORT, and THE TOWERING INFERNO. A ski ballet champion, Deborah Raffin, gets trapped on an unstable ski gondola along with fellow skiers Don Johnson, a freestyle ski jumping champion, and his cute girlfriend Lisa Reeves (who I'm on a quest to watch all 9 of her IMDB credits). There's some interesting logistics of how they bring everyone to safety, but the dumb subplot as to why the gondola failed is pretty stupid. Not a lot to recommend here outside of an early performance by Johnson, or if you're fascinated by the short-lived career of Lisa Reeves, as I am, and that was the only reason I watched this TV movie. Howard Duff and Clu Galager also appear in the film.

AI CAPSULE REVIEW: A minor and mostly forgettable entry in the 1970s disaster film trend, Ski Lift to Death offers little beyond early Don Johnson charm and ski ballet kitsch. Worth a look only for die-hard fans of obscure TV movies or Lisa Reeves completists.