Have a Nice Weekend

HAVE A NICE WEEKEND is one of those very independent American movies that might have been released to a single theater in Arkansas for three days before burrowing itself into the ground, only to be exhumed years later by a rinky-dink video distributor. Once you manage to obtain a copy of this obscure film, you'll have no trouble understanding why it has been banished to the netherworld of forgotten cinema...it's because it kind of sucks.

Although it's pitched as a horror/slasher story, this is actually more along the lines of an underdeveloped Agatha Christie-style mystery. A group of nondescript characters are brought together on a small private island. Murders take place, characters side-glance each other suspiciously, and...does this sound familiar?

Not only is the film working with stale trappings, it doesn't even deliver a substantial quantity of bloodshed...this is a tame, timid, unfurnished wipe-out, devoid of estimable qualities besides having a nice-sounding music score. The flatly written characters are played with understandable disinterest, and the film dog-paddles toward an anti-climatic dud of a resolve. It's pretty bewildering that three writers were necessary in preparing this nothingburger, and that one of them was the director of the almost brilliant INSERTS, which was released the same year.

All said, this might be of minor interest to the most sworn archaeologists of proto-slasher cinema. It won't be such a nice weekend for anyone else. 3/10.

On the strangeness-scale between 1 and 10, I would easily rate "Have a Nice Weekend" a 7, or even an 8. Not because it's a psychedelic or experimental film, but merely because it's so senseless and because - half of the time - you don't have the slightest idea where the story is heading towards to. The nice and polite title might be, in fact, the best thing about the entire movie. This easily could have been a slasher pioneer, released half a decade before the sub-genre began booming and even before John Carpenter's "Halloween", but it's too clumsy and inept to be memorable. For quite a long time, we are led to believe the plot will revolve around a young soldier who just returned from Vietnam and clearly lost his sanity there. He insists for his whole family and a few friends to spend the weekend at their vacation house at a remote island. He's going to butcher them over there, you automatically assume, and that probably would have made a decent 70s horror exploitation gem. Instead, however, different and far more moronic events occur, and "Have a Nice Weekend" ends up being a largely boring and pointless thriller with a low body count and only two noteworthy kills. The epilogue explains what most people will already have figured out, and it's the worst possible plot-twist they could have opted for.

Have a Nice Weekend reminded me of another dull slasher flick called Home Sweet Home, because they both have one thing in common - they're extremely boring. I disagree with the other comment, as this film is not really that 'obscure' - I've seen it floating around on ebay many times.

The film itself is more of a mystery rather than a slasher film, as you have to guess who the killer is. To be fair, there were two 'ok' death scenes, they weren't gory, but made me laugh because they were so cheesy. The rest of the film is just endless talking inside a house. I ended up fast-forwarding through a lot of scenes because I just couldn't stand to waste any more of my life on such a dull film.

This is a slasher flick to be avoided, no doubt about it, unless you're a masochist or need help getting to sleep.

This 1974 offering, is what might almost be called a "proto slasher", although Mario Bava's "Bay of Blood" is much more deserving of such an accolade. This is actually more of a whodunit.

Anyway, as you may have gathered from reading anything about this movie, it seems to be rather dull. It is. Rather. One funny thing is that the actors often seem confused and/or disinterested, sometimes exchanging their lines in an especially unconvincing way, which makes you both cringe and laugh. Some of the sloppy editing probably doesn't help here either. There's also the "It's kind of a one man job" breakfast preparation scene to look out for, which is kinda weird. Well... the characters aren't wholly unsympathetic, the opening scenes gave me some hope and the island location is nice but the mystery isn't suspenseful or involving enough. There's also a fairly unsettling psychological explanation tagged on as an epilogue, right after "the end" credit; that's not something I'd ever seen before I think.

See it if you must but I'd recommend the TV mini series "Maelstrom" from 1985 over this; it is somewhat similar in theme and tone but much more gratifying.

"Have a Nice Weekend" is thoroughly dull mystery with elements of proto-slasher movie.Chris comes back from Vietnam war.After greeting him his family organizes a reunion at their remote island summerhouse.Then the murders take place.All three of them.One victim is stabbed to death with a butcher's knife,another is bludgeoned to death with a hoe,the third one is killed off-screen.The blood is kept to minimum and the action moves at the snail's pace.The script is full of repetitive dialogue and it bored me senseless.The killer is eventually revealed,but I didn't completely care."Have a Nice Weekend" is deservedly obscure.It was released in UK on VHS long time ago.4 out of 10.Recommended only for slasher completists.