The Forgotten 5

During the 1980's, hundreds of films hit the horror market hoping to cash in on the huge success of John Carpenter's 1978 classic, 'Halloween'. This film alone ignited an inferno of cheap immitations and truly forgetable films along the way. In 1980, another horror classic was born. Like 'Halloween', 'Friday the 13th' kickstared a different form of the modern day slasher film, forever changing the view of the horror film in general. Below is somewhat of an outline of white I like to call 'The Forgotten Five'.

The early 80's were the gateway for any and every kind of crazed maniac movie to come our way. During this time period, there were at least five films ala- 'Friday the 13th' style which were in many opinions overlooked by mainstream critics. The first of these films being 'My Bloody Valentine'.

'My Bloody Valentine' in many ways was a carbon copy of its predacessor 'Friday the 13th'. It has a masked killer, horny young adults, beer drinkers and pot smokers and last but not least, a secluded location. The year is 1981. Valentine Bluffs, a small rural mining town, hadn't had a Valentines party in 20 years because of an accident involving the towns coal mine and some miners.. The unresponsible mine supervisors left early, causing the deaths of 5 men. The sole survivor of that accident warned them never to have a party again or there would be death to pay. Guess What? They have a party, the guy hacks up 2 of the supervisors, he's arrested and sent to an insane asylum, and we are taken down the road twenty years later. Guess what day it is? And guess who's having a party even though the sheriff forbids them to?. I think what sets this film off from alot of its type is the location in which most of the film took place. A coal mine of all places is where most of the victims fall prey to a pick axed murderer. There is also an err of 'whodunit' lurking about and the atmosphere in this film places you in the closterphobic world of our characters.The killers costume really messed with my head as a kid. I'm from the rural south and my Dad was also a coal miner.The sounds the killer made really added alot of tension to the chase scenes. The camera work was really good with some weird angles and the feeling of isolation was great. While in no means is this film the 'Gran-Daddy' of them all, but what it is, is a forgotten Slasher film which deserves higher acclaim. Sadly, the past and current re-release of 'My Bloody Valentine' is cut to shreds. Maybe the powers that be (Paramount) will step off their high horse and release an UNCUT version. We can only hope.

To step a little behind, directly after the 'Friday the 13th' craze of 1980, another forgotten Slasher flick rounded the proverbial corner. 'Final Exam' was released in 1980. It again deals with young adults, this time at a college campus at Lanier College. At the very beginning we are introduced to our knife welding maniac who proceeds to slice and dice two co-eds in a convertable. We are then shortly introduced to our most unlucky characters. What sets aside from many run of the mill slasher films is that (director) spent a great deal of time developing characters. We have Courtney, a goody goody who right away gives us the information that she's gonna be the heroine of the story. We have our on screen romance between two college co-eds and the party animal antics of a madhouse fraternity. After the first two killings, the next fourty-five minutes were used to give us some background on our characters. The dark settings of the campus buildings adds the perfect spice to the atmosphere and ultimately the acions of our killerhas even been referenced in Wes Craven's trilogy. For a slasher film with different tendacies and characters one actually feels something for, check this one out.