Stubs – Friday the 13th (1980)

Friday the 13^th (1980) Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon, Mark Nelson, Robbi Morgan, Ari Lehman. Directed by Sean S. Cunningham. Screenplay by Victor Miller. Produced by Sean S. Cunningham Run Time: 95 minutes. U.S.  Color, Horror.

No critical tour of horror films which begot franchises would be complete without a look at Friday the 13^th. (That and the fact that there are five weeks in October.) Friday the 13^th was made in reaction to the success of another of our films, though still to come, John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Studios are always looking to jump on the trend bandwagon and Halloween proved that the kids like slasher films, so someone took the Halloween blue print, adapted it to a lake shore camp and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Our story opens, just like Halloween, with a flashback. In this case, it’s 1958. Barry (Willie Adams) and Claudette (Debra S. Hayes), are two camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake. Being horny teenagers, they sneak away from a camp gathering to have sex. Big mistake, as an unseen assailant stalks the two and then kills them, one with a hunting knife and the other with a machete.

Don't be fooled. Camp Crystal Lake is very unwelcoming.

Flash forward twenty-one years later and on Friday, June 13th, 1979, a young girl named Annie (Robbi Morgan) is making her way to Crystal Lake. She is one of the new camp counselors hired by the original camp owners' son Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer), who intends to reopen the camp, despite its history of murders, water poisonings and fires. Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney), a local man, warns Annie that the counselors are doomed. Naturally, Annie shrugs off the warnings and hitches a ride to the camp with a truck driver Enos (Rex Everhart), but he has similar warnings for her.

Annie (Robbi Morgan) is the counselor who never makes it to camp.

Meanwhile, the other counselors arrive at the camp and begin to fix the place up. There is the jokester Ned Rubinstein (Mark Nelson), his best friend Jack Burrell (Kevin Bacon), Jack's girlfriend Marcie Cunningham (Jeannine Taylor), handyman Bill (Harry Crosby), Brenda (Laurie Bartram), and Steve's ex-girlfriend Alice Hardy (Adrienne King). In between chores, the group enjoys some free time.

The counselors at Camp Crystal Lake may be doomed, but don't they sing pretty?

Annie is still on her way to the camp and has hitched a ride with an unseen driver in a Jeep CJ-5. But when the driver refuses to stop at Crystal Lake, Annie flees the Jeep. She runs into the woods, where she is chased, before her throat is slashed with a hunting knife.

After Steve returns to town for supplies, Crazy Ralph arrives at the camp and tells Marcie, Ned and Alice that they're all doomed. (He will be proven to be not so crazy after all.)  Ned encounters a stranger at the camp and goes into a nearby cabin in search of the others. Meanwhile Marcie tells Jack about a dream she had that terrifies her during storms. Surprise, surprise, a storm comes up, and the two seek shelter in their cabin and, what else, have sex. They are blissfully unaware that Ned is lying dead on the top bunk, having had his throat slashed.

Soon after they’re done, Marcie leaves the cabin. Jack, still lying in his bunk, is killed by an assailant who impales his throat with an arrow from under his bed. The same assailant then follows Marcie to the outhouse and kills her with an axe to the face. (Once again proving that pre-marital sex is a killer.)

Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) is dressed for her hot date with an axe.

Steve, whose Jeep has naturally broken down on the way back from town, hoofs it into camp. He recognizes the killer before being stabbed by the still unseen assailant.

Meanwhile, Alice, Brenda and Bill have just finished their game of strip Monopoly (I guess strip poker would have been over too quickly) when Brenda suddenly realizes the cabin windows are open. When she turns in for the night, she is lured out into the storm with what sounds like a child calling for help. She is killed out on the archery range.

Suspicious of what is happening, Bill and Alice find many strange things wrong with the camp but are unable to find the other counselors. Thinking it is all a joke, Bill convinces Alice to return to the cabin. The killer turns off the generator and Bill heads out alone to fix it as Alice falls asleep. (Note: Never do this.) Soon after, Alice awakens, goes out to find Bill and discovers him pinned to the generator room door with arrows.

Horrified, Alice runs off just as a vehicle pulls up to the cabin. The driver is Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), who at first tries to comfort the very hysterical Alice. But very quickly, Mrs. Voorhees begins to grow violent as she talks about her son Jason, who had drowned as a boy at the camp in 1957.

At first, Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) seems comforting, but not for long.

Mrs. Voorhees pulls a hunting knife on Alice, who naturally flees. She tries to escape in the vehicle Mrs. Voorhees arrived in, but discovers Annie's body in the driver’s seat. Alice runs off and encounters Steve's body (still with a knife in his chest) which falls from atop a porch.

Alice tries to trick Mrs. Voorhees into thinking she has a loaded gun, but the rouse fails. Mrs. Voorhees slaps Alice in the face multiple times and throws her onto a table. But Alice fights her off with a gun and escapes, locking herself in a spice closet.

Mrs. Voorhees, using a machete, breaks into the closet, but Alice hits her in the head with a frying pan. Alice then goes and sits on the side of the lake. (Seriously, why not try to escape across the lake?) Mrs. Voorhees, of course, attacks her with the machete. But Alice fights back, takes control of the machete and decapitates Mrs. Voorhees. Alice then climbs into a canoe and falls asleep offshore.

Pamela Voorhees comes looking for Annie down by the lake.

The next morning, police arrive to find a dazed Alice still in the canoe. When they call to her, she is attacked by a young decayed Jason, who pulls her out of the boat. But that turns out to be a really bad dream. In reality, Alice awakens in the hospital and discovers her friends are all dead, but remembers and asks about the boy, Jason.

Jason is about to attack Alice, but it's only a nightmare.

The sheriff tells her that no boy was found, and Alice says "Then he's still there..." as the final shot shows the peaceful lake, with some air bubbles erupting at the surface, before fading to black.

Not a critical success, (are these films ever?), Friday the 13^th proved to be a moneymaker. Made on a budget of $550,000, backed by an advertising budget of $1 million and distribution by a major studio, Paramount, (Warner Bros. distributed the film internationally) Friday grossed nearly $40 million at the box office. Not a bad return on the investment.

And thank God the original film left it open for a sequel, right? Why else would there have been Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981); Friday the 13th Part III (1982); Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984); Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985);  Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986); Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988);  Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989); Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993); Jason X (2001); the crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy vs. Jason (2003) and, the wait for it, reboot Friday the 13th (2009). Ironically, it wasn’t until the third film that someone got hip to releasing them on Friday the 13^th, but that release model only lasted a couple of sequels (III, Final Chapter, Part VII, The Final Friday and the reboot).

Like A Nightmare on Elm Street, in Friday the 13^th we find a future star at the beginning of his career. While Kevin Bacon is no Johnny Depp (and I guess we can all be thankful for that), he was fairly new to film acting at the time. This was only his fourth film, though he had already appeared in the seminal National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). Diner (1982), Footloose (1984) and the rest of his career though were still ahead of him.

Kevin Bacon as Jack Burrell, just another victim in Friday The 13th.

And again, like A Nightmare on Elm Street, the movie is kind of slow in places until people start being killed. I really can’t say I got all that attached to any of the kids who were doomed or really cared which one made it out alive. By the time I saw this film, I already knew what to expect (teenagers + woods + sex + night = gruesome death). That equation still has the same answer today, see The Cabin in the Woods (2012). Some things never change.

The twist for future Friday the 13^th films is that Jason, not his mother, is the killer going forward (Oh yeah, oops spoiler alert; like you didn’t already know). In the original film, we’re told about how Jason was allowed to drown because the camp counselors who were supposed to be watching him were giving into their hormonal urges, but he doesn’t start to take revenge until the sequels. In the original, he’s pretty much not a player, except for Alice’s dream, rather nightmare.

Of our five Halloween flavored films, this one seems to be the most innocuous, so if you really want to see a slasher film for the season, then I would recommend this one. Since this was such a model for so many films to follow, it might be worth your while seeing it. However, if you’re planning a marathon of Friday the 13^th films, I think I’m busy that year. Thanks for asking.

Stubs - Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Starring: Boris Karloff (Karloff), Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Elsa Lanchester. Directed by James Whale. Screenplay by William Hurlbut. Suggested by the novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (London, 1818). Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. Run time: 80 minutes. Black and White. USA. Horror

Following the success of Frankenstein (1931), Universal wanted to make a sequel. However, director James Whale wasn’t keen to return to the director’s chair. In 1933, Carl Laemmle, Jr. assigned Kurt Neumann to the task, with Boris Karloff as the monster and Bela Lugosi as the scientist. But this project got dropped. However, Whale changed his mind and the project was back on.

Originally called The Return of Frankenstein, the film is based, or suggested, on part of Mary Shelley’s book that was not included in the first film. In the book, Frankenstein promises to make a bride for his creation, but stops at the last moment, fearful of what he was about to create. This would be an issue in this film but there would be extenuating circumstances that he would have to overcome.

Stubs - Star in the Night

Star in the Night (1945) Starring: J. Carrol Naish, Donald Woods, Rosina Galli, Dick Erdman, Lynn Baggett, Johnny Miles, Tony Caruso Directed by Don Siegel. Screenplay by Saul Elkins. Produced by Gordon Hollingshead Run Time: 22 minutes. Black and White. USA Christmas, Drama, Short.

There’s an old saying or a song lyric that goes “from small things big things one day come” and that could be used to describe the directorial career of Don Siegel, best known for such films as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and Dirty Harry (1971).

In 1932, at the age of 20, after meeting producer Hal Wallis, Siegel got a job as a film librarian. Siegel described this job as a lost loafer’s paradise, easy and responsibility-free, to the point that he and his supervisor could just drink and dick around on the clock.

But success still came his way. He rose to head of the Montage Department, where he directed thousands of montages, including the opening montage for Casablanca (1942). But his directorial debut wouldn’t come until 1945 and the short Star in the Night, a retelling of the birth of Christ.

Stubs – The Cabin in the Woods

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (2012) Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchinson, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford. Directed by Drew Goddard. Screenplay by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. Produced by Joss Whedon. Run Time: 95. Color. USA. Horror, Comedy

Tell me if you’ve heard this before: Five college friends set out for a weekend in the country. They are hoping to explore all their prurient interests, but instead end up being set up for murder in the most horrible way possible. Let the slashing begin. And this is sort of what happens in The Cabin in the Woods, the next film in our survey of horror. But it is not all that happens either, and that twist is what for some makes the film worth watching.

While I believe The Avengers is one of the best movies of the year (2012), I would not say that I am a Joss Whedon fanboy. I never watched Buffy; I liked Firefly, but I know it’s flawed and I really enjoy the ingenious, underground musical treat that is Dr. Horrible. That’s just to set the bar. And while some think of this as a Joss Whedon film, he is only the co-writer and producer. The real director is Drew Goddard, who is previously best known as the writer of Cloverfield. (That film actually had a writer?)

The film has a fairly impressive cast for what’s usually a genre (horror) reserved for actors starting out or ending up their careers. I’m sure Kevin Bacon would like to forget his beginnings in Friday the 13^th and Johnny Depp isn’t probably bragging about his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street. But neither does this genre usually tout a writer and producer like Whedon. So instead of a bunch of no-names, you have the actor who played Thor, Chris Hemsworth as one of your male leads, Curt Vaughan, the athlete who is on a full academic scholarship. Jesse Williams is also recognizable from the TV medical soap, Gray’s Anatomy. There he plays Dr. Jackson Avery, here he is Holden McCrea. Curt’s girlfriend, Jules Louden (Anna Hutchinson); Jules’ roommate Dana Polk (Kristen Connolly) and the fifth wheel, Marty Milkalski (Fran Kranz) are all played by actors who’s previous work I am not familiar with.

And while there is comedy in the film, it doesn’t really revolve around these five. Instead a lot of humor comes from Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford) and Gary Sitterson (Richard Jenkins), two technicians who really seem to enjoy their work. They carry on behind the scenes and I don’t want to say too much about what they do as not to give away too much of the story. Enough to say, they’re in on what is happening to the five college students and even help move things along with a spray of pheromone fog or the opening of a door to the cellar of the cabin.You see, there is more to the savagery that the five students are being forced to endure; a higher good and that’s all I want to say about that, lest I say too much. This is one of those films that the less you know going in, the better.

And this is also one of those films where it is best not to think too hard about it. The filmmakers only give you enough to intrigue you, but they don’t give you any backstory as to how these five are selected and who the technicians are working for, other than The Director (Sigourney Weaver). The film does tell you the higher purpose, but it doesn’t really explain the whys and wherefores, so it’s better not to ask those kinds of questions, or else it falls apart.

The film can be viewed as a satire on the slasher/horror genre, but to get into that analogy too much might start to give away crucial plot points that you may not want to know prior to viewing. If not, please skip past this:

If our five college students/victims are the plot of the movie, then the technicians can be seen as the director/writers/producers of the movie. The technicians manipulate and play with the boundaries of the film, that is, kill our victims in order to 1) satisfy the standards of the genre, which this film sees as turning into torture porn. 2) The technicians are trying to appease the old gods, which can be seen as the fanboys, or the hardened entrenched fans of the genre. If the film does not satisfy the fanboys by adhering to the guidelines of the genre, in this case the order of the killings, then the fanboys will ravage the film or as the film states the old gods will destroy the earth.

Not being a fanboy of slasher/horror or even horror for that matter, I am relying on the film for what are the proper elements of this sub-genre. To be honest, it doesn’t make me want to view more slasher films to see if it got it right, so I will take the technician’s word that they did. I will give the filmmakers credit, while the film is gory, they don’t seem to overplay that angle. There is blood, lots and lots of blood, but until the end it is not over the top.

This is the right movie if you’re a Joss Whedon fan and eat up anything he serves up because you think he is the greatest creative mind of our time. His fans are a little like Aaron Sorkin fans and think the man can do no wrong. However, I am not a devoted fan of either.

Overall though, while the film is funny, and the humor gets very, very dark at times, it is not funny enough nor is the satire that apparent at first viewing. And if you’re like me and you’d rather not watch a blood bath or even the hint of a blood bath, then this may not be the film for you, even with Halloween just around the corner.

Stubs - Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, version reviewed 1998) Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Tress MacNeille, Janeane Garofalo, Matthew Lawrence, Debbie Reynolds. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono. Produced by Hayao Miyazaki. Run Time: 102 minutes. Japan. Animation, Adventure.

Soon after the release of My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Hayao Miyazaki released his next film, Kiki’s Delivery Service, based on a novel by Eiko Kadono first published in 1985 as Majo no Takkyūbin. The first of a series of novels: Majo no Takkyūbin 2: Kiki to Atarashii Mahō (Witch's Express Home Delivery 2: Kiki and Her New Magic?) in 1993; Majo no Takkyūbin 3: Kiki to mō Hitori no Majo (Witch's Express Home Delivery 3: Kiki and the Other Witch?) in 2000; Majo no Takkyūbin 4: Kiki no Koi (Witch's Express Home Delivery 4: Kiki's Love?)  in 2004; Majo no Takkyūbin 5: Mahō no Tomarigi (Witch's Express Home Delivery 5: Perch of Magic?) in 2007 and Majo no Takkyūbin 6: Sorezore no Tabidachi Witch's Express Home Delivery 6: Each and Every Departure?) in 2009. It is no surprise that Hayao Miyazaki’s movie based on the first book plays like the first part of a longer series.

It was not Miyazaki’s intent to write and direct the film. He had chosen Sunao Katabuchi, someone he had worked with before, to direct the film. And Studio Ghibli hired Nobuyuki Isshiki to be the screenwriter. Since the book took place in a fictional European nation, Miyazaki and his creative team had gone to Stockholm, Sweden as well as the Swedish Island of Gotland to research settings and other elements for the project.

Upon their return, Miyazaki started to develop his own ideas. He had already been disappointed in the first script and his ideas would change the story from the book’s episodic approach to Kiki’s story and adding in elements not found in the book. Kadono was not happy with the changes and the whole project was on the verge of being shelved before the first frame was shot. But after she visited Ghibli at Miyazaki’s and Toshio Suzuki’s request, she decided to let the project move forward. Miyazaki ended up writing the screenplay and decided to direct the film itself.

Released in Japan in 1989, Kiki’s Delivery Service was a modest success in its home country, earning the equivalent of $18 million on a budget of a little less than $7 million. The first U.S. release came via Streamline Pictures, which used Lisa Michelson as Kiki, Kerrigan Mahan as Jiji, Alexandra Kenworthy as Osono and Edie Mirman as Ursula.

Like My Neighbor Totoro, when Disney got rights to the film, they redubbed the English version and actually made further changes to the film, which were approved by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. In place of Michelson, Kirsten Dunst was cast as Kiki. Phil Hartman, who would be making his final film appearance, was cast as her cat Jiji. Standup comic and actress Janeane Garofalo was cast as Ursula and Debbie Reynolds was cast in a smaller role as Madame.

Kiki (Kirsten Dunst) packs her things anticipating her leaving home.

The film opens on the verge of a full moon. Kiki (Dunst), who is thirteen, is anxious to get on with her trip. As a young witch, she is to leave home and spend a year studying somewhere else. Kiki’s mother, Kokiri (Kath Soucie), a practicing witch herself, seems unable to talk her young daughter from leaving. She explains to Miss Dora (Fay DeWitt), a family friend, that she has not had a chance to train her daughter at all, which makes her departure sound even more problematic.

Kiki’s father, Okino (Jeff Bennett), is unable to talk Kiki out of leaving.

Kiki’s father, Okino (Jeff Bennett), comes home from work and is also unable to talk Kiki out of leaving that night when there is to be a full moon. Kiki packs her belongings in a bag and plans to leave along with her black cat Jiji (Hartman) whom she communicates with. Jiji is not as anxious to leave as Kiki is, but he really has no choice in the matter.

Kiki's mother (Kath Soucie) insists Kiki take her broom.

At first, Kiki wants to use a broom that she herself has fashioned, but her mother insists that she take the broom she has been using instead. And with a group of friends there to wish her luck, Kiki and Jiji set off on their year-long adventure; destination unknown. The wind is strong and Kiki has to get Jiji to turn on her father’s transistor radio that she has attached to the broom handle. While they are flying they see another young witch, Senior Witch (Debi Derryberry), and a black cat also flying close by and try to engage her in conversation.

Kiki tries to make conversation with Senior Witch (Debi Derryberry), another witch she meets in flight.

This girl, who claims to be a fortune teller, is near the end of her training and is really not very encouraging to Kiki. As soon as she descends into her town, a major thunderstorm comes through, forcing Kiki out of the skies. She and Jiji take refuge in what they discover the next day is a cattle car on a moving train, making a bed in the hay that is suspended for the cow’s to eat in transit.

Tombo Kopoli (Matthew Lawrence) helps Kiki get away from a policeman.

The next morning, after the storm has passed, Kiki and Jiji get on their way and head towards Koriko, a fairly large city which is on the ocean, which appeals to her. Not really sure what to expect, Kiki descends into the city and gets caught up in the wind, nearly causing a major traffic accident. A policeman catches her and is about to book her when a boy, Tombo Kopoli (Matthew Lawrence), who is smitten with the girl, pretends to need the policeman’s help. This allows Kiki to escape. But when Tombo approaches her, she is not interested in speaking to him.

Osono (Tress MacNeille), a very pregnant baker, has a customer's forgotten pacifier which Kiki offers to return.

After trying to find a room for the night at a major hotel, Kiki catches a break. Standing outside a bakery run by a very pregnant Osono (Tress MacNeille) and her nearly mute husband, she overhears the store owner trying to get the attention of a customer who has recently left. The woman, who has a very young child, has left the baby’s pacifier. Osono is going to have to stop serving customers to take chase when Kiki offers to run the errand for her. Osono is surprised and amazed to find out that Kiki is a witch. When Kiki returns from the errand, Osono invites her in for hot chocolate and eventually offers the girl a room to live in and breakfast, as long as she’ll occasionally help in the shop. Kiki agrees to the terms.

Osono makes Kiki hot chocolate and offers her a job and a place to stay.

Because Kiki’s only talent is her ability to fly, she decides to go into the delivery business and Osono helps her there as well. In fact, she helps her get her first client, Maki (Julia Fletcher), who has a gift she needs to be delivered for her nephew’s birthday that she won’t be able to attend. The gift is a stuffed cat which looks just like Jiji in a cage. But the delivery does not go without incident.

Maki (Julia Fletcher) is Kiki's first delivery customer.

On the way, Kiki flies next to a flock of geese which Jiji is able to understand. He hears them warning about a big gust of wind which Kiki misses out on. As a result, she is blown off course and into the trees, falling next to a bird’s nest. She is called an egg thief by all the birds and she gets chased away. Only then do they realize that the stuffed animal has been lost in the fall.

Her first delivery isn't without issues.

Rather than go back and fight the birds, they go on to Ket’s (Julia Fletcher), the nephew’s house, with Jiji being used as a replacement for the doll. Under the cover of darkness, Kiki goes back to look for the doll. She does find it in the window of Ursula’s (Janeane Garofalo) cabin. Ursula, who is an artist, offers to give her back the doll, but they find out that the head has come off. Ursula offers to sew the head back on the doll in exchange for Kiki doing something for her. So while Ursula sews the doll back together, Kiki scrubs her floor. Even though Kiki isn’t done by the time Ursula is, she’s allowed to take the doll to rescue Jiji.

Ursula (Janeane Garofalo) helps Kiki out of a jam.

Meanwhile, JiJi has befriended the family’s Saint Bernard, who takes Jiji outside to where Kiki is waiting. The dog even takes the doll back inside.

Even though Kiki has given him the cold shoulder, Tombo hasn’t given up on her. He invites her to a gathering of his friends, who are all into flying. He doesn’t give her a chance to say no and promises to come to pick her up at 6. But Kiki gets another delivery job, this time to take a pie for Madame (Debbie Reynolds) to her granddaughter for her birthday. Madame has a friend, Barsa (Edie McClurg), who helps her around the house.

Kiki makes friends with Madame (Debbie Reynolds).

But the pie isn’t quite done, so Kiki helps the two load and ignite a firewood oven to cook the pie to completion. Madame and Barsa are both very impressed by the young girl.

This delivery doesn’t go any smoother than the first one, as a thunderstorm comes up and drenches Kiki and Jiji. When they do make it to the granddaughter’s (Sherry Lynn) house, she is nonplused, not liking her grandmother’s pies.

When Kiki gets back home, she has not only missed Tombo but she has also caught a cold. Osono tries her best to take care of Kiki, who does recover. Osono tells Kiki that Tombo has come by to see her, but that she had sent him away. Osono does have another delivery, though for Kiki to make. Turns out to be to Tombo.

Tombo shows Kiki his propeller-powered bicycle.

Given the chance, the two actually talk and seem to bond. He shows her the propeller-powered bicycle that the gathering was celebrating the night before. Tombo talks Kiki into going with him to see a dirigible that has landed on the beach. The two ride down there on his bike but they don’t make it all the way before Tombo loses control and the two are forced off the road. While they laugh about their incident, friends of Tombo come by on their way to see the dirigible. Even though he invites her to come along with them, Kiki turns down the offer and walks back to her home.

With his friends’ help, Tombo gets to ride on the dirigible. Kiki sees him from a distance and he waves to her, but she doesn’t reciprocate. Tombo even calls her to tell her about his experience, but she hangs up on him.

Kiki finds she's losing the ability to communicate with her cat Jiji (Phil Hartman).

Later, Kiki realizes that she is losing her ability to fly, the thing that she feels makes her a witch. She tries in vain to take flight, breaking her mother’s broom in the process. Further upsetting her is her inability to communicate with Jiji, who appears to have lost the power of speech while he pursues romantic interests with another cat. Depressed, Kiki stays in her room until one day when Ursula comes to town to do some shopping and to see her. She invites Kiki back to her cabin in the woods.

Ursula comes to town to visit with Kiki.

Ursula has been painting a mural about Kiki and needs the girl to pose for sketches so she can complete it. While they’re there, Ursula talks about the magic of art and how much she loves painting. She describes how one day she found that she couldn’t paint anymore and compares that situation to Kiki’s. She tells the younger girl that if she gives herself time away from worrying about it, she’ll get past the mental block. With that knowledge, Kiki returns home.

She gets another delivery job and is called back to Madame’s house. Barsa is pretty excited about the dirigible, which is on the television. There is a live report going on about the airship’s being buffeted by the wind that has once again begun to blow hard.

Madame bakes a special cake for Kiki.

The delivery is really more of a ruse, as Madame has baked a cake for Kiki, wanting to be friends with the girl. Kiki is happy and excited and the two plan to be friends.

Tombo gets carried away by a dirigible.

Meanwhile, things are getting worse with the dirigible. People on the ground are trying very hard to keep it moored, even going so far as to tie it to the bumper of a police car. Tombo is there, trying to help and unfortunately, he is the only one still holding the ropes when the dirigible is carried off the ground. He hangs on helplessly while the crew of the dirigible is helpless to help him. He slides down the rope and unfortunately dislodges the police car, sending it falling into a swimming pool below. When the dirigible is blown into the town’s clock tower, Tombo is left dangling.

Kiki takes it upon herself to rescue Tombo.

Kiki takes it upon herself to try and save him. Borrowing a street cleaner’s broom, Kiki manages to fly, but the rescue doesn’t go smoothly. Before she can get him, Tombo loses his grip and is sent falling to the ground. Kiki manages to fly down and save him before he hits. After saving him, Kiki is now renowned about town and is treated like a hero by the townspeople.

Kiki becomes a local hero as a result and even sees an imitator on the street.

The film ends with Kiki having sent a letter home to her parents, telling them that she’s settling in and feeling good about herself.

I have not read the original story, but I’m struck by the haphazardness of Kiki’s journey. One thinks of young witches studying with someone or someplace where they will be with others like them; Harry Potter had Hogwarts come to mind. Not sure what a young witch will learn going out on her own without guidance to a strange city or how making deliveries and working the counter at a bakery is going to sharpen her undeveloped skills. I know that’s not really the point of the movie really, but, as a parent, I had issues with the premise.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the movie, I did, but I really am left wanting more. Kiki’s Delivery Service is more a slice of life and it leaves itself open for further stories. Rather than more films in the series, the story has since been remade as a live-action film, Kiki's Delivery Service (2014). While Miyazaki’s film is more universal in its appeal and perhaps truer to the original story, which is set in Europe, the live-action film is aimed more squarely at a Japanese audience.

The voice acting is good. I will admit that the only voice I recognized was Phil Hartman’s, who plays Jiji with more than just a hint of sarcasm. His is the most distinctive of the voices. Having watched this film since the passing of Debbie Reynolds, I didn’t recognize her as Madame. That doesn’t take away from the performances of the actors, which for the most part were very good and believable in their tone.

The look of the film is very much like My Neighbor Totoro, which used a very similar color palette and animation style. His research trip to Sweden really paid off as Koriko looks very European without being too specific to one city in particular. A grand background to place the story against. Unlike Totoro, Kiki’s world, save for the flying witches, is not populated with magical creatures, just humans. I really like how they capture the characters moving about, sometimes even stumbling, which makes it seem more real in a way.

A film should leave you wanting more and this film certainly did that. Not only do I want more stories about Kiki, but I’m looking forward to more movies by Hayao Miyazaki. I would highly recommend Kiki’s Delivery Service to anyone, though maybe not for very young children. While Disney may control the rights to the film, this is not a Disney film.

Stubs - Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)

Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931) Starring Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan, Alan Hale Directed by Robert Z. Leonard Screenplay by Wanda Tuchock Based on the novel Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by David Graham Phillips (New York, 1917). No Producer Credited (Irving Thalberg) Run time: 75 minutes USA Black and White Melodrama, Pre-code

David Graham Phillips was an American writer and novelist who was killed by a paranoid named Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough, a violinist in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1911. Goldsborough thought Phillips had cast literary aspersions on his family, to be more exact, he thought Phillips had used his sister as “as a model for the complaisant heroine" of the novel. After shooting Phillips, Goldsborough turned the gun on himself, shooting himself in the head.

Stubs – Halloween (1978)

Halloween (1978) Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J.Soles, Nancy Loomis, Charles Cyphers, Kyle Richards, Brian Andrews. Directed by John Carpenter. Screenplay by John Carpenter, Debra Hill. Produced by Debra Hill, Irwin Yablans, Moustapha Akkad  Run Time: 91 minutes. U.S.  Color, Horror

Concluding Trophy Unlocked’s Halloween tour of horror movies that launched franchises is John Carpenter’s original Halloween. Not only did this film start a trend (I’ll let you decide if it’s good or bad) of slasher films that became the norm for horror in the 1980’s and 1990’s, this is also the film that put John Carpenter on the map. 

He had written and directed two films before (Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13) and had written two others (The Resurrection of Brocho Billy and The Eyes of Laura Mars), but after Halloween he was a very big name in Hollywood. Also this film is responsible for introducing the world to yogurt eating Jamie Lee Curtis.

The film starts back on Halloween 1963 in fictional Haddonfield, Illinois. Judith Myers (Sandy Johnson) is murdered by her younger brother Michael (Will Sandin) using a butcher knife after having sex with her boyfriend (David Kyle).

Michael as a kid (Will Sandin) right after dispatching his sister, Judith.

Fifteen years later on October 30, 1978, Michael, who has been institutionalized since the murder, escapes and steals a car. Three guesses where he’s headed.

Back in Haddonfield, on Halloween, high school student, Laurie Strode (Curtis), is being stalked by Michael, who is wearing blue overalls and a mask. He appears outside her classroom and drives past her on the street. Laurie notices, but her friends Annie (Nancy Keyes) and Lynda (P.J. Soles) dismiss her concerns. Laurie sees Michael again, this time standing in her front yard staring at her bedroom door.

Laurie Strode (Jaime Lee Curtis) with her friends, Annie (Nancy Keyes) and Lynda (P.J. Soles).

Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence), has come to Haddonfield looking for Michael. He stops at the local cemetery and finds that Judith’s gravestone has been taken. Loomis goes to see Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers), who happens to be Annie’s father. The two go out looking for the escaped mental patient.

Donald Pleasence plays Michael's psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis.

That night, Laurie is babysitting a boy named Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) while Annie is babysitting a girl named Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards) across the street. When Annie’s boyfriend Paul calls her and tells her to come pick him up, Annie takes Lindsey across the street to the Doyle’s and leaves her in Laurie’s care. When Annie gets into her car, Michael is waiting in the backseat and slashes her throat.

Meanwhile, in the Doyle house, Laurie and the kids are playing hide-and-seek when Tommy spots Michael carrying Annie’s body from the house across the street. He tries to tell Laurie, but she doesn’t believe him. Lynda and her boyfriend Bob (John Michael Graham) show up at the Wallace’s house and go upstairs to have sex. Afterwards, Bob goes down to the kitchen to get Lynda a beer, but Michael is waiting for him and impales Bob to the wall with a knife. Michael then heads upstairs with a sheet on, pretending to be Bob in ghost attire. Lynda though is suspicious and calls Laurie, just as Michael strangles her with the phone cord. (This is in the days before cell phones.)

An unsuspecting Laurie about to be strangled by Michael.

Unnerved by the call, Laurie puts Tommy and Lindsey to bed and heads over to the Wallace house. There she finds a gruesome scene, including Annie’s dead body next to Judith Myers’ headstone and nearby the dead bodies of Lynda and Bob. Michael attacks Laurie, who falls down the staircase. Fleeing the house, Laurie screams for help, but no one appears to hear or take notice. Running across the street to the Doyle’s house, Laurie realizes that she’s lost the key and the door is locked. Banging on the door, Laurie screams for Tommy to open the door. Lucky for Laurie, the kid comes through just in time, but Michael is not far behind.

Laurie has the kids hide and then discovers the phone line is dead. Michael gains entry through a window and Laurie sits down next to the couch. Michael appears and tries to stab her, but Laurie is cunning. She counterattacks and stabs Michael in the neck with a knitting needle.

Believing Michael is dead, Laurie goes upstairs and tells the children she’s killed the boogeyman Tommy had seen. But Michael doesn’t die so easily and is coming up the stairs. Telling the kids to hide again, Laurie tries to make it look like she’s gone out a window and then hides in the closet. But Michael isn’t fooled and tears a hole in the closet door and grabs at Laurie. Frantically, Laurie undoes a wire hanger and sticks Michael in the eye, causing him to drop his knife. Laurie picks up the knife and then tells the children to run outside and try to get help.

Michael breaks into the closet where Laurie is hiding.

Dr. Loomis happens to see Tommy and Lindsey flee and suspects correctly that Michael is in the Doyle’s house. Meanwhile, Michael has started to strangle Laurie, but Loomis arrives to stop him. Loomis shoots Michael once in the head and five times in the chest, but Michael doesn’t go down easily. Falling out of a second story window, Michael falls to the lawn. But when Loomis goes to look out the window, Michael’s body is gone. 

The movie ends with the speculation that Michael is still out there somewhere, accompanied by Michael’s heavy breathing. And the sequel is set up.

Honestly, it has been a year or so since I’ve seen this film, but I don’t remember there being any real motivation for any of the murders. While Michael clearly has a thing against pre-marital sex, since half of his victims have engaged in such during the movie, why does he go after Laurie, who is virginal? Unlike Annie and Lynda, she doesn’t even appear to have a boyfriend. But hey, Michael’s crazy, right?

I also find it interesting that the mental hospital only dispatches Dr. Loomis to find Michael and that Loomis brings a gun. I guess there is only so much talking you can do with the criminally insane.

As in all horror films, the main monster seems impervious to being killed. The same was true with Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula. Those monsters returned for sequel after sequel. The same is true with Michael in Halloween for which there were seven sequels: Halloween II (1981), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and Halloween: Resurrection (2002); not to mention a remake by Rob Zombie, Halloween (2007), with its own sequel, Halloween II (2009).

Michael Meyers proved to be a very popular horror villain.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention our star of the future from Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis. The daughter of actress Janet Leigh and actor Tony Curtis, Halloween marks her acting debut, which means she made a big impression from the get go. The success of the film lead to roles in other horror films: The Fog (1980), Prom Night (1980), Terror Train (1980) and not to mention Halloweens II and III, earning Curtis the title of Scream Queen. She shed her horror persona, and her top, in the comedy Trading Places (1983) and had a prominent part in John Cleese's A Fish Called Wanda (1988). After starring in Blue Steel (1989) and True Lies (1994), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ms. Curtis' career has been somewhat uneven. She's returned to the Laurie Strode character in Halloween H2O and Halloween Resurrection; appeared in lackluster comedies like Freaky Friday (2003), Christmas With the Kranks (2004) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008); written children's books and is now the spokesperson for Activia, the yogurt that makes you poop.

While Halloween did not start the slasher genre, you might say Psycho (1960) was the first one, it was a milestone of sorts. Audiences found out they liked to be scared. While there had been a few slasher films since Psycho, like Black Christmas (1974), Halloween is seen as really starting the trend that led to such films (and their franchises) as Friday the 13^th (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Child’s Play (1988).

As the 80’s and 90’s continued, slasher films tried to out-do one another, with more and more novel ways of killing victims and more blood and more gore. While the genre has been parodied by Scream (1996) with its sequels, and satirized by Scary Movie (2000), with its own sequels, it has never completely gone away. As mentioned in our review of Friday the 13th, last year’s The Cabin the Woods is a recent variation on the theme.

Now I am admittedly squeamish when it comes to these types of movies. As a rule I don’t like gore and I have a production code level of acceptance for blood. I only saw Halloween because my sons wanted to watch it. Perhaps it’s me or the time in which the movie was made, but it is not really all that bloody or gory. There’s enough, but it is not over the top, as in movies that came after it, notably A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), another movie I saw because of my sons, which literally gushes blood like a volcano with a bleeding ulcer. I also have a thing about piercing flesh, so Michael’s impaling victims is not a favorite to watch.

If you’re like me and not a fan of the slasher genre, then I would tell you to feel free to skip this one. But if you’re put in a position where you have to watch one or lose face, then Halloween is not really all that bad. Choose it over The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) or the aforementioned A Nightmare on Elm Street. And hey, it is Halloween after all. If you can’t get a good scare in today, when can you? And if it gets to be too much, keep reminding yourself, “it’s only a movie, it’s only a movie” (apologies to Last House on the Left).