(1980)
Dir - Kevin Connor
Overall: GOOD
Motel Hell is one of the many films, (particularly around the time that it was made), which attempts to satirize the horror genre while at the same time carving out a wicked little niche for itself amidst the very movies it polarizes. It is one of the rarer ones still that actually pulls this off. British filmmaker Kevin Connor has not made a large amount of horror movies, but he is no noob when it comes to such things either, having kickstarted his feature film career with Amicus' final anthology outing From Beyond the Grave six years prior to this. The treating of the material here is a key to its success, with the funny parts actually being funny and the disturbing ones made all the more so by the cheerful way that the characters are acting. By doing this, Connor and his excellent cast, (including the always standing and walking Rory Calhoun who provides the movie with its most delightfully creepy visual amongst many), manage to have their cake and eat it to. The entire premise and script is assuredly ridiculous, but so much fun is clearly being had that it easily rubs off on the audience the right way.
(1982)
Dir - Jack Sholder
Overall: MEH
The debut from writer/director Jack Sholder, Alone in the Dark is a movie with just as many admirable qualities as sloppy ones. Its bizarre to see an A-list cast including Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, and Walter Landau in such an off-beat genre offering, but even though they are playing crazy people, their behavior seems to make the script itself more puzzling than possibly intended. The first act is relatively straightforward, but things escalate so quickly with so much logic thrown to the ether that it becomes impossible to enjoy due to how many frustrating questions you end up with. While plausibility being stretched to insulting lengths is nothing new for 80s horror movies in particular, it does not quite work here since not enough intentional humor is utilized. The goofy, sardonic aspects just appear random as they are mingled with unfocused character development and a choppy structure that rushes past too many plot points to NOT be noticeable. Occasionally it is an interesting endeavor, but there lies the problem; Alone in the Dark is highly inconsistent, underwritten, and mangles its tone, overshadowing the fun performances and would-be satirical ideas.
(1986)
Dir - Mark Ezra/Peter Litten
Overall: WOOF
It is tiring to keep coming up with ways to explain why slasher films are flawed to their very core, especially in the 1980s when they practically seemed to be the only horror movies anyone was interested in making. Slaughter High was originally filmed in England as April Fool's Day but changed its title since another slasher movie by the same name came out the exact same year in America, which just provides another example of how interchangeable so, so many of these piles of shit were. Though to be fair, the American April Fool's Day successfully broke the mold by playing the slasher angle as a red herring. Slaughter High is just garbage front to back. A thirty-seven year old Caroline Munro plays a high schooler and she is not even the only cast member to poorly slip her British accent on the regular. There is only three pieces of music used over and over again and the premise is exactly the same as, (the also terrible), The Redeemer: Son of Satan plus every other "nerd out for revenge" movie of its kind. Really though, it always comes down to the fact that these films are the opposite of suspenseful, completely undoing their entire point. It is just another waiting game to see someone with superhuman insight, agility, and strength pick off horrible people one by one until some kind of lazy twist happens when the credits hit. "Pointless" is not strong enough a word.
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