It is hard not to laugh when the escaped convict hitches a ride with the escaped mental patient, the creepy camp caretakers let Japanese tourists gawp at the soon-to-be-dead teenagers or when a bunch of hardened street punks abandon a diner the moment the squeaky clean heroes saunter in. Take for example the explosion that catapults a bleach-blonde Judge Reinhold into the stratosphere where he startles a plane-load of Japanese tourists including a hostess inexplicably dressed as Godzilla! Even though some of the bug-eyed routines prove corny enough to make a five year old roll their eyes in exasperation, the film largely succeeds at lacerating the clichés of the hack-and-slash genre, right down to its very obviously Canadian hero, an amusing jab at all those faux small town America, shot-in-Canada slasher flicks. Nonetheless, Sole imbued the film with a certain manic screwball energy lacking in others of its ilk, staging a host of truly off-the-wall cartoon-like gags making good use of the performers pantomime gifts and funnier than the cheesy one-liners doled out by co-screenwriters Jaime Barton Klein and Richard Whitley, who wrote the seminal Rock 'n' Roll High School (1978). Communion but returned to his day job shortly after this for-hire gig for which he subsequently expressed little love. At one point Sole seemed poised to be a major horror auteur on the strength of Alice Sweet Alice (1976) a.k.a. Ostensibly a vehicle for Tom Smothers, of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Show, who had a sporadic film career, this was the last of three movies directed by production designer Alfred Sole. Pandemonium was among a spate of slasher film parodies released in the early Eighties, including Wacko (1982), Student Bodies (1981) and National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982) that suggested the genre was already something of a running joke even though it rumbled on well into the next decade buoyed by post-modernist gimmicks and big budget remakes. Or maybe it's someone entirely different. Even so, they can't decide if the guilty party is the recently escaped mental patient or the convict who likes to turn his victims into furniture. Inevitably a mysterious murderer soon circles around this lot but intrepid Canadian mountie Reginald Cooper ( Tom Smothers) is determined to get his man aided by his super-intelligent horse Bob and sidekick Johnson ( Paul Reubens, pre-Pee-Wee Herman) who bears a grudge against the horse. Among their number are Candy ( Carol Kane), a virginal teen with telekinetic powers anxious to finally get laid, gormless Glenn ( Judge Reinhold), horny stoners Andy ( Miles Chapin) and Randy ( Mark McClure), perky blonde beauty queen Mandy ( Teri Landrum) and Sandy ( Debralee Scott), a sassy hitch-hiker with very high standards. Now, several generations worth of dead cheerleaders later, Bambi welcomes a new bunch of pom-pom wavers to Cheerleader Camp. Twenty years ago, Bambi ( Candice Azzara), a high school misfit hopelessly infatuated with star quarterback Blue Grange ( Tab Hunter), witnessed the first in a long line of horrific cheerleader murders. Tom Smothers, Carol Kane, Judge Reinhold, Tab Hunter, Eileen Brennan, Teri Landrum, Debralee Scott, Miles Chapin, Mark McClure, Candice Azzara, Paul Reubens, Eve Arden, Phil Hartman, Donald O'Connor, Richard Romanus, Alix Elias, Ebbe Roe Smith What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on ArrowĪ Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray on 4K UHDĪ Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVDĬhaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-rayĭC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD Osamu Tezuka's Last Mystery of the 20th Centuryģ From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
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