Let's take look back at some of those fabled 'lost' slasher movies from the subgenre's Golden Age - where teenagers were set to be mauled at THE MALL, more were to be RIPPED SHREDS, no one turned up for THE GRADUATION PARTY, Wayne Newton nearly stalked LOVER'S LANE, Liberace was mooted to go nutzoid as a killer gay clown and much more rumour, gossip and perhaps some solid leads to real-life lost slasher movies ...
The early 1980s horror/slasher boom is well known – but what isn’t so well remembered was its quick bust. As quickly as the onslaught started, the subgenre – outside of the emerging franchises – started to rapidly burn itself out. Simply put, attracted by the hopes of big profits for little investment and no reliance on star names, every producer in Hollywood (not to mention, Texas, Ohio and everywhere else for that matter) was attracted to the splatter-for-cash bandwagon. Whilst many turned a profit, the market got so oversaturated that – before the advent of video as a mass market – many genre and subgenre films sat on the shelf for up to two, three or more years before they secured theatrical distribution.
The other effect of this ‘gore rush and bust’ was that a good number of slasher films were announced – sometimes started (and, perhaps, tantalisingly finished) – but never saw the light of day. At the time, in 1980 it was reported that 84 horror movies were shot in North America and Canada – that rose to 110 in 1981. However, in 1982 140 horror films were announced but only 45 were made. As Starburst Magazine pithily noted: “Producers are no longer cutting teenage throats or heads. They’re cutting their projects.”
Here are some of those projects ..
Before PROM NIGHT (1980) (which Jamie Lee Curtis once dismissively called “disco death”) and after the then recent SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977), er, fever, another killer was due to hunt the dancefloor. Little is known about this project. There is no copyright record of a film under this name, but the film was announced in Variety Magazine in May of 1979 (which probably meant it was looking for financial backers at Cannes Film Festival). The advert listed it as a “Matt Cimber Production”. Cimber was the one-time husband of ill-fated blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield and the man behind such solid exploitation fayre as THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (1976). He was visually inactive in the late 1970s, at the time MURDER AT THE DISCO DOWN was mooted – but returned with a couple of Pia Zadora clunkers in 1982 (BUTTERFLY and FAKE-OUT).
The promotional artwork shows a pair of menacing eyes looking down at the naked body of a woman silhouetted on an illuminated disco dancefloor. Which, visually, at least hints that the film was going to be a cash-in on both the disco and the slasher craze. It lists it as ”Louise E. Steinberg presents” – but whoever she was is lost to the mists of time as is MURDER AT THE DISCO DOWN. The project presumably failed to find enough backers at Cannes (surprisingly so given its 1979 date), so the beat was sadly snuffed out at the Disco Down.
That is until, as a fun aside, MURDER AT THE DISCO DOWN inspired a Turkish dance act, called ‘Hey Douglas’, to record a mini album in 2014 of the same name – utilising the unmade project’s artwork. You can hear it on Bandcamp.
This UK-lensed slasher short (it has a running time of just 28 minutes) would have been shown as the pre-feature film (as was common practice at British cinemas back then) – it has been unseen since.
The synopsis sounds intriguing: “In order to enjoy a romantic private swim together, Jo and Eddie hide when their local swimming pool is closing for the evening. But unknown to them, a killer is on the loose - and in the building with them.”Halliwells Film Guide also gives this: “A girl locked in a swimming pool is terrorized by a mad killer. Agreeably watchable thriller full of shadows and shocks.”
The young couple were played by stars-to-be Phil Davis (who had then wrapped QUADROPHENIA (1979) and went onto other films including ALIEN 3 (1992)) and Gwyneth Strong (best remembered as Cassandra Trotter in the British TV comedy ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES).
The BBFC website lists the film as being from 1979 – with a AA certificate (which meant that no one under 14 would have been admitted).
A couple of British horror shorts (with definite slasher movie nods) from the late 1970s are available to view on YouTube: PANIC (1978) (a young woman menaced by a serial killer she gives a lift to) and THE DUMB WAITER (1979) (strongly influenced by the slasher films from the United States at the time; another young woman battles a psychopath as he tries to break into her flat).
Another short film (24 minutes) intended to play ahead of the main feature in British cinemas in the early 1980s - in this case, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT II (1980) of all things! A suspenser from the director Alan Birkinshaw - of schoolgirls-in-peril slasher KILLER’S MOON (1978). This had been considered lost until a version appeared on YouTube scanned from a rare 35mm print. A young woman is trapped in a multistorey car park after the shops close and she is forced into a game of cat-and-mouse with a psychotic, knife-wielding stalker.
Mary (Belinda Mayne) is the thinly drawn young woman, who returns home from a tennis match with her friend Jenny (the first screen appearance by actress Jenny Seagrove). On returning to her flat, Mary receives a phone call from a mystery man who tells her: “I’m watching you .. You can’t escape me. … I can get you any time I want.” She is further spooked to find a butcher’s knife randomly placed on a shelf, but still strips off and takes a bath!
Mary decides to take a drive to the shops for ingredients for dinner along with her dog Mish, as she’s expecting her boyfriend home later. The store is just about to close; during her rush the shopping trolley she has been using disappears briefly. When she retrieves it the checkout woman cuts her finger badly on what turns out to be another butcher’s knife that has been placed with her groceries.
Mary returns to her car to find that Mish is missing and sets out to look for him. However, someone has pulled the shutters down and Mary finds she is trapped inside with her stalker …
The multi-storey car park in DEAD END is an effectively claustrophobic and bleak setting. It generates some palpable suspense - even if it isn’t quite as effective as some other horror shorts of the time. Perhaps surprisingly, much of the stalking of Mary is by someone pursuing her with a car. However, the closing shot, shows that the short was designed to capitalise on the North American slashers that were popular on UK screens in 1980.
Belinda Mayne was the daughter of Ferdy Mayne - who appeared in supernature slasher FRIGHTMARE (1983) (not to be confused with the Pete Walker film of the same name). She went on to appear in the Santa slasher DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS (1984) - which was also written by Alan Birkinshaw (under a pseudonym). Actor Alan Ford - who was in ANAMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981) the next year - has a brief but menacing role as ‘Prowler’ in this. Composer George Fenton - whose atmospheric score is perhaps the best thing about DEAD END - went on to a major Hollywood career creating soundtracks including GROUNDHOG DAY (1993).
Whilst the UK horror film industry was in quick decline after the boom of the 1970s, I always wondered why – arguably bar Pete Walker – no one had tried to make a British slasher movie? As it happens, one very nearly happened …
Michael Armstrong was no stranger to the subgenre. His HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR (1969 – which was written under the title THE DARK in 1960) was an influential proto-slasher – which, despite its name, helped set the template of isolating a group of teens and having a mad killer bumping them off one-by-one. Not surprisingly, Armstrong was a natural candidate for a slasher movie during its late 70s and early 80s heyday. Certainly, producers Clive Parsons and Davina Belling thought so and asked him to write a “Halloween-type movie” in 1980. In 1982, Armstrong told Starburst Magazine: “I had seen all the recent horror movies and realised that the only difference in them is the environment. It was always a microcosm of people, and a killer, in a holiday camp, or a school, or on a train – so I thought of what hadn’t been used as that sort of device, and I came up with an orphanage.” Starburst reported: “What Armstrong wrote was a totally formula picture and as nothing happened with the story outline he submitted, he shelved it until now.”
The original intention to make a UK-based slasher movie based on the success of films such as FRIDAY THE 13TH or TERROR TRAIN (both 1980) didn’t materialise – and it seemed that Armstrong had changed tack by 1982: “Orphanage will be strong and uncompromising stuff I promise you that. I’ve changed it all – it is no longer Scum meets Psycho. The killer is just a figure, he really isn’t that important and it will be told from the children’s point of view. I have every intention of coming back – let’s face it, I did what they’re all doing now – then. Now I’m coming back and just wait till you see what with.”
Needless to say, neither incarnation of ORPHANAGE materialised. However, even as recently as 2017 Armstrong was threatening to finally direct it. Although, that too, seems to have fallen by the wayside (with the film’s website now defunct).
However, to get an idea of what might have been check out his gory short DREAM HOUSE (1980) – where a woman sees visions of a knife-wielding maniac butchering a family after moving into a new house. DREAM HOUSE had been commissioned by Stanley Long of Alpha films as a support to the UK cinema release of THE EXTERMINATOR. DREAM HOUSE found an eventual home as one of the three storiesin the British horror anthology SCREAMTIME (1983). (Thanks to our friends at Alone in the Dark: A Century of Stalk and Slash for alerting me to ORPHANAGE’s existence – or lack of!)
On October 15 1980, Variety featured a double-page advert for an upcoming project called NIGHT INTRUDER. The somewhat abstract image is a little hard to make out, but appears to feature a distant tree-line in silhouette around a body of water (perhaps purposefully reminiscent of a certain Crystal Lake). The title itself looks to have been shaped like a knife. Given that 1980 was awash in slasher productions it isn't a push to think that this might have been one ...
Intriguingly, Christopher Mankiewicz is listed as producer. He went on to write and produce the 1984 released slasher FATAL GAMES (lensed under the title THE KILLING TOUCH in 1982). Prolific TV actor Richard Kline (probably best known for THREE'S COMPANY) was listed as director. Ibrahim Moussa (ex-husband of Nastassja Kinski) was listed as executive producer. However, nothing close to this title appears in any of their filmographies.
The Variety spread also lists Lindsay Harrison, Arlene Vrell and Thomas R. Myers as the writers of NIGHT INTRUDER. Harrison was the most prolific of the three and went on to write the comedy FRATERNITY VACATION (1985) and for a number of soap operas. Vrell is so obscure that there is only a single entry for her name on the whole internet (!). However, again intriguingly, that single entry mentions a project that the three writers worked on. This is listed as A STRANGER IS WAITING. Could this be an aka for NIGHT INTRUDER? It doesn't appear to be connected the Sean S. Cunningham's A STRANGER IS WATCHING (1982), which was based on the novel by Mary Higgins Clark. However, as Cunningham was already in talks to direct to direct that film as early as July 1980 the tile may have been deemed too similar and changed to NIGHT INTRUDER. At the time, Cunningham was debating following up FRIDAY THE 13TH with A STRANGER IS WATCHING or another project THE WITNESS (about a nurse who witnesses a murder in a hospital - which is another MIA unrealised title).
The fact that there is such scant information about this project (and no listed production company) suggests it never went before the camera. Feasibly because it failed to attract financial backing (often the purpose of advertising in the film press). NIGHT INTRUDER was never featured in Variety again and its fate remains a mystery ...
Obviously, not to be confused with the 1999 post-SCREAM slasher (starring a pre-fame Anna Farris), the announcement for LOVER’S LANE first appeared in Box Office Magazine in October of 1980 as an upcoming production from Cannon Films. This was a busy time for the Golan-Globus trash powerhouse, who had felt confident enough in the burgeoning success of their exploitation and horror library to take out six full pages advertising upcoming titles and boasting current successes. Featured titles included X-RAY (akaHOSPITAL MASSACRE), which was listed as to star Jill St. John (who was eventually replaced by Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton). Also NEW YEAR’S EVIL (advertised here as for U.S. national release December 19, 1980 - just in time for, yes, New Year’s). Another page boasted of the box office success of Cannon’s then just released SCHIZOID - which was listed as grossing over $4 million in its first month of release (over $12 million in today’s money). The bottom half of that page announced a title called LOVER’S LANE featuring a silhouetted image of a man holding a knife looming over car with a necking couple inside. Given its company, it seems that this was going to be another slasher schlockbuster title for Cannon.
Some years ago, I had seen an almost identical advert from around the same time in an issue of Variety. It had, obviously, peaked my interest but I could find no additional information. But, after recently stumbling across an advert in Box Office Magazine (and subsequent listings repeatedly detailing it being prepped for a spring 1981 release), it reignited my interest and I decided to dig a little deeper.
One thing above all others is striking - its proposed star. Being from the UK, the name Wayne Newton meant little. However, I soon discovered he WAS a ‘name’ - and indeed, he had many: ‘The Midnight Idol’, ‘Mr. Las Vegas’ and ‘Mr. Entertainment’. Newton was one of the best-known entertainers in Las Vegas (by 1994 he had performed over 25,000 solo shows in the neon city). In 1980, he was in his early forties and enjoyed his last top 40 hit: Years (a cover of Barbara Mandrell’s country music No1 from the previous year). Mr. Las Vegas in a slasher? Whatever next? Liberace as the RHINESTONE RIPPER? Stranger things had happened. Indeed, only a few years later Frankie Avalon would chase teenage Donna Wilkes around with a hatchet in BLOOD SONG (1982). Jack Jones had battled a scythe-wielding killer in a hag mask in Pete Walker’s THE COMEBACK (1978). And even a pre-fame David Bowie was considered for a role in the 1969 proto-slasher THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR. So would Newton really have been such a strange choice playing against type? Newton had been a familiar face on the small screen since the 1960s. And he is still acting today, appearing as recently as SHARKNADO 4: The 4TH AWAKENS (2016) and PUPPY LOVE (2018).
The screenplay and story for LOVER’S LANE was credited to Hal Landers and Robert Benedict. Landers was also due to produce and is possibly best remembered as producer for the first two DEATH WISH movies (1974 and 1982 respectively); along with fellow producer Bobby Roberts. I could find no other credits for Benedict. Emmet Alston was listed as director. Alston did direct Cannon’s NEW YEAR’S EVIL, but was also listed in Box Office Magazine as an early candidate for the then upcoming Cannon slasher X-RAY (which was eventually directed by Boaz Davidson). Alston’s next listed directorial credit wasn’t until 1986’s NINE DEATHS OF THE NINJA (he was also credited as the writer of HUNTER’s BLOOD the same year). Unsurprisingly, executive producers were listed as Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.
The US copyright office does detail an entry for a 1981 screenplay for a film called LOVER’S LANE. However, the original story was by Richard D. Aldrich with an original screen play and story adaptation by Dan Stevens (with an aka of BITTER SWEET COMPULSION). So, a different film - but maybe another lost slasher?
It was perhaps surprising, in a time when dates and locations were used as a, er, hook for many a slasher, that Lover’s Lane (and especially the urban legend of ‘The Hook’) had not already been utilised. In some small way it had, in the adaptation of real life events in THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (1976). Indeed, the urban legend was so well ingrained into the North American consciousness that ahead-of-his-time director Armand Mastroianni had worked it into his neat proto post-modern film-within-a-film prologue in HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE (1980). A similar scene was played for straight in 1981’s FINAL EXAM. It was clear that Lover’s Lane was ripe for the cinematic plucking.
But what of the time when LOVER’S LANE was in pre-production? One of the common misconceptions about the slasher boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s was that it was just that - a sustained boom. Christian Williams in The Washington Post exclaimed: “This Autumn of 1980 will be remembered in Hollywood as the season when horror movies, those unspeakable celluloid things, cracked out of their pods en mase to gorge anew on the wallets of American filmgoers.” It was a veritable slasher gold rush and fertile ground for fledgling slasher projects, but as with any boom it’s tricky to know when it will bust. Even as early as the release of TERROR TRAIN in October of that year, major studios - who measured the success of a picture against the joint HALLOWEEN (1978) and FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) box office juggernaughts - expressed disappointment with their returns. Even genre barometer Roger Corman cancelled a horror film and said the market would be oversaturated by spring the following year. Williams exclaimed with some small amount of glee: “So it's a hello-goodbye to the biggest glut of nightmare movies in film history.” However, it wasn’t time to write off the subgenre just yet. Filmways said that a third of the 150 scripts they received each month were still for horror films. Avco-Embassy said the number of similar proposals was “uncountable”.
This short film (it has a running time of just 33 minutes) was shot in 35mm and would have been shown as the pre-feature film (as was common practice at British cinemas back then). With just a cast of two listed (Julie Peasgood and Gene Foad) The British Film Catalogue gives this short synopsis: “Couple picnic by house haunted by man who killed his family.” The production date is listed as either 1977 or 1978 – but IMDB lists the film with a 1981 date (which suggests that this was when it was on release).
THE LAKE was directed as Lindsay Vickers (also listed as Lindsey Vickers), who apparently filmed this after a project called PREY (not the Norman J Warren film) failed to happen. Quite how this measured up to fellow slasher movies of the time I don't know (although it has been compared as a UK take to US fayre such as FRIDAY THE 13TH by those lucky enough to have seen it). It is listed as having an AA certificate - which meant no one under 14 would have been allowed to watch it. Which suggests that it didn't match US films with their levels of grue, but sadly - like many short horror films from the time - it remains M.I.A.
[Update: THE LAKE was released as part of the BFI's SHORT SHARP SHOCKS Blu Ray release in 2020. In the end it is more a supernatural ghost story, but at least mystery solved! ]
The year before FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (1982) slashed across screens in eye-popping three dimensions, another film was being prepped for production. And this tale of a killer stalking the Louisiana swamps was also going to be in 3D.
The jury is still out as to whether it was destined to be a slasher movie, as such, but the scant details that can be found certainly suggest it was being moulded by the success of the likes of HALLOWEEN (1978) and FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) – and a whole slew of other slashers that flooded cinemas in their bloody wake.
In late 1981, THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS was touted as one of the “… many 3D films being prepared in the wake of the success of Comin’ at Ya!” (the Italy/Spain/USA co-production that was put out in the US by Filmways Pictures in June 1981 – who also distributed THE BURNING the same year). THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS was a project of producer Brud Talbot – who, according to Fangoria, had hit 3D pay-dirt with COMIN’ AT YA! (although, curiously, he is not listed in the credits for the film on IMDB). He was reported to be working in conjunction with King-Hitzig Productions – who had produced WOLFEN earlier in 1981. Rupert Hitzig went on to co-produce JAWS 3-3D in 1983.
Interestingly, before Gene Siskel had more-or-less invented the term “slasher movie” (or as he first called them “mad slasher movies” when attacking FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 in June 1981), the fledgling subgenre was described a number of ways – but often as “terror pics”. Talbot described THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS to Fangoria as a “terror film rather than a horror film.” He continued: “[the] … main difference between a horror and terror is that horror is used for pure shock value whereas with terror you manipulate the audience. Psycho was terror. … We are dealing with things that are real and manipulating them in situations that are real and very uncomfortable.”
Bill Bukowski, the inventor of the OPTIMAX III 3D process, that was to be used in the film, poured some scorn on whether the film would be a pure slasher. In an interview with Global Video Guide (circa 1982/1983) he said of his next project: “It will be with Alan King and Rupert Hitzig in the swamps of Louisiana, a psychological terror film ala "Psycho" rather than "Friday The 13th", called "The Louisiana Swamp Murders". It has a $3.5 million budget and will use 3D effects judiciously. There'll be lots of sound, music, art direction and alligators as well. It'll be beautiful going through the swamps. A dozen special 3D effects are worth 25 indiscriminate ones.” Of course, not many film makers would admit to making a slasher film – God forbid! – but those Hitchcockian pretensions were often forgotten by the time the first teenage head rolled …
THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS was pegged to be directed by Rick Rosenthal (who had just completed duties on HALLOWEEN II – which proved to be the biggest slasher hit of 1981). However, it seemed that nobody told Rosenthal! He said in early 1982: “I keep reading that I’m going to do it … but nobody called me. I think we can forget about Louisiana Swamp Murders for a while. I don’t even know if I would do it if it became a serious project.”
Talbot said the film “… will rely a great deal on suspense and mystery in the context of an unknown killer on the loose in Bayou county.” Atypically, the film was also going to make use of another type of killer: “Fearsome alligators will also be another menacing element. … Kind of innocent bystanders, but they do kill. In other words, they are utilized in the story by the killer.” It was the use of these big scaly critters that may have been the ultimate reason the film never got made. The film was originally meant to start shooting in December 1981 (and screen tests for actors took place – including actress P.T. Horn who appeared briefly in JAWS 3-3D (1983)), but since alligators hibernate the winter the projected starting date was bumped to March 1982 – when they woke up!
Talbot said that THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS would eschew the gimmicky everything-bar-the-kitchen sink 3D approach of COMIN’ AT YA!. He said: “We may use the off-screen effect maybe eight times in the entire picture. … We’ll use the clarity of depth of field in bringing you into the story and getting you totally involved in the story, the characters, the relationships and the red herrings. … And when the images do come off the screen, the audience will jump right out of their seats.” Talbot also said that 3D system would have been the most advanced one yet envisaged – with 12 focal lengths (as opposed to COMIN’ AT YA!’s four). “It allows us to bring the image off the screen right up to your nose and keep it there.”, he enthused.
Fangoria reported in 1982 that THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS was still being touted amongst other titles – especially horror ones – as part of 1982’s 3D boom. In July 1982, it was announced that the project had officially changed its name to BAYOU. It was reported at the same time that King-Hitzig Productions was close to folding – something that Alan King and Rupert Hitzig denied. But, it’s worth noting their production company didn’t turn anything to fruition beyond WOLFEN in 1981. And, as the years went by, so did eventually the 3D craze of the early 1980s. Brud Talbot appeared as an actor in several films in the early-mid 1960s and co-directed the 1973 horror/comedy THE CASE OF THE SMILING STIFFS (1973) with none other than Sean Cunningham – the director of FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980). Sadly, he passed away in 1986 at just age 48. But the story of THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS – or BAYOU – doesn’t quite end there …
Director Bill Condon not only wrote the 1981 quasi-slasher STRANGE BEHAVIOUR he also played the first victim. He went on to direct CANDYMAN: FAREWELL TO THE FLESH (1995) and hit critical pay-dirt with the James Whale biopic GODS AND MONSTERS (1998) – but he made his debut with SISTER, SISTER in 1987. SISTER, SISTER was made from a revised script of – yes, THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS. The film, which starred Jennifer Jason Leigh (who, herself, debuted in slasher movie EYES OF A STRANGER (1981)) and Eric Stoltz – seemed to have little to do with what was originally announced, but kept its locale. Whilst the film fizzled rather than sizzled at the box office, there was some drama in the courtroom when the filmmakers were accused of plagiarism of a 1972 screenplay – later renamed SLEEP TIGHT, LITTLE SISTER. The filmmakers successfully argued that SISTER, SISTER was actually based on THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS – which was based on a screenplay written in the 1970s by Ginny Cerrella and Leon Bing (although copyright records go back as far as 1969 perhaps suggesting the project was originally conceived as a Southern Gothic piece along the lines of HUSH… HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964) or DEAR DEAD DELILAH (1972).
Whether, both of these titles are one and the same is probably now lost to the mists of time – as is the version that would have popped off screens and scared moviegoers back in the early 1980s. Sleeping alligators, restrained 3D and pretensions to making a ‘serious’ thriller perhaps killed THE LOUISIANA SWAMP MURDERS stone dead (surely a cheesy slasher would have made the box offices zing in 1982 – as it did with FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III?). Either way, not all’s lost – if you want to see killer gators working with a crazed killer we’ll always have Tobe Hopper’s EATEN ALIVE (aka DEATH TRAP) (1976).
Pre-dating THE INITIATION (1983), CHOPPING MALL (1986) and PHANTOM OF THE MALL: ERIC’S REVENGE (1989) was THE MALL. Announced with some ballyhoo at Cannes in 1981 this Hemdale to-be-produced slasher was promoted as being very much cut from the same cloth as FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980). Its promotional artwork showed a knife poking out of a jagged hole in a shopping bag (the tagline being “shopping at the mall is murder”).
Scant plot details reported by Starburst Magazine suggested that the story concerned a group of teenagers partying at a mall after everyone else has gone home at night. They are subsequently picked off one-by-one by a deranged killer who has made the mall his home; who has recently escaped from an asylum after killing his parents when he was a child. At the time, director George Cosmatos enthusiastically described why he thought this concept would hit a nerve with global audiences: “The mall background is so similar worldwide that I expect moviegoers from Bangkok to Kyoto to Helsinki to Naples to be equally familiar with such complexes and thus to experience the same kind of shocks and terror from the action drama they will be watching. The setting will be like another actor in the picture.”
Cosmatos, who went on to direct RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II in 1985, boasted such set pieces as a murder in the lingerie department and another where a teen is decapitated in a bowling alley. He also promised innovative camera tricks to “… get in on my characters atmosphere, and thus create further frightening visual experience.”
Hemdale - who would hit pay-dirt a few years later with THE TERMINATOR (1984) - had distributed the New Zealand lensed semi slasher STRANGE BEHAVIOIUR (aka DEAD KIDS) that year. However, neither this nor their other quasi slasher project THE GRADUATION PARTY (Paul Lynch’s mooted follow up to the previous year’s PROM NIGHT (1980), which had Maniac’s Joe Spinell hunting marooned teenagers on a deserted island) came to light - presumably after failing to secure full funding at the festival. However, Starburst Magazine did state that THE MALL was “currently before cameras” (although, seemingly contradictorily, it also stated that the role of the killer had not yet been cast). If any footage was shot (principal photography was due to commence on June 15th - a month after Cannes), it’s sadly never seen the light of day.
A strange title and something of an enigma. MURDER BY ADOPTION got a single mention as an upcoming project in an advert in an issue of Variety (March 1981). A reason to take notice is that it was one of two upcoming horror projects by East End Productions, who had been involved with William Lustig's MANIAC (1980) - and who were crowing about its box office success in a full page advert in the movie industry magazine. However, it is worth noting that East End Productions did not produce MANIAC, but did provide post-production services with the company's Lorenzo Marinelli editing it. However, the financial success of Lustig's film appears to have motivated East End Productions - and Marinelli - to get their own slice of the slasher movie pie.
The other film that did get made - and was announced at the same time - was Doris Wishman's slasher mess-terpiece A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER. Which was listed as "in production" by East End Productions and somewhat amusingly as "1981's Most Important Horror Film" (!). As a side note, Wishman's movie became an infamously lost slasher film in its own right when much of the original cut was destroyed (either by a fire or by a disgruntled technician according to Wishman herself). This necessitated her to reshoot much of the movie with a different actress (porn star Samantha Fox) and production wrapped in 1983. The film went unreleased for so long that JER Pictures borrowed the the title for the tagline of Roberta Findlay's supernatural slasher BLOOD SISTERS (1986). It had also been used as a tagline to promote some Canadian screenings of PROM NIGHT (back in 1980). The film got a belated VHS release by the MPI Media Group in 1989 (ten years after original production started in 1979). A further twist was that the supposedly lost original version was not actually destroyed at all and, in 2018 (16 years after Wishman's death), was discovered in the possession of the film's cinematographer, C. Davis Smith. This version was released to YouTube.
So, back to MURDER BY ADOPTION. It is unclear if this was a slasher movie or not. But, given the success of MANIAC it seems likely. Plus the fact that - as charmingly incoherent as it was - A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER was also a slasher (it was directly inspired by the success of HALLOWEEN (1978)). More so that the accompanying blurb called it: "The chilling story of a psycho madman ... " However, it is unclear what the adoption of the title refers to? 'Murder by Adoption' is seemingly a term that arose in Victorian England referring to the practice of 'baby farming'. In essence, the selling of unwanted babies for money - many of whom would die before being sold due ill health or neglect. However, reading between the lines, it seems that MURDER BY ADOPTION might refer to a child who was adopted who grew into the next Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees or even Frank Zito. Given the somewhat confused messaging, it is unlikely that the title would have stuck. However, whether it morphed into anything else or remained undelivered remains a mystery ..
Mooted to be Paul Lynch’s follow-up to PROM NIGHT (1980), his slasher hit of the year before with Jamie Lee Curtis. The premise of this sounded great: marooned teenagers menaced on a remote island by none other than Joe Spinell (who was at the time was also a hot horror property after MANIAC (1980)).
Actors Kathy McCallen (EVILSPEAK (1981)) and Sandy Christopher had already been cast and the film – from Hemdale – was touted at Cannes 1981 as going into production in June that year. Starburst Magazine called it: “Prom Night meets The Island in a Blue Lagoon” as part of their Cannes report. They elaborated on the plot: “[the teenagers] … survive a seaplane crash en-route to a weekend prom party on a private island retreat. They end up very wet on a desert isle, where soon enough Joe Spinell, with his new Cannes tan, and John Quaid (from Clint Eastwood's Any Which Way You Can) arrive as a pair of tequila-drunk drug-dealers who set about raping and torturing the kids. They kill one, as well.” Joe Spinell was at Cannes shooting – guerrilla-style – David Winters’ slasher with Caroline Munro THE LAST HORROR FILM (which utilised the film festival at as a glamourous – and free – back drop). Very possibly he helped promote THE GRADUATION PARTY whilst he was there. Co-producer for the film was Dan Grodnik who was executive producer on TERROR TRAIN (1980).
Starburst reported (presumably mistakenly) that THE GRADUATION PARTY had already started filming to avoid an upcoming director’s strike. They also said that it had the best poster at Cannes after CREEPSHOW (1982) with the familiar sounding tagline: “The lucky ones weren’t invited”. They also mentioned that Hemdale had accidentally stated in promotional materials that it was being directed by David – not Paul – Lynch!
Whether any footage of THE GRADUATION PARTY was ever shot by Paul Lynch is unknown, but like its Hemdale slasher stablemate THE MALL nothing saw the light-of-day (very possibly because not securing enough interest at Cannes in advanced sales). However, what we do know was that Paul Lynch shot HUMONGOUS next (although not for Hemdale) – sans Spinell, McCallen and Christopher – which shared its remote island setting with a more typical slasher storyline. To add one further mystery, HUMONGOUS (under its original spelling HUMUNGUS) was already being talked as Paul Lynch’s next $1.5 million budgeted project – back in 1980 …
Thanks to our friends at Alone in the Dark: A Century of Stalk and Slash it has been uncovered that the film was eventually made and released in 1985 as OUT OF CONTROL (without Paul Lynch or Hemdale’s involvement).
NOT the film released in 1986 (filmed in 1984) about a female scientist who turns three girls into monsters (nor the UK retitling for SLEEPAWAY CAMP (1983)). The script for NIGHTMARE WEEKEND (dated October 28, 1980) by Richard Natale features two slasher villains: an undead man with a hook for a hand and a psychotic clown who stalks and kills teenagers, as well as menaces a babysitter and her younger siblings at a remote house. It also has the distinction of killing off several young children, a Ouija board, and half the movie being a nightmare…
The plot revolves around Candy, a seventeen-year-old girl who is in charge of babysitting her prank-loving younger brother and even younger sister. She discovers that the house they live in was once the home of a man who murdered his wife and her lover with his hook, then killed teenagers who were necking near a stream on his property.
“And at the same moment, there is a sharp sound of smashing glass.
He turns to see the girl . . .
WITH A METAL HOOK AROUND HER THROAT, being pulled away.
He reaches forward to pull the hook away, catching his finger between the hook and the girl's throat.
The finger is snapped right off. Blood gushes forth.
The boy screams in pain and terror. He jumps back.
And as he does, the girl is pulled through the broken window - kicking and flailing.”
After disposing of the bodies of two teens he has killed by pushing their car into the (presumably very deep) stream, he gets his hook caught in the door and is dragged underwater to his death.
Candy doesn’t believe the tales but has her own problems because she experiences flashbacks of a clown’s face that scared her at a funfair when she was four. She is also having dreamlike premonitions of violent deaths, including her younger sister’s. Her parents want a date night, so they persuade Candy to babysit her younger siblings. However, it turns out that the man with the hook is simply no legend; he kills the motel receptionist where the couple is staying, and they crash off the road when they see him standing in the middle of the road with the woman’s body. Back home, Candy’s younger brother and his friend sneak out to play tricks on teenage couples necking in cars at the beauty spot across from their house. They see the return of a man with a hook, who kills a teenage boy and attacks his girlfriend in her car.
“WHEN THE HOOK SMASHES THROUGH THE WINDOW.
Maryann screams and jumps clear across the seat to the driver’s side, her full weight falling on the horn.
The hook pierces through the broken glass, grappling for her.
She screams and screams.”
Trying to escape, Candy’s brother runs into the body of his friend hanging from a tree. He rushes back home, but the man with the hook kills him before he can reach safety. The killer breaks into the house and finds Candy and her sister hiding in a closet. Although she tries to shield her sister, the man kills the little girl and looms over Candy, revealing the face of a grinning evil clown. Then ... she wakes up from a nightmare!
However, upon waking, Candy experiences a sense of déjà vu as time seems to reset, and her parents leave for their date, again leaving her to babysit her siblings. Later, she hears screams from her neighbours, and it turns out that a student dressed as a clown has gone psycho and killed other teenagers.
“TV ANNOUNCER: A madman, believed to be the rejected admirer of a college co-ed, ran amok at a fraternity masquerade tonight, killing at least four people. The man, believed to be in his early 20s, escaped before police arrived. He was last seen heading west, driving a large jeep -- and dressed as a clown.”
Once he arrives, a variation of the previous carnage repeats.
“Candy races into the kitchen and retrieves the car keys, which hang on the inside of a cupboard.
She hears glass smash. .….
She turns with a start to see a panel from the kitchen door smashed and the clown's hand grasping for the doorknob.
She backs away through the swinging door.”
Candy manages to escape with her brother and sister after the police shoot the psycho clown dead, right after he tries to get into their car to kill them. However, when leaving their house, Candy thinks she sees the man from her nightmare looming behind them. Her brother tells her she’s just seeing things, but as the car speeds away…
“THERE IS A HOOK CAUGHT IN THE HANDLE.”
While this appears to be an early draft, complete with typos, some confusing plotting, and a slightly different synopsis compared to the short one that appeared in Fangoria, the script contains some original ideas that could have made for an entertaining teen slasher if it had been made and released in 1981. The hook-handed villain is reminiscent of Jason Voorhees’ watery home and, coincidentally, the almost folkloric Madman Marz — and is clearly inspired by the urban legend of The Hook of Lover’s Lane. A twist is that he is undead — a zombie with a hook and a hatred of teenagers! Although it seems the script hasn’t fully nailed this down yet, as the killer is sometimes described as having hooves instead of feet. It’s also unusual to have two slasher villains, and this would have been one of the first killer clowns in the subgenre.
Another novelty is that the script explores the idea of nightmares (four years before Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)). Perhaps the biggest surprise is that four children are bumped off (one of them twice!), which is not something you'd typically see in a slasher movie of that time.
NIGHTMARE WEEKEND was still reported as being in development in the pages of Fangoria back in 1981 -- from Roger Corman’s New World Pictures.
The playful synopsis: “This time it’s a maniac who likes killing people with a sharp hook. … It seems that there are several neat twists with this one. With a butcher knife left in the kitchen, the killer is murdered before the opening credits. To make things more interesting, he returns as a zombie-of-sorts and continues to find and kill young, nubile teenagers who are out for a late-night party.” That synopsis slightly differs from the script I have, which might suggest an updated version may have been released. However, Corman had told the Los Angeles Times in late November 1980 that, "Yes. I’ve just canceled production on a horror film.” He wasn’t anti-riding the slasher bandwagon, as seen in the next year’s SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982), but it seems that NIGHTMARE WEEKEND never got beyond planning stages and was the casualty he was referring to.
Want to read the script for NIGHTMARE WEEKEND? I have uploaded my copy of the original October 1980 version and it is available to all my Ko-fi supporters here.
This Australian film was listed as in production (as opposed to pre-production) in the trade journal The Cinema Papers in its May/June 1981 issue. The plot certainly sounded like it was intended as a slasher movie: “A psychopath, enthralled by horror films, emulates what he sees on the screen. The dramatic climax is a night of horror at a drive-in cinema.” What is especially intriguing about this entry is the fact that the coverage lists everything from its budget ($500,000) to its length (90 minutes) to director (Maurice Murphy) to cast (Drew Forsythe as Vincent and six other roles – including the debut role for actress Joy Smithers) to production company (Universal Entertainment) to even the caterers and where the film was mixed! However, this film is not listed on IMDB.
The same issue of The Cinema Papers lists another film GOOSE FLESH as being in production – with the exact same cast and crew – but with a slightly different synopsis: “A spoof on horror films past and present”. The website Tabula Rasa, under their ‘Killer Koala’ list of Australian horror movies has this entry: “Horror Movie (Maurice Murphy, 1981) aka Goose Flesh. PC: Universal Entertainment Corporation. A spoof in which a psychopath re-plays events depicted in various horror films.” What is odd is that HORROR MOVIE sounds like a straight slasher flick – whereas GOOSE FLESH was intended as a parody. So which was it? Well, director Maurice Murphy claimed in Famous Monsters Magazine (189) that they were two different films – with HORROR MOVIE “soon-to-be-completed” and GOOSE FLESH up next. “They’d make a really good double bill at a drive-in”, he claimed.
The mystery doesn’t end there. None of the principal cast and crew are listed as being involved with either movie on IMDB. So, given that it was listed as in production – and with all those details – does at least one of them exist and if so is it sat on a shelf somewhere unreleased? Well, the truth lies somewhere in-between …
HORROR MOVIE exists. At least part of it does – or did. Filming was halted for reasons undisclosed after nine days. Nine days is sufficient time to get a lot of footage in the can (and some on-set stills showed what looked like a film akin to FADE TO BLACK (1980) with what is presumably the killer taking on the guise of famous horror movie villains such as Count Dracula). In the November/December 1981 edition of The Cinema Papers, Murphy said that despite the shutdown he hoped filming would resume quickly. He also expanded on both HORROR MOVIE and GOOSE FLESH. Originally, he wanted to just do another comedy (coming off the hit FATTY FINN (1980)). “I then began to wonder at the kind of challenge it would be for me to stop making it funny. … I am intrigued that some people find horror films horrific and others think them funny. One group will believe in it and go shiver, shiver, while another group will laugh all the way through. I am hoping our film isn’t going to be one people laugh at.“ The director was especially interested in using actors known for their comedic roles in a straight horror film: “It is a shame nobody has thought of using comedians to do a horror film before, because comedy is so close to being grotesque.” The comedic GOOSE FLESH was set to be filmed – some reports say concurrently – with the same cast and similar plot. In essence, Murphy was intending to lampoon his own movie: “What would happen if I made a parody of a film which I had shot myself? It’s not a bad idea, really.”
The films were independently financed – with some backing from The Australian Film Commission. Murphy had argued that, for financial success: “… what audiences want is last year’s American success.” He was, of course, talking about the slasher movie boom – although he was said it would have a unique Australian spin: “If I try and make a carbon copy of Friday the 13th, the critics would probably say how boring it was.” Sadly, neither critics nor audiences got to judge HORROR MOVIE nor GOOSE FLESH as production never restarted.
Australian trade magazine The Cinema Papers detailed that this was in pre-production in the second half of 1982. The short synopsis was intriguing: "A suspense thriller horror film of a night watchman who spends his last shift in a department store. Twelve hours later, two men are insane, three men are dead and there is blood everywhere." ... Whilst it is unclear if it was a slasher movie, it certainly sounds like it was going to be - and, in the early 1980s, "suspense thriller horror film" was pretty a code term for the subgenre.
DEATHWATCH was due to star actor Hugh Keays-Byrne. He is probably best remembered for his role as Toecutter in MAD MAX (1979), but had also appeared in the same year's SNAPSHOT as a photographer with a macabre fascination (the film that was infamously - and misleadingly - retro-packaged as a sequel to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (1978)). No film in Keays-Bryne's filmography matches the description of DEATHWATCH. However, the project went unproduced until it morphed into what was eventually released as DANGEROUS GAME in 1988. DEATHWATCH and DANGEROUS GAME shared several elements, including the same screenwriter (Peter West), producer (Judith West) and production company (Virgo Productions). DANGEROUS GAME was co-directed by Stephen Hopkins just before he took the mantle for high profile horror sequels A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: THE DREAM CHILD (1989) and PREDATOR 2 (1990). Somewhat ironically, the plot had changed (while the setting remained) to teens being menaced by a psycho policeman in a mall; which was far more typical of early 1980s slashers than the original 1982 synopsis. Comparisons were also made to DIE HARD, although that may have simply been co-incidental as they were both released the same year.
In October 1980, it was reported by Box Office Magazine that Seymour Borde and Associates had acquired rights to a slasher called RIPPED TO SHREDS with a screenplay by Michael Johnson – and the film would begin filming in December by Raich Productions.
The plot concerned two teenage female cousins investigating the origins of an urban legend about a series of murders back in the 1960s around the fictional town of Shadow Hills. Along with their hapless boyfriends, they discover it wasn't an urban legend at all and the surviving girl from that night now lives with her overbearingly religious zealot of a father. They also discover that their cheerleader friend was actually murdered rather than died in a car accident after she and her boyfriend visited Shadow Hills after a beach party. Another woman - a local waitress - is murdered despite being with two burly truckers. Determined to find out what happened, the teenage sleuths put their safety at risk with the attentions of a sleazy cop (who may be involved in the death of a teenage sex worker) and find themselves firmly on the radar of a pre-Freddy claw-handed killer who still stalks the woods at night ..
A year later, in October 1981, Fangoria reported that Donald F. Glut – after completing the script for ULTRAMAN – would take up the directorial reigns on the delayed project. Glut was quoted as saying: “I was a little hesitant at first, it being another man-with-a-knife story, but there are a few things that serve to make this one unique.” Not least of all the plan was to make it in 3D! Glut recalled to Videojunkie.org “Ripped to Shreds was a standard slasher movie. I don’t remember what the plot was. I think there was a lot of teenagers getting killed or something like that. It ended actually with the girl being the hero, which was kind of a nice twist.” Is that a twist?!
Seymour Borde had been the executive producer on 1979’s SUMMER CAMP. He was keen to get a slice of the slasher movie action, but – although it was again listed as being prepped for summer 1983 Starburst Magazine said that the film was “requiring final funding” – RIPPED TO SHREDS never materialised.
That was until ... the project was given a new lease-of-life in an upcoming project described as a "A period-authentic graphic novel adaptation of the infamous lost 80s slasher screenplay." It is currently raising money on Kickstarter: "RIPPED TO SHREDS is an oversized, full-color graphic novel that faithfully adapts Michael Johnson's infamous “Lost Slasher” screenplay from 1980. Painstakingly period-accurate, with a studied reverence for the era and a "cast" featuring legacy horror actors Russell Todd and Lauren-Marie Taylor from Friday the 13th Part 2, RIPPED TO SHREDS strives to recreate the experience of watching a classic 80s slasher film... in comic book form."
Find out more on and how you can support the project on Kickstarter!
Before Richard Franklin made the official sequel to the Granddaddy of all slasher flicks in 1983, the media was abuzz with chatter about an earlier attempt to bring Norman back to the Bates Motel – and this time with Jamie Lee Curtis!
An outfit called The Picture Striking Company (headed by Gary Travis and Michael January) had planned their own unofficial sequel called THE RETURN OF NORMAN (which had scandalised the LA press due to the fact that the rights remained with Universal Studios and Robert Bloch, the author of the novel PSYCHO, was hopping mad about the idea – especially as he had penned his own sequel that was about to be published). A script was produced in 1980. A $9 million project was announced in August of 1981 – with Doc Erickson producing – to begin shooting in early 1982. Reportedly they had reached out to Anthony Perkins (who they said was keen) and Vera Miles – as well as offering Jamie Lee Curtis the role of Lila’s daughter (of course her mother in real life Janet Leigh had portrayed the iconic and ill-fated Marion Crane). Travis and January admitted that Curtis had called the role “dumb” (she was mooted to die not in a shower but in a hot tub – how 1982!). But they suggested she was not totally opposed to being involved. Travis and January were also hoping to woo back Martin Balsam (despite him dying in the first film) as Norman’s shrink – failing that they had their eyes on Donald Pleasence. In the proposed screenplay Miles’ character buys the now abandoned Bates Motel, hoping to rid the memory of her sisters’ brutal murder by Norman – who has coincidentally just escaped a mental institution (ala Michael Myers).
Universal Pictures (who owned the property outright) quickly lawyered up – which, in turn, inadvertently kick-start the actual sequel we eventually saw after they were surprised by the obvious interest in the project. Other reports suggest that none of the original cast were interested in Travis and January’s version (probably once they got wind of Universal’s displeasure and subsequent desire to make their own official sequel). It was reported that they re-wrote the screenplay to replace any copyright infringing elements and retitled it THE RETURN OF THE PSYCHO. Although a PSYCHO sequel made at the height of the slasher movie boom sounded intriguing, this version ultimately came to nothing.
Unlike many films on this list, this film WAS made – and was shown for one week at a cinema (and has been M.I.A ever since)!
SILENT DEATH was shot in May and June of 1982 in Elizabeth, Union and Freehold, New Jersey by director Vaughn Christion. One of the very few people to actually see the movie was Gore Gazette’s Rick Sullivan during its week-long run at the Paramount Theater in Newark, New Jersey on February 18th 1983. He said: "An almost unwatchable slasher/black exploitation/police drama about a masked assailant who is carving up members of an organized crime ring with a straight razor." He called it “… a 69 minute sub-Z abomination … [with] … constantly out of focus camera, inaudible sound and cheesy looking orange blood.”
More details emerged in a recent Strublog blog titled In Search of Newark’s Great Lost Grindhouse Auteur: The Vaughn Christion Story, which is well worth a read. In an interview with Christion it details how the director was working at the Paramount Theatre and enquired how he could get a film shown there. He was told that if it was in 35mm there was a good chance that it would be. So, SILENT DEATH was born (blown up from 16mm to 35mm) – and the cinema manager was good to his word. Christion hints that a few Mom-n-Pop stores also got videos copies of the film in New Jersey, but no copy has yet surfaced.
A killer in an Einstein mask and sporting pink rubber gloves killing members of a horror film society? It’s no legend. It actually happened. On videotape at least …
Many of us lucky enough to be teenagers in the latter part of the 1980s made slasher movies with our friends on a parent’s hulking camcorder. Watched once to much amusement and never seen again, there was no thought of ever making them commercially available. However, we can trace CARNAGE HALL - and even its mooted sequel - to a late 1980s student production at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. A synopsis exists on IMDB: “A mad killer is loose, preying on the residents of the coolest male dormitory ever.” The film was directed by student John Harvey and written by fellow students David Andriesen, Todd Camp and Kevin Schmidt - under the banner of Rimshot Productions. The four of them also appeared in the film and are listed as playing themselves. The group were part of the self-named ‘The Carnage Committee’; a horror film society in the Tom Brown Hall’s of residence, who told a local newspaper that after seeing 500 terror pics they could make a better one.
The makers admit that their film started as a bit of fun, but soon turned into something of an obsession. In September of 1988, Camp told the campus newspaper TCU Daily Skiff: “It became a personal vendetta to finish Carnage Hall.” The piece describes the film as a 75-minute “horror-comedy” and led with the tagline: “The men of Tom Brown thought horror was funny. … They were wrong. Dead wrong.” With only a $200 budget - three-quarters of which went on videotape - the film was intended as a self-referential slasher parody with a killer sick of his fellow dorm-mates watching horror movies and who decides to kill them off. They aimed to find original ways to kill the cast with DIY sfx - including sausages wrapped in latex doubling as crushed fingers. “All of our fx was edible”, joked Andriesen. Deaths included impalement, a TV antenna pushed through an eye socket, a couple scalded to death in a shower and even someone being forcibly drowned in their own vomit! With a canny eye on publicity, the makers roped in the film critic of the Fort-Worth Star Telegram and a cable TV writer to appear as bumbling cops.
Although the film had its premiere at the university to an audience of 300 people in May of 1988 - and despite a semi-professional poster existing - the film has largely remained unseen since. The reason for this is probably because the movie used music scores and cues from existing horror movies by John Carpenter, John Williams and Danny Elfman. In other words, it could never be commercially released unless a whole new score was added.
In December 2016, there was a showing of CARNAGE HALL at Hamilton’s Trash Cinema in Ontario, Canada. The author of the blog The Horror Section says he attended and described it as such: “A killer in an Albert Einstein mask dispatches the residents of university dorm during an all-night horror movie marathon.” Going on to further say: “The whole retro/self aware horror movement is all the rage today, so it was a little surreal to see a similarly minded movie of that time. While Carnage Hall isn't a full-on parody, like say 1981's Student Bodies, it does have a good deal of referential comedy.” Also: “I can't say there was much attempt made at a story here. It was basically just a bunch of scenes and gags strung together, but it did boast a high body count even if the gore was somewhat rudimentary. If this movie had been feature-length, it may have been less palatable, but at a scant hour-long I felt it entertained me throughout.”
Although the members of Rimshot swore they would never make a sequel they warmed to the idea three days after the film’s premiere on campus. Andriesen told the TCU Daily Skiff: “We looked at ‘Carnage Hall’ and said, ‘If only we could start over with the experience we have now, we could make it better.” The mooted sequel was called POST MORTEM: RETURN TO CARNAGE HALL and was set to feature real actors and an original soundtrack utilising local bands. The makers said they would use better-quality videotape (the type used for sitcoms) and that the film would be marketable for a video release. The idea for the sequel was for it to pick up five years after: “ … the 30-person massacre that took place in “Carnage Hall”” Camp and Schmidt intended to reprise their roles, but as ghosts looking to help new residents: “ … rid the dorm of the evil spirit which caused the original massacre.” The only other details were that the sequel would be: “ … a horror-comedy with a romantic twist.”
Andriesen said that he wanted to see the script for POST MORTEM finished. “After that, I’d like to topple the Steven Spielberg empire”, he told the student paper. It is not known whether the sequel would have been a slasher or whether any - or even all of it - was shot. But, even more than the first film, it is firmly MIA.
Whilst not scaring up much box office in its native Germany, Boris von Sychowski's THE POOL (2001) was a modest surprise hit at cinemas in Italy. Anyone familiar with slasher movies knows that success tends to breed sequels.
THE POOL 2 (2005) is the stuff of, well not exactly legend, but certainly speculation for nearly 20 years (hence its inclusion in this list). The truth is that THE POOL 2 does actually exist. Well, kinda. It has been speculated that the film didn't exist and had been a figment of some IMDB prankster. Remember the days of searching for the fictional GORY GRADUATION and SUMMERHOUSE SLAUGHTER? Others postulated that THE POOL 2 was simply a retitling of another film. Namely the 2001 slasher DO YOU WANNA KNOW A SECRET?. A trailer exists for THE POOL 2 that features footage from that film dubbed into Italian. Both movies share much of the same cast according to IMDB. However, it is highly unlikely that a cast for a low-budget slasher movie is going to reassemble for a sequel to another movie entirely four years after it was shot.
Still, there were intriguing breadcrumbs across the internet. The most striking of which was the cover of the Italian genre magazine Nocturno in 2004 which promised an exclusive look at THE POOL 2. Confusingly, it featured artwork that had originally been used for David DeCoteau's FINAL STAB (also 2001).
Who better to ask that the director listed on IMDB: Tiziano Pellegris? Luckily for me, he answered! Yes, THE POOL 2 does exist. It was briefly released to Italian screens but has not been seen since 2005. There have been no official home video or digital releases to date. Pellegris - who has been involved in Italian TV for many years - was hired for the project. He told me that the rights had been purchased for a film - DO YOU WANNA KNOW A SECRET? - to be "modified" for an Italian audience. Not only did this involve adding an Italian dub, but also shooting new footage as "connecting scenes". People that have claimed to have seen THE POOL 2 say that this new footage - with Italian actors - added an opening murder in a pool and an extended ending. I have seen photos of the Pellegris on set with an actor in the same mask as the killer from DO YOU WANNA KNOW A SECRET?.
Although it is a little unclear, it seems - reading between the lines - that either the rights to the film were not as clear cut as previously thought or they did not have permission to use the name THE POOL 2. Either way, it means that - what Pellegris refers to as the "case" - has essentially put his film in distribution limbo and is unlikely to become 'unlost' anytime soon ...