Lawrence Dane | Scott's Film Reviews-1,529 Reviews posted!!! RECENTLY LAUNCHED-MY TOP 250 FAVORITE FILMS AND TOP 40 HORROR FILMS!!!

Happy Birthday to Me-1981

Director J. Lee Thompson

Starring Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford

Top 40 Horror Films #39

Scott’s Review #621

Reviewed March 4, 2017

Grade: A-

Happy Birthday to Me is a 1981 slasher film that I fondly remember scaring the shit out of me as a little kid, too young to be watching a film of this nature, but sneaking into my parents’ bedroom with my brother to catch it on HBO.

Certain that the film helped shape my passion for the horror genre, I hold a fondness for it- critics be damned.

My opinion is that the film is a small treasure in the land of 1980s slasher films, containing a neat whodunit and a grotesque ending.

Melissa Sue Anderson, desiring to break out of her nice television persona, thanks to the wholesome Little House on the Prairie, is cast in the lead role.

Happy Birthday to Me also earns merit, as it is directed by acclaimed British director J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear).

Anderson carries the film quite well in a challenging part, and Glenn Ford co-stars as a Doctor.

Virginia Wainwright is a pretty and popular senior at exclusive Crawford Academy- a school for elite, rich kids. She is part of the “Top Ten”, the most popular and richest kids in the school. The ten friends meet nightly at the local pub.

One night, Bernadette, one of the top ten, is murdered by an assailant on her way to meet her friends.

This murder sets the tone as, one by one, the others are subsequently killed off, sending the school and local townspeople into a frenzy of panic.

To thicken the plot, Virginia was involved in a horrible car accident four years earlier, which killed her mother and caused Virginia to have only sparse memories of the accident.

This piece is key to the film’s mystery.

There are many comparisons I can make to slasher classics that heavily influenced Happy Birthday to Me, but the most prominent must be 1978’s Halloween.

The character of Virginia is very similar to Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in their somewhat virginal, good-girl characters, and both have almost identical hairstyles!

Also, Happy Birthday to Me successfully uses the killer’s point of view, as the camera frequently serves as the perspective of either the killer or someone lurking, spying on others.

The film also “looks” similar to Halloween.

The whodunit aspect is the most effective among the film’s qualities. There are a multitude of likely suspects, and the film does not shy away from this, purposely casting doubt on several characters- could it be the creepy Alfred, who carries around a pet mouse and creates a fake head of the murdered Bernadette?

Or the suave French student, Etienne, who snoops in Virginia’s bedroom and steals a pair of her panties? Finally, could it be Head Mistress, Mrs. Patterson, a harsh, no-nonsense woman harboring resentment for the snobbish elitism that exists at her school?

When the killer is finally revealed, a measure of pure shock and confusion will undoubtedly transpire- how can this be? But by the time the ultimate finale is played out, all will make sense.

The conclusion does disappoint slightly in the implausibility factor, and the original ending is much more logical and compelling than what was actually in the final cut- rumors have run rampant that the screenplay of the film was rewritten numerous times well into the production, never a good thing.

So, the motivations of the actual killer are quite weak, but the buildup is amazing.

Not to be outdone by the whodunit, the kills themselves are superlative: a shish kabob to the throat, falling gym weights, a scarf caught in the spokes of a bike, and the traditional fireplace poker are done in macabre and fantastic fashion.

We always see the killer’s gloved hands, and we are aware that the victim is friendly with the killer, so we continually try to deduce who it could be.

The gruesome “Birthday party” finale is gruesome and gleeful at the same time. Each murder victim is propped up around a dining room table, each with a party hat on and all in various forms of dismemberment or blood-soaked from their murder wounds.

It is a grim and hilarious reveal. The murderer parades out of the kitchen, wielding an enormous birthday cake, cheerily singing “Happy Birthday to Me”.

This is one great finale.

Happy Birthday to Me (1981) is a wonderful trip down memory lane and still holds up as a key, perhaps overlooked part of the slasher genre that should be rediscovered by fans and followers everywhere.

Bride of Chucky-1998

Director Ronny Yu

Starring Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif

Scott’s Review #680

Reviewed September 11, 2017

Grade: D+

Bride of Chucky (1998) is the fourth installment in the famed late 1980s Child’s Play hit franchise. The late 1980s was not the best time for the horror genre in general, but the film was quite the highlight in a slew of duds.

By this time in the series, (1998), the child/victim of the doll premise is dropped in favor of dark humor, thus the series immerses itself more into the horror-comedy arena.

A treat is the inclusion of a fantastic hard rock soundtrack led by the Rob Zombie classic, Living Dead Girl, adding some points to the film’s final grade, otherwise have been more dismal.

The film is not great and I find perverse pleasure in reviewing poor films. However, Bride of Chucky does have its place- as a late Saturday night viewing choice amid strong cocktails it contains a certain charm.

Not to be taken seriously, the placement of a love interest for Chucky gives the film macabre romantic humor.

Still, the film suffers from lackluster acting and quickly turns into drivel by the time the credits finally roll.

The action picks up from where Child’s Play 3 leaves off and the appearance of Chucky is now weathered and stitched giving the doll a more gruesome and maniacal look- this works given the elimination of a child lead character.

Left for evidence in a police compound, Chucky is stolen by Tiffany Valentine, played by Jennifer Tilly. The girlfriend of a deceased serial killer, Tiffany is convinced that the spirit of her boyfriend exists within Chucky and she is determined to bring him back to life using a voodoo ritual.

When the act finally works, Chucky and Tiffany reunite, but shortly afterward, Tiffany is also turned into a doll and the duo sets out on a killing spree.

The best aspect of the film is the camaraderie between Tilly and actor Brad Dourif, who voices Chucky. The duo has a light, comic banter that is fun to watch, as well as fantastic chemistry.

Granted the actors only voice the dolls for a small part of the film, but their back-and-forth works well.

This is what makes Bride of Chucky tongue in cheek- let’s face it, with talking dolls as your main characters, director Ronny Yu wisely avoids making the killings too grisly or heavy-handed, but rather, frequently uses quips and one-liners throughout the film.

As Chucky and Tiffany slice and dice their way to Hackensack, New Jersey, their motivations are to embody a neighborhood boy, Jesse, and his girlfriend Jade, played by a young Katherine Heigl.

Along the trek, the foursome is faced with ludicrous obstacles, such as the brief introduction of a con artist couple who meet their doom by flying shards of glass after stealing Jesse’s money.

The side story of Jade’s overprotective police chief Uncle, played by a miscast John Ritter, does not work at all. His schemes to plant marijuana in Jesse’s van are little more than plot-driven machinations to advance the thin plot.

The characters of Jesse and Jade are trivial and secondary and Heigl’s acting is particularly garish to say nothing of the lack of any chemistry between Heigl and actor Nick Stabile.

Heigl seems to wear a pout throughout the entire film. But, not to worry, these characters are as meaningless as all the others.

The gimmick ending, surely meant to “spawn” yet another sequel is as interesting as it is grotesque and a small highlight in a poor film.

Bride of Chucky (1998) provides a nice lineage to the history of the franchise, a killer musical score, and decent chemistry among the leads, but also suffers a similar fate to many horror films, especially sequels- poor acting, a silly tone, and no character development.