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Directed by David Schmoeller
Cult Video/Koch Vision/Full Moon DVD
REVIEW BY SHANE
A group of dumb, cool young people in a rad Jeep just out trying to have some fun on a lovely summer day are about to run into Mr. Slausen, a crazy old fucker played by Chuck Connors, who has an obsession with animated mannequins and wax figures, and keeping his goofy ass museum “slausens lost oasis” open in spite of the governement building a new highway that diverted traffic from his stupid ‘lost oasis’. Kind of like the same trouble that the later years of the ‘bates motel’ had…goddamned government and dumb new highways!
As the film opens the good-looking young people are actually traveling in two vehicles. The couple in the first vehicle have a blowout and the boyfriend in said vehicle walks ahead to get air in a spare that had no air, fucking idiot. He finds a gas station and in the first five minutes of this movie he is attacked by supernatural mannequins, doors, and a cabinet of paint…its creepy and goofy at the same time. I love it.
Meanwhile, the second group has caught up to the stranded car in the afformentioned rad jeep, they move on to find the boyfriend, but when they stumble across a lovely waterfall-fed swimming hole (after the jeep breaks down of course) that one of the halter-topped chicks calls “paradise”, he is all but forgotten. The girls skinny dip, although the film shows no nudity, which is dumb, and quite surprising, and very dissapointing for a slasher film of the late 70s.
Enter Mr. Slausen, he shows up quickly and out of nowhere at the swimming hole and scares them with his big hat, overalls and shotgun, but befriends and charms ‘em at the same time with his kindness and crazy, nostalgic old fella ways. He then lures them into “slausens lost oasis” with a promise to help them.
Of course, the waterheads fall right into his trap and one by one become the victim of this whacked old koot who, during the kill scenes, wears various mannequin-like masks/wigs/outfits and adopts a fucking retarded voice while in “character” while all the figures around him in his museum come to life complete with animated gaping mouths and fucking beyond absurd “aaahhhh” voice effects. To me, this is howlingly funny, but I’m a weirdo so you might find it just dumb. A scene in which Slausen is having soup with a mannequin is side-splitting…while he and the dummy are discussing how good the crackers are, the mannequin’s head falls off…it kills me and I laugh and laugh! You can see a big influence from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre throughout various scenes in this film. A few moments are so similar its jawdropping. See if you can spot the Psycho influences as well…not too hard to find. One of the animated wax figures (an indian) even gets a kill in the later stages of the movie via an airborne tomahawk in the neck. I won’t giveaway the details of the final scene, but I will say that its a comedy of errors that is rivaled by none. Blood and gore is non-existent in this film, but weirdness, bad overacting, and general silliness rounded out by some truly creepy scenes are abundent.
This DVD is presented in widescreen but I had to set my player to letterbox see it that way on my TV. The film looks very good, some very minor grain and scratches show up, but for the most part it looks great. The colors (especially outdoor scenes) are nicely saturated, a property I like in movies. The audio is stereo 2.0, so if you have surround, its all up front. The score is goofy, dated, dumb, and brilliant. At times very fitting and creepy, other times so out of place and jarring its hilarious.
Extras include various trailers for 80’s tits and ass masterpieces such as ‘assault of the killer bimbos’ and ‘cannibal women in the avacado jungle of death’, as well as a short interview with the director, a commentary track with the director, and other shit you probably don’t care about. The feature trailer is also included.
In closing, this film is by no means an exceptional piece of movie-making as far a mainstream audiences and critics go, but to me its and hour and a half of sheer stupid entertainment and an underappreciated slasher classic.
Review by Music Editor Shane:
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