Predator (1987) - 8/10
A US military rescue team is hunted by an unseen assassin in a Central American jungle.
Predator is a mainstream B-movie. The plot is simple, the characters are generic, and the setting is basic. If that's true, then why has this movie been so popular for almost 40 years?
My opinion is that the movie does so much right that it makes up for its flaws.
One of Predator's biggest strengths is its pacing. After we meet our characters, director John McTiernan throws the audience into the jungle right away. As dread begins to build with the discovery of quartered and skinned human corpses, the film is well balanced with a huge gun fight between the rescue team and a local militia. The movie continues this balance of terror and over-the-top action throughout the duration of the run time, and it works very well; there isn't a dull moment in the film.
The movie's characters are extremely memorable, despite surface level character traits and spotty acting. Those flaws are masked by charisma and some of the most muscle bound bodies you'll ever see, in this testosterone dripping sausage fest of a film. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as rescue team leader Dutch, and his performance is wooden by even his standards; he basically lets his muscles do the acting. This movie is serious in nature, but Arnie's character has a ton of random one liners that don't land (ironically, the serious line of "get to the chopper!" is a pop culture staple nearly four decades later).
Fortunately Carl Weathers is also in this film to add some legitimacy to the performances. I actually find Weathers' Dillon character to be the main character for most of the movie. Though Dutch is the group leader, Dillon has the most backstory and clearest character motivations, and we spend a lot of time with him in the jungle and see a lot of things through his eyes. Dillion is actually the first character to see the Predator without its stealth camouflage.
Speaking of the the Predator, the creature is amazing. I think we somewhat take it for granted now because its been tattooed in our minds for the past few decades. It is and was a great horror villain, with an iconic look and unique character traits. The movie famously almost went with an earlier design that looked more like a lizard, which I think would have hurt it considerably. Additional shooting was required after Stan Winston finalized the character as we know him now.
Finally, the music by Alan Silvestri is great. 20th Century Fox continue to use the score of this film in sequels to this day; it's iconic.
Add it all up and you get a movie that has no business being as good as it is, but will probably still be enjoyed by audiences 100 years from now.
Slaughter High (1986) - 4/10
A group of adults are summoned to their high school reunion, only to find out the invitation was a ruse and they're being stalked by a former classmate whom they wronged.
This movie reminds me of the Boris Karloff film The Man They Could Not Hang (1939), or any of the Agatha Christie 'And Then There Were None' film adaptations - except much, much crappier.
Slaughter High is about a nerdy high school student named Marty (Simon Scuddamore - who passed away shortly after production), who's humiliated on April Fool's Day after being tricked into getting naked by his classmates (this is a rare movie with full frontal male nudity). If that wasn't enough, Marty is pranked again, only this time he's horrible burned with acid as a result. 10 years later, Marty tricks his classmates into attending a fake class reunion at their now defunct high school, where he traps everyone inside and goes on a killing spree.
I honestly think the set up is good, but the execution is poor. The kills are a mixed bag, and the movie really struggles with its characters; both in terms of acting and writing. Slaughter High is a UK production with UK actors, but everyone tries to fake American accents and it comes off as awkward.
There's also a reliance on the idiot plot here. I don't know about you, but if I was trapped in my creepy old high school and people were dying around me, I don't think I'd get completely naked and take a bath, nor do I think I'd decide to get naked and have sex. I realize other horror movies have scenes like this - they're practically a slasher genre requirement - but it works in other films because those characters aren't aware of the danger yet. In Slaughter High, any tension that is built up goes away when characters continue to do things that defy logic.
The music in this movie was composed by Harry Manfredini, famous for his work in the Friday the 13th series. I mention this for two reasons. Firstly, the movie actually uses several music cues from the Friday the 13th series, which feel very out of place. Secondly, the new music is truly bizarre; it sounds like something you'd hear if someone slipped on a banana peel, followed by hair metal music. I hated it the first time I heard it in the movie, but I have to say it did grow on me by the end. It's so strange that it somehow works.
The movie does have one cool scene at the very end (major spoiler) -
when Marty, having killed everyone, is haunted by visions of their ghosts. But mostly the movie is below average. I watched it on streaming, and the version available looked like a VHS copy, and was so dark in some instances that I couldn't see what was happening. Even so, I think I saw enough to be confident in my ranking. But they, the movie poster is cool!
