NECROPOLIS (1986)

When I think about the rare horror gems I have encountered, and oh there have been many, one that always sticks out is Necropolis. I saw this tim a few years ago when it aired on a cable movie channel at 2 in the morning. An appropriate time for a special film such as Necropolis . 

Lets start off with the cover art. How fucking bad ass is this? 1980's punk girl in all leather on a motorcycle surrounded by city lights and ominous figures. I really love the play on words and clever tag line. Even the type face used for the film is impressive. It's clean, graphic, pink and sexy. I want to be friends with this motorcycle chick already... oh, and she's the deadly villain from Hell too?!

The film starts 300 years prior to 1980s NYC. We see an evil white haired witch killed while preforming a sacrificial ritual that will enable her to live forever. She comes back 3 centuries later reincarnated, and guess what...she still wants eternal life and beauty, and with the help of new hellish minions. Using her powers of mind control and psychic abilities, she is able to brain wash people into doing things for her, like commit suicide. As each person dies she ingests their souls through drinking the cerebral fluid that is drawn out of their bodies. The cerebral fluid food chain continues with her demonic minions who in turn rely on her for life as well. So comes the scene where she preforms a satanic ritual and unleashes her not 1, not 2, but 3 sets of breasts which soon begin to leak the gooey cerebral fluid from her victims. As this happens her 6 cloaked minions breast feed from her 6 breasts in celebration. 

Meanwhile, a 2 breasted local reporter, a black minister, and a cocky horny investigator are trying to track down who is responsible for these murder victims covered in this mystery fluid. Of course the cute short haired reporter and suave New York City investigator fall for each other, and realize that they too were reincarnated from a past life where they were together...and almost fell victim to our main Witch. 

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When watching this film, you can't go in to this expecting a masterpiece of film work. The director, Bruce Hickey, filmed this while taking a break from directing gay porn (probably why this movie is so awesome).This is for lovers of punk, sleaze, kitsch, cheese, cults, all the good stuff. The dialogue is hilarious, especially that of the sassy gay coroner who said "honey" at the end of every sentence....or the hookers battling with our punkette villain. A deal maker for me were the awesome outfits of our villain. Leather mini skirts, motorcycle jackets, and black tool skirts with short hair and intense makeup givers her an authentic 80s post punk look. My last point is that I like to see this film as empowering to women and even pro feminist due to the fact that our main villain is a female who uses mind control on anyone she wants, especially sleazy men. Both her and our leading woman also rock shorter hair cuts and are depicted as free thinking, strong, and independent.

You can watch this movie in full on youtube!

Nightmare on Elm Street II: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

If you read this blog chances are you have probably seen every one of films in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and better yet, I can imagine that I can write about each and every single one of the films for days on end. So for this post I wanted to start with an unusual part of the series, "Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge".

The plot revolves around 17 year old Jessie, a socially awkward teen male who's family just moved into Nancy Thompson's house from the first Freddy film. Since moving in, Jessie has been having dreams of our burned face razor glove killer. As the story unfolds, weird supernatural things happen in the house. Jessie finds Nancy's old diary and her writings about her battle with Freddy Krueger, he realizes this nightmare man is now out to get him, and better yet, when he falls asleep he becomes Freddy himself, reeking havoc on teenagers of Springwood, again.

Whats odd about this film is that this is the only one in the series where Freddy is able to possess and come into contact in real life form, which ultimately creates continuity issues for the rest of the series. In the 1980's horror sequels were becoming huge, so of course bringing back Freddy was a no brainer. But why manipulate the concept so early on in the series, why part 2? Shouldn't we wait until at least part 3 like they did with "Halloween III: Season of the Witch", it didn't even have Michael Myers. Thankfully Freddy didn't go away in this film, and he came back looking more creepy than the first. The effects of Freddy Krueger coming out of Jessie's body always impressed me as well. I also need to call out my love of the cover art and it's graphic appeal. I remember seeing a 3 dimensional cut out version of this at my local video rental store, The Video Room, in Union NJ during my childhood.

Another reason why this film stands out in the series is due to the homosexual implications of the movie. Jessie for starters isn't you cockey muscle head, he is whimsy, really close to his "friend", Brady, and dances around his room to pop jams and glitter glasses. Oh, he also screams like a girl and the whole Freddy Kruger trying to come out of him, totally symbolic for keeping his sexuality in the closet.
No, this post isn't a put down on gay people. I am gay dude. So everyone please cool your jets. I also think that in some scenes Freddy and Jessie seemed to have a little sexual tension, especially the encounter they have at the foot the stairs towards the beginning. Can we also talk about the high school gym teacher? I mean, he was caught in a leather daddy bar rocking some sexy leather attire that I would wear, and then later his death scene in the high school shower room. Tied up naked and spanked with a light speed flying towel.

In researching this film, New Line Cinema doesn't deny the homosexual references that are prevalent in the film, they do however deny that it was intentional. Hard to believe, but, okay. What is great about cinema, art, and story telling is that the meaning can always vary based on the observer. I like to see this film both as an addition to the Freddy Krueger films,  but also a call out to homosexuality in the 80s.