Saturday the 14th (1981)

Director:

Howard R. Cohen

Writers:

Jeff Begun (story)
Howard R. Cohen (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 October 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Tagline:

Just when you thought it was safe to look at the calendar again.

Plot:

A Family moves into a house inhabited by scary creatures and a number of close calls ensue.

Plot Keywords:

First Of Series | Horror Spoof | Shark | Spoof | Book Of Evil

Cast

Richard Benjamin	...	John
Paula Prentiss	...	Mary
Jeffrey Tambor	...	Waldemar
Severn Darden	...	Van Helsing
Kari Michaelson	...	Debbie
Kevin Brando	...	Billy
Rosemary DeCamp	...	Aunt Lucille
Stacy Keach Sr.	...	Attorney
Nancy Lee Andrews	...	Yolanda
Carole Androsky	...	Marge, the Real Estate Broker
Roberta Collins	...	Cousin Rhonda
Paul 'Mousie' Garner	...	The Major (as Paul Garner)
Annie O'Donnell	...	Annette, the Next Door Neighbor
Thomas Newman	...	Cousin Phil
Allen Joseph	...	Uncle Bert

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Norway:15 (video premiere) | UK:15 | USA:PG

Company:

New World Pictures

Quotes:

Marge, the Real Estate Broker: Do you have children?
Waldemar: As often as we can.

Movie Connections:

References Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Unfunny horror spoof

A family have just moved into a spooky new house. The boy discovers a weird book which, when opened, make the monster illustrations inside come to life. Meanwhile, as all hell breaks loose, a vampire and his partner are after it as well..

Yes, I know everything is supposed to be intentionally bad in this extremely derivative film, but when you've seen as many cheap horror films as I have you begin to lose track of what is meant to be comedy and what should be seen as scary. To me, the fact that every scene starts with a nod and a wink and is so obvious in its set-up that it is not to be taken seriously makes it lose whatever humour it might have possessed in the first place. You can imagine the director and the cast slapping each other on the back because they think they're a bunch of really clever guys. In actual fact, the self conscious mocking of convention doesn't make Saturday The 14th any better, it just lowers it to the level of those crappy horror flicks it seeks to satire. Besides, this kind of material was handled a lot better in the likes of the Scary Movie series. So why do we need to watch it here? Answer: we don't. 2/10