I never understood the allure of Virginia Madsen, but this movie is a nice little vehicle for her at the peak of her '80s charisma. As a zombie movie, this is worthless. As an '80s high school movie, this is worthless. As a "something funny is going on here" supernatural vehicle ... yup, worthless.
Yet it's one of those movies where the whole is worth more than the sum of the parts. Short version of the plot: girl goes to fancy prep school on scholarship. Girl is hit on by professor; rough-around-the-edges boyfriend doesn't like this. Girl discovers entire faculty is immortal - but their immortality is dependent upon sucking brain tissue from living teenagers. Girl defeats immortal faculty using ... rock and roll?!
Yes, it's a stupid plot. But it moves along at an OK pace, the professor with a crush is good (Richard Cox, who was great in Cruising), and her roommate is the always fun Sherilyn Fenn. It's not a fantastic movie, but it's ok enough for a lazy late night with a bunch of friends and a ton of popcorn.
This is a harmless little titty flick from the early '80s, with Scott Baio in the lead and his Charles In Charge buddy Willie Aames along for the ride. The plot is butt simple: high school nerd working late on a lab project inhaled accidental smoke. Smoke turns nerd into telepath. Nerd proceeds to affect the world around him in the most braindead, mundane ways imaginable. Nerd gets girl.
What's weirder is the strong parody element striping through this movie - the whole movie is broadly a parody of Carrie (the mother figure is almost unbelievably awful), there is a specific parody of The Exorcist, and other movies pop up from time to time.
It's not a great movie by any means, but it has a nice enough message, something along the lines of "people mean more than money or power," and if you can stand all the gratuitous teen nudity (especially the Naked Prom at the end), it's watchable.
This one was distressing, disturbing, disconcerting... and then some. Jeremy Irons is magnificent as twin gynecologists, one dominant and one passive. The most explores a lot of fascinating themes, including the usual body horror you find in director David Cronenberg's work. The twisted body stands in for the twisted soul, perhaps.
This is a tour-de-force of acting, but it's very grim and gory and can be quite difficult to watch at times. Videodrome is still my favorite Cronenberg film, but this is really fine work and was included on a number of "10 Best" lists for 1988. Unfortunately, like many art house movies, it lost money - IMDB reports a budget of $13 million, but a gross of only $8 million.
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