Pandemonium (1982)

AUGUST 30, 2020

GENRE: COMEDIC, SLASHER
SOURCE: BLU-RAY (OWN COLLECTION)

I first learned about the slasher spoof Pandemonium in the mid-'90s, thanks to John Stanley's Creature Features, where he gave it a three star review - generous for the extremely picky author. I was only halfway through A (yes, I read the entire thing like it was a regular book) when I realized his tastes and mine were not exactly in sync, but in these pre-internet days (at least, in my house) the book was invaluable, alerting me to the existence of movies like this; titles that would rattle around in my head for years (decades, now) until they randomly show up at my door someday thanks to the likes of Vinegar Syndrome.

Stanley's writeup mentioned Friday the 13th as a source of inspiration, but I just assumed it was shorthand for "it's making fun of slasher movies". However, while other horror films (particularly Carrie) are clear influences, the movie is indeed very much in line with F13's plot - it even has an opening set in the 1950s before flashing forward to the present day, where a camp is set to reopen after some tragedies, now populated by three young men and three young women (and their boss). The killer reveal also kind of comes out of nowhere, though the culprit is at least established/seen in the prologue - they just aren't ever shown again until the closing moments, when they reveal themselves.

I'm sure this is why I found myself more amused by it than Student Bodies or (blech) Class Reunion, laughing or at least mildly chuckling throughout and only groaning a few times. Of course the hit/miss ratio isn't exactly up to Airplane standards, but come on - Airplane II standards would be a minor miracle for a horror spoof. The problem with all of these things is that they are parodying a genre that demands death and chases, and there's only so much one can do to keep the jokes coming in such moments but not going overboard so that there's nothing to invest yourself in. But Pandemonium, unlike the others, is directed by someone who actually knows how to make a horror movie: Alfred "Alice Sweet Alice" Sole, so he is able to stage the final girl's chase around the school as if it was a real one, instead of just cramming gags in the frame because they don't know how to wrap it up and serve both masters (which is what ultimately sunk Student Bodies for me; the ending is awful).

No, Sole knows to keep it brief, refusing to let the movie wear out its welcome, and the script actually has a decent foundation to build its jokes on - I remember hearing that Airplane was basically just a copied script of a movie called Zero Hour, except they added jokes, and it's not too hard to imagine that this was similarly a straight slasher script (a quickie ripoff of F13, no doubt) that got a rewrite with some gags, as opposed to something that was designed from the ground up as a spoof. Indeed, some of the best jokes are totally extraneous; one in particular could have been added during post-production - a scene where one red herring picks up another red herring (there's an escaped prisoner AND an escaped lunatic) and they start discussing forming a club. It's hilarious and random, and it's just overheard dialogue over a simple shot of a car driving off that could have been in any movie.

This "less is more" approach kind of extends to the production design (incidentally, Sole's original line of work before moving into directing). Having seen countless spoofs over the years my eyes are trained to look at the backgrounds for jokey signs, background players doing silly things, etc, but there's not a lot of that sort of thing. There are sight gags, of course, but they're never of the "blink and you'll miss" type; watching the movie a second time probably won't reveal anything you may have missed the first time around. The payoff is that, sure, it isn't as uproarious as it could have been, but you'll never get a whiff of desperation, either. The "more jokes!" approach can kill a movie like this; better to have three gags a minute where one is good than thirty gags a minute where ten are good - the same success rate, but less time rolling your eyes.

It's also got a pretty fun cast, starting with Carol Kane in one of the most normal roles I've seen her play (second only to When A Stranger Calls). She's the Final Girl, but also has some (very sparingly used) Carrie-like powers, so they get some mileage out of that (including a "stupid but funny" dirty pillows gag featuring Sydney Lassick, who was actually IN Carrie). Judge Reinhold plays one of the victims (they're all introduced as "Victim #_), and Paul Reubens plays the deputy to head cop (and top-billed, though more of an "and" appearance) Tom Smothers, displaying some of the manic energy he'd become known for (this was 1982, so Pee-Wee was still relatively obscure). Also, not to be a buzzkill, but I started watching on Friday night, a couple hours after hearing that Chadwick Boseman had passed away, so I got upset again when Phil Hartman showed up for a quick (very funny, deadpan) line in the prologue, as he too was taken from us far too early and - as I'm sure Boseman's will be - a celebrity death it took a long time for me to really wrap my head around and accept (I STILL haven't gotten there with Bill Paxton, for the record). He was so goddamn good, standing out with just a single throwaway line in a junky comedy - there aren't too many others that can pull that off. I miss him so much.

Your mileage will vary, of course, but for my money it's one of the better slasher spoofs - not exactly a must-see, but the only one I could imagine myself watching again someday. And it's accessible; none of the jokes require you to have seen this or that movie to appreciate (outside of the dirty pillows thing, which is given context anyway, the closest thing to a specific reference is that it takes place on Thursday the 12th, which requires only to be aware of a famous horror movie called Friday the 13th), so that's probably helped its longevity - I could show this to Will in a year or two and he'd probably find it funny without having seen any of the movies that inspired it. Not sure if that would work for the likes of Scary Movie, where your familiarity with specific titles is doing some of the heavy lifting. It was more or less worth the 25 year wait!

What say you?

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