Death Spa (1989)

NEWBODY HEALTH SPA ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️ D EA TH SPA Death Spa (1989) – a perfect title! Completely indicates the type of horror movie it is, and if you hadn’t guessed, it’s a cash-in on the aerobics and gym craze of the 1980s. As if some producer […]

Stage Fright: Aquarius (1987)

The killer wears an owl’s head mask. A bulky, feathery mask with dark eyes and a beak. What a fantastic look! And now imagine an actor wearing that owl’s head with a suit and flying through the air on stage during rehearsal for a musical rock number. This happens in the first five minutes of […]

The Boys Next Door (1985)

“Everything looks like MTV.” Cruising down a main strip in Los Angeles, the two teenage boys – Roy (Maxwell Caulfield, off the box office disappointment of Grease 2) and Bo (Charlie Sheen, pre-Platoon) – take the street scene all in with glee, yelling at the punks and catcalling the ladies. Director Penelope Spheeris, and her […]

Modern Girls (1986)

Often described as L.A.’s answer to After Hours, Modern Girls (1986) feels much more indebted to the success of Desperately Seeking Susan as both are fuelled by a non-stop new wave soundtrack and boho club fashions. Taking place over the course of one night (a personal favourite sub-genre of mine), Modern Girls follows a quartet […]

Variety (1983)

A young white woman sitting in a ticket booth for a porno theatre. The key image to Variety (1983) that I had in my head before watching it. New York city in its grimy, sleazy prime. “The old New York” is an idea that has been mythologised into nostalgia, often calcified (HBO’s The Deuce, for […]