Friday Week: And then the rain turns to blood, and it washes away in little rivers, and then the sound stops

FRIDAY THE 13th

1980

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham

Written by Victor Miller and Ron Kurz

Spoilers: severe, but, like, get real

What a disaster: They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash.

AIRPLANE!

1980

Written and directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker

Spoilers: moderate (but c'mon, you've seen it)

What a disaster: The pirates of Byzance

RAISE THE TITANIC

1980

Directed by Jerry Jameson

Written by Adam Kennedy, Eric Hughes, and many others (based on the novel by Clive Cussler)

Spoilers: moderate (high if you don't read film's titles before you watch them)

What a disaster: Lava come down soft and hot, you betta lava me now, or lava me not

WHEN TIME RAN OUT...

1980

Directed by James Goldstone

Written by Carl Foreman and Stirling Silliphant

Spoilers: moderate

We know the limits of nature. We know—or are we just afraid to test the limits of our certainty?

THE AWAKENING

1980

Directed by Mike Newell

Written by Cliff Bryant, Allan Scott, and Clive Exton (based on the novel The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker)

Spoiler alert: moderate

The young girls of Mount Helicon

XANADU

1980

Directed by Robert Greenwald

Written by Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel

Spoiler alert: moderate

Super Week, part II: So this is Planet Houston

SUPERMAN II

Notice how all my themed weeks take at least two to get finished?  That's what they call a "running gag."  Anyway, Superman II: charming in its crappiness.

1980

Directed by Richard Lester and Richard Donner
Written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton, and Tom Mankiewicz

With Christopher Reeve (Clark Kent/Kal-El), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Sussanah York (Lara Lor-Van), Jackie Cooper (Perry White), Ned Beatty (Otis), Valerie Perrine (Eve Teschmacher), and Sarah Douglas (Ursa), Jack O'Halloran (Non), and Terence Stamp (General Zod)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Robert Zemeckis, part III: The road warrior

USED CARS

Used Cars might be but a curio, bound body and soul to the era that produced it, but it surely has its charms, and they're not insubstantial.

1980

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis

With Kurt Russell (Rudy Russo), Jack Warden (Luke Fuchs), Gerritt Graham (Jeff), Frank McRae (Jim), Deborah Harmon (Barbara Fuchs), Al Lewis (Judge Harrison), and Jack Warden (Roy Fuchs)

Spoiler alert: moderate

John Carpenter, part VI: Everything you see and know is built on the bodies and bones of those who came before

THE FOG

After all the sex murder of Halloween, John Carpenter's next project was as far away from the new-style slasher genre as anything could have been while still featuring impalements and eye-gouging.  But if you asked me, it was the great director's first unambiguously great movie.

1980
Written and directed by John Carpenter

With Adrienne Barbeau (Stevie Wayne), Hal Holbrook (Father Malone), Tom Atkins (Nick Castle), Jamie Lee Curtis (Elizabeth Solley), Charles Cyphers (Dan O'Bannon), Janet Leigh (Kathy Williams), John Houseman (Mr. Machen), and Rob Bottin (Blake)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Census Bloodbath: Murder on the Boreal Express

TERROR TRAIN

It's October again!  And that means it's time for Kinemalogue's annual crossover with Brennan Klein's Popcorn Culture, which is still just about the best blog you could ever read, while Brennan has in the intervening year gone from "horror media expert" to "horror media professional."  So, just like last year, from now till Halloween, I'll be pretending to know what Brennan knows and reviewing some rad 80s slashers, while Brennan will review some swell 50s science fiction!  Let the mayhem begin!

1980

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

Written by T.Y. Drake and Daniel Grodnik

With Jamie Lee Curtis (Alana), Ben Johnson (Conductor Carne), Hart Bochner (Doc), Sandee Currie (Mitchy), Timothy Webber (Mo), Anthony Sherwood (Jackson), Howard Busgang (Ed), David Copperfield (The Magician), and Derek McKinnon (Kenny Hampson)

Spoiler alert: severe

We've been eating Gamera, part VIII: This is not a film

GAMERA: SUPER MONSTER

This is what studios dream of when they're dead.

1980
Directed by Noriaki Yuasa
Written by Nisan Takahashi
With Mach Fumiake (Kilara), Yoko Komatsu (Mitan), Yaeko Kojima (Marsha), Keiko Kudo (Giruge), Koichi Maeda (Keiichi), Teruo Aragaki (Gamera), Umenosuke Izumi (Gamera), and Toru Kawai (Gamera)

This series of reviews would not have been possible without the in-depth interview conducted by David Milner with Noriaki Yuasa, from which I have gleaned a great deal of welcome historical insight into Mr. Yuasa, Nisan Takahashi, Daiei, and Gamera's Showa Era movies.  It's a sad, mean thing to finally credit Mr. Milner's fantastic kaiju scholarship here, at the end of that era, rather than when I should've, which is ages ago.

Spoiler alert: seriously, the hell with it

Tangible and incarnate

ALTERED STATES

The best drug-fueled cosmic horror movie in at least six billion years.

1980
Directed by Ken Russell
Written by Paddy Chayefsky (based on his novel)
With William Hurt (Eddie Jessup), Blair Brown (Emily Jessup), Bob Balaban (Arthur Rosenberg), Charles Haid (Mason Parrish), and Charles White-Eagle (The Brujo)

Spoiler alert: severe
Content warning: William Hurt sidebutt, the crack God put in Blair Brown's ass, and breasts in a medium long-shot from a screencap of a video advertised as "HD" on Youtube—so recognizing that it's even a woman only means that you still get to legally drive