Census Bloodbath: This is a tool, not a toy

THE CARPENTER

It's Halloween again, and for our 12th annual Switcheroo with Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture, we're doing what we always do this time of year when we turn the tables on one another: he takes over my Cardboard Science feature and reviews some of those corny mid-century sci-fi movies, and I do some fieldwork for Brennan's Census Bloodbath, as he gives me a slate of sick 80s slasher flicks from his ever-expanding encyclopedia of death.  This year we're back to full power, with three psyche-scarring films of Brennan's selection.

1988

Directed by David Wellington

Written by Doug Taylor

Spoilers: moderate

Nightmare Week: How's this for a wet dream?

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER

1988

Directed by Renny Harlin

Written by William Kotzwinkle, Brian Helgeland, Ken Wheat, and Jim Wheat

Spoilers: high

Friday Week: A killer buried but not dead

FRIDAY THE 13th PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD

1988

Directed by John Carl Buechler

Written by Manuel Fidello and Daryl Haney

Spoilers: moderate

Put a little love in your heart

SCROOGED

1988

Directed by Richard Donner

Written by Mitch Glazer, Michael O'Donoghue, and Bill Murray (based on the novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

Spoilers: high, but also inapplicable, right?

Bald thing, I think I love you

EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY

1988

Directed by Julien Temple

Written by Julie Brown, Terrence E. McNalley, and Charlie Coffey

Spoilers: moderate

Census Bloodbath: For Christ's sake, spare me the speech! I've listened to it for a decade

The Eighth (oh God) Annual Great October Switcheroo!  Once again, we're crossing over with the wonderful Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture and sometimes Alternate Ending, and I'm doing some of the 80s slashers he's catalogued as part of his Census Bloodbath project, while he's doing some of the old-timey sci-fi I've been hoarding as part of my own Cardboard Science archive.  This year, he finally gave me three pieces of the slasher genre's major arcana, such as I've been very subtly and surreptitiously hinting that I'd like to do this whole time; in return, I accidentally gave him three pieces of indecent crap.  Oops!  (But, seriously, apologies.)

HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS

1988

Directed by Dwight H. Little

Written by Alan B. McElroy, Danny Lipsius, Larry Rattner, and Benhamin Ruffner

Spoiler alert: moderate

Walt Disney, part XXXVI: Beginnings are contagious there

OLIVER & COMPANY

1988

Directed by George Scribner

Written by committees with their own subcommittees, apparently

Spoiler alert: moderate

Walt Disney, part XXXV: I hope you're proud of yourself—and those pictures you took

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT

1988

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman ("based on" the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, but at least the book properly punctuates its title)

Spoiler alert: forget it, reader, it's Chinatown

Disney's Challengers, part VII: Your mother can't be with you anymore

THE LAND BEFORE TIME

1988

Directed by Don Bluth

Written by Judy Freudberg, Tony Geiss, and Stu Krieger

Spoiler alert: high, but 'cmon

Code Pink

THE BLOB

If you ever watched the original Blob, and asked yourself, "Yes, but what about all the implied mass death?  Could that be a lot more explicit?"—well, my friend, Chuck Russell has made a movie just for you.  And by "you"?  You know damned good and well I actually mean "me."

1988

Directed by Chuck Russell

Written by Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell (based on the screenplay by Kay Linaker, Theodore Simonson, and Irvine Millgate)

With Shawnee Smith (Meg Penny), Kevin Dillon (Brian Flagg), Donovan Leitch Jr. (Paul Taylor), Jeffrey DeMunn (Sheriff Herb Geller), Candy Clark (Fran Hewitt), Paul McClane (Deputy Bill Briggs), Art LeFleur (Mr. Penny), Michael Kenworthy (Kevin Penny), Douglas Emerson (Eddie Beckner), Del Close (Rev. Meeker), and Joe Seneca (Dr. Christopher Meddows)

Spoiler alert: high

Robert Zemeckis, part VI: I hope you're proud of yourself—and those pictures you took

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT

Zemeckis reemerges with one of the most technologically audacious films of all time, a spectacle worth watching over and over again for the sheer complexity of its achievement.

1988

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman ("based on" the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, but at least the book properly punctuates its title)

With Bob Hoskins (Eddie Valiant), Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit, Benny the Cab, and several weasels), Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit), Lou Hirsch (Baby Herman), Stubby Kate (Marvin Acme), Alan Tivern (R.K. Maroon), and Christopher Lloyd (Judge Doom)

Spoiler alert: forget it, reader, it's Chinatown

John Carpenter, part XVII: We sleep

THEY LIVE

The beloved class warrior classic has so much to recommend it—but not everything.

1988

Written and directed by John Carpenter (based on the very short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson)

With "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (Nada), Keith David (Frank), Meg Foster (Holly), Peter Jason (Gilbert), Raymond St. Jacques (The Street Preacher), and George "Buck" Flower (The Drifter)

Spoiler alert: moderate