Letterboxd — Your life in film

The editing on this is pretty shit, almost confusingly so, but the end product is undeniably entertaining and (at the risk of sounding trite) iconic.

Tons of red and green key lighting, fog, arbitrary spooky imagery. Perfect Halloweentime movie! It’s great!

The producers clearly realized the franchise’s potential after ANOES3, so ANOES4 is like that, but on steroids (and as a result, also a little dumber).

Still, the one-two punch of ANOES3 and ANOES4 is perfectly satisfying; I have to pair them every time I watch.

Some fun camerawork in this one. And great make-up effects. Plus, Dramarama. ‘Nuff said.

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this is where the ANOES franchise really begins.

And that’s not to undermine how pivotal the original ANOES is, or how fun ANOES2 is. But the MTV-ified, pop culture-imbued, Ray Bans-wearing Freddy that defined the ‘80s was born here, in ANOES3.

This one is just so cool and gets so much right. Tons of story and mythos for only being 93 minutes. And the effects are just top-notch—the Freddy snake, the chest of souls, the tendon death! So gnarly.

For the car crash/explosion enthusiast. A madcap car chase-through-the-desert sorta thing, ala IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.

Perhaps I’m only thinking this because I’d just watched ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL moments before, but GRAND THEFT AUTO, in a weird way, feels like a spiritual successor to RNRHS. 

Both Corman productions; similar style of humor; small budgets; a few returning faces.

Pretty impressive directorial debut from Ron Howard.

Just a breezy, fun, schticky comedy; almost the antithesis to the similar (yet far raunchier) teenage rebellion/slobs vs snobs type of films that were being released at the time.

How can you not feel totally pumped watching The Ramones walk down the halls of Vince Lombardi High, singing “Do You Wanna Dance?”, while the entire student body follows along, cheering and dancing?

Ironic how a film based on a graphic novel can do such a good job of portraying real people.

I love its snooty disdain for all things mainstream. I love Seymour yelling in his car at the people to cross the street faster. I love its confident takedown of normies.

Even though this is all done with tongue firmly planted in cheek, I love how snobby it is.

Nails the quick ebb and flow of relationships, how sunny they can be one moment, and how fraught the next. O unpredictable life.

Everyone is imperfect here, and everyone loses a little bit.

A near perfect sequel. Just as smart, silly, and slightly off as the original.

A weirdo, trippy, artsy kinda thing that feels more like a holdover from the Far Out ‘70s than it does the New Coke and Ferris Bueller ‘80s from whence it came.

Loved all the dumb t-shirts (can someone buy me that FELCH one?), and the film takes some creative chances that I appreciated (incorporating some brief animation into the live action scenes), but the pacing is no good and there’s really no climax or any sort of resolution.

A low-budget oddity; your mileage may vary.