'S

Trick or Treat

(1986)  DEG Entertainment Director:  Charles Martin Smith (yes...the one yer thinkin' about.  The geek from "American Graphitti") Starring:  Marc Price, Tony Fields, Lisa Orgolini, Gene Simmons, and Ozzy Osbourne

When ya get to the bottom, then ya go back to the top.....

....people have been finding "hidden meanings" in music for years.  Some have taken it to extremes (note the above Beatles reference), while others have found it mildly amusing.  I tend to fall in the latter category. I grew up in the 1980s, and like many of my peers, I was a huge heavy metal fan.  I was also there for all the controversy, provided  mostly by the religous right of the era that had the Bible Belt pulled way too tight.

Plus, I came from a clique of kids that if you A.) didn't listen to AC/DC, Led Zep, or at least Rush , and B.) didn't have a bottle of beer in yer hand by the time you were 14, and were of the male gender.....then ya might as well put on a dress and have yerself a teaparty, Sally. Yeah...my adolesene was as f*cked up as yours.   Just add grinning hillbillies to that mix and ya got my "wonder years". So, having spent the majority of my high school years going to King Diamond concerts and dressing like one of the Ramones played a big factor in why I enjoyed this film so much when I was a teen.

"What th'?  "My Sweet Satan?"  I think this thing's warped, dude..."

And, yes...I was was one of those twits that tried to play records backwards for hidden meanings.  Not because I wanted to commune with evil spirits, mind you...simply because a local church was on a anti-metal tirade and me and some of my stoner buddies thought it was funny.  God does have a sense of humor....just look at Eddie Deezen.  And never once did I want to kill my siblings or parents or worship Satan because of the lyrics of any of the music I listened to.   That stuff didn't happen until I hit adulthood and entered the workforce and realized I was gonna probably be trapped there for the rest of my life.  Waitaminnit.....never mind you just read that.... Needless to say, I turned out fairly normal.  Except for the still-collecting-comic-books- and-29 years old- thing.  Now...that Eddie Deezen guy....you should watch him.  He's just odd.

The Prince of F*cking Darkness....tonight on the Actor's Studio....

The Plot:  Eddie Weinbuaer (Marc Price) is yer typical disgruntled teenager, a social misfit who has a more than mildly annoying and disturbing hero-worship thing going on for a local rock n roller by the name of Sammi Curr (Tony Fields...who looks so  much like Scott Valentine of "Family Ties" and "My Demon Lover" fame it's a little more than creepy).  Tormented by jock bullies, Eddie finds his only solace in the lyrics of Curr's music.  Now I don't feel so bad about all the time I spent in my room memorizing lyrics from Ozzy Osbourne's "Ultimate Sin" album.  When Curr is killed in a freakish mishap, Eddie is devistated...which he channels into ACTING!  Price's portrayal during this section of the film is...well, priceless.  I didn't get this broken up after my divorce.  Hey...so the local Dee Snyder wannabe died.  GET OVER IT.  Start listening to another band.  Jeez.

"Headbands are kewl....no, really....."

Well, the fun starts when a local DJ (KISS's Gene Simmons, living out his Wolfman Jack fantasies) gives Eddie the final recording of Curr's, whcih we discover when played backwards causes Sammi to be ressurrected into a lame Freddy Krueger-like funnel of one-liners and murder.  After yer typical teen slasher acts of revenge against his tormentors, Eddie realizes the error of his ways and enlists his friends to help combat the evil.  It all ends with a big climax at the high school Halloween dance.  How nice.   The End. Having said so many smart-ass and cruel remarks about the flick, I have to admit I still like it.  It's the typical teen slasher fare of the day, but it has a decent enough gimmick and the suspence level at times really hits the mark.  Plus, ti has cameos by some veteran rockers who seem to just be having fun with their roles, especially Ozzy Osbourne mocking the same religious right that gave him so many headaches at the time.  Reccommended for "true SMFs" everywhere....