31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 13: WWF's 1985 Halloween Special

Written by Stu Cooper

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am a massive pro wrestling fan and have been since I was a toddler. So it should come as no surprise that I've tracked down a wrestling oriented Halloween special to discuss! For Day 13 of Monster Mania I have hopped in the time machine once again and traveled back to November 1st, 1985. At this point the WWF had begun running a special show called Saturday Night's Main Event. The show would be once every couple weeks, and this edition happened to fall on the Saturday after that year's Halloween. Even tho it was technically November, the WWF decided to celebrate Halloween anyways. What resulted was about an hour of absolutely hilarious costumes, and various halloween competitions between The Heenan Family (Bobby The Brain's group) and The Hillbillies (Jim, Elmer, and some cousins). Let's sink our teeth into this hilarious hour of 80's television!

The show begins with Jesse "The Body" Ventura interviewing Roddy Piper who is dawning a "Super Roddy" costume. Roddy mocks the Hillbilly group for being trash, and makes remarks about Uncle Elmer's recent wedding. Piper said he vows to confront the Hillbilly family tonight on Piper's Pit. We then cut to Mean Gene who is with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Heenan is dressed up as Davey Crockett with the coon-skin cap on, but he is immediately mistaken for a weasel and that becomes a running joke through the episode. Heenan is training for a miniature pumpkin bobbing contest that will take place later in the evening. I was unaware that bobbing for mini-pumpkins in chocolate was a thing. You can't exactly just eat a pumpkin right through the skin, so what's the point? Bizarre that they didn't just do apples. We will get back to that contest later.

We get some camera shots of children and adults throughout the audience dressed as some of their favorite WWF Superstars. Which results in an incredibly creepy shot of a kid in a Hulk Hogan mask. We are then introduced to our commentary team for the night which consists of Jesse "The Body" Ventura and Vince Mcmahon. The opening contest for the show is Terry Funk vs. The Junkyard Dog. Funk had recently been going around beating up ringside attendants and using his branding iron on wrestlers (despite the fact that it can't possibly be hot). We get a short interview from Funk where he spits chewing tobacco all over the camera (and probably the poor camera man). The superstars hit the ring and the match is off to a hot start. We see both men trade punches, headbutts, piledrivers, etc. Jimmy Hart is managing Funk at the time and he interferes every chance he gets. Funk ends up using Hart's megaphone to hit JYD over the head for the pinfall win. After the match Funk attempts to brand JYD, but JYD fights it off and ends up using the branding iron on Jimmy Hart's bum. It's classic goofy 80's WWF.

Next up is the pie eating contest between King Kong Bundy and Captain Lou Albano, two staples of 80's wrestling. Albano represents the Hillbillies, and Bundy represents the Heenan Family. Each side is accompanied by various good guys and bad guys dressed in costume. The highlight of these costumes is the absolutely ridiculous Iron Sheik as Batman and his partner Nikolai Volkoff as Robin. Seeing the two of them dressed up is just priceless and brought an immediate smile to my face. Macho Man and Liz are also dressed as Tarzan and Jane. Liz has never looked hotter in the Jane outfit, and Mean Gene gets an eye full every chance he's got. After 60 seconds of pie-eating, Albano is declared the winner. Bundy doesn't take this well and a food fight ensues.

The next segment is Piper's Pit which was hyped up earlier on the show. This segment was quite boring and uneventful compared to the rest of the show. You can tell it was taped several days before and there isn't really anything Halloween about it. The feud between the Hillbillies and Piper doesn't really lead to anything, but we do get a fun appearance by Ventura. Ventura runs down Uncle Elmer's wife and doesn't back down when threatened. It was cool to see Ventura get all hyped up, even tho his in-ring career was done at that point.

Next up was the Pumpkin bobbing game! This game would consist of a member from each team bobbing for pumpkins in a giant bucket of chocolate. Whoever has the most when the time runs out, wins. Heenan represents his team, and Cousin Junior represents the Hillbillies. With ease Heenan is able to defeat Junior, probably thanks to his practice from earlier. We get to see the always intense Macho Man hamming it up helping Heenan put the pumpkins into a trash bag. It's all pretty stupid, but fun none the less. This means that the Hillbillies and the Heenan Family are tied 1-1 and the final deciding game will be a "Pumpkin Toss" later on in the evening.

The next match up is dubbed the "Dream Team" matchup which pits Hulk Hogan and his partner Andre The Giant vs. Heenan's boys Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy. The four of these men had been feuding for several months leading up to this. The match itself is really just a heavy hitter brawl between Andre and Bundy, with Hogan hitting some ax-handles and boots every once and awhile. There is a false DQ finish where a ref gets knocked out, only for the match to end on a disqualification anyways. A nice reminder that you're watching a free TV match, which usually means no clean win. After the match we have Mean Gene interviewing Macho Man and he asks him possibly the dumbest question ever when he says "Why a woman manager?". Macho quickly retorts with "You're either a blind man, or a stupid man, which one are ya Gene?".

After Macho's interview he goes to the ring for his chance at the IC title against Tito Santana. Macho was quickly climbing the ladder at this point and his IC title reign was coming up soon. Unfortunately for those in attendance in Hershey,PA, it wouldn't be that night. The two go at the mat pretty hard and there is some good moves and exchanges. There is a good spot near the end where Macho goes for his classic top rope axe handle, and is hit in the gut by Santana. The two end up brawling outside and both men are counted out. Yet another non-finish on a special show. Unfortunately a common thing in 80's WWF.

After this match we are off to Roddy Piper's house for a bizarre skit. Vince Mcmahon has arrived at the house to ask Piper about Halloween. Piper is wrapping up giant bricks to make them look like giant chocolates, and bowling balls disguised as giant candy apples. He says that the Scottish like to celebrate "the trick" part of Trick or Treat. Piper then receives some Trick or Treaters. Piper invites them in and in true asshole fashion begins to ridicule the children and trick them into giving him their candy in exchange for his fake candy. It's a literal translation of the saying "like stealing candy from a baby". A real prick moment in the life of Roddy Piper, but I loved every second of it.

Next up is the final match of the evening which is a special "Kung Fu Challenge" between Ricky Steamboat and Mr.Fuji. The rules of the contest are quite vague. So much so that the commentators don't seem to know. From what I gathered tho, the wrestler's were only allowed to use Karate-like moves. You see the two of them exchange hyper exaggerated chops and kicks. Ultimately Steamboat gets the better of Mr.Fuji and gets the win, but afterwards Don Muraco runs in and spits red mist on the eyes of Steamboat. Steamboat gets beat down, and I guess the trick is on him.

The final segment of the night is the tie breaker between the Heenan Family and The Hillbillies! The WWF chose to settle this in possibly the most awkward way possible, by having teams of wrestlers pass a pumpkin underneath their chin. You know that game you do at middle school parties in a weird attempt to get close to the opposite sex? Well instead of that, you get a bunch of giant wrestlers in costumes trying to do it. Lots of awkward hilarity ensues. The good guys go first and get through 5 people before Captain Albano drops the pumpkin. The bad guys then follow and unfortunately for Liz, she drops the pumpkin and loses the game for the team. But who cares about that when we are all treated to many shots of Elizabeth in her Jane outfit. Savage of course goes ballistic and blames Liz for every problem ever known.

That concludes this absolutely bizarre and fun 1985 Halloween special. If you have access to the "WWE Network" I would highly recommend checking this episode out before Halloween hits. It's one of the more entertaining Saturday Night Main Event episodes, and a great flashback to the "good ole days" of the WWF (now WWE).

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 12: Bram Stoker's Dracula The Game

Written by Stu Cooper

For today's Monster Mania entry I am going to take a look at the games based on the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula film. In the 80's and 90's it was not uncommon for virtually every big budget film to get some type of video game interpretation. Everything from "Top Gun" to "The Untouchables" got a video game. It should come as no shock then that the 1992 Coppola movie got a series of games. The game was released on pretty much every platform available at the time. All of them were platformers, and most of them were piss poor platformers at that. The NES and Gameboy versions were very simplistic and similar to Mario. The SNES and Genesis versions were actually pretty fun and nicer looking than the NES, but still far from a good game. Then there was the Sega CD version which is such a mess, it's been ripped to pieces by virtually every game critic. Today I'm going to focus on the Super Nintendo version of the game.

Now immediately the game opens up with a rather beautiful and creepy cinematic of the knight version of "The Count" standing on a hill of destruction. It provides you with some pretty creepy imagery and a good start. Once you get to the menu screen I will advise you to go to the options and make sure you are playing on at least Normal or Hard, because if you choose "Trainee" you will not get the full experience of the game. I beat the game in about 20 minutes on "Trainee" mode and the game ended after I killed the witches, there was no confrontation with Dracula. If you play on Normal or Hard, you should be able to access the full game and get the final battle with Dracula. Several games did this at the time as a way to extend the life of a game. In some cases you would go through the entire game, but because you did it on an easy difficulty, you would get a weaker ending or no ending at all. Dracula doesn't quite go that far, but it's a nice tip to have going into it.

Once the gameplay begins you will notice it's a pretty basic side scrolling platformer. You play the character of Johnathan Harker (Keanu Reeves). The sprite for the character does look just like Keanu Reeves, so they did good there. In terms of weaponry you are armed with a sword/dagger type weapon that looks more like a whip when you use it. The weapon is quite weak and has short range, but it will get the job done. You start out in a tavern beating up peasants,cougars, and bats. Then you move around the maze like level, until you find Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) who tells you what kind of new weapon you need to advance to the next stage. The next couple stages range from dungeons within Dracula's castle, to rocky mountains that surround the castle. You continue to fight off mostly wild animals, but later you battle skeletons and spiders. Basically a whose who of random "spooky" enemies.

At the end of each stage you will have to battle one of Dracula's minions such as a giant knight with a whip, the witches, a dragon (I don't remember that in the movie), and then of course Dracula in all his various forms. The sprites for Dracula actually look pretty spot on and quite good. For some reason tho every boss is gigantic, including Dracula. So you will better prepare yourself to fight a 12 foot Dracula. Taking small liberties with the movie there. The game is obviously nothing like the movie because let's face it, the film is not really an action film. You may see a character doing something action oriented twice in the whole film. If you can get over that and just play the game, you will probably have a bit of fun.

The big issue the game has is that it is painfully easy. You can beat the entire game on Hard mode within about 35 minutes. It's similar to the Power Ranger SNES games if you've ever played those. You go through a stage, fight a boss, go through a stage, fight a boss. Occasionally you'll be treated to some kind of transitional image taken from the movie, explaining where in the movie you are but not much else. If you manage to complete the game you will be rewarded with a very poor quality image of the aging Dracula, and a text crawl story telling you what happened. Then like Mario, you see the castle crumble.

For what it is, it's not bad. It's certainly not as bad as movie games like Cliffhanger, Last Action Hero, or Terminator 2. It's quite playable, and it's fun. The big downfall is the incredibly easy difficulty. If you paid full price for this game when it was first released, you'd probably be pretty upset. If you rented it, maybe not. I picked the game up for about 5 bucks off ebay, so it wasn't hurting me too much. From what I've seen this is the best version of the game they made, and if that's the case, it's not saying much. I would just make sure to avoid the Sega CD version of the game, which is an epic gaming failure.

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 11: Horror of Dracula

Written by Stu Cooper

We are getting closer to Halloween and it's time to whip out the big guns. Let's talk Dracula. My personal favorite Dracula is Christopher Lee. I absolutely love the Bela Lugosi version and the Gary Oldman Dracula, but there is something about the brutality of Hammer films that gets me interested. Not only do you have Christopher Lee playing a remarkably creepy Dracula, but you have the acting legend Peter Cushing as the Vampire Hunter Dr.Van Helsing. The pairing of the two ends up being movie magic and is still talked about by horror fans today. The film I'll be talking about today is Hammer's "Horror of Dracula" which went by just "Dracula" outside of the U.S. but "Horror Of" was added to the title to avoid confusion with the Lugosi version. Like the Lugosi version, this one was loosely based on the concept of the original novel. This would be the first Christopher Lee Dracula film ever, tho Cushing and Lee previously worked on Hammer's "The Curse of Frankenstein".

The film was released in 1958 and Directed by Terence Fisher. Fisher would go on to direct several Hammer films starring Lee and Cushing. The plot revolves around Dracula's reign of terror moving from Transylvania to London. The film opens with a man named Johnathan Harker arriving at Dracula's castle and he is apparently there to serve as The Count's official book keeper and Librarian. Secretly Harker is actually there to kill Dracula and declares himself a vampire hunter in his diaries. Tho we don't really know what kind of qualifications he has to be such a thing. Immediately you can tell something is up with Dracula because he locks Harker in his own room, despite telling him he is free to explore the castle. Obviously he is not THAT free. Harker is confronted by a crazed woman inside the castle who asks him for his help, but a midst the craziness she decides to bite Harker. Dracula pops up out of nowhere and takes the woman off. The next day Harker discovers the coffins where Dracula and his minions sleep. Harker has time to kill the female minion, but Dracula is able to get away. The next day Van Helsing discovers a vampire Harker and is forced to kill him.

As a result of Harker's death Van Helsing is forced to deliver the news of Harker's fate to his widow Lucy, his brother Arthur, and Arthur's wife Mina. Together the four of them plot to track down Dracula and make him pay for what he did. Unfortunately Dracula has already gotten to Harker's wife and bitten her. Talk about a dick move, first you ruin a guy's life and turn him into a vampire, then when the guy dies, Dracula goes after the dead guy's wife! Dracula has never heard of bro code, that's for sure.

After Van Helsing finds out about Lucy's health, he attempts to cure her, but his attempts fail. After Lucy turns into a vampire and attempts to take the life of a child and Arthur, Van Helsing hits her with a cross and drives her off. Later Helsing stakes Lucy and continues his quest to track down Dracula. After Arthur's wife Mina is taken by Dracula, the final straw is broken and Arthur helps Van Helsing locate Dracula. Dracula has infected Mina and is attempting to bury her, but Van Helsing and Arthur save the day! This results in an epic final showdown between Dracula and Van Helsing. The fight ends when Van Helsing exposes Dracula to sunlight and the audience is treated to a gory body melting sequence. Dracula's body crumbles and Dracula is defeated...for now.

This film marked the beginning of the Hammer Dracula era and it was a fun ride for horror fans. Christopher Lee seems to not share the fond memories, probably a result for him getting such low pay for his appearances as Dracula. Still, the man returned to the role 6 times after this, so some part of him must have loved it. Lee actually only had 16 lines of dialogue in the entire film and most of it takes place in the beginning of the film when Harker arrives. The scene where Dracula decays at the end was actually edited because of the intense violent nature of the effect. The footage of the extended cut was thought to be lost, but was found in Japan and added to the newest version of the film on bluray. Audiences were quite shocked by the film due to it's gore. Cushing and Lee would team up for several sequels, but you are best sticking with the first 3 films in the series. It starts to get a bit weird once the series enters the 70's. If you have a way to watch this film, I highly recommend it. The Hammer horror films are a nice break from the tame nature of the early Universal Monster films. Hammer pulls no punches and it can get weird, but that's part of the charm.

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 10: Night of the Creeps

Written by Stuart Cooper

This is a day I've really been looking forward to. Day 10 is all about one of my favorite horror films. Hell, I'd say one of my favorite films of all-time. It is the perfect storm of cheesy horror and I love every bit of it. Today we are discussing the cult classic 1986 horror comedy...NIGHT OF THE CREEPS! And there is good news and bad news for ya, the good news is, your review is here, the bad news is, I only get one day to talk about it!

Night of the Creeps was released in August of 1986. For some reason 1986 was a magnet for the horror genre. The film did poorly in the box office, but thanks to television viewings, the film seemed to develop a cult following. The film was directed by Fred Dekker who famously did "House" before this, and later Monster Squad, Robocop 3, and is working with Shane Black to create a Predator sequel. Needless to say, this film was in good hands. The film starred Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, and the stunning Jill Whitlow.

The plot revolves around an alien worm that crash lands to earth and creates a zombie-like viral problem. The crash landing happens in a town full of college kids, and a bad-ass self loathing detective who can't seem to get a break. The plot jumps from the 1950's to the 1980's, which thanks to the slugs, leads to a subplot where the Detective kills the same guy twice. It's all remarkably cheesy, but it is fully self aware. The film has a lot of homages to early zombie films and tropes that have developed in the science fiction and horror genres. It takes that premise and runs with it!

Jason Lively plays your lead college kid Chris, as he like most college kids, is on a quest to get laid. With the aid of his handicap comedian friend J.C., he attempts to woo a seemingly random sorority girl named Cynthia. This leads to a love story that blooms at the worst possible time. In an attempt to be more manly, Chris and J.C. rush a fraternity. As a form of hazing the two friends are asked to do something extreme. This leads to the guys discovering a cadaver in a college science facility. The cadaver happened to be a body from the 1950's with a space worm inside of it. The boys, like total morons, take the body out and accidentally trigger a worm-fest on their campus.

The worms begin to inhabit local residents, starting with painfully douchey frat guys who happen to be on their way to a formal. The bus full of frat guys get's taken over by the slugs, and leads to a full on invasion. The invasion starts at the sorority house. But thanks to one liners and quick gunshot camera pans, Tom Atkins saves the day as Detective Ray Cameron! This poor Detective has been through hell and he takes out every bit of frustration on these worm zombie bastards. It's truly a sight to behold.

The remainder of the film is an all out war between the college friends, the detective, and the worms! We get to see Chris (Lively) and Cynthia (Whitlow) dawn shotguns, flame throwers, and lawn mowers! It's extreme zombie killing action before it was the horror norm. You also have Tom Atkins bringing his true acting chops to this role. His character is pretty similar to cop roles he has played in other films, except for the fact that he is incredibly depressed and willing to do just about anything. There is actually a pretty depressing subplot where Detective Cameron is about to kill himself, before Chris runs to him with this zombie problem. It provides a nice layer of seriousness in a pretty silly film. There is also a sad monologue from J.C. which I can't elaborate on. I don't want to spoil some of the movies biggest hit points.

Night of the Creeps is just plain fun. If you want a horror movie where you don't have to think, you get a good laugh, and you get gore thrown in, it's the perfect balance. Tom Atkins is by far the highlight of the film, but there are several charming things that leave me smiling. The goofy dialogue is delivered with straight faces, and it makes for some really memorable laughs. The characters are also lovable and heroic, so you root for them the whole time. It was a fun take on the zombie genre and left a memorable impression on me as a child. I sought out the film throughout the years, and like most horror fans, I MAY have found a way to obtain it. Thankfully the film got a full release on DVD after massive demand. The bluray conversion looks quite nice, but there was always something charming to having the old TV recording. It's worth noting there is also two endings to the film. Depending on the way you obtain the film, you may get different ones. I don't want to spoil either one, but I'm sure youtube has them. I know the Netflix one ends with the alternate ending (to the theatrical cut).

The film is mainly a giant tribute to the horror genre. Almost every character's last name is the name of a famous horror figure. The students go to Corman Univesity (Roger Corman) and some of the scenes are clearly knock-offs of classic 50's sci-fi "makeout point" kind of scenes. The film starts off with a lot of dated 80's comedy tropes, but if you stick with it, the film turns it up to 11. Atkins killing zombies and Jill Whitlow using a flame thrower makes the movie for me. There is also some really clever camera angles and shots in this film. You can tell Fred Dekker had a true vision, and he sticks to that vision. It pays off, and provides a memorable spooky experience. The film heavily inspired the 2006 film "Slither". It actually lifts most of the main plot points from this film. Overall, this film is a lost gem and deserves some spotlight. I suggest anyone who loves horror find this movie immediately, and watch it. I believe it's currently available on Netflix! It's the best zombie related thing you can watch right now. That's right Darryl fans...I said it.

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 9: Elvira's 1986 MTV Halloween Special

Written by Stu Cooper

For Day 9 I was able to track down something I thought I'd never see. As most horror fans know, Elvira is highly regarded as the Queen of the horror hosts and she peaked in the 1980's. She was able to capture audiences with her goofy comedy and extremely beautiful looks. One might even say she is a legend in a dying art form, that of the TV movie host. With the recent announcement of Elvira getting yet another series (this time on HULU), I figured now would be a great time to discuss "The Mistress of the Dark". Today we are going to discuss a Halloween special she did for MTV back when it was at the peak of it's success. Let's dive into this wonderfully retro piece of Halloween history.

The special epitomizes the heart of what the original MTV stood for. You have an iconic character from pop culture hosting a mash-up of various music videos, some of which had something to do with horror, some were just popular videos at the time. In between the videos we would be treated to Elvira hosting various segments from Salem,Massachusetts! She would wander around the town, checking out various hot spots and doing "On the Streets" interviews with random old men. The comedy flops pretty bad in most of these segments, but it's still vintage Elvira. The majority of the special is these music videos from bands like Oingo Bingo, The Banshees, The Cure, and Ozzy. At first the mix of videos is random, but the last 30 minutes or so is Elvira choosing some of her favorites.

We are also treated to a few skits from Elvira and some comedic friends. There is fake commercials for a witch academy, a fake halloween album infomercial, and my personal favorite the "Elvira Demon Possessed Barbie featuring Devil Ken". There is also a pretty funny fake aerobics video with Elvira "EXOR-cising". Get it? Yeah that's the kind of humor you're in for with this special. But what can I say, I'm a sucker for anything vintage Elvira.

The place where the special really shines is the commercials! There is some absolutely absurd commercials to be seen in 1986, including but not limited to a trailer for "Soul Man" where a guy does blackface in a hollywood comedy and it's totally cool, a overly exaggerated laser tag toy advertisement, and all sorts of Max Headroom endorsements. I encourage all of you readers to checkout some of the commercials, which I'll provide links for below. If you're a fan of vintage MTV and the John Hughes era of music video teen culture, you're going to enjoy the special and the playlist of tunes it provides. Unfortunately the cuts of the videos are super quick, and since the video is just a rip of the VHS, I think this was just MTV trying to cram in as many relative videos as possible. You have to applaud the effort tho. The art of the Horror Host, or even the TV Host is dying out and the "special" part of holiday TV seems to be fading with it. I know many yearn for the days where MTV was like this, so enjoy the special in all it's hammy glory!

Music picks from the special:

Commercial picks from the special:

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 8: Retro Halloween Commercials

Written by Stu Cooper

One of my favorite parts of the Halloween season is the series of Halloween commercials TV viewers are treated to. It seems like as the years have progressed, the commercials have become less frequent and less about the special holiday that people like me live for. So let's hop into the time machine and take a look at some classic Halloween commercials that you may remember from your childhood!

Mcdonald's Halloween Commercials

Pizza Hut's Pizzahead on Halloween

Elvira Coors Light Halloween Commercial

Frankenstein Reese's Commercial

Dracula Pepsi Commercial

Clarence Clemons Miller Lite Commercial

Easter Seals Vincent Price Commercial

Diet Coke Haunted House Commercial

Fruity Pebbles Halloween Commercial

Taco Bell Goosebumps Commercial

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 7: Detention (2011)

Written by Stu Cooper

It's Day 7 of Monster Mania and today we take a look at the first independent film on the list. That film is a 2011 underground gem named "Detention". The film went through film festivals throughout 2011 and 2012 and hit home video in late 2012. I remember seeing the film when it was first released and I was absolutely astounded at how unique and fresh the film felt. So let's get into why that is.

"Detention" was released in 2011 and stars Shanley Caswell, Josh Hutcherson, Dane Cook, Spencer Locke, and Aaron David Johnson, among many others. The film is about a series of murders that take place at a place called Grizzly Lake High School. The killer takes the form of a popular horror movie villain (in their universe) named Cinderhella. The film opens with the first victim being slayed. The film then begins following the high school kids dealing with the fallout of the murders. That's just one of the many plots strung throughout the film.

The film itself is a giant homage to the 1980's and 90's era of film. The cast consist of a group of kids, not too dissimilar from the group of kids in "The Breakfast Club". The main characters the film focuses on are Riley Jones (Caswell) the nerdy outcast girl, Clapton Davis (Hutcherson) as the cool hipster heart throb, Sander Sanderson (Johnson) as the nerdy guy who just wants to get laid, and Ione Foster (Locke) as the 90's obsessed beauty queen of the school. All of the characters seem to be trapped in the 90's right off the bat, which the film will explain through a series of time travel plot elements. That's right, this is a time travel movie. Not only is it a time travel movie, but it's a time travel horror comedy. You don't see that everyday. The characters use time travel and a series of detention periods in order to solve the mystery of the murders at Grizzly Lake.

Every character in the film has a story of their own, and each character's story seems to tie them to a grander scale of events. At first glance the film just seems like a series of hipster centric pop culture jokes, but you learn by the end of the film that all of it is part of a bigger story. Riley is the lead actress and her story revolves around her complicated love triangle with Clapton and Ione. She finds herself constantly fumbling her way through high school, often becoming the laughing stock of her classmates. She often finds herself confronted with bizarre situations and is the main target of the Cinderhella killer throughout the film. Clapton Davis is really the heart throb that every girl in the school wants to be with. He seems to be a parody of today's average hipster as he often boast about his underground taste in music and dresses in obnoxiously retro clothing. His girlfriend Ione is perhaps the most retro of them all. She dances to nothing but early 90's music and constantly makes pop culture references regarding things that happened in the early 90's. We find out later in the film that she is actually an old soul (literally) and there is a time paradox behind her existence. The other two characters that shine in the film are Principal Karl Verge (Cook) and Sander Sanderson (Johnson) who serve as comedy relief throughout the film, but end up having a bigger role in the long timeline that the film dives into.

The reasons why this film is so unique is because it plays with the audience. The film presents itself as a comedic satire of slasher films but then flips into a satire of all film in general. You have an absolutely nutty time travel storyline that results in some hilarious antics and story arcs. Added to that the style of the film is very similar to "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" where the characters seem to live in a hyper exaggerated world where people are capable of having powers, and breaking the fourth wall on a regular basis. This adds an extra layer of comedy and style to the film. If you can keep up with all that, you are bound to fall in love with this film. Also if you thought Family Guy had a lot of pop culture references, this movie is crammed with them. You get tributes to such classics as Road House, Dirty Dancing, Scream, Breakfast Club, Spider-man, Star Trek, Back to the Future, and several others.

Your brain will stay busy with this film, and it may be too much for some. If you're willing to open your mind and sit back, relax, and enjoy the chaos, you will dig it. It may take you multiple viewings to fully understand the plot, but it's so funny and so unique, you will find yourself wanting to re-watch it the second it's over. If you ever wondered what a horror film would be like in a Scott Pilgrim-esque universe, then this is the film for you. If you want a horror film that doesn't insult the viewers intelligence, you will appreciate this movie.

Overall I chose to discuss "Detention" because it is one of the most unique horror films I've ever seen. It combines elements of films like Scream, Cabin in The Woods, and The Breakfast club, and somehow makes it work. The cast works really well together and they seem to have no trouble keeping up with the fast beat of the film. Dane Cook even provides some quality laughs, which is rare these days. If you enjoy any of the things I've talked about it in this review, give it a shot. It's currently streaming on Netflix, and since it's a hard movie to track down, I would highly recommend watching it while it's still up. It's a fun horror flick, and it has a lot of heart.