Saturday, October 23, 2010

Hallowe'en Countdown Day 23

Happy Birthday To Me

Plot: Virginia was in an accident that left her with memory loss. Her birthday is coming up, and she has planned a big party. Someone is not happy about this and starts to kill off her friends. The same accident left Virginia's mom dead. This does not stop the murderer from inviting her mom to the party, in fact all the guests have been dying to get there.  With her ever present black outs that seem to happen just when the next victim gets killed, Virginia has to suspect everyone, even herself.

A 1981 Canadian cult horror classic.  One of the first big slasher films of that decade.  Noted for it's most memorable deaths (shish kebabs, weights, drowning to name a few) the film serves up a few cases of mistaken identity, and near rape by one obsessive character.

Filled with nightmares, pranks and revenge, this lends itself to one of the best twist endings for a horror film up to that point.
The one frustration fans have had over the decades, has to do with the soundtrack being replaced when it first got it's DVD release in 2003/04.  Another has been the poster art having been changed as well making it difficult to identify if it was the same film or not; giving rumours to there having been a sequel. 
To my knowledge, there was never a sequel.    The re-release of the DVD in 2009 is said to have the restored cover art and soundtrack.  (my copy is the 2003 version with the replaced art/soundtrack)

This movie holds a special spot for me as it was the first "horror" film I ever saw -not counting old b/w monster films- and to this day my friend Erin still will not drive over a bridge without freaking because of the one death scene.