Orca (1977)

Jaws is a landmark film. It was the film that started the idea of the summer blockbuster. A film so successful the market was instantly flooded with countless knockoffs, one of which Shocktober explored yesterday with Colin’s review of Kingdom of the Spiders. Why did everyone want to make the next Jaws? Because Jaws showed all you needed was some colorful characters and an animal threat and you could make infinite money.

Orca may not have been the most egregious of these knockoffs–that title belongs to the 1981 pile of Italian schlock Great White, a movie Universal sued into oblivion–but Orca is up there. That being I said, I do sense Orca has something else driving it. A film in search of an identity, but unfortunately it could never swim away from what it truly was a big, wet, salty, knockoff.

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The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

I don’t know who sat down and watched The Exorcist and said “That was fun! Let’s have some more of that” but they should probably burn in Hell. I’ve always found it surprising that there are enough exorcism movies to form an entire subgenre. What else can an exorcism movie be but someone in a bed screaming and making scary faces?

According to The Exorcist II: The Heretic it can be many other things, as long as none of those things are good. Even after watching this film I’m still not sure what it’s about or why it was made. Wait, what am I talking about? I know why it was made: M-O-N-E-Y, which in a way is the scariest thing of all #truth.

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The Sentinel (1977)

In another half-assed “gotta-get-a-review-in-every-day” effort I present you with the 1977 supernatural horror flick The Sentinel. The film was directed and adapted for the screen by Michael Winner, a man who I can assume never fails at anything. I first discovered The Sentinel through the Holy Bible of Horror Cinema also known as Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments. I’m not sure I would of heard of this Exorcist wannabe if not for that immortal Bravo mini-series but I do see some of the appeal. The film is a little bit The Exorcist, a little bit Rosemary’s Baby and a little bit The Omen. But is it as good? Let’s find out.

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House (1977)

In a last minute substitution, I present you with the Japanese take on the old haunted house formula with Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 cult favorite House. Inspired by Jaws out of all things, Obayashi wanted to capture that same level of creativity and entertainment while simulatenously breathing new life into an already decrepit subgenre. Where did he find his inspiration? Why his pre-teen daughter Chigumi of course. Who better to dream up nightmares than an innocent child? But what could a child possibly bring to the table that we haven’t already seen? How about a house that eats people? Or maybe killer furniture? How about watermelons turning into heads? House has all of this and much, much more.

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Eaten Alive (1977)

I’ve seen a handful of Tobe Hooper films; Poltergeist, Salem’s Lot, Lifeforce, none of which have come close to equaling the surreal discomfort of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What makes TCM so great is the fact that it feels so fresh, raw, it has a young director brimming with morbid inspiration. By that logic you would assume Hooper’s sophomore effort would be his closest to matching that energy and inspiration. Sorry logic. Eaten Alive is probably the worst Tobe Hooper movie I’ve seen. What happened? Let’s try and find out.

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Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

Let me take you back to a simpler time, 2004. A young John Otteni was beginning to delve into the world of horror cinema with little direction. Thankfully, a shining light came in the form of the Bravo Channel. The 100 Scariest Movie Moments was a five-part documentary series airing on Bravo in October 2004. The miniseries included interviews from all of the great Masters of Horror; Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Guillermo del Toro, Gilbert Gottfried, and more talking about horror movies.

The reason this program was important to me was it gave me a template for my horror movie education. Of course, the list included the classics; Frankenstein, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, but it also introduced me to more obscure titles like Zombi, Cat People, The Devil’s Backbone, and The Vanishing. I still come back to this list time to time to check off more films, which is how Alice, Sweet Alice came to be today’s entry.

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