As a title, ”The Horror Show” suggests a collection of film clips, and as a movie, that`s pretty much what it is-an unacknowledged anthology of famous moments lifted from a couple of decades worth of slasher films.
Produced by the prolific Sean S. Cunningham, who has barely given us time to recover from his ”Deep Star Six,” ”The Horror Show” raids everything from Hitchcock`s ”Psycho,” the grandfather of the genre, to the enfeebled descendants represented by Cunningham`s own ”Friday the 13th” series, with swipes along the way from ”A Nightmare on Elm Street,” ”The Stepfather,”
”Prison” and countless more esoteric others.
Lance Henriksen, an appealing, craggy-faced performer who has already survived ”The Terminator,” ”Aliens” and ”Near Dark,” stars as Detective Lucas McCarthy, who-remarkably like Chuck Norris in ”Hero and the Terror”-
has brought a notorious psycho-killer to justice and is now suffering from the midnight sweats.
McCarthy attends the killer`s electrocution, hoping to be freed of his nightmares, but the wily psycho, Max Jenke (the inevitable, hulking Brion James), has a new trick up his sleeve. Drawing on the current to transform himself into an electromagnetic force of ”pure evil,” he slides along the power lines, ending up in the basement of McCarthy`s suburban home. Taking up residence in an industrial-strength furnace, he emerges to terrorize McCarthy`s no-nonsense wife (Rita Taggart), sexually precocious daughter
(Dedee Pfeiffer, sister of Michelle) and brattish son (Aron Eisenberg).
As usual when a film strains to consist only of spectacular climaxes, the results are numbingly dull. Director James Isaac (it`s the first feature for this former ”creature effects” specialist) essentially repeats the same sequence a couple of dozen times: Character enters dark and menacing space, camera follows creepily behind, things jump out. If there is an esthetic of this low genre (and the occasional success, such as ”Nightmare on Elm Street IV,” suggests that there is), it consists of the imaginative variation of shock and suspense rhythms; ”The Horror Show” is all one steady, monotonous beat.
Improbably, the film does contain a couple of good performances-from Henriksen, who has the conviction and sobriety to resist the self-conscious campiness into which the film frequently descends, and from Taggart, who was memorable in ”Weeds” and here creates a character of a strength and sexiness usually denied to middle-aged women in the movies. In their few brief scenes together, Henriksen and Taggart invent a delightfully warm and comfortable couple-a mature relationship worthy of something far better than the film they find themselves in.
”THE HORROR SHOW”
(STAR)
Directed by James Isaac; written by Alan Smithee and Leslie Bohem;
photographed by Mac Ahlberg; edited by Edward Anton; music by Harry Manfredini; produced by Sean S. Cunningham. An MGM/UA release; opens April 28 at the Chestnut Station, Webster Place and outlying theaters. Running time:
1:32. MPAA rating: R. Violence, strong language.
THE CAST
Lucas McCarthy………………………………Lance Henriksen
Max Jenke………………………………………Brion James
Donna McCarthy…………………………………Rita Taggart
Bonnie McCarthy………………………………Dedee Pfeiffer
Scott McCarthy……………………………….Aron Eisenberg
