Film students put on a midnight horror movie costume party marathon in a condemned theatre, with William Castle style gags that go fatally wrong and a killer's on the loose. As fun as it sounds. Sometimes you need to see a slasher movie set in a movie theatre. And guys, I think this is officially the last of this sort of movie ever made, the very last movie on the 80s horror list. The world changes after these credits roll and the screen goes dark.

Made in '91 but still smells like the 80s to me. I feel like I probably talk too much about such in these notices. I was a confused pre-teen when the 80s began, and a full grown creepy guy when they ended, and my theory is there's something about that decade in one's life that imprints itself on the brain more so than any other. All the greasy kid stuff from that time carries especially powerful pheromones of nostalgia. Did you ever read The Wind In The Willows, where Mole smells his old burrow? It's like that.

{tired old sigh} Fun movie. Marquee lights, Halloween costumes, the smell of popcorn, it all makes me want to go into the show, and that's what every movie should do. The mock schlock flicks playing in the theatre were as fun as the real thing too.

Something else I like, back then screenwriters didn't feel the need to make us hate everyone in the film with white knuckled rage. The boyfriend guy was kind of a jerk but he got punched in the face for it and learned his lesson; that's how we rolled back then. They're basically okay kids that don't make me turn beet red and start spitting profanity at the screen whenever they talk or move.

It's all about the fun vibe, maybe even a bit too fun. I wish the kills had been a bit more numerous and grisly. They even resort to using the same prop mosquito impalement twice. Kind of a cheap movie and they paid for that thing so they were damn well gonna use it 'til it broke.

The great Ray Walston is here as an eccentric purveyor of horror theatre gags. I could have used a lot more of that character, but sadly he disappears without a trace from the movie after one scene. I reckon they only had enough money for that mosquito and a few minutes of Mr Walston's time.

Well shipmates, I believe this was the last of its kind to walk the Earth before a meteor struck the Yucatan and The Great Age of 80s horror passed into history. Let us hoist a sad drunken toast to them all. To those two noble masked princes of the machete, to the Casio keyboard themes, to Elm Street and Crystal Lake and Haddonfield, to all those nights under the stars getting murdered at Summer camp, to ch ch ch and thrill me, to Linnea's naughty bits, to the greatest mom of all time, to all you semi-lovely dead queens of teased hair and hoop earrings, and even to the dozens of killers we've forgotten because they kind of sucked. And yes, I guess even to you, The Video Dead. To all of you I say, take on me, take me on, and I'll be gone, in a day or two.