Expert: Popcorn Guy - 5/24/2006

Question
The response to Folks at / Terror at Red Wolf Inn is incorrect. It was made in 1972, so it's not a low rent Texas Chainsaw, which was made a few years later. Also, the ending to the film is quite straightforard. Baby John kills his grandparents and Regina becomes Baby John's girlfriend / Guardian with the Grandparent's heads kept in the walk-in refrigerator. The wink at the end was simply self indulgent.

Also, no offense, but liking Tom Savini is certainly not an all day pass to liking or knowing horror films; nor is having magazine subscriptions. If you actually knew Savini, you certainly wouln't hold him in such high regard. Oh, and Knightriders isn't a horror film, as I'm sure you know. I've seen it many times. I have a 35mm print of it in my closet. :)

Answer
Okay...

My apologies for offending you by referring to Terror at Red Wolf Inn... I believe my answer is still correct in referring to it as a "low-rent version" of TCM, because it is exactly that - a microbudgeted, thrown together horror film with no goal in mind other than to make people turn their heads from the screen. Year of release makes no difference in the comparison. Interpreting a wink that breaks the "fourth wall" as self-indulgent is a possibility, but, at the same time, how it's interpreted by the audience and how it was intended are often two entirely different things...

As to your various jabs at Savini fans, so be it... I've never met the man, so I don't know him personally. I respect his work as a horror effect artist, the same way I respect Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman, Rick Baker, Dick Smith, Jack Pierce, Lon Chaney, Sr., and a few others. I assume you consider yourself more of an expert on horror, and that's fine. I encourage you to sign on as an expert and help answer some of the many questions horror fans have about movies they remember and want to find again.

And, yes, I am well aware of the fact that Knightriders is not a horror film. I don't believe I ever refer to it as a horror film. My reference to Knightriders comes as a mention of my being a fan of Savini. His acting skills are minimal at best, but there is something about him in Knightriders that just works. Knightriders is one of the best examples of a cult film I can think of - a film that has a devoted group of fans, but one that is not immediately well known to the public. Call it "anti-society" or an allegory of the growth and development of the "hippie" movement, call it what you will, it's a fantastic movie, and it's audience makes it a "cult film."

Studying horror magazines is what pushed me to study film history in the Film Studies program at Boston College. People find their motivation in life from different areas. Sorry if mine differ from yours, and somehow offend your sense of right and wrong...