Misplaced Pages

#382617

147-403: Strange Behavior (also known as Dead Kids , Small Town Massacre , Shadowlands , Human Experiments ) is a 1981 slasher film written, directed and co-produced by Michael Laughlin , co-written with Bill Condon , and starring Michael Murphy , Louise Fletcher and Dan Shor . Its plot follows a series of bizarre murders being perpetrated against teenagers in a small Midwestern town, at

294-484: A scarecrow . Local policeman John Brady begins investigating the murder. Meanwhile, John's son Pete, a high school senior, sits in on a course at Galesburg University with his friend, Oliver. During the course, professor Gwen Parkinson screens a lecture by her late mentor, Dr. Le Sange, whom Pete's late mother, Catherine, once worked for. After the lecture, Pete agrees to become one of Gwen's test subjects in order to earn money for his college applications. Later, Pete attends

441-643: A task force called the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control (DIMPAC) to investigate whether brainwashing or coercive persuasion did indeed control cults members. The Task Force concluded that: Cults and large group awareness trainings have generated considerable controversy because of their widespread use of deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control. These techniques can compromise individual freedom, and their use has resulted in serious harm to thousands of individuals and families. This report reviews

588-484: A "popular misconception". The report concludes that "exhaustive research of several government agencies failed to reveal even one conclusively documented case of 'brainwashing' of an American prisoner of war in Korea." The concept of brainwashing has been raised in defense of criminal charges. The 1969 to 1971 case of Charles Manson , who was said to have brainwashed his followers to commit murder and other crimes, brought

735-557: A 1950s mad-scientist movie, or at least a very fond and painstaking reincarnation of same. And it's a small, original, offbeat film of the sort that is out of fashion." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the film: "Grisly but sly, Strange Behavior is the genre film at its most knowing and controlled...  As an exploitation picture, it plays on the layman's deep-rooted fear of science tampering with nature." In

882-521: A 2006 documentary, the movie "became the flashpoint, igniting protests across the nation". Protesters picketed theaters playing the film with placards reading, "Deck the hall with holly – not bodies!" Released in November 1984 by TriStar Pictures , persistent carol -singers forced one Bronx cinema to pull Silent Night, Deadly Night a week into its run. The widespread outrage led to the film's removal, with only 741,500 tickets sold. As interest in

1029-498: A Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? , describes the religious conversion process to the Unification Church (whose members are sometimes informally referred to as Moonies ), which had been one of the best-known groups said to practice brainwashing. Barker spent close to seven years studying Unification Church members and wrote that she rejects the "brainwashing" theory because it does not explain why many people attended

1176-625: A U.S. Army officer who specialized in military intelligence and psychological warfare during the Second World War and the Korean War) depict brainwashing to remove memories of traumatic events as a normal and benign part of future medical practice. Brainwashing remains an important theme in science fiction. A subgenre is corporate mind control , in which a future society is run by one or more business corporations that dominate society, using advertising and mass media to control

1323-421: A Window" by Pop Mechanix , "Shivers" by The Birthday Party , and " Lightnin' Strikes " by Lou Christie . "The Ritz" and "Lightnin' Strikes" are heard at a teenage costume party during which characters (including two enacted by Ngila Dickson and Peta Rutter ) spontaneously perform a synchronised dance routine to "Lightnin' Strikes". The soundtrack has never been officially released until 1 April 2022, on CD by

1470-538: A brief period. Jamie Lee Curtis , daughter of Janet Leigh , was cast as the heroine Laurie Strode while veteran actor Donald Pleasence was cast as Dr. Sam Loomis , an homage to John Gavin 's character in Psycho . Halloween 's opening tracks a six-year-old's point-of-view as he kills his older sister, a scene emulated in numerous films such as Blow Out (1981) and The Funhouse (1981). Carpenter and Hill deny writing sexually active teens to be victims in favor of

1617-496: A budget of just $ 1.8 million, the film was a commercial success, grossing more than $ 25.5 million (7.6 million admissions) in North America and launched one of the most successful film series in history. A Nightmare on Elm Street provided the success that New Line Cinema needed to become a major Hollywood company. To this day, New Line is referred to as "The House That Freddy Built". The final slasher film released during

SECTION 10

#1732783934383

1764-749: A chart copied from a 1957 Air Force study of "Chinese Communist" brainwashing techniques used to elicit false confessions from American POWs during the Korean War. The report showed how the Secretary of Defense's 2002 authorization of the aggressive techniques at Guantánamo led to their use in Afghanistan and in Iraq , including at Abu Ghraib . In 1983, the American Psychological Association (APA) asked Singer to chair

1911-411: A college student who works the front desk at the laboratory, on a date, and the two quickly begin a romance. The following day, a woman finds her son, Timothy, being dismembered in her bathroom by an unknown young woman; she phones police before being stabbed, and manages to tell her friend Mildred over the phone sparse details about the girl's appearance before having her throat slashed. John, suspecting

2058-514: A common theme in popular culture especially in war stories , thrillers , and science fiction stories. In casual speech, "brainwashing" and its verb form, "brainwash", are used figuratively to describe the use of propaganda to sway public opinion . The Chinese term xǐnǎo ( traditional Chinese : 洗腦 ; simplified Chinese : 洗脑 lit.   ' wash brain ' ) was originally used by early 20th century Chinese intellectuals to refer to modernizing one's way of thinking. The term

2205-419: A confused Pete along with Caroline. John retrieves a shotgun and heads to the university. Barbara meanwhile recounts to Pete and Caroline how Pete's mother, Catherine, acted strangely during her employment under Le Sange, and that her subsequent unexplained death spurned John's initial investigation into the program. Pete and Caroline decide to follow after John to the university. Pete enters a chamber where John

2352-448: A conversation with his girlfriend, Barbara, about the murders: he deduces that each of the victims are sons of men who previously collaborated with John to investigate the unethical experiments of Le Sange, and believes Le Sange is in fact alive, enacting revenge. Barbara follows John to the cemetery, where he breaks into Le Sange's crypt, and finds the casket empty, except for two skeletonised lower legs. John and Barbara return home and find

2499-510: A device used in subsequent films Prom Night (1980) and Graduation Day (1981). Early examples include a maniac seeking revenge in The Terror (1928), based on the play by Edgar Wallace . B-movie mogul Val Lewton produced The Leopard Man (1943), about a murderer framing his crimes against women on an escaped show leopard . Basil Rathbone 's The Scarlet Claw (1944) sees Sherlock Holmes investigate murders committed with

2646-415: A family death but are murdered one by one. William Castle 's Homicidal (1961) features gore in its murder scenes, something both Psycho and Peeping Tom had edited out. Richard Hillard's Violent Midnight (1963) showed a black-gloved killer's point of view as they pull down a branch to watch a victim and also featured a skinny-dipping scene. Crown International 's Terrified (1963) features

2793-610: A felony. Her attorney, F. Lee Bailey , argued in her trial that she should not be held responsible for her actions since her treatment by her captors was the equivalent of the alleged brainwashing of Korean War POWs (see also Diminished responsibility ). Bailey developed his case in conjunction with psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West and psychologist Margaret Singer . They had both studied the experiences of Korean War POWs. (In 1996, Singer published her theories in her best-selling book Cults in Our Midst . ) Despite this defense, Hearst

2940-414: A few years earlier, had been very profitable. Many 1984 slasher films with brief theatrical runs found varying degrees of success on home video, such as Splatter University , Satan's Blade , Blood Theatre , Rocktober Blood and Fatal Games . Movies like The Prey and Evil Judgement were filmed years prior and finally were given small theatrical releases. Silent Madness used 3D to ride

3087-583: A five-pronged garden weeder that the killer would raise in the air and bring down on the victim repeatedly, an editing technique that became familiar in the genre. Robert Siodmak 's The Spiral Staircase (1946), based on Ethel White 's novel Some Must Watch , stars Ethel Barrymore as a sympathetic woman trying to survive black-gloved killers. The Spiral Staircase also features an early use of jump scares . British writer Agatha Christie 's particularly influential 1939 novel Ten Little Indians (adapted in 1945 as And Then There Were None ), centers on

SECTION 20

#1732783934383

3234-598: A group of people with secret pasts who are killed one-by-one on an isolated island. Each of the murders mirrors a verse from a nursery rhyme , merging the themes of childhood innocence and vengeful murder. House of Wax (1953), The Bad Seed (1956), Screaming Mimi (1958), Jack the Ripper (1959), and Cover Girl Killer (1959) all incorporated Christie's literary themes. Alfred Hitchcock 's Psycho (1960) used visuals that had been deemed unacceptable by movie studios, including scenes of violence, sexuality, and

3381-464: A healthy 6.2 million. Both series fell out rather quickly, when Child's Play 3 (1991) selling only 3.5 million tickets in North America and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) selling only 3.2 million. Brainwashing Brainwashing is the controversial idea that the human mind can be altered or controlled against a person's will by manipulative psychological techniques. Brainwashing

3528-664: A home on VHS. Paul Lynch 's Humongous was released through AVCO Embassy Pictures , but a change in management severely limited the film's theatrical release. Films such as Hospital Massacre and Night Warning enjoyed strong home rentals from video stores, though Dark Sanity , The Forest , Unhinged , Trick or Treats , and Island of Blood fell into obscurity with little theatrical releases and only sub-par video transfers. Supernatural slasher films continued to build in popularity with The Slayer , The Incubus , Blood Song , Don't Go to Sleep and Superstition (the supernatural-themed Halloween III: Season of

3675-406: A house party. During the party, one of his classmates, Waldo, is stabbed to death outside by a masked assailant, and Waldo's girlfriend Lucy is attacked and falls into the swimming pool. Pete and several others rush to save her, and the masked attacker flees; in the distance, he removes his mask, revealing himself to be Oliver. John subsequently questions Oliver, who says he cannot recall the events of

3822-564: A job at Avco Embassy Pictures working for then head Robert Rehme . Condon continued to write articles for film magazines while working at his full time position. One of Condon's articles penned for Millimeter in 1978 was read by Michael Laughlin who then called Condon and offered him a job which lead to their teaming on Dead Kids . Though set in Galesburg, Illinois , USA, the film was shot in Auckland , New Zealand , and filmed under

3969-861: A masked killer. Spain's The House That Screamed (1969) features violent murders and preempted later campus-based slashers. Subgenres that influenced slasher films include splatter films , Krimi films, and giallo films. Splatter films focus on gratuitous gore. Herschell Gordon Lewis 's Blood Feast (1963) was a hit at drive-in theaters and is often considered the first splatter film. Lewis followed with gory films Two-Thousand Maniacs! (1964), Color Me Blood Red (1965), The Gruesome Twosome (1967) and The Wizard of Gore (1970). This grotesque style translated to Andy Milligan 's The Ghastly Ones (1969), Twisted Nerve (1968), Night After Night After Night (1969) as well as The Haunted House of Horror (1969). Post-World War II Germany adapted British writer Edgar Wallace 's crime novels into

4116-475: A movie on home video, resulting in shot-on-video slashers Blood Cult (1985), The Ripper (1985), Spine (1986), Truth or Dare? (1986), Killer Workout (1987), and Death Spa (1989). Lesser-known horror properties Sleepaway Camp , The Slumber Party Massacre and Silent Night, Deadly Night became series on home video. The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985) and Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) were theatrically released but neither film

4263-402: A much healthier life on home video. The Dorm That Dripped Blood and Honeymoon Horror , each made for between $ 50–90,000, became successful in the early days of VHS . Because of this change, independent productions began having difficulties finding theatrical distribution. Girls Nite Out had a very limited release in 1982 but was re-released in 1983 in more theaters until finally finding

4410-462: A new bar for acceptable levels of on-screen violence. The criticisms that began with Friday the 13th would lead to the genre's eventual decline in subsequent years. The small-budget thrillers Silent Scream and Prom Night were box office hits with 3.2 and 5.5 million admissions, respectively. Jamie Lee Curtis starred in the independent Prom Night , as well studio films Terror Train and The Fog to earn her "scream queen" title. MGM 's

4557-463: A new mind into that resulting void", was not so successful. Controversial psychiatrist Colin A. Ross claims that the CIA was successful in creating programmable so-called " Manchurian Candidates " even at the time. The CIA experiments using various psychedelic drugs such as LSD and Mescaline drew from previous Nazi human experimentation . In 1979, John D. Marks wrote in his book The Search for

Strange Behavior - Misplaced Pages Continue

4704-467: A nursing academy. Hands of the Ripper (1971) depicts the psychological trauma suffered by Jack the Ripper 's daughter, who continues the murderous reign of her father. Fright (1971) is based on the " babysitter and the man upstairs " urban legend while Tower of Evil (1972) features careless partying teens murdered in a remote island lighthouse. Pete Walker broke taboos by advertising his films' negative reviews to attract viewers looking for

4851-542: A person to exploit this individual for sexual and financial reasons. Earlier scientific debates in the 1980s and 1990s about torture-based ritual abuse in cults was known as " satanic ritual abuse ," which was mainly viewed as a " moral panic ." Brain-Washing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics published by the Church of Scientology in 1955 about brainwashing. L. Ron Hubbard authored

4998-528: A photo gallery, an isolated music score by Tangerine Dream, a Spanish-dubbed track, U.S. and Australian theatrical trailers and filmographies. The film was released on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack by Severin Films under its New Zealand title, Dead Kids in 2014. A novelisation of the film was published in 1982 under the title "School Days" by Robert Hughes. The soundtrack features electronic music by Tangerine Dream . Also included are songs "The Ritz" and "Jumping Out

5145-477: A recruitment meeting and did not become members nor why so many members voluntarily disaffiliate or leave groups. James Richardson said that if the new religious movements had access to powerful brainwashing techniques, one would expect that they would have high growth rates, yet in fact, most have not had notable success in recruiting or retaining members. For this and other reasons, sociologists of religion including David Bromley and Anson Shupe consider

5292-445: A recurring theme in later horror films. Along with the "madman on the loose" plotline, these films employed several influences upon the slasher genre, such as lengthy point of view shots and a "sins of the father" catalyst to propel the plot's mayhem. George Archainbaud 's Thirteen Women (1932) tells the story of a sorority whose former members are set against one another by a vengeful peer who crosses out their yearbook photos,

5439-497: A saturation point in 1981, as heavily promoted movies like My Bloody Valentine and The Burning were box office failures. After the success of Friday the 13th , Paramount Pictures picked up My Bloody Valentine with hopes to achieve similar success. The film became the subject of intense scrutiny in the wake of John Lennon's murder , and was released heavily edited; lacking the draw of gore, My Bloody Valentine barely sold 2 million tickets in North America, much less than

5586-921: A series. Three other spoofs , Evil Laugh (1986), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), were box office disappointments; Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 sold just 2 million tickets while Jason Lives sold 5.2 million, both significantly down from their predecessors. The home video market saw the output of low-budget, tongue-in-cheek slashers like Stripped to Kill (1987), Return to Horror High (1987), and Killer Workout (1987), and previous franchises foregoing theaters for direct-to-video self-parody sequels in Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987), Slumber Party Massacre II (1987), Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989). Trying to cater

5733-559: A similar route with a cameo in Maniac Cop 2 (1990) and no participation in Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence (1993). The Nightmare on Elm Street series dominated the late 1980s horror wave, with A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) selling 11.5 million tickets in North America, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) following another 12 million tickets. By comparison, Friday

5880-919: A subgenre of their own called Krimi films. The Krimi films were released in the late 1950s through the early 1970s and featured villains in bold costumes accompanied by jazz scores from composers such as Martin Böttcher and Peter Thomas . Fellowship of the Frog (1959), about a murderer terrorizing London, was successful in America, leading to similar adaptations like The Green Archer (1961) and Dead Eyes of London (1961). The Rialto Studio produced 32 Krimi films between 1959 and 1970. Italy's giallo thrillers are crime procedurals or murder mysteries interlaced with eroticism and psychological horror. Giallo films feature unidentified killers murdering in grand fashions. Unlike most American slasher films

6027-698: A surprising 3.9 million admissions, making a hit erotic slasher-thriller that predates blockbusters Fatal Attraction (1987) and Basic Instinct (1992) by several years. Internationally, Australia released Next of Kin while Puerto Rico's Pieces was filmed in Boston and Madrid by an Italian-American producer with a Spanish director. Italian gialli saw slasher film influences in their releases for Sergio Martino 's The Scorpion with Two Tails , Lucio Fulci 's The New York Ripper and Dario Argento 's Tenebrae . Traditional slasher films saw less frequent output. The House on Sorority Row followed

Strange Behavior - Misplaced Pages Continue

6174-452: A violent exploitation film, with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert famously despising the film. Siskel, in his Chicago Tribune review, revealed the identity and fate of the film's killer in an attempt to hurt its box office, and provided the address of the chairman of Paramount Pictures for viewers to complain. The MPAA was criticized for allowing Friday the 13th an R rating, but its violence would inspire gorier films to follow, as it set

6321-532: A virginal " final girl " survivor, though subsequent filmmakers copied what appeared to be a "sex-equals-death" mantra. When shown an early cut of Halloween without a musical score, all major American studios declined to distribute it, one executive even remarking that it was not scary. Carpenter added music himself, and the film was distributed locally in four Kansas City theaters through Akkad's Compass International Pictures in October 1978. Word-of-mouth made

6468-416: A wave of "dream" slashers that included Dreamaniac (1986), Bad Dreams (1988), Deadly Dreams (1988), and Dream Demon (1988). Of those films, Bad Dreams was a minor hit with 2.4 million admissions. Paramount Pictures released the parody April Fool's Day (1986) with hopes to start a sister series to its Friday the 13th property, though the film's modest 3.5 million admissions never led to

6615-609: A wave of protest from the National Organization for Women (NOW), who picketed the film's screening on the University of Iowa campus. The year's most controversial slasher was William Lustig 's Maniac , about a schizophrenic serial killer in New York. Maniac was maligned by critics. Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that watching the film was like "watching someone else throw up." Lustig released

6762-427: Is a whodunit featuring a subplot depicting creative death sequences on a secluded lakeside setting, which greatly inspired Friday the 13th (1980), its 1981 sequel and subsequent slashers. Sergio Martino 's Torso (1973) featured a masked killer preying upon beautiful and promiscuous young women in retribution for a past misdeed. Torso 's edge-of-your-seat climax finds a sensible "final girl" facing off with

6909-532: Is communicating with Gwen, who appears on a small television. Gwen orders Pete, now in a daze from her mind control methods, to take his father's gun. Gwen appears in the room, whereafter a legless and weelchairbound elderly man enters, revealing himself to be Le Sange disguised as an elderly man. He expounds that his methods of mind control will help the world, before proceeding to instruct Pete to slash his own wrists, which he does, before instructing him to stab his father to death. Pete responds by stabbing Le Sange in

7056-556: Is discussed in film studies as being a young woman (occasionally a young man) left alone to face the killer's advances in the movie's end. Laurie Strode ( Jamie Lee Curtis ), the heroine in Halloween , is an example of a typical final girl. Final girls are often, like Laurie Strode, virgins among sexually active teens. Others have called the trope "self-mythologising" based on a handful of especially high-profile examples, asserting that its prominence has been overstated – particularly

7203-513: Is envisioned and embedded into the public psyche as the main and most marketable/recognisable character, even if his screentime is dwarfed in any specific film by the nominal protagonists. The Scream film series is a rarity that follows its heroine Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ) rather than masked killer Ghostface , whose identity changes from film to film, and is only revealed in each entry's finale. Another alleged trope frequently associated with slasher discourse - and horror more broadly -

7350-589: Is said to reduce its subject's ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values, and beliefs. The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them during the Korean War . Research into

7497-563: Is susceptible to such manipulation. Benjamin Zablocki , late professor of sociology at Rutgers University said that the number of people who attest to brainwashing in interviews (performed in accordance with guidelines of the National Institute of Mental Health and National Science Foundation ) is too large to result from anything other than a genuine phenomenon. He said that in the two most prestigious journals dedicated to

SECTION 50

#1732783934383

7644-674: Is that of the "black character(s) dying first" (often formulated as " always dying first"). Actual analyses of the films, such as a 2013 investigative piece in Complex , have found that the trope is largely self-mythologising as opposed to being a statistical reality (per Complex, in only 10% of the fifty analysed movies, all containing one or more speaking black characters, did any of them die first). The appeal of watching people inflict violence upon each other dates back thousands of years to Ancient Rome , though fictionalized accounts became marketable with late 19th century horror plays produced at

7791-429: Is visually and thematically a precursor to John Carpenter 's Halloween (1978), as young women are terrorized in a previously safe environment during an iconic holiday. Like Halloween , Clark's film opens with a lengthy point-of-view , but it differs in the treatment of the killer's identity. Despite making $ 4,053,000 on a $ 620,000 budget, Black Christmas was initially criticized, with Variety complaining that it

7938-510: The New York Daily News , Rex Reed praised the film, writing: " Strange Behavior is a horror movie that shows how to succeed in grisly gore without really trying, and moreover, how to do it while being intentionally funny at the same time. It is genuinely chilling, constantly imaginative, and full of exquisite throwaway comedy." Some critics were less laudatory of the film, such as Bernard Drew of The Journal News , who deemed

8085-621: The 1937 British film ) and Peter Cushing starred in Corruption (1968). Hammer Studios , a London-based company, followed Psycho 's success with Taste of Fear (1961), Maniac (1963), Paranoiac (1963), Nightmare (1964), Fanatic (1965), The Nanny (1965), and Hysteria (1965). Hammer's rival Amicus had Robert Bloch , author of 1959 Psycho novel , write the script for Psychopath (1968). Francis Ford Coppola 's debut, Dementia 13 (1963), takes place in an Irish castle where relatives gather to commemorate

8232-555: The AIDS crisis , the film's portrayal of the gay community fueled subsequent backlash once the virus became an epidemic. Low budget exploitative films New Year's Evil , Don't Go in the House and Don't Answer the Phone! were called-out for misogyny that dwelled on the suffering of females exclusively. Acclaimed filmmaker Brian De Palma 's Psycho -homage Dressed to Kill drew

8379-744: The Grand Guignol . Maurice Tourneur 's The Lunatics (1912) used visceral violence to attract the Guignol's audience. In the United States, public outcry over films like this eventually led to the passage of the Hays Code in 1930. The Hays Code is one of the entertainment industry's earliest set of guidelines restricting sexuality and violence deemed unacceptable. Crime writer Mary Roberts Rinehart influenced horror literature with her novel The Circular Staircase (1908), adapted into

8526-432: The Halloween -clone He Knows You're Alone sold nearly 2 million tickets, though Paramount Pictures John Huston -directed Phobia only sold an estimated 22,000 tickets. Two high-profile slasher-thrillers were met with protest, William Friedkin 's Cruising and Gordon Willis ' Windows , both of which equate homosexuality with psychosis . Cruising drew protests from gay rights groups, and though it pre-dates

8673-661: The Son of Sam slayings, cashed-in on headlines and public fascination. Wes Craven modernized the Sawney Bean legend in The Hills Have Eyes (1977) by building upon themes presented in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . The Hills Have Eyes was another huge financial success, relaunching Craven's career after it had been damaged by controversy surrounding his previous film, The Last House on

8820-816: The United Nations NGO, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), prompted international awareness of human sex trafficking in her 1979 book Female Sexual Slavery . In his 1986 book Woman Abuse: Facts Replacing Myths, Lewis Okun reported that: "Kathleen Barry shows in Female Sexual Slavery that forced female prostitution involves coercive control practices very similar to thought reform." In their 1996 book, Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and

8967-459: The War on Terrorism , concluding that, in this context, thought reform was possible without violence or physical coercion. He also pointed out that in their efforts against terrorism, Western governments were also using some alleged mind control techniques. In her 2004 popular science book, Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control , neuroscientist and physiologist Kathleen Taylor reviewed

SECTION 60

#1732783934383

9114-573: The counter-culture and traditional conservative values, with the film's squealing antagonist Leatherface carrying a chainsaw and wearing the faces of victims he and his family eat. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre spawned imitators and its false "based on a true story" advertisements gave way to reenactments of true crime . The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), based on the Phantom Killer case, and Another Son of Sam (1977), based on

9261-570: The drive-in success of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Toolbox Murders was quickly and cheaply shot but did not generate the interest of the former films. Exploitative Killer's Delight is a San Francisco-set serial killer story claiming to take inspiration from Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer . Leading up to Halloween 's October release were August's gialli -inspired Eyes of Laura Mars (written by John Carpenter) and September's " babysitter in peril " TV Movie Are You in

9408-607: The sociology of religion there have been no articles "supporting the brainwashing perspective," while over one hundred such articles have been published in other journals "marginal to the field." He concluded that the concept of brainwashing had been blacklisted . Eileen Barker criticized the concept of brainwashing because it functioned to justify costly interventions such as deprogramming or exit counseling. She has also criticized some mental health professionals, including Singer, for accepting expert witness jobs in court cases involving NRMs. Barker's 1984 book, The Making of

9555-403: The telekinesis -themed slasher Tourist Trap was initially unsuccessful, it has undergone a reappraisal by fans. 1979's most successful slasher was Fred Walton 's When a Stranger Calls , which sold 8.5 million tickets in North America. Its success has largely been credited to its opening scene, in which a babysitter ( Carol Kane ) is taunted by a caller who repeatedly asks, "Have you checked

9702-444: The "Golden Age" of slasher films. Notable slasher films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Black Christmas (1974), Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Child's Play (1988), Scream (1996), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). Many slasher films released decades ago continue to attract cult followings . The slasher canon can be divided into three eras:

9849-457: The 13th Part III , the first slasher trilogy, was an enormous success, selling 12 million tickets and dethroning E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial from the top of the box office. The film's iconic hockey mask has grown to pop-culture iconography . Universal Pictures had a tiny release for Death Valley , while Columbia Pictures found modest success with Silent Rage . Independent distributor Embassy Pictures released The Seduction to

9996-651: The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) sold approximately 4.5 million tickets each, less than half of the Elm Street films. The personality-driven appeal of Freddy Krueger was not lost on filmmakers, as characters like Chucky and Candyman were given ample dialogue and placed in urban settings that had largely been ignored by the Golden Age. Chucky's Child's Play (1988) and its 1990 sequel sold over 14.7 million tickets combined, while Candyman (1992) sold

10143-404: The 15 million sold by Friday the 13th the year beforehand. Thematically similar to My Bloody Valentine , The Prowler hoped to lure an audience with gore effects by Friday the 13th 's Tom Savini but large MPAA edits contributed to its failure to find a nationwide distributor. Suffering similar censorship was The Burning , which also employed Savini's special effects, though it does mark

10290-653: The 1950s. The film is considered a seminal work of New Zealand cinema, being the first horror film produced in the country. It has since attracted a large cult following . While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic. Bryan, the son of the Galesburg, Illinois mayor, is brutally murdered in his home, his body later found stuffed and posed as

10437-661: The 1970s, reported on what he called " Nazi brainwashing" of the people of Belarus by the occupying Germans during the Second World War , which took place through both mass propaganda and intense re-education, especially in schools. Romanovsky noted that very soon, most people had adopted the Nazi view that the Jews were an inferior race and were closely tied to the Soviet government, views that had not been at all common before

10584-479: The 1980s there was a wave of 'brainwashing' claims, and then parliaments around the world examined the issue, courts around the world examined the issue, and reached a clear ruling: That there is no such thing as cults…that the people making these claims are often not experts on the issue. And in the end courts, including in Israel, rejected expert witnesses who claimed there is "brainwashing." For 20 years, starting in

10731-642: The Black Cat (1972) paying homage to Hitchcock's film. Gialli were popular in American cinemas and drive-in theaters . Thriller Assault (1971) and Spanish mystery A Dragonfly for Each Corpse (1974) share many traits with Italian gialli . Death Steps in the Dark (1977) spoofed the familiar conventions found in giallo films. Despite successes from Deep Red (1975) and The Blood-Stained Shadow (1978), giallo films gradually fell out of fashion by

10878-624: The Chinese subjected them to brainwashing techniques during their imprisonment. The U.S. military and government laid charges of brainwashing in an effort to undermine confessions made by POWs to war crimes, including biological warfare . After Chinese radio broadcasts claimed to quote Frank Schwable , Chief of Staff of the First Marine Air Wing admitting to participating in germ warfare, United Nations commander General Mark W. Clark asserted: "Whether these statements ever passed

11025-572: The Church of Scientology had practiced brainwashing on him, which left him unsuitable to make independent decisions. The court ruled that the use of brainwashing theories is inadmissible in expert witnesses, citing the Frye standard , which states that scientific theories utilized by expert witnesses must be generally accepted in their respective fields. Since then, United States courts have consistently rejected testimony about mind control or brainwashing on

11172-519: The German occupation. Italy has had controversy over the concept of plagio , a crime consisting in an absolute psychological—and eventually physical—domination of a person. The effect is said to be the annihilation of the subject's freedom and self-determination and the consequent negation of his or her personality . The crime of plagio has rarely been prosecuted in Italy, and only one person

11319-585: The Golden Age of slasher films is 1978–1984, with some scholars citing over 100 similar films released over the six-year period. Despite most films receiving negative reviews, many Golden Age slasher films were extremely profitable and have established cult followings . Many films reused Halloween 's template of a murderous figure stalking teens, though they escalated the gore and nudity from Carpenter's restrained film. Golden Age slasher films exploited dangers lurking in American institutions such as high schools, colleges, summer camps, and hospitals. Cashing in on

11466-861: The Golden Age slasher waned, Wes Craven 's A Nightmare on Elm Street revitalized the genre by mixing fantasy and the supernatural in a cost-effective way. Craven had toyed with slasher films before in Deadly Blessing (1981), though he was frustrated that the genre he had helped create with The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977) had not benefited him financially. Developing A Nightmare on Elm Street since 1981, Craven recognized time running out due to declining revenues from theatrical slasher film releases. A Nightmare on Elm Street and especially its villain Freddy Krueger ( Robert Englund ) became cultural phenomenons. On

11613-417: The Golden Age such as Too Scared to Scream (filmed in 1981, released in 1985), The Mutilator (filmed in 1984, released in 1985), Blood Rage (filmed in 1983, released in 1987), Killer Party (filmed in 1984, released in 1986) and Mountaintop Motel Massacre (filmed in 1983, released in 1986) found video distribution. Mirroring the punk rock movement, novice filmmakers proved anyone could make

11760-432: The Golden Age, The Initiation , was greatly overshadowed by A Nightmare on Elm Street (though both films feature dreams as plot points and a horribly burned "nightmare man"). The success of A Nightmare on Elm Street welcomed in a new wave of horror films that relied on special effects, almost completely silencing the smaller low-budget Golden Age features. Despite A Nightmare on Elm Street 's success, fatigue hit

11907-643: The House Alone? Of them, The Eyes of Laura Mars grossed $ 20 million against a $ 7 million budget. Influenced by the French New Wave 's Eyes Without a Face (1960), science fiction thriller Westworld (1973) and Black Christmas (1974), Halloween was directed, composed and co-written by Carpenter, and produced and co-written by Debra Hill on a budget of $ 300,000 provided by Syrian-American producer Moustapha Akkad . To minimize costs, locations were reduced and time took place over

12054-469: The Left (1972). Following holiday-themed exploitation films Home for the Holidays (1972), All Through the House (1972) and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1973), Christmas horror film Black Christmas (1974) uses horror as a board to debate social topics of its time, including feminism , abortion, and alcoholism. Using the "killer calling from inside the house " gimmick , Black Christmas

12201-760: The Manchurian Candidate that until the MKUltra program was effectively terminated in 1963, the agency's researchers had found no reliable way to brainwash another person, as all experiments at some stage always ended in either amnesia or catatonia, making any operational use impossible. A bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report, released in part in December 2008 and in full in April 2009, reported that U.S. military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 had based an interrogation class on

12348-641: The Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China , was based on this research.) Lifton found that when the POWs returned to the United States their thinking soon returned to normal, contrary to the popular image of "brainwashing." In 1956, after reexamining the concept of brainwashing following the Korean War, the U.S. Army published a report entitled Communist Interrogation, Indoctrination, and Exploitation of Prisoners of War , which called brainwashing

12495-474: The Scarecrow brought the genre to the small screen. Two sequels had bigger body counts and more gore than their predecessors, but not higher box office intakes. Friday the 13th Part 2 sold 7.8 million tickets and Halloween II sold 9.2 million. Both sequels sold under half of their original film's tickets, though they were still very popular ( Halloween II was the second highest-grossing horror film of

12642-561: The United States , Rita Nakashima Brock and Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite report that the methods commonly used by pimps to control their victims "closely resemble the brainwashing techniques of terrorists and paranoid cults." In his 2000 book, Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism , Robert Lifton applied his original ideas about thought reform to Aum Shinrikyo and

12789-518: The United States by using a brainwashed sleeper agent for political assassination. The concept of brainwashing became popularly associated with the research of Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov , which mostly involved dogs as subjects. In The Manchurian Candidate the head brainwasher is "Dr. Yen Lo, of the Pavlov Institute." The science fiction stories of Cordwainer Smith (pen name of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913–1966),

12936-511: The Unknown , and The Fearmakers . Forbidden Area told the story of Soviet secret agents who had been brainwashed through classical conditioning by their own government so they wouldn't reveal their identities. In 1962, The Manchurian Candidate (based on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon ) "put brainwashing front and center" by featuring a plot by the Soviet government to take over

13083-738: The Witch , though part of the Halloween franchise , does not adhere to the slasher film formula). Alone in the Dark was New Line Cinema 's first feature film, released to little revenue and initially dismissed by critics, though the film has gained critical reappraisal. Director Amy Holden Jones and writer Rita Mae Brown gender-swapped to showcase exploitative violence against men in The Slumber Party Massacre , while Visiting Hours pitted liberal feminism against macho right-wing bigotry with exploitative results. Friday

13230-399: The brainwashing defense undermines the law's fundamental premise of free will . In 2003, forensic psychologist Dick Anthony said that "no reasonable person would question that there are situations where people can be influenced against their best interests, but those arguments are evaluated based on fact, not bogus expert testimony." In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-cult movement applied

13377-503: The children?" Less successful were Ray Dennis Steckler 's burlesque slasher The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher and Abel Ferrara 's The Driller Killer , both of which featured gratuitous on-screen violence against vagrant people. The election of Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States drew in a new age of conservatism that ushered concern of rising violence on film. The slasher film, at

13524-722: The classical (1974–1993), the self-referential (1994–2000) and the neoslasher cycle (2000–2013). Slasher films typically adhere to a specific formula: a past wrongful action causes severe trauma that is reinforced by a commemoration or anniversary that reactivates or re-inspires the killer. Built around stalk-and-murder sequences, the films draw upon the audience's feelings of catharsis , recreation , and displacement , as related to sexual pleasure. Paste magazine 's definition notes that, "slasher villains are human beings, or were human beings at some point ... Slasher villains are human killers whose actions are objectively evil, because they’re meant to be bound by human morality. That’s part of

13671-439: The concept also looked at Nazi Germany and present-day North Korea , at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of human traffickers . Scientific and legal debate followed, as well as media attention, about the possibility of brainwashing being a factor when lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was used, or in the induction of people into groups which are considered to be cults . Brainwashing has become

13818-414: The concept of brainwashing to explain seemingly sudden and dramatic religious conversions to some new religious movements (NRMs) and other groups that they considered cults . News media reports tended to accept their view and social scientists sympathetic to the anti-cult movement, who were usually psychologists , developed revised models of brainwashing. While some psychologists were receptive to

13965-418: The concept of brainwashing. In 1999, forensic psychologist Dick Anthony criticized another adherent to this view, Jean-Marie Abgrall , for allegedly employing a pseudoscientific approach and lacking any evidence that anyone's worldview was substantially changed by these coercive methods. He claimed that the concept and the fear surrounding it was used as a tool for the anti-cult movement to rationalize

14112-456: The concept, sociologists were, for the most part, skeptical of its ability to explain conversion. Critics of Mormonism have accused it of brainwashing its adherents. Philip Zimbardo defined mind control as "the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition or behavioral outcomes," and he suggested that any human being

14259-402: The depraved, using a "no press is bad press" mantra with The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), Frightmare (1974), House of Mortal Sin (1976), Schizo (1976) and The Comeback (1978). Other filmmakers followed Walker's lead, as posters dubbed Blood and Lace (1971) as "sickest PG-rated movie ever made!", while Scream Bloody Murder (1973) called itself "gore-nography." By 1974

14406-571: The early 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Department of Defense conducted secret research, including Project MKUltra , in an attempt to develop practical brainwashing techniques; These experiments ranged "from electroshock to high doses of LSD ". The director Sidney Gottlieb and his team were apparently able to "blast away the existing mind" of a human being by using torture techniques; however, reprogramming, in terms of finding "a way to insert

14553-459: The evolution of brainwashing from its origins in the Cold War through to today's War on Terror. The author, Dominic Streatfeild , uses formerly classified documentation and interviews from the CIA. In George Orwell 's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , the main character is subjected to imprisonment, isolation , and torture to conform his thoughts and emotions to the wishes of

14700-435: The exploitation film battled political correctness and their popularity waned, and while films like The Love Butcher (1975) and The Redeemer: Son of Satan (1976) were accused of promoting bigotry, the low-budget independent film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) became a major hit and the most commercially successful horror film since The Exorcist . The story concerns a violent clash of cultures and ideals between

14847-457: The fear that the genre is meant to prey upon, the idea that killers walk among us." Films with similar structures that have non-human antagonists lacking a conscience, such as Alien or The Terminator , are not traditionally considered slasher films (though many slasher antagonists are superhuman, have supernatural traits, or possess slightly warped or abstract anthropomorphic forms both physically and metaphysically). The final girl trope

14994-559: The feature film debuts of Brad Grey , Holly Hunter , Jason Alexander , Fisher Stevens , Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein . Profits of Halloween and Friday the 13th drew studio interest, to varying success. Warner Bros. 's Eyes of a Stranger (402,386 admissions) and Night School (420,818 admission), Paramount Pictures ' The Fan (1.1 million admissions), Universal Pictures The Funhouse (2.8 million admissions), and Columbia Pictures Happy Birthday to Me (3.8 million admissions). CBS ' TV movie, Dark Night of

15141-409: The female assailant may be one of Gwen's test subjects, confronts Gwen at the laboratory, unaware of the fact that Pete is in one of the test rooms, tied to a chair. After John leaves, Gwen resumes the session, in which she injects a fluid into Pete's eye. After he awakens and is dismissed, Pete goes to have dinner with Caroline, but becomes violently ill, and begins urinating blood . Meanwhile, John has

15288-539: The film "awkwardly plotted" and "little more than a rehash of all the old "B" horror movies of the '30s." The film was released on VHS by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the film was released on VHS under the title Small Town Massacre in 1983. The film was released twice on DVD in the United States, first by Elite Entertainment on 6 May 2003. and then by Synapse Films in 2008. The DVD included deleted scenes,

15435-627: The film unrated on American screens, sidestepping the MPAA to still sell 2.2 million tickets at the box office. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho 's influence was felt two decades later in Cries in the Night and The Unseen . Joe D'Amato 's gruesome Italian horror film Antropophagus and the Australian slasher Nightmares showed that the genre was spreading internationally. Slasher films reached

15582-591: The grounds that these theories are not part of accepted science under the Frye standard. In 2003, the brainwashing defense was used unsuccessfully in defense of Lee Boyd Malvo , who was charged with murder for his part in the D.C. sniper attacks . Allegations of brainwashing have also been raised by plaintiffs in child custody cases. Thomas Andrew Green , in his 2014 book Freedom and Criminal Responsibility in American Legal Thought , argues that

15729-410: The height of its commercial power, also became the center of a political and cultural maelstrom. Sean S. Cunningham 's sleeper hit Friday the 13th was the year's most commercially successful slasher film, grossing more than $ 59.7 million and selling nearly 15 million tickets in North America. Despite a financial success, distributor Paramount Pictures was criticized for "lowering" itself to release

15876-449: The history of mind control theories, as well as notable incidents. In it, she theorized that persons under the influence of brainwashing may have more rigid neurological pathways, and that can make it more difficult to rethink situations or to be able to later reorganize these pathways. In 2006 Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control ( ISBN   0-340-83161-8 ) is a non-fiction book published by Hodder & Stoughton about

16023-463: The idea that "cults" are brainwashing American youth to be implausible. Thomas Robbins , Massimo Introvigne , Lorne Dawson , Gordon Melton , Marc Galanter , and Saul Levine , amongst other scholars researching NRMs, have argued and established to the satisfaction of courts, relevant professional associations and scientific communities that there exists no generally accepted scientific theory, based upon methodologically sound research, that supports

16170-432: The innocent, virginal qualities ascribed to putative final girls - and that, in the 21st century, the trope has been filtered through the lens of parody, subversion, and self-aware humour (e.g. Final Girl ) rather than deployed sincerely. When slasher films become franchises, they typically take on villain protagonist characteristics, with the series following the continued efforts of their antagonists, rather than any of

16317-482: The issue to renewed public attention. In 1974, Patty Hearst , a member of the wealthy Hearst family , when 19 years old was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army , a left-wing militant organization. After several weeks of captivity, she agreed to join the group and took part in their activities. In 1975, she was arrested and charged with bank robbery and the use of a gun in committing

16464-479: The killer in an isolated villa. Umberto Lenzi 's Eyeball (1975), which unfolds in an Agatha Christie manner, is noted by some as a slasher precursor, as American tourists are targeted by a killer wearing a red raincoat. The influence of Hitchcock's Psycho extended also to gialli , with films such as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) and The Crimes of

16611-444: The killer's disposable victims, including any individual entry's heroes or final survivor(s) (who, in so far as they continue to appear within the series, are often killed off immediately after their next on-screen appearance, which has become its own trope). Examples of antiheroes around whom the respective series have become centered include Michael Myers , Freddy Krueger , Jason Voorhees , Chucky and Leatherface . The antagonist

16758-713: The label Buy Soundtrack and on LP for the Record Store Day by the label Terrorvision; Some of the Tangerine Dream tracks are available on the fan release Tangerine Tree 50: Assorted Secrets 2 and another bootleg CD with the complete score was released by Film Music Treasury. Slasher film Critics cite the Italian giallo films and psychological horror films such as Peeping Tom (1960) and Psycho (1960) as early influences. The genre hit its peak between 1978 and 1984 in an era referred to as

16905-725: The lips of these unfortunate men is doubtful. If they did, however, too familiar are the mind-annihilating methods of these Communists in extorting whatever words they want ... The men themselves are not to blame, and they have my deepest sympathy for having been used in this abominable way." Beginning in 1953, Robert Jay Lifton interviewed American servicemen who had been POWs during the Korean War as well as priests, students, and teachers who had been held in prison in China after 1951. In addition to interviews with 25 Americans and Europeans, Lifton interviewed 15 Chinese citizens who had fled after having been subjected to indoctrination in Chinese universities. (Lifton's 1961 book Thought Reform and

17052-514: The literature on this subject, proposes a new way of conceptualizing influence techniques, explores the ethical ramifications of deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control, and makes recommendations addressing the problems described in the report. On 11 May 1987, the APA's Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP) rejected the DIMPAC report because the report "lacks

17199-636: The mid-1970s as diminishing returns forced budget cuts. Films such as Play Motel (1979) and Giallo a Venezia (1979) exploited their low-budgets with shocking hardcore pornography . The early 1970s saw an increase in exploitation films that lured audiences to grindhouses and drive-ins by advertising of sex and violence. Robert Fuest 's And Soon the Darkness (1970) set off the '70s exploitation wave by maximizing its small budget and taking place in daylight. The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio (1971) follows an insane killer who stalks and murders victims at

17346-657: The mind". Meerloo's view was influenced by his experiences during the German occupation of his country during the Second World War and his work with the Dutch government and the American military in the interrogation of accused Nazi war criminals . He later emigrated to the United States and taught at Columbia University . His best-selling 1956 book, The Rape of the Mind , concludes by saying: The modern techniques of brainwashing and menticide—those perversions of psychology—can bring almost any man into submission and surrender. Many of

17493-407: The movie a sleeper hit that was selected to screen at the November 1978 Chicago Film Festival, where the country's major critics acclaimed it. Halloween grew into a major box office success, grossing over $ 70 million worldwide and selling over 20 million tickets in North America, becoming the most profitable independent film until being surpassed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). Though

17640-431: The pacing was at times slow, but praised the performances of Michael Murphy as the small-town police chief and impelled-into hero, stating "Mr. Murphy displays both the banality and the stalwart courage of which all such movie characters were once made," and as the female mad scientist, the role was "played marvelously by Fiona Lewis," and concluded that the film "belongs to two movie species, both of them nearly extinct. It's

17787-465: The party as he was drunk. Medical examiners observe that Waldo's corpse has a bizarre surgical incision near his eye, and, upon scrutinising the evidence, John concludes that two different people are responsible for the murders of Waldo and Bryan. Meanwhile, Pete attends one of Gwen's studies at a large laboratory, which hosts both human and animal tests. Gwen has Pete swallow a pill and repeat several words before dismissing him. After, he invites Caroline,

17934-518: The persecution of minority religious groups. Additionally, Anthony, in the book Misunderstanding Cults , argues that the term "brainwashing" has such sensationalist connotations that its use is detrimental to any further scientific inquiry. In 2016, Israeli anthropologist of religion and fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute Adam Klin-Oron said about then proposed "anti-cult" legislation: In

18081-477: The protagonists of gialli are frequently (but not always) jet-setting adults sporting the most stylish Milan fashions . These protagonists are often outsiders reluctantly brought into the mystery through extenuating circumstances, like witnessing a murder or being suspected of the crimes themselves. Much like Krimi films, gialli plots tended to be outlandish and improbable, occasionally employing supernatural elements. Mario Bava 's A Bay of Blood (1971)

18228-685: The public of adult action thrillers that were popular in the 1980s, Sylvester Stallone 's cop-thriller Cobra (1986) is a thinly-veiled slasher film advertised as an action movie, and sold 13.2 million tickets. The home video market made stars out of character actors such as Terry O'Quinn and Bruce Campbell , whose respective independent horror-thrillers The Stepfather (1987) and Maniac Cop (1988) found more support on home video than in theaters. Quinn returned for Stepfather II (1989) but chose not to reprise his role in Stepfather III (1992), Destroyer (1988), while Campbell followed

18375-603: The real-life crimes of Richard Speck , promoted star Charles Bronson 's justice-for-all character above its horror themes. Robert Hiltzik 's Sleepaway Camp was a home video hit, being unique for its pubescent victims and themes of paedophilia and transvestism . Sleepaway Camp featured homosexual scenes, which were taboo at the time. In Canada, whodunit Curtains had a brief theatrical life before finding new life on VHS, while criticism toward American Nightmare ' s portrayal of prostitutes, drug addicts, and pornography addicts hurt its video rentals. Sledgehammer

18522-431: The rulers of the book's fictional future totalitarian society. The torturer representing the authorities says, "We make the brain perfect before we blow it out...Everyone is washed clean." Orwell's vision influenced Hunter and is still reflected in the popular concept of brainwashing. In the 1950s, some American films were made that featured brainwashing of POWs, including The Rack , The Bamboo Prison , Toward

18669-505: The same general plot as Prom Night (1980) with guilty teens stalked and punished for a terrible secret. The Final Terror borrows visual and thematic elements from Just Before Dawn (1981), as Sweet Sixteen borrows from Happy Birthday to Me (1981). The most successful slasher of the year was Psycho II , which sold over 11 million theatrical admissions. The film also reunited original Psycho (1960) cast members Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles . 10 to Midnight , inspired by

18816-479: The same time that the local university is engaging in covert mind control experiments on the youth. An international co-production between United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, the film was intended as the first instalment of the Strange Trilogy which was cancelled after the second instalment, Strange Invaders , failed to attract a large enough audience. It is a homage to the pulp horror films of

18963-403: The scientific rigor and evenhanded critical approach necessary for APA imprimatur" and concluded that "after much consideration, BSERP does not believe that we have sufficient information available to guide us in taking a position on this issue." Joost Meerloo , a Dutch psychiatrist, was an early proponent of the concept of brainwashing. "Menticide" is a neologism he coined meaning "killing of

19110-907: The shot of a toilet flushing. The film featured an iconic score by Bernard Herrmann that has been frequently imitated in slasher and horror films. That same year, Michael Powell released Peeping Tom , showing the killer's perspective as he murders women to photograph their dying expressions. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins garnering universal acclaim for his role as Norman Bates . This notice drew bankable movie stars to horror films. Joan Crawford starred in William Castle 's Strait-Jacket (1964) and in Jim O'Connolly 's Berserk! (1967), while Albert Finney starred in MGM 's Night Must Fall (1964) (a remake of

19257-479: The silent film The Bat (1926), about guests in a remote mansion menaced by a killer in a grotesque mask. Its success led to a series of "old dark house" films including The Cat and the Canary (1927), based on John Willard 's 1922 stage play , and Universal Pictures ' The Old Dark House (1932), based on the novel by J.B. Priestley . In both films, the town dwellers are pitted against strange country folk,

19404-434: The slasher genre, and its popularity had declined substantially. The home video revolution, fueled by the popularity of VHS , provided a new outlet for low-budget filmmaking . Without major studio backing for theatrical release, slasher films became second only to pornography in the home video market. The drop in budgets to accommodate a more economic approach was usually met with a decline in quality. Holdovers filmed during

19551-469: The success of Friday the 13th Part III (1982), though the effect did not translate to the VHS format. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter brought the saga of Jason Voorhees to a close, with his demise the main marketing tool. It worked, with The Final Chapter selling 10 million tickets in North America, hinting the series would continue even if Jason's demise marked a shift in the genre. This shift

19698-470: The text and alleged it was the secret manual written by Lavrentiy Beria , the Soviet secret police chief, in 1936. When the FBI ignored him, Hubbard wrote again stating that Soviet agents had, on three occasions, attempted to hire him to work against the United States, and were upset about his refusal, and that one agent specifically attacked him using electroshock as a weapon. Kathleen Barry , co-founder of

19845-535: The throat, and declaring that he "is his father," revealing that Pete's mother, Catherine, had an affair with Le Sange, and John is not actually Pete's biological father. Police subsequently arrive and Gwen is arrested. Some time later, Pete, healed from the experiment, attends his father's wedding to Barbara with Caroline. In the 70s, Bill Condon was living in Los Angeles while attending UCLA film school . Before qualification for his residency elapsed, he took

19992-842: The title Dead Kids . The Encyclopedia of Horror designates the film as a New Zealand film. It lists several of the similar productions of its Australian producer Antony I Ginnane and frequent collaborator David Hemmings , who is Executive Producer of this film through the Hemdale Film Corporation . The book opines that " Dead Kids must count as one of their most professional efforts." The film premiered in New York City on 16 October 1981, and subsequently opened in Los Angeles on 13 November 1981. Strange Behavior received largely favourable reviews upon its release. Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that

20139-408: The undead have nothing to do with the film. Distributors were aware of fading box office profits, and they were attempting to hoodwink audiences into thinking long-shelved releases like Mortuary were different. The public had largely lost interest in theatrically released slashers, drawing a close to the Golden Age. Production rates plummeted and major studios all but abandoned the genre that, only

20286-463: The victims of thought control, brainwashing, and menticide that we have talked about were strong men whose minds and wills were broken and degraded. But although the totalitarians use their knowledge of the mind for vicious and unscrupulous purposes, our democratic society can and must use its knowledge to help man to grow, to guard his freedom, and to understand himself. Russian historian Daniel Romanovsky , who interviewed survivors and eyewitnesses in

20433-574: The word "brainwashing" in an article by a journalist Edward Hunter , in Miami News , published in 1950. Hunter was an anticommunist and was alleged to be a CIA agent working undercover. Hunter and others used the Chinese term to explain why, during the Korean War (1950–1953), some American prisoners of war (POWs) cooperated with their Chinese captors, and even in a few cases defected to their side . British radio operator Robert W. Ford and British army Colonel James Carne also claimed that

20580-845: The year behind An American Werewolf in London ). Independent companies churned out slasher films Final Exam , Bloody Birthday , Hell Night , Don't Go in the Woods... Alone! , Wes Craven 's Deadly Blessing and Graduation Day . Fantasy and sci-fi genres continued to blend with the slasher film in Strange Behavior , Ghostkeeper and Evilspeak . The international market found Italy's Absurd and Madhouse and Germany's Bloody Moon . Straight-to-video productions cut costs to maximize profit. The independent horror film Madman opened in New York City's top 10, according to Variety , but soon fell out of theaters for

20727-400: Was a "bloody, senseless kill-for-kicks" flick that exploited unnecessary violence. Despite its modest initial box office run, the film has garnered critical reappraisal, with film historians noting its importance in the horror film genre and some even citing it as the original slasher film. Jumpstarted by the massive success of John Carpenter 's Halloween (1978), the era commonly cited as

20874-431: Was embraced by fans or critics and took steep box office declines from their predecessors; still, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning was a modest hit opening at the top of the box office and finishing its run with 6.2 million admissions. Rushed into production, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) became the highest grossing horror film of 1985. The success of the first two Elm Street films inspired

21021-465: Was emphasized by the controversy from Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984): Unlike the recent appearance of other Christmas horror films, including the same year's Don't Open till Christmas , promotional material for Silent Night, Deadly Night pictured a killer Santa with the tagline: "He knows when you've been naughty!" According to Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film ,

21168-409: Was ever convicted. In 1981, an Italian court found that the concept is imprecise, lacks coherence and is liable to arbitrary application. Recent scientific book publications in the field of the mental disorder " dissociative identity disorder " (DID) mention torture -based brainwashing by criminal networks and malevolent actors as a deliberate means to create multiple "programmable" personalities in

21315-452: Was found guilty. In 1990, Steven Fishman , who was a member of the Church of Scientology , was charged with mail fraud for conducting a scheme to sue large corporations via conspiring with minority stockholders in shareholder class action lawsuits. Fishman's attorneys notified the court that they intended to rely on an insanity defense , using the theories of brainwashing and the expert witnesses of Singer and Richard Ofshe to claim that

21462-540: Was later used to describe the coercive persuasion used under the Maoist government in China, which aimed to transform "reactionary" people into "right-thinking" members of the new Chinese social system. The term punned on the Taoist custom of "cleansing/washing the heart/mind" ( Chinese : 洗心 ; pinyin : xǐxīn ) before conducting ceremonies or entering holy places. The earliest known English-language usage of

21609-414: Was shot-on-video for just $ 40,000, with a gender-reversal climax showing Playgirl model Ted Prior as a "final guy." Other home video slashers from the year include Blood Beat , Double Exposure , and Scalps , the latter claiming to be one of the most censored films in history. Releases began to distance from the genre. The poster for Mortuary features a hand bursting from the grave, though

#382617