OMG Horror

What’s up y’all, Frog Baby in the house!  Thought we’d miss our latest underrated pick of the month? Nope.  This time out I’ve got my bugged eyes on the slow burning 1981 slasher classic Happy Birthday to Me.  For those who study the subgenre, you know 1980-1981 was a time in horror cinema rife with explicit carnage and unbridled bloodletting.  It took the Reagan administration a few years to get a stranglehold on artistic vision and doing away with mass violence and its graphic depiction.  The MPAA was complicit in those following years of course, but prior to that we got films like Maniac, Friday the 13^th, The Burning, The Prolwer, etc., etc. that were all brutal films in their own right, some more than others.  And yet it is the twisty, slow developing slasher whodunit Happy Birthday to Me that often goes overlooked, lost in the shuffle of hundreds of knockoffs and cheap imitations.  It’s a shame, because Birthday is a real gift!

Directed by Lee J. Thompson (the original Cape Fear, The Guns of the Navarone), Happy Birthday to Me is about a teenage girl named Virginia who is looking forward to her 18^th birthday celebration.  We’re vaguely informed of an accident a year prior which has left the girl suffering terrible blackouts at the most random of times.  As her birthday fast approaches, a throng of friends begins to one by one die foul and grisly deaths.  Who’s the culprit? Who has the motive? Why are these killings taking place?  Well, leave it up to Dr. David Faraday (screen vet Glenn Ford) to help suss just what the hell is going on.  The strengths in the film rest in its mystery.  Word in the biz is that several endings were shot in order to shroud the final twist ending, but in fact there was so final resolution written and thus a series of conclusions were filmed as to ensure any number of ways to end the thing.  Also, the film was tagged with multiple X-ratings until a cut was submitted with trimmed down carnage (a version said to be in rare internet circulation).  The good thing is it wasn’t neutered bloodless, it still holds some highly gruesome sequences.  But what elevates the film above similar genre fare (a glut at that time) is its ending.  A final snap twist puts this one right up there with Sleepaway Camp.  If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and see it soon!

3 Best moments:

#1. A brutal scene in which a dude gets pulverized by a dirtbike

#2. A scene where some dude gets throttled to death by a bench press

#3. The final revelatory twist: a great ending in an otherwise typical slasher effort.

That’s it for the Frog this month, as always, be sure to check in next month for another look at long lost underrated horror gem.