Lustig was born in The Bronx and was later raised in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. His uncle was acclaimed boxer Jake LaMotta, who Robert De Niro would later portray in the 1980 biopic Raging Bull. Whilst his earlier cinema experiences would mostly consist of Disney features, as he entered his teenage years Lustig became fascinated with movies and watched all of the latest releases: Bullitt, The Wild Bunch, Putney Swope and Midnight Cowboy, amongst others. During the late 1960s and early ’70s he was a regular visitor to 42nd Street in Manhattan which, at the time, housed all manner of movies at their various cinemas, including the works of Roger Corman, Federico Fellini and Hammer.

When Lustig was sixteen he managed to land an apprenticeship with Peter Savage, an independent producer who was shooting a string of X-rated sex comedies. In return for sweeping the floor of the editing room Savage’s editor, Larry Marinelli, taught him how to cut film and before long Lustig had dropped out of school. Eventually raising $15,000, Lustig commenced work on his own directorial debut, 1977’s The Violation of Claudia. Following a second adult movie, Hot Honey (both of which he shot under the alias Billy Bagg), Lustig prepared to make the leap into the mainstream. Several years earlier he had made the acquaintance of struggling New York actor Joe Spinell on the set of Philip D’Antoni’s The Seven-Ups and the two instantly became close friends. Spinell, who had landed his first movie role in Francis Ford Coppola’s acclaimed classic The Godfather, was an avid fan of horror movies and the two began to discuss the possibility of producing one themselves.

The seed of what would become Maniac was first sewn when Frank Pesce, a friend of Lustig, suggested that he make ‘Jaws on land.’ Together, Lustig and Spinell conceived a story about a twisted serial killer and began to develop a script entitled Movie Maniac. Earlier drafts were co-written by C.A. Rosenberg, who focused more on the police investigation than the sordid acts of the antagonist. Whilst working on the script Lustig was contacted by his friend Andrew Garroni, who would later become his regular producer, regarding an Italian studio who required equipment for a brief shoot in New York. To his surprise, the director in question was Dario Argento, whose first feature, L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo/The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, had made a profound impact on Lustig several years earlier.

The film that Argento was planning to shoot in New York was Inferno, the highly anticipated sequel to his critically acclaimed masterpiece Suspiria. By April 1979, Lustig found himself on the set of Inferno, which was shooting in Central Park with the assistance of cult filmmaker Mario Bava and his son, Lamberto. Lustig began discussing his own script with Argento, who enthusiastically explained his idea for a low budget horror about a perverse serial killer called Frank Zito. Argento even suggested his partner and frequent collaborator Daria Nicolodi, who had also worked with Bava on his final movie, Shock. Nicolodi was disgusted when she finally read the script and immediately refused, eventually leading to Argento also backing out of the project.

One key ingredient to the crew of Maniac was makeup artist Tom Savini, fresh from working on the gory thriller Friday the 13th and still riding high on the success of Dawn of the Dead. Savini arrived in New York from Blairstown, New Jersey, with a headless corpse that he had used for Friday the 13th and set about designing the explicit set pieces for Lustig’s movie. Whilst attending a convention in New York, Savini saw British actress Caroline Munro, known for her roles in Dracula A.D. 1972, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and The Spy Who Loved Me. She had co-starred alongside Spinell two years earlier in the Star Wars rip-off Starcrash and later Savini casually mentioned that they were working on a movie together. Later that evening, Spinell contacted Munro and offered her the role that Nicolodi had turned down. Despite reluctant at the graphic aspects of the script, Munro was eager to try her hand at a different role and distance herself from the fantasy and science fiction genres that had dominated her career.

Spinell had created the character of Zito for himself and began to research serial killers whilst studying the role in order to define the personality of the film’s title character. Both Spinell and Garroni both donated $6,000 to the movie’s budget (Spinell using the fee he had received from the movie Cruising), whilst Lustig contributed the largest sum, $30,000. To help complete the budget, Munro’s husband Judd Hamilton, offered his financial assistance. With $48,000 in hand, Lustig prepared to commence shooting Maniac, which would be shot on 16mm, something that the director tried to keep quiet as he felt distributors would not take the movie seriously.

Lustig was adamant that he worked with semi-professional actors but was concerned that as the movie was non-union he would not be able to cast anyone associated with the Screen Actors Guild. After discovering a clause that excluded X-rated movies Lustig decided that if he could convince the SAG that the movie would receive an adult rating (despite not being pornographic) then he would be able to hire professionals. To achieve this he sent a copy of the Maniac script that was loaded with graphic sexual violence and gore, in the hope that the SAG would want to distance themselves from such material. After a second attempt, in which even more explicit material was added to the script, he finally managed to get his own way. Due to a restricted budget Lustig did not obtain permits to shoot around New York and so had to be vigilant whilst on location.

Principal photography commenced in late October and, despite the gruelling schedule and morbid subject matter, the shoot was relatively relaxed and enjoyable. The stand out moment of the movie was a sequence in which Zito jumps onto the hood of a car and shoots the driver in the face with a shotgun, causing his head to explode. In an ironic twist of fate both the victim and the man who fired the shot were both played by Savini, who stood in for Spinell to use the shotgun. To achieve the gruesome effect, the head was filled with shrimp and chicken salad and covered in fake blood, whilst a latex mask of Savini’s face was placed over the front. Once the take was completed, the shotgun was handed to one of the PAs, whose job it was to drive to Staten Island in case police arrived on the scene. Due to the car being covered with blood the young man was questioned by police whilst attempting to pass through a tollbooth. Some time after filming had wrapped, Lustig required Spinell to return for additional scenes but the actor had since shaved off his beard and cut his hair for his next movie, the Sylvester Stallone thriller Nighthawks. A a favour, the makeup artist on the movie agreed to attach a wig and fake moustache to Spinell in order for him to return to his previous film.

The score for Maniac was composed by Jay Chattaway, who would later work with Lustig on the movies Vigilante, Maniac Cop, Relentless and Maniac Cop 2. A track entitled Maniac was co-written and performed by Michael Sembello but omitted from the movie, although its inclusion on Adrian Lynn’s Flashdance three years later would transform it into a hit single. Despite its graphic nature the film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in a small theatre and played to a packed audience, resulting in Maniac being picked up by Analysis Releasing, who saw the potential of marketing it as an exploitation movie and designed a poster in which a man is holding a severed head and bloody knife whilst concealing an erection in his jeans. Maniac was greeted by numerous petitions and was universally loathed by critics but soon found an audience with the slasher crowd and eventually gained a cult following.

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Williamson was a failed actor when his screenplay Scary Movie made its way from one Hollywood studio to the next. Eventually it found its way to Dimension and was offered to Craven, whose own movie A Nightmare on Elm Street had been referenced in the script. The horror genre had become something of a taboo in the 1990s; with the slasher having been replaced by the more respectable ‘psychological thriller,’ yet there was something about Williamson’s story that intrigued producers. It was most definitely a slasher but it was self aware, ironic and violent. Scream, as it would become known, seemed as fresh and exciting as Halloween had almost twenty years earlier.

Unlike most slasher franchises, Scream would not have one specific villain, but the mask that the killers would wear would become as recognisable and iconic as Freddy’s glove or even Jason’s mask. Another departure for slashers is that each of the movies would focus on one heroine, Sidney Prescott, whose own adulterous mother would become the catalyst for the massacres that would follow. Almost a year to the day after the death of her mother, Sidney’s home town is plagued by a series of brutal murders, with many of her classmates targeted by a masked killer with a penchant for testing his victims with horror movie trivia before ‘gutting them like a fish.’ Sensing an exclusive, ambitious reporter Gale Weathers, who had claimed that Sidney had accused the wrong man of her mother’s murder (Cotton Weary, who now waits on death row), arrives to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, the town’s well-meaning yet incompetent deputy, Dewey Riley, attempts to shield Sidney from both the media and the deranged killer.

Riley would follow the slasher cliché of inadequate authority figures, as would Sidney’s father, Neil. The males in her life (two of which are revealed to be the killers) do not offer her the support that she needs and ultimately it is left to Sidney to fend for herself. Starting a trend that would continue through the subsequent slasher revival, the producers would hire a young attractive cast who had primarily worked on a variety of successful TV shows. Courtney Cox, who would play the obnoxious Gale, had become a household name from the sitcom Friends, whilst Neve Campbell, who would be cast as Sidney, had previously co-starred in Party of Five. David Arquette, meanwhile, who would provide the comedy relief as Riley, had come from the infamous Arquette family (his sister, Patricia, had starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors).

Released during the 1996 Christmas holidays Scream became an unexpected success, and would outgross its competition, which would include One Fine Day, Beavis and Butt-head Do America and Evita, eventually grossing over $100m at the US box office. Critics were also impressed with the style and intelligence of the movie and soon other studios followed suit, with I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend and Cherry Falls being amongst the most successful imitators. Dimension would waste little time and immediately drafted Craven and Williamson to work on the sequel. Set one year after the first movie, Scream 2 would see Sidney once again targeted by deranged killers whilst at college, although this time the murder spree would be committed by a copycat.

Randy, the film geek (once again portrayed by Jamie Kennedy), would explain the rules of the horror sequel for those not familiar with genre clichés: The body count is always bigger. The death scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore (although, ironically, none of the murders in Scream 2 would match the graphic nature of the original’s opening massacre). Both Cox and Arquette would once again resume their roles, whilst Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar would enjoy a brief appearance as one of the victims. The supporting cast would include Jerry O’Connell (Stand By Me), Rebecca Gayheart (later seen in Urban Legend) and Timothy Olyphant (who has since appeared in Go, Gone in 60 Seconds and the remake of The Crazies).

Scream 2 would prove to be one of those rare sequels which would prove to be a worthy successor, with some critics even stating that it was superior to the original. As with Scream, the second movie with boast a soundtrack full of the latest popular groups (including Foo Fighters and Eels), whilst Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Red Right Hand had become the franchises unofficial anthem. With Williamson having stated that he had conceived the story as a trilogy, Scream 3 would eventually be released in February 2000. With Williamson preoccupied with the hit show Dawson’s Creek, as well as his directorial debut, Killing Mrs. Tingle, the task of writing the script fell to Ehren Kruger, previously responsible for Arlington Road. With Cox, Arquette and Campbell once again taking the lead, the cast would also include Patrick Dempsey (Mobsters), model Jenny McCarthy and genre veteran Lance Henriksen.

Yet whilst Williamson’s scripts had been tight and strong on character, Kruger’s take on the franchise would cause many fans to feel disappointed. A slew of pointless cameos from Roger Corman, Carrie Fisher and Jay & Silent Bob (fictional characters from the Kevin Smith movies), as well as an irritating turn from Parker Posey would do little to improve the situation. After the murder of Cotton Weary (who has since been pardoned for murder and now hosts his own hit show), Sidney is lured out of hiding and makes her way to Hollywood, where Riley now works as a consultant on the set of the latest Stab movie; a horror franchise based on the original murders. The killer, Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), is not only revealed to be her brother but also the mastermind behind the murder of her mother. Eventually, Riley is killed and Sidney tries to accept a life without fear.

In the decade that would follow the release of Scream 3 the industry would drastically change. The torture porn cycle would take screen violence to new extremes, whilst the recent run of remakes would see not only classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween but also cult flicks like The Toolbox Murders, being updated for modern audiences. Although Scream had been initially created as a trilogy, the success of any slasher (or indeed Hollywood) franchise guarantees that it will eventually return. Dimension head Bob Weinstein had expressed interest in bringing the series back from the dead but Craven, always eager to distance himself from the horror genre, was somewhat reluctant. After Williamson had submitted a script that the studio were satisfied with (regularly updating fans and critics via his Twitter page), both Craven and the equally reluctant Campbell agreed to return.

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Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood had done little to prove to Paramount that the series was still a success and worth continuing and soon the studio began to give serious though to killing off Jason once and for all. They had tried this once before with 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter but at that time the franchise was still making money, but now five years later the generation that had flocked to see the first movie had grown up and the kids of 1989 had little interest in horror clichés and such a one-dimensional character. Even as The New Blood earned a modest amount at the box office (although far less than its predecessors) the producers began to discuss potential ideas for the next sequel, with both director John Carl Buechler and actress Lar Park Lincoln pitching concepts that would carry on the story of Part VII’s disturbed heroine Tina. Eventually it was decided that the series had run its course and the eighth movie would be the last.

On October 3 1987 Friday the 13th: The Series made its debut on American television and, despite its suggestive title, had no relation to the movie franchise. The show would, however, feature contributions from several directors who had already carved a name for themselves within the horror genre: these would include slasher veterans Tom McLoughlin (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives), William Fruet (Killer Party) and Armand Mastroianni (He Knows You’re Alone). One director who would get his big break through the show would be Rob Hedden, a young enthusiast who had previously worked as a writer for Paramount on MacGyver and had been offered the chance to pen an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series by producer Barbara Sachs. On the condition that he could also direct Hedden was eventually brought onto the show and was given the opportunity to direct two epsidoes, The Electrocutioner and 13 O’Clock, which would appear in the first and second season, respectively. Whilst filming the latter Hedden was visited by Frank Mancuso Sr., the head of Paramount whose son, Frank Mancuso Jr., had nurtured the Friday the 13th movies since the first sequel and was looking for a filmmaker to both write and direct the eighth installment.

Although Hedden had worked on the TV show he had little knowledge of the movie franchise and so immediately watched the previous seven films to familiarise himself with the formula and mythology. Soon after he found himself in Mancuso Jr.’s office pitching his concept and it became apparent that the producers were concerned that New Line’s A Nightmare on Elm Street had begun to steal their thunder (1988’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master had grossed over $49m, whilst The New Blood had managed just $19m) and would demand something a little different from their new director. Hedden decided to introduce a supernatural element to the story in which Jason would appear to the heroine like a ghost, whilst also moving the action from Crystal Lake to New York City. Mancuso Jr. immediately sensed the potential of Jason embarking on a killing spree around the Big Apple and Hedden began to suggest possible locations: Madison Square Gardens, Broadway, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge and even the Statue of Liberty. But before long Paramount grew concerned that the concept could inflate the budget and decided to cut back on many of Hedden’s ideas.

Initially New York was to be be introduced at the end of the Act I, but Hedden was then instructed to base the first half of his script on a cruise ship, and finally – when the overall budget was calculated at $4m – he was told he would only get one week to shoot in New York. To save cost the producers decided that Vancouver in British Columbia would make an ideal substitute and so Mancuso Jr. contacted Randolph Cheveldave, whom he had worked with a few years earlier on the slasher comedy April Fool’s Day. Cheveldave had worked for Mancuso Jr. as a production manager and the two had become friends and with Mancuso Jr. tied up with the thriller Internal Affairs he offered Cheveldave the chance to produce Friday the 13th Part VIII. Hedden, who at that time was relatively inexperienced and unable to debate with a major studio, was forced to deal with the changes suggested by the producers and rewrote his script accordingly. The final draft saw a graduating high school class embarking on a cruise on board the SS Lazarus from Crystal Lake to New York but are picked off one-by-one by Jason, before the handful of survivors escape into the city.

Although the previous four Friday the 13th movies had featured the obligatory blonde heroine Hedden was determined to cast against type for the role of his ‘final girl,’ Rennie. Amongst the young hopefuls to read for the part were Dedee Pfeiffer (The Horror Show), whose older sister Michelle had enjoyed minor success with Grease 2, Scarface and Tequila Sunrise, and Elizabeth Berkley, whose subsequent career would include the hit show Saved by the Bell and the notorious flop Showgirls. Jensen Daggett, who would eventually win the role, had come from an acting background and had pursued theatre in high school, before relocating to Hollywood at the age of eighteen. For her audition Daggett was required to perform a ’scream test’ in order to prove that she could deliver the goods during the film’s more tense moments. Hedden would be pressured by the studio to have his lead strip for the movie but Daggett refused and, unable to even land a topless scene, eventually stopped asking.

At this point no actor had wanted to or had been given the chance to play the character of Jason more than once. Jason Lives‘ C.J. Graham had initially been considered to return for The New Blood but the director, Buechler, had insisted on casting actor/stuntman Kane Hodder, whom he had previously worked with on the flick Prison. Hedden was offered the chance to recast the role and the producers had considered a Canadian stuntman for budgetary reasons but Hedden had been impressed by Hodder’s turn as Jason and fought to have him return to the role. The supporting cast would be primarily made up of fresh young talent who would enjoy various degrees of success in their subsequent careers: these would include Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King), Martin Cummins (Dark Angel), Scott Reeves (The Young and the Restless) and Gordon Currie (Beverly Hills, 90210). Scott Reeves, who would play the male lead, had not been the first choice for the role of the heroic Sean but had been brought in early in the shoot after the actor originally cast was replaced.

Just prior to principal photography the boat that the production were to use for the majority of the shoot was taken away due to scheduling conflicts and the producers were forced to find a replacement as soon as possible. Filming took place early in 1989 in Britannia, a small town thirty kilometres north of Vancouver, for approximately seven weeks before relocating to New York City for one week. Daggett was not the only actress that the studio wanted to feature naked in the movie, something that they felt their core audience demanded. Sharlene Martin, who would play the obligatory bitch Tamara, is killed by Jason whilst showering and the producers were eager for some T&A. Martin, far removed from her obnoxious character, was uncomfortable about peeling off her clothes but Hedden, who wanted his cast to be at ease during the shoot, stripped off and stepped into the shower to show her how easy it was. Unknown to Hedden, director of photography Bryan England had left the camera rolling and when the producers saw the next set of diallies they were shocked to see their director standing naked.

To recreate New York in Vancouver Hedden and his crew worked overtime by transforming abandoned tunnels under the city into a subway, laying down tracks and building a fake subway car. For the climax in which the sewers are flushed out with toxic waste the production moved to the gymnasium of an old school, in which they constructed large tanks that held 5,000 gallons of water that could be released easily. There was one sequence that could not be shot in Vancouver: Rennie and Sean try to escape from Jason by running through Times Square. Hodder stepped out into the street and was greeted by thousands of die hard fans who were shocked to see their hero loose in New York. Mancuso Jr. had allocated the production a further $25,000 to film for seven days in New York and the hype that surrounded Jason’s surprise appearance helped to generate a buzz around the movie. One aspect of the film that fans were less than impressed with was the ending, in which Jason drowns in the toxic waste and reverts back to a scared young boy, something that even Hodder felt was an anticlimax.

The editing would be handled by Steve Mirkovich, who had previously collaborated with John Carpenter on Big Trouble in Little China and Prince of Darkness. Mirkovich’s son, Timothy Burr, had been brought on the set for several weeks in Vancouver when the actor hired to play Jason as a boy was unable to cope with the various underwater scenes. Resident composer Harry Manfredini had been replaced by Fred Mollin, whom he had shared credit with on The New Blood and had scored the TV series. The original cut of Jason Takes Manhattan came in at just over two hours, forcing Hedden to remove much of the dialogue and character scenes, instead focusing on the action and suspense. The movie was released by Paramount on July 28 1989 and would earn just $14.3m at the US box office, whilst critics were quick to point out that, despite the film’s title, very little of the movie actually takes place in New York, with the Washington Post stating: “The on-screen body count is 19 and Jason Vorhees doesn’t even get to New York until the last 20 minutes of Friday the 13th: Part VIII – Jason Takes Manhattan.”

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New York native Armand Mastroianni first fell in love with cinema at an early age. It would be the old Universal and Hammer classics that inspire him the most, eventually leading to him making several shorts on 8mm with his friends in his backyard. Upon learning that former Roger Corman protégé Francis Ford Coppola was shooting his highly anticipated gangster epic The Godfather nearby on Staten Island, Mastroianni skipped school and managed to sneak his way onto the set. Coppola, clearly impressed with the boy’s enthusiasm and confidence, invited him back to be present during the filming of several sequences, including the wedding of Connie Corleone (Talia Shire) and Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo). Upon graduating, Mastroianni attended College of Staten Island where he launched a film program to help generate interest in filmmaking. During this time he would shoot several shorts, as well as a seventy-minute piece with classmate Robert Di Milia.

After leaving college, Mastroianni would manage to have himself signed by the William Morris Agency and he commenced work on his first script. One of his friends, George Manasse, would contact him regarding an opportunity in which two producers were eager to develop a low budget horror movie. Joseph Beruh (who would sadly pass away in 1989) had previously worked with cult filmmaker Jeff Lieberman on Blue Sunshine and his nature-run-amok flick Squirm, whilst his partner, Edgar Lansbury, was the younger brother of Angela Lansbury of Murder, She Wrote fame. Mastroianni was introduced to the two and was immediately asked to pitch a story. Having come unprepared, Mastroianni began to recount an old urban legend that he had told as a boy scout in which a young couple are making out in the woods, only to fall victim to an escaped mental patient. Neither Beruh nor Lansbury were impressed by the generic idea and Mastroianni was suddenly forced to improvise, instead suggesting that this was in fact just a movie and the real killer is in the audience. Now he had their attention and the producers requested that he develop the story as quick as possible.

Mastroianni approached his friend Scott Parker to help write the script. The two had first become acquainted as both of their fathers worked in the jewelry business in the same neighbourhood and so they would often have lunch together and discuss movies. Mastroianni suggested his idea to his friend and they began brainstorming, eventually settling on the idea of setting the action around a wedding. Having to work extremely quickly, the first draft was completed within two weeks, although neither write had settled on a title that they were pleased with. The main focus of their story would be Amy Jensen, who is making last-minute plans before her wedding day, when suddenly she becomes the target of Ray Carlton, a serial killer who had been rejected by his fiancée and had begun to target brides. Detective Len Gamble, whose own wedding had been ruined when Carlton had killed his partner, once again vows to stop the maniac before he kills again.

Satisfied with the script, Beruh and Lansbury approached Samuel Z. Arkoff of AIP, a veteran of some thirty years in the industry who had helped bring such names as Corman and Mario Bava to the attention of the public. The film was initially to have been shot in Houston, Texas, for a budget of approximately $600,000, but just one week before the shoot was to commence, Arkoff contacted the producers and stated that he would be unable to take part in the film. Beruh and Lansbury felt that the project had now dissolved, but Mastroianni, determined to not allow all his hard work to go to waste, suggested that they shoot the movie locally with whatever money they have available and use friends as crewmembers. At first unconvinced, the producers finally relented and allocated $300,000 to the film.

The crew would be assembled by Di Milia and Manasse, searching in and around Staten Island and advertising in local newspapers. The cinematography would be performed by Gerald Feil, who had worked as an associate producer and editor on Peter Brook’s 1963 adaptation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Making his debut as a director of photography, Feil would work in the slasher genre once again the following year on Paramount’s hugely successful Friday the 13th Part 2 (which would co-star Russell Todd, who would make a brief appearance in He Knows You’re Alone). Another name associated with Friday the 13th was Taso N. Stavrakis, who had been Tom Savini’s makeup and stunt assistant on the original movie, as well as the zombie classic Dawn of the Dead. Taso would be hired by the filmmakers of He Knows You’re Alone to provide the special effects, which would include the infamous severed head in a fish tank.

The casting process was completed extremely quickly and the auditions were held in Beruh and Lansbury’s office. For the role of Gamble, the burnt-out cop obsessed with tracking down the man responsible for his fiancee’s death, the filmmakers cast Lewis Arlt (who would turn thirty during the shoot), whose subsequent career would also include a stint as a director on such shows as All My Children and Another World. Tom Rolfing would land the role of Carlton, the film’s disturbing antagonist, despite his only prior screen credit being a recurring role in Another World, two decades before Arlt worked on the show. For the role of Prof. Carl Mason, a teacher who is having an affair with one of his students, Mastroianni had initially offered the part to Harry Reems, a successful adult star who had appeared in the likes of Deep Throat and Linda Lovelace Meets Miss Jones. The role would eventually go to James Rebhorn, who would later appear in Silkwood, Cat’s Eye and Basic Instinct.

One day whilst the auditions had broke for lunch, Mastroianni was sat in the office when a young actor appeared at the door. Having arrived early, the director invited him to sit and shared his sandwich with him. Impressed by the maturity and personality of the hopeful, Mastroianni promptly ran into the producers’ office and insisted that he had found the ideal actor for the minor role of Elliot. The actor in question was Tom Hanks, who would later become a two-time Academy Award winner and box office star. Enthusiastic at his involvement with the film, Hanks would even attend auditions and read alongside other actors. The last principal role to be filled would be that of the heroine, Amy, with the part eventually being won by twenty-six year old Caitlin O’Heaney, who had previously appeared in the horror flick Savage Weekend.

Principal photography would take place in December 1979 around Staten Island, New York, with the cinema sequence that opens the movie shot at St. George Theatre, a large and beautiful building that had first opened to the public in 1929 and had remained a popular attraction until its closure in 1972. Many of the locations that the production would use buildings that had been closed for various reasons, resulting in the sets often being too cold in the winter climate and forcing the crew to try to warm themselves up with portable heaters. Another notable location was the Sea View Hospital a once-impressive institution that had been built between 1905 and 1938 but had since been abandoned. Other buildings used by the crew would be businesses that Di Milia and Manasse had approached, such as cafés and stores.

Without an official title for the movie, Mastroianni would ask Hanks (who had originally been given a more substantial part and was to have died) each for suggestions, with such possibilities as Shriek, Shock and The Uninvited, before eventually settling on Blood Wedding. The producers originally approached Twentieth-Century Fox for a distribution deal but the studio had a change of heart, so instead Beruh and Lansbury sent the print to Michael Nathanson at MGM. The studio were impressed with the film (Ira Teller, who handled marketing, suggested the title He Knows You’re Alone, although Mastroianni felt it sounded too much like a tagline) and purchased the rights for $2m, immediately calling in O’Heaney to Los Angeles to shoot a teaser trailer. The movie was released in August 1980 and was a modest success, although the reviews would be mixed, with The New York Times stating that: ‘Some of the footage is obviously overexposed, the sound has a persistent echo and the music is tinny and intrusive. Scott Parker’s screenplay is as full of holes as the victims.’

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When Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was released April 13 1984 and earned almost $33m at the box office, executives at the studio realised that there was still money to be made by what they had considered an embarrassment. Having been dismissed by critics, hounded by moral watchdogs and victimised by the MPAA, Friday the 13th had enjoyed four successful years but it had been agreed that it should finally be laid to rest. The slasher genre had also shown signs of slowing and what remained were less gruesome, politically correct copies of the earlier successes. Yet The Final Chapter had left an open-end, hinting that twelve-year old Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman), who had finally brought Jason to an end, may be the one to continue with his grizzly work. Once the totals had been counted up and The Final Chapter was deemed a success, the producers decided that the show must go on.

Frank Mancuso Jr., who had watched over the series since the second movie, had become preoccupied with other projects, not wishing to be simply typecast as a slasher producer, and so Stephen Minasian and Phil Scuderi, who had formed Georgetown Productions to oversee the series, would become more hands-on and began searching for a suitable director. Upon viewing a gritty vigilante thriller starring Linda Blair called Savage Streets, they knew they had found an ideal candidate. Danny Steinmann was born on January 7 1942 in New York City to art collector Herbert R. Steinmann. He had first entered the film industry in the early 1970s when he shot a one-hour X-rated movie called High Rise, billed under the alias Danny Stone. Having worked as a production associate on Arthur Hiller’s The Man in the Glass Booth in 1975, Steinmann shot The Unseen with Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me). But the experience, in which the final cut had been taken away from him in post-production, forcing him to remove his name from the credits, had left him feeling disillusioned.

Savage Street would prove to be Steinmann’s calling card: a sleazy and violent exploitation flick in which Blair takes revenge against a hang of punks who kill her best friend and rape her blind sister (played by scream queen Linnea Quigley). Steinmann accepted Minasian and Scuderi’s invitation and was shown a script by Martin Kitrosser, who had penned the third movie with his wife, Carol Watson. Feeling that the story was unsuitable and the violence too explicit, Steinmann brought in his friend David Cohen to help do an extensive rewrite. Taking place several years after the events of The Final Chapter, Tommy is now a resident of Pinehurst, a halfway house for the mentally imbalanced. Soon after his arrival, one of his fellow patients brutally murders another with an axe, prompting a new series of gruesome killings. Although they all seem to fit Jason’s M.O., it is eventually revealed that Roy, the quiet ambulance driver, had snapped after seeing his son’s mutilated corpse (he was the estranged father of the axe victim) and had used the legend of Jason to carry out his vengeance.

With Mancuso Jr. taking a step back from the production, his father, Frank Mancuso Sr., who at that time was the head of Paramount, knew that he needed to find a replacement as soon as possible. Tom Silver, who had initially been drafted in as a production manager, was offered the role and pre-production on what would become A New Beginning commenced. Wishing to remain under the radar until the movie was completed and ready to be released, the producers decided to rename the project Repetition, so sceptics would be unaware that it was another Friday the 13th sequel. The first issue they would have to deal with was deciding what direction they would be taking the franchise. Feldman, who had become a rising star since appearing in The Final Chapter, had been cast in one of the lead roles of The Goonies, a dark fantasy from Richard Donner (Superman) and producer Steven Spielberg. With Feldman unavailable, a direct continuation was out of the question and so, if Tommy was to be the hero once again, a new actor would be required.

John Shepherd had recently graduated from UCLA and had acted in his spare time, appearing in the likes of T.J. Hooker and the made-for-television movie Confessions of a Married Man. He was contacted regarding a lead role in a horror picture called Repetition, in which despite playing the hero he would hardly have any lines of dialogue. Desperate for work, Shepherd tried out for the part of Tommy, and although he did not resemble Feldman in any way he still won the role. Despite not being a fan of horror movies, Shepherd worked closely alongside Steinmann in developing the character, even assisting in rewriting dialogue and scenes. In order to fully understand his character, Shepherd volunteered for a short time at the Camarillo State Mental Hospital in California in an effort to portray Tommy’s emotional state accurately. Feldman himself would make a cameo during the prologue (which was actually shot after principal photography in one of his neighbour’s gardens), in which Tommy dreams about Jason rising from his grave.

One common element of the slasher genre was the ‘final girl,’ proving that blondes don’t always have to be dumb and that women are able to fend for themselves. For the role of Pam, who spends the majority of the climax in a soaking-wet shirt, Steinmann cast thirty-year old Melanie Kinnaman, who had no prior acting experience and whose only other notable appearance would be in Best of the Best in several years later. Shavar Ross, who was only thirteen at the time, portrayed Reggie ‘the Reckless’ who, much like Pam, proves to be a worthy opponent for Jason. Ross had first rose to fame in 1980 when he co-starred alongside Gary Coleman as Dudley Ramsey in NBC’s hit show Diff’rent Strokes. A New Beginning would mark the feature debut of Bronx-born Ross, who would decline the chance to return for the sixth instalment after discovering that the producers planned to kill the character off during the opening scene.

Two of the co-stars – Miguel A. Nunez Jr. and Mark Venturini (who sadly passed away from leukaemia on February 14 1996 at the age of thirty-five) – would share another movie together, the punk zombie flick The Return of the Living Dead, released the same year. Amongst the supporting cast was Bob DeSimone, who had previously worked with Steinmann on Savage Streets and whose brother, Tom DeSimone, had directed the 1981 slasher Hell Night. With only two scenes that were irrelevant to the overall plot, DeSimone was given free reign by the director and allowed to use his background as a stand up comic to improvise various obscenities. One interesting name amongst the cast was the appropriately title Debi Sue Voorhees, who was allegedly not cast purely because of her name.

Although the script would dictate that Roy was really the man behind the mask, the actor that would portray the unstable ambulance driver, Dick Wieand, would not actually play ‘Jason’ during the masked scenes. This role went to Tom Morga, who had previously worked on all three Star Trek movies and Ghostbusters. A successful and much respected stuntman, Morga would later work on such blockbusters as Turner & Hooch, Independence Day and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. A New Beginning was shot on a budget of $2.2m in Camarillo, California and, due to Steinmann’s background in exploitation and X-rated movies, the initial cut was rejected by the MPAA. In a record even for a Friday the 13th film, it would take a total of nine submissions to the censors before being granted an R-rating. One scene in particular that caused offence was the death of Violet (Tiffany Helm), in which she was originally to have received a machete to the groin. Deeming it too graphic, the sequence was re-shot so Helm was simply stabbed in the stomach.

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning was released on March 22 1985, less than one year after the supposed final chapter. On its opening weekend it earned an impressive $8,032,883 at the US box office, eventually taking in just over $20.6m in total by the end of its run. Whilst the four previous films were never a popular choice with the critics, A New Beginning proved even less successful. The New York Times‘ Vincent Canby commented on the movie’s lack of originality and narrative, stating that it “is not entirely without Grand Guignol humor, but almost. It appears to have been paced by a metronome – a joke followed by a murder followed by a joke followed by a murder, until all but one of the featured played have been exterminated.” Over the years, A New Beginning has divided the Friday the 13th fan base, with some enjoying its sleazy nature and excessive violence, whilst others curse it for changing the formula.

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The project was first conceived by Donald Jones, an independent filmmaker who was eager to break into the industry. Jones was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1938 and spent much of his childhood raised on a farm. As a result, he saw very few films as he was growing up and initially harboured dreams of becoming a professional boxer, even scoring minor success under the moniker Irish Frankie Conway. When his parents decided to relocate to Florida in the late 1950s, Jones instead opted for Los Angeles and, upon arriving in the city, found himself desperate for work. With a friend at a studio, Jones was able land small jobs on such productions as My Fair Lady, in which he worked as an electrician. When that fell through, he was forced to park cars for a living at a restaurant called The Fog Cutter, where he made friends with one of the doormen, Gary Kent.

He found menial work within the industry and was employed as a gaffer on a variety of television shows during the late 1960s. He also worked as a stuntman on various low budget movies such as A Man Called Dagger and 2000 Years Later, before finding himself drifting into the adult industry. During the early 1960s a few type of film had emerged called the ‘nudie cutie;’ T&A comedies and exploitation pictures that would be popularised by Russ Meyer and Herschell Gordon Lewis. Jones gained experience as a filmmaker during this time and found also direct several cheap flicks of his own, including two for smut pioneers Canyon Distribution (Excited and Kiss-Off). Having followed them with a detective feature, Who Did Cock Robin?, Jones would also work as a director of photography on Six Women and One Million AC-DC (which had been written by an uncredited Edward D. Wood Jr.).

Soon the nude cuties led to more graphic material and so Jones decided to try his hand at horror instead, shooting a feature called The Black Widow, which would later be renamed by distributor Mirror Releasing as the sleazier sounding Schoolgirls in Chains. He followed this with two more efforts during the mid 1970s – The Love Butcher and Sweater Girls – before deciding to produce a straight horror. The concept for what would eventually become The Forest originated with the story of two ghost children, which would be refashioned into Deliverance-style’ stalk and slash’ thriller. The script was completed in thirty days and, conscious that his own name would appear too many times on the credits, opted to bill the writer as Evan Jones.

He immediately began shopping the project around, eventually having to place a second mortgage on his home in order to raise the necessary $40,000. He knew he was taking a major risk but if the film managed to make even a fraction of what Halloween had a few years earlier he would have the hit he had been working so hard for. He began scouting for suitable locations and soon found Sequoia National Park, located off Generals Highway in Sierra Nevada and covering around 404,051 acres of wilderness. The park had once been a popular site for feature films, with several silent westerns having been shot there in the 1920’s, as well as John Wayne’s The Big Trail and the Academy Award winner A Free Soul. Incidentally, even an x-rated flick, Getting Into Heaven, had been made there a decade earlier, featuring adult star and Meyer regular Uschi Digard.

In an effort to avoid issues with the Screen Actors Guild for working on a non-union film, Kent (who had previously appeared in Schoolgirls in Chains) opted for a pseudonym on the credits, instead working under the name Michael Brody. His wife, Shirley Willeford, would also perform under an assumed name, Tomi Barrett, and would take the role of one of the hikers who is picked off by a deranged cave dweller (portrayed by Kent). Sadly, Barrett would pass away from lung cancer in 2004 at just fifty-four, having spent almost thirty years with Kent. Co-star Dean Russell had no prior experience before landing his part in the movie, but soon after finishing work on The Forest he became a relatively successful Broadway actor. The remaining principal roles would be taken by John Batis (whose only other significant work would be in an episode of Freddy’s Nightmares) and Ann Wilkinson, who would appear in Ulli Lommel’s Boogeyman 2 soon afterwards.

Filming took place in October 1980 in Sequoia National Park near Three Rivers, California and east of Visalia. Having secured the land with a bond of $5,000, Jones was instructed that if the grounds remained undamaged throughout the shoot then his money would be returned when they left. Unable to offer his cast and crew a salary upfront, they instead opted for a deferment payment, which would later cost Jones around $30,000. Choosing to draft in the talents of his former collaborators, the score would be composed by Richard Hieronymus (The Love Butcher and Sweater Girls), whilst the sound was handled by J.L. Clark, whose prior responsibilities had been as a boom operator. Stuart Asbjornsen, meanwhile, would make his feature debut as a cinematographer and would later find acclaim for his work on the Sidney Poitier thriller Lethal Pursuit and the hit show Baywatch.

Aside from the national park, other locations used around Los Angeles included the Bronson Caves in the Hollywood Hills and a home owned by close friend Stafford Morgan, who would also make an appearance in the movie. Both Kent and Barrett would perform much of their own stunts, with the latter jumping into a river to escape the clutches of the killer. With the movie being shot in the fall, the weather was extremely cold and the water was almost unbearable. Her only request had been that after the sequence had been shot and she had been rescued from the river that a crewmember would be ready with a cup of hot chocolate. For some reason, the man in question chose instead to wait with a chilled beer. Jones had planned to shoot various location footage of the magnificent trees and waterfalls but unfortunately the strict schedule was against them.

As Jones began to cut the movie he realised that there would not be enough footage and that the film would fall short of its predicted running time. An additional sequence, used as the prologue, would be shot in Mount Pinos and featuring Morgan as a hiker (although his involvement would cause issues with the SAG). With Jones preoccupied with shooting second unit for Roger Corman’s Smokey Bites the Dust, the editing chores were passed onto Robert Berk, who took it upon himself to re-cut the movie as he felt it would flow better if structured as a flashback. Infuriated, Jones was forced to edit it himself after a disastrous screening and quickly reassembled the movie before selling the finished product to Commedia for $200,000, although he would eventually only be paid $75,000 of the amount. The Forest was released at a time when the drive-ins and cinemas were flooded with low budget horror flicks and the film would sink without a trace, only later finding a small cult following on home video.

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Having recently formed his own production company, Hometown Films, Mancuso Jr. had become less hands-on with the franchise than he had once been, but Friday the 13th was still profitable for the studio. In fact, the 1980’s would prove to be an extremely successful era for Paramount, having also scored with the Star Trek movies, Indiana Jones and their contract with comedian Eddie Murphy, which would result in such blockbusters as Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. Mancuso Jr., meanwhile, would enjoy modest success himself through his new company, producing the cult slasher April Fool’s Day and the hit sci-fi- show War of the Worlds. But despite wanting to distance himself with the franchise that had first made his name, Mancuso Jr. had a responsibility to the studio and so approached their latest venture very carefully.

The initial concept for Part VI would have continued on from the events of A New Beginning, with the surviving characters once again returning. Both Melanie Kinnaman and child actor Shavar Ross had been approached to reprise their roles, but when Ross read the script and discovered that he would be killed off within the first few minutes he politely declined. John Shepherd, who had taken over the role of Tommy Jarvis from The Final Chapter’s Corey Feldman, would also pass up on the chance to return, partially due to money issues and also the negative criticism he had received from the parents at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church where he had been working with children. An image of him brandishing a machete had been published in The Los Angeles Times and, whilst the kids found this very exciting, their mothers and fathers were less than impressed. With neither Shepherd nor Ross wishing to return, the producers decided not to recast Kinnaman and instead take the story in a new direction.

When searching for a suitable director in which to provide the series with some much needed commercial credibility, Mancuso Jr. eventually settled on Tom McLoughlin. Having been raised in Culver City, McLoughlin’s father had attended USC film school, which had allowed his son free access to the MGM backlots as a young boy. There, with his school friends, he would spend the weekends shooting amateur movies based on his favourite horror characters or action stars like James Bond. At nineteen, McLoughlin relocated to Paris where he studied modern and classic dance amongst others and would often attend film screenings at the cinema across the road. Upon returning to America, he had developed a healthy appetite for the likes of Frank Capra and Jacques Tati, but soon found himself as a stage performer, before eventually forming the LA Mime Company, which led to a television series, Van Skye & Company, with screen legend Dick Van Dyke. Having earned an Emmy nomination, McLoughlin was invited into the Writer’s Guild of America and soon found himself with an agent at the respected William Morris Agency.

But it would be his first movie, a low budget horror entitled One Dark Night, that would bring him to the attention of Mancuso Jr. and Paramount. Initially, he had been brought in by the studio to work on a suspense thriller, but soon concerns turned to the Friday the 13th franchise, which was in dire need of a facelift. McLoughlin was a fan of the series and the horror genre in genre, so the chance to be the first filmmaker to not only direct but write a Friday the 13th film proved too tempting to pass. Given free reign over the story and permission to ignore the downbeat ending of A New Beginning, McLoughlin commenced work on his screenplay, which would see Tommy Jarvis having escaped the institution where he had been treated and making his way back to Crystal Lake (now renamed Forest Green in an attempt to forget its bloody past), determined to make sure Jason was dead once and for all. Unfortunately, his meddling would cause Jason’s corpse to be reanimated once again Tommy, who becomes the prime suspect for the subsequent spree of brutal murders, is forced to fight his nemesis to the death.

McLoughlin would be allocated a budget of $3m, which would make Part VI the most expensive Friday the 13th movie at that time (with The Final Chapter coming second with $2.6m), and shooting was set to take place in Georgia in Covington and Hard Labor Creek State Park, Rutledge. With Mancosu J. preoccupied with his own projects, the task of producing the movie was given to Don Behrns, who had previously worked as a production supervisor for John Carpenter on Halloween and The Fog. The casting would once again be handled by Fern Champion and Pamela Basker, who had assisted on The Final Chapter and A New Beginning, and would later work on the TV series. With Shepherd having declined to play the lead, the role of Tommy (now transformed from a catatonic to a hero) would go to Thom Mathews, who had become a minor cult star after his turn in the zombie flick The Return of the Living Dead (which had also co-starred A New Beginning’s Miguel Nunez and Mark Venturini).

At Mancuso Jr.’s suggestion, Tommy would be aided by an attractive blonde, and the role of resourceful Megan would go to Jennifer Cooke, who had enjoyed a recurring role alongside Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund in the sci-fi series V. For the role of one of her best friends, Cort, the producers would cast Tom Fridley, whose claim to fame was being the nephew of Saturday Night Fever’s John Travolta, whose own career had suddenly come to a standstill. The director would cast his own wife, Nancy McLoughlin, in the role of Lizabeth who, along with future star Tony Goldwyn (Ghost, The Last House on the Left), would appear as one of the earlier victims, having attempted to plead with Jason by offering her credit cards. Darcy DeMoss, who would land the role of Nikki, had originally auditioned for a role in A New Beginning, but had protested when Steinmann had asked her to show him her breasts during her audition. She would eventually lose out on the role when, during a wardrobe fitting, he allegedly tried to seduce her.

The role of Jason had initially been offered to Dan Bradley, who had performed stunts on the likes of Re-Animator, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, House and Trick or Treat. Having shot a scene in which Jason attacks a group of office executives out on a paintball team-building weekend (which had been added to the script after the director was informed that the movie needed a higher body count), the producers at Paramount felt that Bradley had the wrong shape and ordered a prompt recast. C.J. Graham, who stood at six-foot three, would instead be given the responsibility of portraying the now undead Jason, which would require such stunts as pyrotechnics. With Paramount contacting him about the part on Friday, three days later Graham found himself in Georgia covered in latex and a hockey mask.

Principal photography commenced on March 8 for approximately six weeks under the pseudonym Aladdin Sane (named after a David Bowie song). Although McLoughlin wanted a fast pace and likeable characters, he was also aware that he was making a Friday the 13th movie and so required a team of talented special effects artist. Martin Becker, who would sadly pass away from pancreatic cancer in 2004, was already a veteran of the series, having worked on the third and fifth movies. He would be assisted by Brian Wade (The Thing, Jaws 3-D), Bill Forsche (Critters, From Beyond) and the director’s own brother, Jim McLoughlin (who would later work on The People Under the Stairs with Wes Craven), making Part VI a family affair. Problems would arise, however, when the MPAA, who had grown increasingly hostile towards the franchise, would force the director to censor out most of the gore. Thus, Tom McLoughlin would shoot several versions of each death scene: an X-rated, R-rated and PG cut, so at least the graphic footage would exist for possible future releases.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives was released in the US on August 1 1986 and would back an impressive $6.7m on its opening weekend, although business would soon die down, resulting in it becoming the first of the series to not pass the $20m mark. The movie would be aided by the track ‘He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask),’ which was performed by shock rocker Alice Cooper who, much like Jason, was working towards making a comeback. Although Jason Lives would receive a more positive response from critics this was still a Friday the 13th feature, with The New York Times stating that ‘the film is still a gory waste of time that plays its murders for all the blood and guts they’re worth. There are plenty of clichéd reaction shots of faces in terror, more than enough frames filled with bloody knives and severed heads. There is not, however, any suspense about Jason or his victims. He stalks, they scream, he kills.’

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The slasher genre had begun to run out of steam by the mid-1980’s, and so by 1988 all that remained were a few low budget efforts and the ongoing franchises. A Nightmare on Elm Street would enjoy major success with its third sequel The Dream Master, taking in over $49m at the US box office, but Friday the 13th had fared less well with its seventh entry, The New Blood, which would earn just $19m. In the years since Michael Myers had last appeared in a Halloween movie, the slasher boom had progressed to marketing, with various children’s merchandise boasting the faces of their favourite villains. Yet, with the Halloween franchise having been missing in action for several years, Michael Myers had remained largely unexploited and so the producers felt they would be able to make the character scary again.

Having acquired the rights to the series from Dino De Laurentiis, who had produced the previous two sequels, Akkad decided that he wanted to return to the basic formula of the first movie: Michael Myers stalks teenagers whilst Dr. Loomis tries to hunt him down. But with the impending writer’s strike that was about to take effect, the producers were forced to hire a writer to develop a script as soon as possible. Alan B. McElroy, who had previously enrolled on the Columbia Pictures Writing Program, was forced to write the story and screenplay in just eleven days. There were a few obstacles that the producers would be forced to overcome before they could decide exactly what the story should be. Jamie Lee Curtis, who had been crowned as the ’scream queen’ due to her portrayal of the virginal heroine Laurie Strode in the first two movies, had since become a major Hollywood star, following her roles in such blockbusters as Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda, and so she expressed no desire to return to the horror genre.

This would force McElroy to develop a new storyline and protagonist to take the place of Curtis, whom the fan base had adored. Eventually, he decided to kill Laurie off by revealing that she had died in a car accident and that her daughter, Jamie (an homage to the actress), had been adopted by a new family. One actor that they were able to convince, however, was screen legend Donald Pleasence, who had portrayed Dr. Loomis in the original movie and its sequel. Set ten years after the events of Halloween (the second film continued on immediately afterwards), Michael Myers has remained comatose after almost being burnt alive but is now being transferred to a new hospital. Learning that his bloodline continues with Jamie, his niece, Michael escapes and once again makes his way home to Haddonfield, indiscriminately killing along the way.

With Akkad insisting on the movie being closer in tone to Carpenter’s original, he began searching for a suitable director and eventually discovered Dwight H. Little, whose previous film, Bloodstone, shared many similarities with Akkad’s own body of work. Little was already a fan of the early movies and was enthusiastic at the chance of bringing back both Michael and Loomis. Whilst Halloween 2 had been notably more gruesome than its predecessor, with Carpenter re-shooting sequences to cater for the fans of the more violent slashers like Friday the 13th, Little intended on remaining closer in style to the original, with the deaths more suggestive and less graphic. Incidentally, another Carpenter film that Halloween 4 would share similarities with would be Assault on Precinct 13, with a group of survivors barricading themselves inside a building as an invading force attempts to destroy them (Carpenter had also used this device for The Fog, The Thing and Prince of Darkness, also produced before Halloween 4).

With Curtis out of the picture, the viewer’s sympathies were to lie with Jamie, and so Akkad and Little would require a competent and likeable young actress. Danielle Harris was ten-years old and had previously appeared in the daytime soap One Life to Live. For the role of Jamie, another young hopeful who would provide competition for Harris was Melissa Joan Hart, who would later find success with the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Her on-screen stepsister, Rachel Carruthers, would be portrayed by Ellie Cornell, who had narrowly missed out for the lead of The Dream Master. Stuntman George P. Wilbur was cast as Michael, with the role requiring a variety of different stunts, including a complex car chase that would conclude the movie.

Shooting began on April 11 1988 in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the low budget making it impossible for the production to be based in California as with the previous films. Much like with the original, the crew were forced to set their movie in the fall, despite it actually being shot in spring. Thus, artificial leaves were imported to cover the grounds, whilst they would use big squash as pumpkins by painting them orange. Harris would turn eleven during the shoot and, along with Cornell, was required to be present on set for all but four of the forty-two day shoot. A sequence shot on a rooftop (a four-foot set designed by the art department) would result in Cornell receiving minor injuries when a nail cut into her torso, whilst gaffer Garlan Wilde cut his wrist after falling whilst setting up lights. Thankfully, neither were seriously injured and were able to complete the shoot.

The production would begin to take its toll due to the night shoots, with both cast and crew exhausted from the unsociable schedule. One instance when this would cause a problem was when Pleasence had decided to wear a hat in between takes due to the unbearable cold, and when watching the footage afterwards the filmmakers realised that in certain shots the actor was still wearing his hat, forcing them to have to re-shoot the entire night. The film would cause minor controversy, however, when neighbours saw Harris being chased by a man in a mask and the police were immediately called to the scene. At Akkad’s insistence, special effects wizard John Carl Buechler and his company Mechanical and Make-up Imageries were brought in to add some additional gore effects when the producer feared that the movie was too uneventful and could disappoint the fans.

For the aforementioned chase sequence, this was achieved by Wilbur throwing professional stuntmen off the back of a pickup truck, whilst large plywood planks were laid out under the vehicle and rocked side-to-side as Cornell (who would be replaced by stuntwoman Debbie Evans for the actual driving) pretended to drive, creating the illusion that the vehicle was in motion. The crew of stuntmen on hand to assist Wilbur included Tom Morga (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Fred Lerner (Tron, Die Hard), Carl Ciarfalio (Police Academy 3: Back in Training) and Laura Dash (The Goonies, Poltergeist II: The Other Side), who stood in for Harris. Despite his impressive stuntwork and body language, Wilbur would be replaced for the next sequel by Don Shanks, although he would return to the role several years later for Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was released on October 21 1988 and made an impressive $5m during its opening weekend. Whilst it understandably failed to generate the same kind of praise as Carpenter’s film had a decade earlier, the reviews were generally positive, despite the movie adding little originality to the slasher formula. By the end of its US theatrical run, Halloween would only gross $17,768,757, even falling shorter than Friday the 13th Part VII, although with no major studio backing this was still considered a success. The film had managed to rejuvenate the franchise and it came as no surprise when, exactly one year later, a new sequel would emerge. Released on October 13 1989, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers would be an incoherent mess that would fail to receive the same positive feedback that its predecessor had achieved.

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The director responsible for Slumber Party Massacre was Amy Holden Jones. Born on September 17 1953, Jones had studied art history at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and had attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After winning a student award from the American Film Institute for her short film A Weekend Home, Jones managed to attract the attention of renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who offered her an assistant role on his latest feature Taxi Driver. Through Scorsese, Jones would meet the man who would help launch her career, b-movie king Roger Corman. She was initially hired as an editor, working for Joe Dante (making his directorial debut) and Alan Arkush on their feature Hollywood Boulevard, before performing the same duties on Hal Ashby’s Second Hand Hearts, where she learnt the craft of saving movies in the editing room.

Corman was interested in jumping on the slasher bandwagon, which had taken over the horror genre during the early eighties and could be produced on a relatively small budget. Surprisingly, the script that they would decide to shoot would come from the most unlikely of sources. Rita Mae Brown was extremely intelligent and educated, an acclaimed writer and feminist and had fought for civil liberties. Her first work to be published was The Hand That Cradles the Rock in 1971, a collection of short poems, although it would be her novel Rubyfruit Jungle that would launch her writing career. With slasher movies constantly criticised for its use of female nudity and violence towards women, Brown was hired to write a script, injecting her own spin on the genre. The result was Don’t Open the Door, a title that would echo various other low budget efforts of the era (such as Don’t Go in the Woods, Don’t Go Near the Park, Don’t Go in the House and Don’t Answer the Phone!).

Whilst the script had the essentials of what was needed for a slasher, Corman felt that it wasn’t quite what they needed, and so Jones was allowed to perform extensive re-writes, adding elements of humour and fleshing out the main protagonists. There were various sexual subtexts already present in the original draft, however, most notably the killer’s choice of weapon – a drill. This phallic device that he used to penetrate his scantily clad victims was a symbol of man’s power, which would result in a metaphoric castration during the climax, when one of the girls successfully breaks the end of his ‘weapon.’ One aspect of the script that Jones did work on in great detail were the kill scenes, realising that these would be a major selling point with its young target audience and so they should be as exciting and unique as possible.

In order to prove to Corman that she was more than capable of directing, Jones decided to shoot a prologue for the movie with her husband Michael Chapman, a respected cinematography who had previously shot the likes of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull for Scorcese and Philip Kaufman’s take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The sequence would help establish the villain, Russ Thorn, and would revolve around a group of young hippies performing a tarot reading, promptly followed by several brutal murders. These special effects were homemade, with Jones taking a Styrofoam head and attaching a wig, then driving a knife through to create the illusion that the victim had been stabbed in the head. Corman was impressed by the eight-minute teaser, but sadly the footage was unusable due to the actors being students and not members of the Screen Actors Guild.

Corman had built a reputation for himself over the years for being a resourceful producer, able to shoot movies with little funds and on an extremely tight schedule. Avoiding unnecessary costs, such as still photographers (for promotional material like magazine articles and lobby cards), Corman was able to provide Jones with an adequate budget of just $200,000. With Chapman preoccupied with Carl Reiner’s film noir spoof Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, the cinematography would instead be handled by Steve Posey, who had previously shot second unit on Dante’s werewolf flick The Howling. Posey would later lens such cult films as Savage Streets and Friday the 13th: A New Beginning for Danny Steinmann, before launching his own career as a director with the likes of Xena: Warrior Princess and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The crew for what would be re-titled Sleepless Nights during production consisted of various names that would later enjoy minor success within the genre. Associate producer and ssistant director Mark Allan would later become a production manager on the harrowing drama Patty Hearst, vampire flick Near Dark and, more recently, the action thriller The Bourne Identity. Co-producer Aaron Lipstadt would direct episodes of various TV shows like The Equalizer, Miami Vice and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, whilst the editing would be performed by Wendy Greene Bricmont (who had previously worked on Woody Allen’s Annie Hall and would later cut Kindergarten Cop and My Super Ex-Girlfriend) and Sean Foley (Survivor and The Apprentice). The director’s brother, Ralph Jones, would compose the score, using a cheap Casio synthesizer.

For the role of ‘final girl’ Valerie, Corman and Jones decided to cast twenty-year old Robin Stille who, despite her good nature and professional attitude, would be criticised later in her career for her drinking habit, particularly in the set of the 1988 flick Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama. Tragically, she would commit suicide on February 9 1996 at the age of thirty-four, with 1991’s American Ninja 4: The Annihilation being her last notable appearance. Co-star Michael Villela also had no prior experience when he was cast as antagonist Russ Thorn, although his future credits would include Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, Wild Orchild and its 1991 sequel Wild Orchild 2: Two Shades of Blue. Michele Michaels, who would portray the second heroine Trish Devereaux, would go onto appear in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown and several straight-to-video and TV movies.

The supporting cast would include Debra Deliso (Iced), David Millbern (Gods and Monsters), Jim Boyce (Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment) and Pamela Roylance (Days of Our Lives). Brinke Stevens had originally been lined up to play one of the lead girls (at that time she was married to Dave Stevens, a comic artist for The Rocketeer), but modelling commitment in Lake Tahoe forced her to take a smaller role. She would later appear in This is Spinal Tap, as well as issues of Penthouse and Playboy. The special effects, meanwhile, were handled by Rick Lazzarini, whose subsequent work would include A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Ghostbusters II and A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child.

Principal photography took place in Venice, Los Angeles, over a period of twenty days. At the insistence of Corman, Jones would fill her movie with copious amounts of nudity, most notably during a shower scene early on in the film. The running time would be greatly reduced to a mere seventy-six minutes, whilst the climax would be re-shot to make it more intense. Jones herself would design the infamous poster which would show several young women (none of whom are featured in the movie itself) with the killer standing over them, ‘weapon’ in hand. Due to none of the actresses being available on the day, Jones would use stand-ins. Corman had left Jones alone after the first day of shooting and was impressed with the result, although he would change the name of the movie from Sleepless Nights to Slumber Party Massacre for its release.

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Sorority House Massacre was a low budget slasher released in 1986 near the end of the cycle, and produced by legendary independent filmmaker Roger Corman. Much like Slumber Party Massacre, which it would often be compared, Sorority House Massacre was that rare breed, a horror – particularly a slasher – that was both written and directed by a woman, in this case Carol Frank. Often criticised for attempting to emulate John Carpenter’s classic Halloween and its sequel (a boy kills family, is committed and then escapes years later to find his sister), the movie was released at a time when interest in the slasher genre was starting to dwindle, and so instead it became a popular rental over the next few years. By 1990, Slumber Party Massacre had produced two sequels (both under the watchful eye of Corman), becoming the first notable horror franchise to be directed solely by women, with Deborah Brock and Sally Mattison continuing the series.

Jim Wynorski had always wanted to be a filmmaker. Having grown up on the likes of The Thing From Another World, Invaders From Mars and House on Haunted Hill, perhaps his future as a b-movie director was inevitable. His first notable effort came in the early 1970’s whilst studying at Adelphi University in New York, when he made a slasher-style thirty-minute piece in black and white entitled The Co-Ed Killer. The film succeeded in disgusting and offending both the faculty and fellow students and was subsequently banned from the Annual Film Program. Wynorski’s film career began in 1981 when he made the acquaintance of Corman, a thirty-year veteran of the industry who had directed over thirty feature films and produced countless others, as well as shepherding the early careers of such renowned filmmakers as Martin Scorsese, Joe Dante, Ron Howard and Francis Ford Coppola. Legend has it that he had also managed to shoot a movie in just two days, the result being the cult classic Little Shop of Horrors.

Wynorski’s early contributions to Corman were writing various science fiction and fantasy flicks, including Sorceress and Forbidden World. Having directed his first feature, The Lost Empire, for Plitt Theatres owner Henry Plitt in 1985, his next effort was at the request of Roger’s wife, Julie Corman, who had been approached by Vestron Video to make a low budget film set in a mall. Initially titled Killbots, the movie was re-released as Chopping Mall and enjoyed minor success, helping to cement Wynorski’s reputation as a competent filmmaker. Continuing to work under the umbrella of Corman, he would shoot several more cheap flicks over the next few years such as Big Bad Mama II, Deathstalker II and Not of This Earth, before directing a sequel to Wes Craven’s schlock classic Swamp Thing.

Following Corman’s moneysaving approach of utilising your resources, Wynorski noticed that there were unused sets left over after filming on Slumber Party Massacre III and Rock and Roll High School Forever had been completed. Scheduled for dismantlement, he approached Julie Corman with the suggestion of shooting a cheap slasher on the sets and so he was given one week to make the picture, whilst she and her husband were away in Europe. Not informing Roger of the project, Wynorski wrote the script in four days with the help of Mark Thomas McGee (who had appeared in the Dolly Parton musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), James B. Rogers (later an associate of the Farrelly Brothers) and Bob Sheridan. With the script not having an official title, one of the crew dubbed the project Jim Wynorski’s House of Babes, which would remain throughout the brief production.

With Wynorski under pressure to have the camera rolling the moment the Cormans left town, the casting process was completed in just two days. The lead role of ‘final girl’ Linda would go to Gail Harris, a British former ‘Page 3′ model and Playboy Playmate, who had appeared in several Electric Blue videos throughout the eighties (softcore adult entertainment), as well as such flicks as Party Favors, Takin’ It All Off and Nudity Required. She would also star in Wynorski’s subsequent feature Hard to Die. Her co-star, Melissa Moore, had studied business and fashion design at Brooks College in Long Beach before turning to acting in the late 1980’s. The remainder of the cast would consist of Barbii (the star of such tasty titles as Lusty Desires, Tight Fit, Sex and the Happy Landlord and Catfighting Cheerleaders), Toni Naples (Chopping Mall), Mike Elliott (later a successful producer) and Bridget Carney (who, like Naples, would also appear in Hard to Die).

The crew would also be assembled extremely quickly, with cinematography handled by J.E. Bashm who would once again work with the director on Ghoulies IV in 1994. He would share the D.O.P. credit with Jürgen Baum, who would subsequently lens Brian Yuzna’s The Dentist 2, before working primarily as a second unit cinematographer on the likes of Executive Target and Wes Craven’s Wishmaster. The production design would be supervised by Richard K. Wright, whose work on such low budget efforts as Poison Ivy and 976-Evil II would, like Rogers, lead to collaborations with the Farrelly Brothers, the directors of crass comedies like Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin and Me, Myself & Irene.

The music would be composed by Chuck Cirino, whom Wynorski had previously worked with on Chopping Mall, Big Bad Mama II, Deathstalker II and The Return of Swamp Thing and would continue to collaborate with for many years. The special effects, meanwhile, were supervised by Dean Jones, whose prior credits included Star Trek: The Next Generation. He would later work on a variety of successful projects like Toolbox Murders, Frankenfish, Day of the Dead, Train and several Star Trek features. His collaborator would be William Starr Jones, whose only other notable credit would be Body Chemistry, released the same year. With cast and crew in place, Wynorski waited for the word from Julie Corman and began shooting as soon as she and Roger Corman left for Europe, giving them one week to complete the film.

With the actors cast on the Friday, filming commenced the following Monday for six tough days of shooting. The location used was a popular choice for independent filmmakers, with Wynorski regularly shooting there. The house used for that of the Hockstatter residence was located at 2200 South Harvard Blvd in Los Angeles, whilst a house across the road (at no. 2215) used for Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs and next door for Fred Olen Ray’s 1992 comedy horror Evil Toons. Much of the shoot would be improvised, with the actors allowed to add their own contributions to the proceedings. The ending was also slightly altered, with the antagonist (Orville Ketchum, portrayed by Peter Spellos) coming back for that obligatory final scare.

However, when the movie was completed and submitted to Corman they realised that its running time was too brief, and so footage from Slumber Party Massacre was inserted to help pad out the film. Incidentally, one shot features three of the surviving girls sat on the floor with their backs to each other, echoing a scene from the earlier slasher. With the movie finally completed, Wynorski had wanted to rename it Nightie Nightmare, yet Roger Corman, who had previously been unaware of the project, insisted that it be released as Sorority House Massacre II in an effort to capitalise on his previous success. Impressed by what Wynorski had accomplished, Corman immediately offered him the chance to do it again and, with another set left over from a completed film, Wynorski was free to shoot what would become Hard to Die, although Corman would once again rename it Sorority House Massacre III.

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