the horror show

Creating a successful horror icon is harder than it looks. Sure, Michael, Jason and Freddy make it look easy: a snazzy mask, the right accessories and a signature catchphrase or two. But check out The Horror Show (1989), produced at the tail end of the waning slasher craze, and you’ll see what I mean.

Max Jenke is one bad dude. He’s put a lot of mileage on his meat cleaver and is now strapped to the electric chair to pay for his crimes. But as the cop who put him away watches, Jenke absorbs most of the juice and swears vengeance…just before collapsing into a lifeless heap.

That’s one of a couple prologues in producer Sean S. Cunningham’s (Friday the 13th) ill-conceived attempt to introduce a new serial killer in the cinematic pantheon. Jenke (which sounds a lot like the exclamation Velma makes on Scooby Doo) is played by Brion James, probably most memorable as the psychotic replicant in Blade Runner. Here he just bugs his eyes out a lot and emits an evil high-pitched giggle – lifted from his role in Sam Raimi’s Crimewave – to signify his nasty intentions. It’s more amusing than terrifying. And if the movie had gone down that route, as the very similar Shocker did not six months later, there might have been some entertainment value.

But star Lance Henriksen (Aliens), as the cop haunted by Jenke’s atrocities, piles on the melodrama. It seems Jenke has been turned into some sort of spiritual energy, able to invade the family furnace and pop up anywhere at will. There’s no justification or explanation, it just happens. Dream sequences, flashbacks and jump scares blend together until no one is sure just what the hell is happening. Then the credits roll.

Ostensibly one of the few reasons to watch The Horror Show – which was released as part of the House franchise overseas – would be for the effects work of KNB, now in charge of AMC’s The Walking Dead. But since the actual “unrated” version couldn’t be tracked down, the most memorable bit here is a possessed turkey! So even that angle will leave most fans unsatisfied.

Scream Factory’s blu-ray / DVD combo-pack delivers way more than the film deserves including a commentary from Cunningham that covers the film’s rather complicated release history and MPAA troubles. Plus interviews with actress Rita Taggard and stunt coordinator Kane Hodder.