The second in the unintentional old-school-FX-master double feature, the first being Humanoids from the Deep with Rob Bottin handling FX, this features Stan Winston on FX duty.

There’s something about early ”80s horror that has always rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe too many bad rentals. I’ve steered clear of a lot of them, assuming they’d be cheesy with bad acting and worse hair. But recently (thanks to Shudder letting me know I’m not worth my salt as a horror fan if I haven’t seen them), I’ve seen quite a few and have actually enjoyed (for the most part) the experience.

I may be more lenient in these ratings than usual. But, hey, that’s how it is. But there is something refreshing about films from that era. I mean, THEY KILLED KIDS! AND DOGS! I was, again, surprised by the gore here — and the effective scares. Maybe this is worth a remake? They haven’t?! Wow.

The other fun thing is noticing actors or crew (like Stan Winston, Dan O’Bannon, Ron Shusset, etc.) early in their career. Kudos for recognizing them (though was Robert Englund that hard to recognize?) But I was going nuts trying to figure out why the cop’s wife looked so familiar. At first I thought because she looked like Melissa Sue Anderson (they share a last name) but was in Flash Gordon. Lisa Blount. Jack Albertson. And this guy.

So that adds to the fun.