[Image description: A digital drawing based on the film Hard Rock Nightmare. It depicts Jimmy, flecks of blood splattered across him, holding out the severed head of a werewolf. The werewolves face is stuck with its fanged mouth and glowing yellow eyes wide open. However, it's neck is human skin, with strings of gore falling off of its bottom. The perspective of the piece brings it closer to the viewer while Jimmy is further away. He's got a stoic expression on his face, with one eye obscured by shadow. In his other hand he holds a similarly bloodied white electric guitar. At the top of the piece, it says "hard rock" in a dark blocky font, which is outline with a bright red. This same red is used at the bottom of the piece to write "nightmare" in a distorted, splattered font. The colours of the piece all lean to red tones, with the background being a dark red. The lineart is a dark black.]
Inktober - Day 27 (Beast)
Film - Hard Rock Nightmare (Dominick Brascia, 1988)
Although it’s inept by any measure, Dominick Bascia’s HARD ROCK NIGHTMARE (1988, Shudder, AMC+, YouTube) is so endearingly goofy it would probably serve well as a party film. The tale of an incongruously cute heavy metal band stalked in the woods by a werewolf is filled with ludicrous lines:
On discovering a bandmate has been decapitated, lead singer Martin Hansen shouts, “Somebody get some sheets…Look for his head.”
One band member’s girlfriend complains, “Just because I used to be a mud wrestler, you think I’m stupid.”
Then there’s this surprisingly meta exchange: “Nobody believes in werewolves and vampires anymore.” “Yeah, if he’d have said a guy in a hockey mask killed Tim, I’d be scared.”
It should be noted here that one critic has suggested the film is an homage to the FRIDAY THE 13TH series. Since Brascia appeared in PART V (the one with the faux Jason), that might give you an idea of how poor the whole thing is. Characters change positions on whether there’s a werewolf or not between shots. A couple trying to get to a CB radio a mile from the murders stops to smoke a joint and have sex knowing there’s a killer on the loose. And though we only see the cast carrying food and small suitcases on the mile-long trek to the farmhouse where they’re staying, the band’s instruments, including a full drum set, miraculously appear for them to do another bad number.
Anyway, the picture starts with two-and-a-half minutes of good filmmaking in black and white. An old man teases his grandson by claiming to be both a werewolf and a vampire who’s going to eat him. The kid responds by staking him. The acting is terrible, but the framing and cutting are effective. The rest of the film, though clearly shot, feels as if it had been made by somebody else. The cutting is languorous and the compositions flat. The only common thread is the bad acting, though at least the adult little boy, his bandmates and their girlfriends are quite attractive. Troy Donahue is on hand as Hansen’s uncle, and though he still looks good and can command the screen in a closeup, his acting hadn’t really grown much since the days when all he had to offer was blond blandness.
Hansen sings three forgettable numbers in the film, and at least he can carry a tune. There are also some better cuts from a band called the L.A. Thundercatz. Over the action and the final credits, they perform “Maniac” with lyrics like “Walk like a maniac, run like a maniac, die like a maniac.” This picture would have been better made by somebody who directed like one.
A carefree lakeside vacation is interrupted by the re-emergence of killer Jason Voorhees (Ted White). After he escapes from a morgue, leaving bodies in his wake, Jason travels to Camp Crystal Lake where a group of friends is staying. The teens meet some locals: Tommy (Corey Feldman) and Trish (Kimberly Beck), as well as secretive hiker Rob (Erich Anderson). As the group of teenagers engages in drunken debauchery, their numbers begin to dwindle, and pieces of the past resurface.
https://youtu.be/OpWpe8REbag?si=Gh9W8UfsDE6a-gaq
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning: 1985
Years after Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) murdered hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorhees, he resides in a mental hospital and struggles with the trauma of the experience. When Tommy moves to an isolated halfway house, he has nightmares about Jason's return, and soon one of the patients (Dominick Brascia) is killed. As the body count grows, Tommy begins to question his sanity and wonder if Jason has risen from the dead. But, to determine the killer's identity, Tommy will need to survive.
Friday the 13th Part V - A New Beginning / Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) Esselte CIC Video / CIC Video https://www.videospace.fi/release/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning_vhs_esselte_cic_video_cic_video_netherlands