Main Cast: Jason Presson, Ray Walston, Avery Schreiber, Patty McCormack, Julianne McNamara-Zeile
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The sequel to Saturday the 14th, this horror-comedy traces the adventures of nice-guy teen Eddie Baxter (Jason Presson) as he saves the world from the brink of supernatural destruction. After moving into a decrepit, inherited mansion with his family -- a collection of oddballs who eat nothing but junk food yet cling to a Leave It to Beaver sense of normalcy -- Eddie is the only one to notice the mysterious mists that spill up from the basement and engender odd behavior in everyone but himself and lovable old Gramps (Ray Walston). The entire family, from Eddie's dad (Avery Schreiber) to his freeloading Aunt Alice (Rhonda Aldrich), soon begins conducting late-night chocolate-fudge sculpture classes in the kitchen. Chairs begin eating people, Aunt Alice spouts werewolf-style facial hair, and monsters begin issuing forth from a crack in the basement floor. Soon, a leggy blond vampire named Charlene (Pamela Stonebrook) has taken up residence in the Eddie's room; she tells the boy he's set to inherit the mantle of darkness from a fiend known as The Evil One (Leo V. Gordon) at the stroke of midnight on Saturday the 14th. As signs and portents proliferate, Eddie must decide whether to reject temptation or bask in his newfound powers. Help arrives unexpectedly in the form of Leonard Cavendish (Phil Leeds), Gramps' deceased best friend. Saturday the 14th Strikes Back co-star Avery Schreiber spent much of the '80s being distracted by the hearty crunch of Doritos snack chips in a long-running series of TV commercials. Audiences will remember Ray Walston from his role as Uncle Martin in the '60s TV show My Favorite Martian, while veteran comedy player Phil Leeds would go on to play tooth-obsessed Judge Happy Boyle on the '90s Fox comedy Ally McBeal. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Believe it or not, the sequel to incredibly lame horror spoof Saturday the 14th is actually a pretty OK B-movie. Where the first film just strung together a handful of tired creature-feature gags and hoped they'd all hang together, Saturday the 14th Strikes Back actually sports a surfeit of jokes, not all of them horror-tinged. Dense with throwaway gags -- including a running series of radio announcements parodying the then-current "Baby Jessica" toddler-in-a-well news story -- the film even features a few fun production numbers, including a song about the agonizingly limited culinary options available to your average neighborhood vampire. With its chocolate-chowing family of faux-sitcom cheeseballs, the script has plenty of goofy character roles to fill. Everyone from Doritos pitchman Avery Schreiber to sitcom vet Ray Walston and former Bad Seed star Patty McCormack proves up to the task. Star Jason Presson mostly plays it straight, but he gets choice bits of narration along the lines of "Aunt Alice was the only woman I ever met who could chew gum and eat chicken at the same time." Saturday the 14th Strikes Back throws a hell of a lot of jokes at the wall. But, unlike the tired gags that populated its predecessor, lots of them actually stick. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Rhonda Aldrich - Alice; Daniel Will-Harris - Bert; Pamela Stonebrook - Charlene; Joseph Ruskin; Riad; Michael Berryman; Phil Leeds; Tommy Hall; Leo Gordon; Victoria Morsell
Credit
Kathleen B. Cooper - Art Director, Lynn Whitney - Associate Producer, Al Guarino - Casting, Jamie Elliott - Casting, Rhonda Aldrich - Choreography, Kimberly Guenther - Costume Designer, Murray Miller - First Assistant Director, Howard R. Cohen - Director, Bernard F. Caputo - Editor, Deborah Zoller - Hair Styles, Albert T. Dickerson - Location Manager, Parmer Fuller - Composer (Music Score), Deborah Zoller - Makeup, Stephen Greenberg - Production Designer, Levie Isaacks - Cinematographer, Reid Shane - Production Manager, Julie Corman - Producer, Mike Clark - Sound Mixer, Patrick Statham - Stunts Coordinator, Howard R. Cohen - Screenwriter, Adam Moos - Production Coordinator, Nancy Karlin - Script Supervisor, Albert T. Dickerson - Second Assistant Director, Masonya Washington - Costume/Wardrobe, Jacqueline Brennan - Assistant Makeup, Cindy Floyd - Assistant Makeup, Diana Brown - Assistant Makeup, Elizabeth Kennedy - Costumes Assistant, Beth Elliott - Scenic Artist, Jonathan A. Winfrey - Second Second Assistant Director, Virginia Lee - Set Dresser, Miranda Amador - Set Decorator
