31 Nights of Halloween Horror part 5 - Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker

96 mins

Dir. William Asher

1982/USA

Have I got a treat for you tonight.  In the category of “how have I never seen this before” comes Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker, aka Night Warning.  What if I told you there is a movie out there starring Jimmy McNichol (brother of Kristy McNichol) playing a confused coming of age teenager, a young Bill Paxton (Aliens, Near Dark) as his rival basketball teammate, Bo Svenson (Snowbeast, Kill Bill vol.2) as a homophobe bigot detective and Susan Tyrell Angel, (Angel, Avenging Angel, Cry Baby) as a psychotic overbearing aunt and it is one of the best movies you never seen.  You would probably say, “Damien, you made me watch Tentacles last night, how can I trust you.” And you would right to think that, butI kid you not, this is one worth viewing if for no other reason to see Susan Tyrell’s performance driving a three-wheeled school bus off a cliff because she knows a short cut to crazy town.

Within the first ten seconds of the film my wife pegged what was going to happen in the prologue, with in the first two minutes of the movie we were both screaming “Woah, God Damn!” from the opening car accident scene.  Right away we knew we were in for a special treat.  Stick with me on this, here we go.

14 years after the car accident befell Jimmy McNichol’s parents, he is raised by his aunt Cheryl, played by the amazing Susan Tyrell.  Jimmy is now 17 and ready to stop soiling his pants and start to soil his wild oats and go to college.  But Aunt Cheryl doesn’t want him to do any of that, seems she has a bad case of empty nest syndrome and maybe something a little more but we are unsure of that just yet.  One day Aunt Cheryl makes some awkward sexual advances on the plumber, literally whipping her tits out and throwing herself on him, he rejects her and winds up with a butcher knife in the neck.  The police come and she cries rape but detective Bo Svenson is not buying the story and does some digging.  Turns out the plumber was gay and married to Jimmy McNichol’s basketball coach.  The detective is convinced that Jimmy killed the plumber in a weird gay sex triangle between him, his coach and the plumber.  Even though evidence doesn’t point to this and Jimmy has a girlfriend, detective homophobe hates gay people and wants them all locked up.  Meanwhile confused Jimmy just wants to go to  college on a basketball scholarship and be with his girlfriend,  but aunt Cheryl is really going off the deep end and by the time bat shit crazy Aunt Cheryl cuts her own hair short in the bathroom sink you know she has completely checked out of reality and no one is safe.

How Susan Tyrell did not win an academy award from her performance in this movie is anyone’s guess.  You would swear they literally put out a casting call in a looney bin and found a real patient to play the role of Aunt Cheryl, she is that convincing.  Her insanity starts off gradually and escalates more and more as the movie goes on.  She has moments of clarity and you are like aawww poor Aunt Cheryl is just lonely.  But how could she be lonely, when she has the corpse of her dead boyfriend rotting in a hidden room upstairs, OHHHHHH!  BAM!  This shit is a kicker.

Never slow, always entertaining, everyone does a great job portraying their characters perfectly, even the gay basketball coach isn’t depicted as a stereo-typical gay person.  But don’t forget, this is a low budget horror film, so some of the dialogue is a little questionable and some of the gore scenes are somewhat laughable.  But everything can easily be over looked by how over the top the performance of Susan Tyrell is.  This one is a keeper, I can’t believe it has taken me this long to see it, and for those keeping track at home, this is the winner for best Halloween Horror Nights movie so far.  Granted, my tastes are not to be trusted.