Thursday, July 22, 2010

FOREVER EVIL (1987)

It's rudimentary cabin in the woods horror cum demonology. Some dude survives a brutal massacre that pretty much clears his Christmas card list. Then, he decides to go back to the scene of the crime with more potential victims to figure stuff out. What a maroon.

My recollections of "Forever Evil" are weird, and I've been struggling to remember if I enjoyed this on an ironic level or not. I do remember thinking it was relentlessly awful. I know the way in which I appreciate films has changed over the last twenty years, but I also know I was capable of enjoying films that were so terrible they were amazing. This movie has aged sweetly, though, and it almost seems innocent to me now. I'm sure to some degree my recollections are clouded by nostalgia. This was a huge part of my childhood, as I remember seeing it on USA Network's "Saturday Nightmares" program.

I think that I was conscious of all the flubs and flaws, but in my youth I was far more willing to forgive those things, which allowed me to take some pretty bad films very seriously, and really enjoy them as they were intended to be. Some kids understand that Santa Clause is bullshit pretty early on, but they suspend their disbelief and honor the deformed logic required to believe in his myth. It's fun to think that there's some home-invading diabetic fatass flying through the sky with a bag full of lite brites. Some people, as they get old and become more aware of how drab reality is, grow embittered toward their own imagination, and so they cut it off. They become less willing to suspend disbelief and actually just enjoy something. Instead of ignoring the wires on the crappy model space ship, they get angry at them. Perhaps they resent them now because it reminds them of how easy life used to be when they were young. I'm grateful that I have reached that point where I can revel in the wires. Hating obvious things just seems like a waste of time.

Appreciating terrible movies requires the only forgivable Zen there is. All the other shit is for hippies. I look back at this movie pretty fondly, and I take it far less seriously. I probably have a more comprehensive awareness of all its artistic flaws than I did when I was a kid. Now, I think it assumes it's rightful palsy-stricken posture alongside camp classics such as "Zombie Nightmare."

Here's an awesome bumper from "Saturday Nightmares," featuring an ad for "Forever Evil." This makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.

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