Dee Snider’s Strangeland is not that bad, but only after putting it into proper context and a few drinks. Strangeland came out in 1998, I was 15 years old, and hated anything hair metal. Therefore, I didn’t see this film, on the bases of hating the band Twisted Sister, and so many other incarnations of hair metal.
But times change, and while I’m still not a fan of the 80’s metal scene, I am a fan of horror films and had to pick this one up to review.
First and foremost, Dee Snider wrote this one, so I was not expecting anything worthwhile or even shocking. However, this movie does go into a deeper level of thinking if you take the time to consider the movies main premise.
The story revolves around a guy who lures teenagers via a chat room to parties, where they end being tortured and made part of strange piercing rituals. After Dee’s character, Captain Howdy, lures a detectives daughter he is thrown into an asylum, only to emerge a changed man. While he shows signs of change, the town’s people do not like it, and they end up lynching Howdy in a very public scenario led by none other than Robert Englund. Howdy survives, and comes back to haunt everyone who was involved.
This movie sounds a lot like Friday the 13th right? I mean it seems similar, but the main character is the guy from Twisted Sister! I couldn’t get passed that, and although he looks very creepy, I don’t know if I can separate the persona of metal mayhem and an evil doer. This film is hard to watch at times, but if you stick with it, it does have a clear message about the current state of trust and the internet. This film was probably more poignant in 1998, considering that chat rooms were huge, and not so popular now.
The movie is relatively short, and has a few gorey situations, but overall it’s not as good as I thought it would be. Honestly, it’s not as good as Bon Jovi’s Vampire flick, but it is not as horrible as some of the straight to dvd films that I’ve seen in my long adventure into horror film review.
Dee Snider’s Strangeland is worth checking out once, just to say that you’ve seen it, but I don’t really recommend this one to everyone. Most people will end up hating me, and the movie as a whole.
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Better than you said. Not great, but not horrible.
ReplyDeleteThis movie is absolutely amazing. The lines are classically hillarious such as the monologue given at the first crime scene from the guy with the thick East Coast accent and the neck tattoo describing body modification and how "different they are" from society. Captain Howdy has some hillarious speeches involving "the ampallang" and "rites of passage that must be physical." I have watched this movie countless times much to the dismay of my girlfriend. And whenever we need something in the background my reply is always, "hey, why donh't we pop in Strangeland?!?!?!"
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