Halloween 2025’s rewind of terror ’80s horror movie thread extravaganza - the revenge! (Part One)
Introduction
Imagine it's Friday night. Maybe it was a great week. Maybe it was one of the worst. It doesn't matter now. It's Friday! And staying in for the night sounds a lot better than going out.
After work, you swing by the video store. It's Fall. Halloween is at the end of the month, and the video place has a great selection of horror flicks. You look for movies you not only haven't seen but maybe haven't heard of either. You're deciding solely on the box cover, title, and the poorly written synopsis on the back of the box. So, you grab a couple videos. Tonight will be a double feature. Why not?
You pick up some dinner as well. Pizza? Chinese take-out? A double cheeseburger, onion rings and an orange soda from Sparky's Burgers? You know... whatever.
Once you get home and get changed, you pop in your first movie for the night (it's a VHS tape, by the way), turn the lights off and allow the fading evening light of the fall sky to barely gleam through the window before it's completely dark. Sit back. Take a load off. And now...our feature presentation.
I love this time of year! One of the reasons being are these Halloween season reviews I started posting back in October 2022.
Just as before, I like to "dedicate" each October to a series or thread of horror flicks. I started this trend of mine with the first 15 Godzilla movies. The following year, I watched all the "Leprechaun" movies. And last year, I gave my October to a true horror legend as I watched several Dracula/ Vampire movies. And now, this year, I'm going all 1980s horror! It's the decade I was born in.
A lot of 80s horror flicks are ingrained in pop-culture. Others, not so much but they still have a cult following. I picked titles that I either find intriguing and have been meaning to get to. Others, I chose out of pure curiosity.
While the horror genre in the 1970s entered a more authentic period with realistic movies that don't follow romantic leads amidst horrific or frightening scenarios, the genre seemed to throw levity into the mix along with a tad of fantasy once the 1980s came around. Well, dark fantasy.
Movies like "The Shining" (1980) took the realistic supernatural element that movies like "Amityville Horror," and "The Exorcist" both released in the 1970s and gave it a more fantastical tone. No levity. It kept the realism but gave the supernatural element something more imaginative.
However, levity crept into horror during the 1980s, even in the slashiest of slasher flicks. The movie "A Nightmare on Elm Street" from 1984 is a great example of where the 80s took horror. It gave the world one of the most iconic horror villains since the days of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster- Freddy Krueger. His horrific origin begins a child murderer turned dream demon, the Elm Street movies includes a smidge of humor which only intensify from sequel to sequel.
Freddy is a terrifying and truly nightmare fueling entity who plays with his victims always with an intimidating quip starting with the line from the very first movie. "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy."
Even "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" from 1974, a true product of the authentic period had a sequel in 1986 which made sure to follow that slight humorous element just a bit. Even the cover image of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" took a humorous jab at the poster of John Hughes 1985 teen comedy, "The Breakfast Club." It was morning in America during the 1980s so audiences could laugh a little while being terrified at what horror had to offer.
With 1970s horror, it's all about the realism. With the 1980s, horror is truly character driven. So many horror icons were born in the 1980s - Jason Vorhees, Chucky, Freddy Krueger, Christine, The Predator, Beetlejuice, Slimer.
In a few instances, 1980s horror resorted to over-the-top comedic plots and intentional campiness - "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" comes to mind first. All in all, 1980s horror gave audiences their good times back. Authentic horror from the 1970s may have gotten too heavy. I'm speculating, of course.
So, here's this year's horror thread, "Halloween 2025’s rewind of terror ’80s horror movie thread extravaganza - the revenge!"
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Director
Vernon Zimmerman
Vernon Zimmerman
Cast
Dennis Christopher - Eric BinfordLinda Kerridge - Marilyn O'Connor
Tim Thomerson - Dr. Jerry Moriarty
Gwynne Gilford - Officer Anne Oshenbull
Eve Brent Ashe - Aunt Stella Binford
Norman Burton - Marty Berger
Mickey Rourke - Richie
I stumbled upon the horror movie, "Fade to Black" on a couple of streaming apps, including Hoopla. I've kept it on my mental list of movies to get to.
The synopsis about a "shy, lonely film buff" pursuing revenge on anyone who has crossed him is what caught my attention. The "film buff" part particularly is very intriguing. Though many highly regarded, or at least very popular, horror flicks came out in 1980, this movie seems the most appropriate to start off with.
I normally start watching movies for my October reviews in May, "Fade to Black" gave me the idea to review horror/thriller movies from the 1980s. This movie is precisely what I thought it would be.
It stars Dennis Christopher as Eric Binford who works at a film distribution warehouse somewhere in downtown Los Angeles.
He's an annoying employee with a weird obsession for movies. Nothing like me, of course. This guy knows a lot of useless trivia about older flicks and constantly rambles about it to people who could care less. Again, totally nothing like me.
He lives with his nagging Aunt Stella (Eve Brent Ashe) who's always on his case. She uses a wheelchair, and lives a bitter life as she used to be a beautiful dancer, but those days are gone. Now, she has to live with her weird nephew.
Anyways, he's an easy target for tough guys and fellow employees. Eric crosses paths with a beautiful girl named Marilyn O'Connor (Linda Kerridge), an Australian model who's in town. Binford thinks she has a striking resemblance to Marilyn Monroe, whom Binford is obsessed with. He even mentally pictures her as Marilyn Monroe, along with a fantasy of her singing "Happy Birthday" to him.
Eric asks her out on a date, which she accepts. However, due to circumstances she can't control, Marilyn doesn't show up for their date.
Since cell phones aren't a household thing yet, he thinks she's intentionally standing him up. Of course, that's not the case but Eric doesn't know that.
This triggers something in his head. He's been pushed around and stepped on long enough.
Eric starts taking on the personas of different movie characters sand seeks murderous revenge on everyone who has bullied him around.
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| Dennis Christopher as Eric Binford in "Fade to Black." |
He definitely has Aunt Stella on top of his list as she previously destroyed his 16mm movie projector that he uses to watch these old films. He does her in her by pushing her wheelchair down a flight of stairs just like in the 1947 film noir "Kiss of Death" with Victor Mature and Coleen Gray.
After Stella's funeral, Eric continues going around dressing as different film characters - Count Dracula, a mafia gangster, Hopalong Cassidy. His outfits may be cheesy, but his acts of revenge is pretty serious.
Criminal psychologist Dr. Jerry Moriarty (Tim Thomerson) picks up on the M-O and is hunting Binford through L.A.
There's a share of film parody in "Fade to Black" including a shower scene lifted straight from "Psycho" in which Binford sneaks into Marilyn's bathroom while she's in the shower, only to ask for her autograph.
The movie is haphazardly put together and tries to be something that'll catch on like the more popular horror movies of its day. As I mentioned in my introduction, it has a dramatic and realistic storyline with a taste of levity.
Aside from Eric dressing up as random movie characters and then going around seeking his revenge, there's little holding this movie together.
It's weird, for lack of a better term. Somehow it still manages to be intriguing - barely. Themes of mental illness that goes unchecked, escaping reality, and immersion in fantasy are what hold to plot together. On the flipside, it's one big ode of classic Hollywood but with violence and blood. I'd say the acting is unsavory, but this doesn't feel like a movie one would watch to see amazing performances.
Still, Dennis Christopher does put in energy and appears to be enjoying the experience in being in a movie like this. He tries to play a sympathetic character and succeeds for maybe the first act of the movie. That quickly fades to black once he begins playing dress-up. Dennis's character tries to recapture that sympathy at the end. It doesn't work! What does work is the creepiness. It carries on from the beginning and intensifies from there.
Honestly, Dennis plays it perfectly in that regard. His character fully immerses himself into the movies, creating an imaginary world, uncomfortable to watch. around him that's made up of the movies he favorites. Where ever he is, it's all he talks about. When he goes back home, he locks himself in his room and watches classic cinema on his film projector. The flickering lights of the movies mesh into reality. So, as a creepy horror flick, "Fade to Black" accomplishes what it sets out to do. I got to give it credit for that.
Honestly, Dennis plays it perfectly in that regard. His character fully immerses himself into the movies, creating an imaginary world, uncomfortable to watch. around him that's made up of the movies he favorites. Where ever he is, it's all he talks about. When he goes back home, he locks himself in his room and watches classic cinema on his film projector. The flickering lights of the movies mesh into reality. So, as a creepy horror flick, "Fade to Black" accomplishes what it sets out to do. I got to give it credit for that.
Catching all the background movie posters is a trip, including obscure titles such as "The End of the World." That stars none other than Christopher Lee and is a much worse movie than "Fade to Black."
Despite how weak it is, "Fade to Black" does show a fair amount of effort to be a worthwhile movie with something for audiences to take away. In some ways, it comes close enough that it barely gets a pass. It's the call-backs that really did it for me. While watching the first 20 or 30 minutes, I knew I recognized Dennis Christopher from something I had seen previously, but I couldn't recall where. Then it clicked. He plays adult Eddie Kaspbrak in the TV miniseries, "It" from 1990 based on the novel by Stephen King.
The year after starring in "Fade to Black," Dennis went on to play Charles Paddock in the movie, "Chariots of Fire."
Oh, and Mickey Rourke stars in "Fade to Black" as well. It's his third movie following "1941" and " Heaven's Gate." So, there's that.
There's probably something to be said about, maybe, an underlying message about submerging ourselves in the artificial world of movies and television, which would translate today as social media. Reality versus fantasy.
"Fade to Black" is very much a film about identity, loneliness, and the dangers of living through fantasy. Those are certainly elements relevant to today's world of AI and social media alongside film and television. News broke yesterday (Sept. 30, 2025) about the use of the first AI "actress," Tilly Norwood which is causing a lot of controversy even in Hollywood. No doubt Tilly is the first step towards where Hollywood will be in just a few years. As for audiences, and Eric Binford, it’s easier than ever to retreat into virtual or cinematic realities instead of facing difficult truths such as depression and isolation. There's consequences to that.
