BIG MAN ON CAMPUS (1989)

This shit didn’t click with me. Long-story short, there’s a fully-grown adult dude living in a clock tower at a large university in Los Angeles. He’s hairier than Cousin Itt’s left nut and spends all of his time watching a female student by the name of Cathy. Shit happens and he swings down on a rope to break up a fight involving her. Dude is taken into custody and instead of being place under state care, he’s released under the supervision of the university. Naturally, the school assigns a single student, Cathy’s boyfriend and full-time Steve Guttenberg impersonator, Alex to watch over ol’ boy 24 / 7. Makes sense.

I don’t know, I’m already bored with this review. Ends up the dude’s name is Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga (hardy-har-har, isn’t that funny?!) and the reason he was in the tower is because when he was a little child his father abandoned him, then his mom died and some people abused him and he ran away and was homeless forever. Wow, that’s a really great story for a comedy. Nothing funnier than life-destroying child abuse.

Okay pacing, weak story, zero nudity, zero gore, one joke that was later used in ZOOLANDER (the "center for ants" bit), a drink called "TEAM (Decaf)" (I have no idea what that is, some sort of coffee I guess), the dudes hump is never explained and barely even mentioned, no cursing, disappointing ending, a cop car arriving twice. Another thing that bothered me about this film was how boring the college setting was. Usually when a movie is filmed on a college campus you get to see some interesting fashions and people (or maybe even a dude with a clapperboard!), but in BIG MAN ON CAMPUS it was really bland. Even the mall scene was weak.

I’m sure there are tens of billions of thousands of people out there who love this movie, I just found the entire thing to be lifeless and dull. Also, Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga's voice was really annoying. Watch it if you want.

[This has nothing to do with the review, but this story was told again in the blu-ray extras. Like, the whole story is confusing because how much did this movie cost? And did it even make money? Why would somebody turn down a million dollars (in 1980's money) to not do something?]

SUSPIRIA (1977)

Twenty-eight-year-old American ballet student Jessica Harper arrives at a ballet school in Germany just in time to see another student frantically sprinting out the front door and then run off into the woods screaming. The next morning, Jessica learns that that girl was brutally murdered by not only being stabbed multiple times, but also having a cord tied around her neck and then being tossed through the skylight of a tall building. A normal human being would probably start to have second thoughts about this creepy school staffed by creepy people, but not ol’ Jessica. She loves that goddamn ballet! Not that we ever actually get to see her do any of it because the very first time she even tries to do anything physical she falls the fuck out and start bleeding from her nose and mouth. Now too sick to take part in any classes, she sits around her room and counts the footsteps of people in the hallway. It’s all very exciting.

SUSPIRIA has always been praised as being a great horror movie (it’s currently at 7.3/10 on IMDB with 96k votes), but, outside of the soundtrack, I’ve never cared for it. I first saw it back in the 1990’s on VHS and figured that I was missing something because it was probably edited (and it might have been), but I’ve revisited it multiple times over the decades and while it is visually appealing, especially the colours, it’s a fucking slog to get through. The best thing about SUSPIRIA is that awesome soundtrack by Goblin.

Slow pace, kill scenes that are nowhere near as violent as they are hyped up to be, beautiful colours, interesting set designs, the worst case of box stacking in movie history, average acting that leans towards being campy, the origin of the "Stop it!" sample from Ministry's "Psalm 69", Udo Kier in one scene with his voice dubbed over, zero nudity, disappointing ending, thick blood, characters too stupid to live, crazy ass wallpaper, maggots, influential soundtrack that makes up for the disappointing film.

SUSPIRIA isn’t my cup of tea, but still worth watching by horror fans for its historical importance.

Remake - Suspiria (2018)