RSS
Horror movies that use gory make-up to create their frights don’t seem to be very popular any more, with film companies preferring to go down the more psychological route to scare people. Back in the eighties though, such make-up techniques had just reached a point where it was possible to create very realistic looking results, so there were many films released during this period that used them extensively.
One of the best examples of this was 1986 film The Fly starring Jeff Goldblum as scientist Seth Brundle, and Geena Davis as journalist Veronica Quaife. The Fly was a remake of a 1958 film of the same name, and the two films share very similar storylines.
In the 1986 version, Seth Brundle has just invented a matter transporter device (very Star Trek!) consisting of two chambers call Telepods. Pop an inanimate object in one pod, and a flick of a switch disintegrates it in the first pod, and reassembles it in the second. Pop in a living thing though, and things go a bit awry, as a poor baboon finds out when it reappears inside out in the second pod during a test.
At a press party held by Bartok Science Industries, who fund the teleporter research, Seth meets Veronica. He convinces her to come and visit his lab for a demonstration, which is when we see the poor reversa-baboon event occur, but Seth convinces Veronica to help him out by documenting his work. This leads to the pair getting romantically involved.
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Reddit]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.childofthe1980s.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
With special effect technology beginning to come of age in the eighties (and with realistic computer generated images still some way off) a lot of films started to be made which used special effects to enable some more outlandish films to be made. A good example of this is Splash.
In the first half of the eighties it seemed George Lucas could do no wrong. With the original Star Wars trilogy completed he was on top of the world. In 1984 he brought us Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and his crown started to perhaps look a little tarnished, but we forgave him because we all loved Indy.
What more fitting a way of starting off my posts for 2010 than with a bit on the film and book 2010! Both book and film arrived in 1984, when the year 2010 seemed like ages away. However, unlike some of the wilder predictions of other pieces of science fiction, 2010 probably isn’t that far off the mark. Sure, we don’t have sentient computers or manned space ships orbiting Jupiter, but I don’t think we’re actually that far off from these achievements.
Whilst channel hopping the other night I came across Beverly Hills Cop being shown for the umpteenth time, but I was soon hooked and wondering why I had not covered this major film of the eighties before now.
It may not have been his first movie, but if it wasn’t for Top Gun then I don’t think Tom Cruise would be as big a star as he is today. This film made Cruise a household name in 1986 and for the rest of the Eighties he was one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors.
With writer and director 
One of the rites of passage when you’re a teenager is to try and sneak into the cinema to see a film that has a rating older than your actual age. Once you can legally see a 15 certificate film you set your sights on getting into an 18 certificate, which generally means going to see a horror film. In the eighties, chances are said horror film would have been one from the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
