By Geno McGahee
The 1980s was a fantastic time for horror film and the trending slasher sub-genre was something magical. The late 80s saw a lot of slashing hits including CHILD’S PLAY (1988), A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS (1987), THE STEPFATHER (1987), HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988), FRIDAY THE 13TH VII: THE NEW BLOOD (1988). Capitalizing on the trend was the 1988 low budget slasher “HIDE AND GO SHRIEK,” which has a familiar story with a unique twist. The film wasn’t nearly as popular as the others of the time but it probably just got lost in the mix. It’s rather good.
HIDE AND GO SHRIEK was written by Michael Kelly and directed by Skip Schoolnik. Schoolnik has worked on HALLOWEEN II and did a fantastic job directing this film. He brought out the best in the actors, removing all subtlety and going straight for over the top fun. That is my type of director and my type of horror movie.
John (Sean Kanan) wants to get his high school chums together for a part. They have just graduated and they want to celebrate. John gets the group to sneak into his dad’s furniture store for a night of partying. Judy (Donna Baltron), David (George Thomas), Bonnie (Bunky Jones), Randy (Brittain Frye), Kim (Annette Sinclair), Shawn (Scott Fults), and Melissa (Ria Pavia) all enter and begin to have a good time, but there is a killer inside as well. It could be Fred (Jeff Levine), an ex-convict that lives in the basement of the store and works for John’s father, Phil (Ron Colby).
Kim suggests that the group plays hide and seek, but most use the opportunity to have sex. Even the geeky Shawn gets some…well, almost. He preps himself as Melissa goes into the bathroom to change into a negligee. When she doesn’t come out of the bathroom, Shawn (thankfully) puts his pants back on and gets up, meeting up with a man wearing the negligee. It doesn’t end well for Shawn and there is nothing worse than meeting up with Victoria’s biggest secret.
The killer begins assuming the identity of those that he murdered. After killing Shawn, he shows up dressed as him and moons John and Bonnie. When John gets upset and chases him down, he realizes that he is facing somebody else and gets impaled by a mannequin arm. The dreaded mannequin arm is used a lot in this film. When the remaining characters get prepped to battle the killer, they use mannequin arms. I would think a fire extinguisher would be better, but they were panicking and weren’t thinking straight.
Judy, David, Randy and Bonnie stumble upon Fred and take him down. They beat him and tie him up. Problem solved, or so they thought. (SPOILERS) As they get ready to leave, Zack (Scott Kubay) appears, and attacks the group. He sticks out his tongue and seems to be getting some sexual satisfaction from the attacks. It’s quite amusing. Fred returns and tackles the killer, only realizing that it’s a familiar face. He and Zack were lovers in prison and when they got out, Fred ended it. Zack wasn’t cool with that.
Zack notes that the kids have come between their relationship and that is why he was killing them. I don’t know why he felt that way. None of the girls or guys was making it with Fred. They didn’t even know he existed. The two lovebirds continue to fight and Fred gets terribly injured. Zack falls down an elevator shaft, and we have a happy ending…but this is a horror film. So a happy ending is not an option.
Fred lies on the floor bleeding as the EMTs attend to him. Phil shows up and Fred lets him know that he was “trying to go straight” before Zack came into his life again. He then dies. The EMT was far too interested in what he was saying and forgot to put him into the ambulance. I am sure the EMT wanted to say “tell me more about Zack. This is juicy stuff.”
The kids, all beaten up, get loaded into an ambulance and they are in for a shocker. Driving the ambulance is none other than Zack. He smiles at the camera and takes off. Why does he still hold these teens responsible for his failed relationship with Fred? Why? They did nothing to him and just wanted to play hide and seek like all other 20 year olds do. OK, maybe they don’t, but they have every right to do so.
HIDE AND GO SHRIEK starts slow, but picks up the pace and becomes incredibly fun. The overacting is so amusing. You have one actor that talks with his teeth clinched at all times. There’s one actor that keeps quivering his lower lip every time that he sees a dead body. You have an actress that screams every word. It gets more amusing by the minute and the ending is priceless. Credit to Scott Kubay for his great performance in this. It’s hilarious.
I highly recommend this obscure slasher. It’s so crazy it’s fun.
Rating: 7.5/10