Horror Week: Happy Birthday to Me

This quintessential 1980s slasher is memorable for a number of reasons: the director is Oscar-nominated J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear, The Guns of Navarone), it's actress Melissa Sue Anderson's attempt to break away from her Little House on the Prairie fame; and it delivers on its tagline that viewers will witness "six of the most bizarre murders [they] will ever see," including the infamous shish kabob murder featured on the cover art.

The movie concerns the Top 10 -- a group of friends attending Crawford Academy (which seems to be remarkably international with its British professors and mixture of American and European students). The Top 10 are an elite group that everyone at the school wants to join. For their part, the Top 10 spend the majority of their time pulling pranks or hanging out at the local inn.

The action begins almost immediately when one of the Top 10 is murdered on her way to the inn. After starting a bar fight, the remaining members pull a dangerous stunt involving a raised bridge jump that sets Ginny (Anderson) into hysterics. It's here that the other storyline is introduced: Ginny suffered some kind of trauma related to her mother's death a few years back, the details of which she's repressed and working with a psychiatrist (Glenn Ford) to uncover. As the murders begin to add up - and Ginny's friends begin to act increasingly bizarre - it's clear the two storylines will culminate at Ginny's birthday.

It's here that the film may lose viewers as the ending attempts twist upon twist, although if viewers pay attention it's not actually that complicated. Instead, the joy of the film is to be found in the assured direction, which is a step above a majority of the other eighties films. The deaths themselves - the film's selling point - are outrageous enough to merit a viewing (flashbacks of Ginny's medical treatments are fairly graphic as well) with the "bench press" scene a personal stand-out.

The reason this newly re-released DVD (from genre fave Anchor Bay) is noteworthy, however, is the restored soundtrack. Originally released a few years ago, the score was substituted with a disco theme, a move that angered fans. Now with the proper classical score in place, fans can rest easy that the film has been restored to the prime condition it was meant to be seen in.

The bottom line: If you enjoy eighties slasher films like My Bloody Valentine, April Fool's Day and Friday the 13^th, then Happy Birthday to Me is one to pick-up.

Happy Birthday to Me was released on October 13 and is available on DVD in stores across Canada and the U.S.

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