DEATH VALLEY (1982)

DEATH VALLEY (1982)

Tagline: Not even a scream escapes...

(Horror, Crime, Don’t Go To California) [R]

In this one, a slasher is stalking Death Valley when Billy, his mom, and his mom’s new boyfriend Matt decided to stop along the road to sightsee. Billy ends up in a trailer where one of the slasher's murders took place and the cops unwittingly ask the slasher (not knowing it was him) to help them find the slasher after pointing out that a young boy had found an amulet the killer left behind. 

First off, it is hard to take this seriously as a horror flick when you look back at it now,  just because it’s got Peter Billingsley from A CHRISTMAS STORY in it and he’s even referencing “Black Bart” and using a toy gun in this, as he does in A CHRISTMAS STORY. Secondly, it’s got the oatmeal commercial guy, Wilford Brimley in it and all I can do is think of that commercial whenever he shows up on the screen. 

What we get here is a fast burn, then slow-burn horror flick with a really low kill count, but a decent amount of suspense. Apparently, the script is a more horrifying version of something that happened to writer Richard Rothstein while on vacation in Death Valley, which does add to the chills, but overall this effort ends up being pretty lackluster in spite of the star power. Looking at her body of work, I would not have expected “7th Heaven’s” Catherine Hicks to have been in any horror movies, but counting this one she was actually the main star, or one of the main stars in 2 of them, this thing and CHILD’S PLAY. I should also mention that we get a short scene to open the movie that Edward Herrmann shows up in as Paul, recently divorced from Billy’s mom Sally. If you don’t recognize the name, Herrmann is probably most famous for playing “Max” in THE LOST BOYS. I also thought I recognized Paul Le Mat who plays Mike. As it turns out he is one of the main characters in the original PUPPET MASTER. 

I typically try to save my horror movie reviews for October and this is no exception, but DEATH VALLEY is one of those movies you only really want to watch if you are trying to cover all the 1982 slasher/horror flick bases. Outside of that, it is not a “run to film” by any means. Even though it was put out by UNIVERSAL PICTURES, it comes across as more of a made-for-TV movie than anything else. It’s also a bit overkill on the “Western’s Love” vibe. I have been to both Tombstone and Old Tucson and neither felt as brazenly “it’s a western” as this movie did.  I like westerns; I just felt they might go more for the “we are in the middle of the freakin desert” vibe here. 

The lighting feels very mailed in as does the score and overall cinematography. Director Dick Richards only directed 7 movies and this was his only attempt at horror and it shows. It was fortunate that he had the cast he did because that is probably the only reason this movie gets any love at all.

Overall there just isn’t much to write home about here. This movie is very much in the middle of the old-school horror flick pack even with its thinly sliced layers of Havarti cheese. 

I have to give this one a 2 out of 7. It’s a solid idea carried out with far too many lulls and iffy script work. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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