Synopsis
A rock band, on the brink of success, arrives at a movie studio to produce their first music video. Somebody doesn't have much respect for their talent, and starts bumping off members of the band, their groupie girlfriends, and the crew.
The Backlot Murders
2002 Directed by David DeFalco
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A trench coat wearing killer rocking an Elvis mask with red eyes(looks like a vampire elvis) stalks and murders a douchebag rock band shooting their debut video on the actual universal studios backlot.
Genre vets Priscilla Barnes, Ken Sagoes, Corey Haim, and Charles Fleischer ham it up with Barnes and Fleischer being the standouts. This hits all the standard slasher tropes with boobs, blood, cheese, sleaze, and a cool looking psycho killer. The snarky humor is also a plus. The foggy, almost deserted universal studios backlot made for a great setting. It's not an overlooked slasher classic but it's a fun one that I'd recommend to fans of slashers.
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Trashy stupid early 2000’s slasher (that’s about 5 years too late) with added novelty of being shot on the universal backlot—with actual sets from The Lost World, Psycho, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and ER utilized. Corey Haim plays the guitar player of a band full of assholes and looks like he could be in limp bizkit (or hanging outside of any mall circa 2000), plus there’s an ongoing joke about everyone smoking cloves... even the killer (who wears a black trench coat and elvis mask) takes a puff of one.
Not good but the cast (at least the genre veterans) is mostly solid, the kills are ok, it’s doofy, and despite being dtv (and being made by the jerkoff who…
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Terrible really, but you can’t hate a movie where Corey Haim is dressed like a member of Coal Chamber. 2002 was a brutal time. Ends with a “blooper reel” where nobody laughs and everyone gets really angry when something goes wrong, probably because they were miserable at all times. Why would you put that in your movie??
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Mucky slasher, a little late to the party. I'm not sure if a protagonist is ever assigned but the band who are at the epicenter of the film are all deliberately unlikable buttholes who break beer bottles over old lady's heads. The movie is kind of saved by Charles Fleischer looking Elliot Gouldy improvising most of his lines as the arrogant gay director, and like the bar is set pretty low but he's stealing the scene. Priscilla Barnes also takes it to another level, this might be my favorite performance of hers ever. And then there's Corey Haim, he looks like he's going to a rave but his character is so minor it's basically BG. He's in the movie a…
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A goofy and stupid early 2000s DTV slasher movie that was actually more enjoyable than I expected.
A rock band gets a chance to shoot a music video on the Universal studios backlot (and the movie is shot on the actual backlot and they mention it ALOT) and a masked killer (in an
ill-fitting Elvis mask?) shows up and starts picking people off.This one started off with the promise of being a lot of fun but it started to drag a lot, and it probably could have cut about 15-20 minutes. Oh and Corey Haim is sort of in this as one of the band members, but mostly just seems like he wanders in and out of the movie at random.
Still, this all made me weirdly nostalgic for the early 2000s.
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Actually a damn charming and quite gory slasher with a sense of humor. And Charles Fleischer FTW!
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Entertaining post 90’s Slasher. It’s shot entirely on the Universal Studios Backlot and the killer has a weird 50’s greaser mask. I’m down such a Slasher rabbit hole that I’ll enjoy anything that’s just competently made.
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Even worse the second time around. Why do I do theeeees to myselllllllf?!
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I return to this really bad movie every few years. Some people die at The Psycho House, Jaws lake, Spielberg's Jurassic sets, Denver St, Six Points and the Court of Miracles on the Universal Lot- hardly any of those locations are used well.
It's fascinating because the writer-director's interview on my DVD makes me think his Vision had great potential, but the early 2000's "edginess" via nudity, sexism and bad acting hasn't age well, the meta commentary on horror movie locations is hollow, and the mini-DV movie is ultimately mostly boring in its execution.
Half an extra star for a joke about a tour guide going crazy.
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A kinda bad but kinda fun horror comedy. I love the fact it takes place on the backlot but they don't use it as much as you would probably think. This as trashy as they come and par for the course for cheap low rent slashers. But honestly? I enjoyed it pretty well decent stuff.
Also rip Ray Liotta man, that bums me out a ton. Legendary actor
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Was that a Michael Myers styled mask but based on Elvis rather than Shatner? Haha, brilliant trash.
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Reading Corey Haim’s Wikipedia page while half watching The Backlot Murders is nothing short of depressing. He really had a difficult life, and around the time this movie was made he was having serious problems. Oh yeah, and he looks like this in this movie.