Bill and Ted…'nuff said.
My nominee is ET. Spielberg at his sappiest. Overblown music to cue the moods, sobbing kids, usless parents, and those Gosh Darn Adults In Power who just DON’T UNDERSTAND!
The trend it started? Marketing. Product placement. Dolls. Mugs. Shower curtains, pillow slips, novelty phones, food-chain tie-ins, toilet seat covers etc etc… That alone earns it a special place in Hell.
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That’s a movie that everyone loved when they saw it. But boy did it sure age badly. I saw it when it first came out in the theatever at least 2-3 times and I loved it. I was pretty young at the time though. I saw it again when it finally came out on video late in the 80’s and I thought the movie was completely boring. Uh, sorry for the hijack I just wanted to share my feelings. Is that so wrong?
Didn’t Star Wars have these things going for them before ET came out? I remember Star Wars sheets, Star Wars Burger King Glasses, Action Figures, Plush Toys, and all sorts of other Star Wars goodies.
Marc
Because “The Horror of Party Beach” predated it by 16 years – and I doubt that was the original of the genre.
American Pie started a trend of “which movie can have more gross jokes in it?”. It’s just getting stupid now.
Just stepping in to point out that there are teen slasher movies which pre-date The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974). The most notable example is La Residencia(1969) (also released as The House that Screamed). Teenagers in peril at a home for wayward girls!
I just saw The Horror of Party Beach again (well, the MST, anyway) and it’s nothing like that. All the victims are women. All the scientists are men. The polluters dump their stuff and disappear. The Party Beach itself is barely in the movie, so the monsters have to do their carousing in a flooded rock quarry.
But what carousing it is! Does anyone love pickles as much as I do?!?
Actually, I’ve generally seen There’s Something About Mary being credited with the origin of the “gross out” movie. And personally, I thought it really was a bad movie.
Though come to think of it, I’m tempted to say that anybody who thinks that either of these movies started the gross out film has obviously never seen a Troma film.
Then again, they really a genre of their own…
Godzilla, in Japanese. Actually, mostly for the kids. I mean, sure, give adorably high-pitched tykes instant access to all levels of government and military in times of national crisis, but fer cryin’ out loud do they always have to SURVIVE?
Jurassic Park is the latest example I can think of to carry on that hideous tradition.
True. Point well taken.