 Hello and welcome to another edition of Freightfully Forgotten Horror Movies, but before we get started, what are we drinking today? We're drinking London After Midnight Porter. Mmm, luckily this beer isn't lost. Nope, but it'll be lost in your stomach. Today we're going to be talking about 1978's The Redeemer, aka The Redeemer, The Son of Satan, aka Class Reunion Massacre. The movie was directed by Constantine S. Gooches. Ooh, Gooches! I'm sure he didn't get made fun of, even though I don't know if Gooch was a term, like, back in the 70s. Janetta Arnett is in this, and she did mostly TV. Most of the stars in this movie, too, didn't really go on to do anything else. So The Redeemer, The Son of Satan, aka Class Reunion Massacre, starts off with this kid coming out of this river. So he comes out, like the lady of the lake? Kinda, yeah, yeah. And then he just gets on this bus? Like, he's all dry and everything? It's just perfect that the bus is stopping right by the lake? Yeah, there's a quarry and everything? Like, what the fuck, like, what kind of bus stop is that? Yeah. So the kid gets off the bus, goes into church, getting changed with these other kids, they're putting on their choir robes or whatnot, and this other asshole kid starts bullying this lake kid. He pulls a fucking switchblade on him. This is all intercut with the preacher, who's really passionate, he's really getting into this sermon. He's preaching about redemption and sins and people paying for their sins. We're then taken to this old closed-down school. Guy shows up, he can't really see his face, he's all in shadow, and it's a far shot. The stranger says that he's there to inspect the property. Janitor lets him in. Enough bars in this place is kind of like a jail. Bit of foreshadowing there. So the janitor shows him around and they kind of reach the pool area. Inspector takes out this gun and guns down the janitor and he falls into the pool. He then like takes him into the art room, starts putting all this plaster on his face, making a mold for a mask is what we kind of suspect. He then takes out this class of 67 yearbook and starts cutting out these pictures. And as he's cutting out the pictures, it takes us to that person. All these people are kind of successful, but they're all assholes. Super egotistical, lawyer, refuses to take certain cases. He refuses to take the will case because it doesn't pay enough. There's a football player who's as glutton. Yeah, he's organizing football player. He's all eating that hamburger and talking to at the same time. There's a stuck up pre-Madonna actor. All these people get invitations to their big 10 year class reunion. None of their spouses are able to join them. They all show up to the school at the same time in the parking lot. They're with their fancy cars bragging about themselves. And I look how well I've done. They get to the doors and the janitor lets them in. Well, we know the janitor's dead. What's this class reunion you're talking about? Well, it was a class reunion. It's supposed to be held here at the school. Okay, it lets him in. And there's all this food and everything laid out on this great big banquet table. So right away that football player guy starts all the eating. Look at all this food. All those muscles and boisters and all trying to get the girl to eat it. She's like, ugh. Yeah, yeah. They notice that there's bars on the windows of the school and they find somebody that's dead. And he's been there for a while. There's all these maggots coming out of his back and shit. If this was the janitor, who let us in? They start trying to find a way out of the school and there's this grim reaper guy. This guy dressed in like this whole outfit with one of those sides and he's like chopping at the door on the outside. He's laughing at them as they're stuck on the inside. They start hearing music over the PA system. Where's all this stuff coming from? They're like, well, there must be an audio visual room around here somewhere. They find that room and they go in and there's some guy sitting in a chair. They get closer to him and turns around with a blow torch and just blows this guy away. He starts right in the nuts too. And flames go right into the guy's nuts. Just roast the guy alive. He's all walking around all on fire. So from here, they really start freaking out. Start trying to find a way out. One of the girls ends up finding a door that's unlocked and she gets outside into the school grounds and she runs into like this weird hunter type guy and he's got a double barrel shotgun. He's like, well, hold on a second here. I'll help you. I'll help you. Ends up shooting the girl. The rest of the people in the school, they end up finding Jane dead. So while trying to find a way out happened upon this stage. I bet you're wondering who asked you here. This puppet type thing attached to strings is kind of moving around too. He goes on to explain why he's there and why he's brought everybody there into the school. And that's where we're going to end the movie. If you want to see what's going to happen with the rest of the players in the game here and that killer guy in that puppet clown thing, keep watching the Redeemer. The big thing for me is it's a different type of slasher. It's obviously a little budget. But it does well with the budget that it has, I find. That's the first thing that you notice in this movie is the production value is quite shitty. Which right away it kind of starts to put you off. You're like, oh man, well, if it looks this shitty, it's probably a bad movie. That's totally not the case. Even though the movie kind of looks shitty, the effects aren't bad. So it's not like they didn't have any money to pull off some of this stuff. It's hard to describe that 70s low budget gray looking. Yeah, like the light kind of washes things out. It's got that low budge charm that works for it. If it looked really crisp and clear, maybe it wouldn't be as charming, you know? Yeah, exactly. Another great thing about this movie is the setting. It's actually a really cool setting, this old abandoned school with bars on all the windows. Yeah, which is like a jail. Yeah, you can't get out, but there's a lot of room to play with. There's lots of room for a killer to be hiding. He can be anywhere. You can search the whole school and not find him because it's just so big. Exactly. And it's cool that the killer kind of knows his way around. Yeah. But the rest of the people don't. They have no idea. The killer took his time to like set up this banquet table, all his food and everything and decorated the gym to make it look like a real class reunion, but it was all fake. Yeah. I kind of like that where he took his time. You thought this out. Yeah, exactly. And the fact that he's even making that mask and everything. Like, that takes a lot of time and effort. Yeah. And those guys probably don't even know what the janitor really looks like in the first place. It was all a waste time. He wasted all his time making this mask. The pacing is great too for this movie. Again, seeing the production value, you'd think it maybe be a slow fucking movie. It's like, oh man, this movie is going to be the shit. Not at all. Even though it's slow. Yeah, even though it's on a slower side. And the slower parts of it are parts that you get to learn more about the characters, right? You get to learn a little bit more about this preacher. You also get to learn a little bit more through the dialogue about each character in the movie. You also have the opportunity to decide whether you like them or hate them too at the same time. It gives you time to start to dislike these people. Yeah. Which is what you're supposed to do. Puts you on the redeemer's side of things, which is a little different than a lot of slashers. Especially 70s slashers where you're not quite rooting for the slasher yet. That became more of an 80s thing, rooting for Jason D'Vorri. He's go get him, Jason, ahead of its time in that way where he's like, okay, I want to see these kids bite the dust. Yeah, because you fucking ate them because they're a bunch of assholes. The characters are great too. They're all different. And they all bring something different to the table that the redeemer hates about them. Yeah, they each have a different sin that he's redeeming. Look completely different. They have a different background. They all have different jobs. I hate movies where like, they all look the same and you can't tell who's who sometimes. Yeah, and a lot of times when that's the case you don't give a shit about them either. Especially if I'm to like blonde women in horror movies like to cast like three blonde women who all look the same. It's like, I can't even tell who's who. Yeah. In this movie, you don't get that. The killer in this movie is really unique. He's kind of the star. He changes his costume. He's like a master of disguise. When you first are introduced to him you don't actually don't see him. He's all in shadows. But then later on where he changes to the hunter outfit. You get a bit more of an idea what he looks like. He's got all that face part on. So again, you kind of see what he looks like but not quite enough. And he's got that fake mustache too. That super push broom thick mustache. Yeah. Yeah. So it's neat that he's this master of disguise and he talks. He's not like this silent killer. He'll, he's telling you why he's killing you. He's almost an anti hero. You don't really know his whole backstory. The people getting killed off or like is he somebody that we bullied back in high school? And that's kind of what you maybe suspect but you never really find out for sure which is interesting. You kind of have to put that together yourself. Come up with your own reason as to why he's killing them. The kills are fucking good in this movie too. The blowtorch kill is awesome. Yeah. I was expecting just a stabbing. That would be the easiest. Yeah. You're not expecting his blowtorch. Not fucking blowtorch. Scorched the guy's nuts. The dagger at the top of the head is fucking awesome too. Took his time to set everything up properly. And it looks good too. It's a good effect. That dagger just comes right down straight through the top of his head. There's a killer in the bathroom which is a great word. The killer is wearing this weird clown mask. It's super creepy. It's kind of an uncomfortable kill. Yeah. It's not one of those like yeah go get him kills. You're kind of like tear clothes and everything. It's like is this going to become a like a rape scene or something? It's like in there was like in the shower. They're getting all wet. He's drowning or it's pretty crazy. It's probably one of the best kills not really effects wise but more like just being effective. The music in this movie is really good too. It's that classic 70s synth. But there's also some good classical score in there too with like you know piano and so it's a good mix of the two. Put on edge because of it. Even that shitty 70s. That actually works with this. The humor works well in this movie too and it's very like it's not subtle because it's I think it's put out there quite clearly for you to see just done in quick pieces, quick segments and it doesn't take away from the rest of what's going on. It's not super shoved in your face. The guy handing that kid that money through the door of the car slams the door. Did you see him later? His hands all bandaged up. Yeah. Yeah. And they're talking and like the kid hasn't been found yet. They ran away or something. That guy going and stuffing his face. You know, that's pretty intentional humor but it works because it's also character building too. At the same time. There's actually two stories happening at once and you're not sure if you're happening at the same time or if one happened before the other but it's the story with the kid being bullied with the switchblade and the preacher preaching and then there's a story of the kids being killed off in the school. You're not really sure how they connect until the end where it all kind of meets and like, okay, that's the connection between those two stories. The only negative thing about this movie really is that they probably could have done a better job explaining all that, put it together yourself almost too much where you're guessing. Yeah, where things are a lot more up in the air than they should be. Kid coming out of the lake. Yeah. Like, okay, like you're wondering what the fuck is this kid coming out of the lake for? What does that have to do with this preacher who's preaching this sermon about redemption and sin but it does all come together? I think I know what it all supposed to mean. I'm not gonna wreck it by saying it but you do have to think about it. It's kind of a thinking man slasher in a way. If you look at the timeline of when movies were released, right, like Halloween was a big movie, yeah, in 78 and a lot of people hopped on that bandwagon and tried to do their best Halloween ripoff. Started everything, right? This movie came out around the same time as Halloween. It was shot before Halloween was released so it's not jumping on a bandwagon. It's actually doing something original. It's not one of those ripoffs and you can see that because the killer is different. He's talking to people. I like these movies that came out before Halloween because everything after Halloween became cookie cutter. Exactly, yeah. So you can see where people's minds were originally. So yeah, if you want kind of like an original slasher that's got more going on than just a guy stalking people and killing them, definitely check this movie out. I think it's really good. You just have to see past that shitty film quality. Exactly. And until next time, keep drinking.