Written by
Terry Lens
Michael Vines
Burt Wetanson
Directed by
John Hough
Starring
Sarah Torgov
Rod Steiger
Yvonne De Carlo
Janet Wright
Mark Ericson
Fiona Hutchinson
American Gothic (1988)
Plot
A group of generic young people are stranded on a small island off the northwestern American coast. Among them is a young woman named Cynthia, who had been recently hospitalized for trauma caused by the accidental drowning of her baby in a bathtub, and the stress of the stranding starts to disturb her immediately. But things get quite a lot more stressful when the gang stumbles upon the island's inhabitants, a warped, homicidal, Bible-thumping family...
Comments
"Well, it looks like the whole slasher craze is starting to fade."
"Already? That can't be..."
"It is, it is...we've sucked it dry, I'm afraid. We'll just have to find...
"Wait a minute! Are you sure? Maybe if we just tweaked it a little bit..."
"I'm listening."
"Well, for starters, instead of having another Jamie Lee Curtis type heroine, we could have a protagonist that's already a little messed up in the head. Maybe in the past she accidently killed her husband or kid or dog or something."
"Didn't we do that already?"
"I don't think so..."
"I think we did. Besides, we might need a little something more..."
"Like what?"
"No, no, no...there's...um....how about, on the island, there's a bunch of killer Amish people!"
"You know, I think we've got something..."
And thus we have American Gothic, which fortunately offers no pretensions about what it is. The scriptwriters don't even bother setting up archetypes for most of our unlucky protagonists, much less personalities (two-dimensional or otherwise), outside of Cynthia, who's mostly defined by her trauma and the fact she's obviously GOING TO SNAP SOONER OR LATER (sorry I'm being so upfront about the film's plot, but honestly since the description on the back of the tape box gives away pretty much everything, I think I can get away with doing the same), and Lynn, who is your slasher film "rich bitch" archetype (she even smokes! Horrors!).
The main focus on the film is really on the killers, the Amish family (well, they're never identified as such, but it's pretty obvious who the screenwriters were thinking of), which consists of Pa, the family's stern, ultra-religious patriarch; Ma, who cheerfully promotes the "Clean Plate Club" at dinner and is mean with those sewing needles; and the kids, Fanny, Teddy, and Woody, who are all in their 40s and 50s but act and dress like they're around ten. So, of course, we see the fodder for what they are as they're killed off in creative ways and start to actually feel some pathos for the Pa and his kin. In other words, this is more or less a slasher movie dominated by the killers' perspective, so much so that
While this is all fairly refreshing in a sub-genre infamous for its strict conventions, the problems are fairly clear. Cynthia's insanity is played up too much (from the very first scene, in fact), so much so that one doesn't have to read the back of the box or this review to see what's going to happen. Also, while you can pity them, it's really hard to relate to a clan of isolated, fanatical sociopaths (well, maybe not that hard for some of you out there). Everyone knows the Nerd, the Jock, the Bitch, and so on in slasher flicks, but not necessarily the 50-year old woman who keeps a mummified baby she regularly dresses in her room.
Still, though, this has enough interesting moments with a small dose of originality that it should serve as at least good brain candy for horror fans. It's also probably your only chance to see just how disturbing the Amish can be at their worst.
Cast Connections
-Rod Steiger (Pa) has had a long, pretty respectable career, but visitors to this site will probably know him best as General Decker in Mars Attacks. He's also played a wide variety of interesting roles from Napoleon to Al Capone to Mussolini.
-Yvonne De Carlo (Ma) is the original Lily Munster from "The Munsters."
-Sarah Torgov (Cynthia) was also Candace in Meatballs.
-Mark Lindsay Chapman (Rob) played Dr. Arcane in USA's old "Swamp Thing" series. Anybody but me remember that?
-William Hootkins (Teddy) was one of the Y-Wing pilots in Star Wars, Lt. Eckhardt in Batman, and Harry Howler in Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
-Michael Polland (Woody) was Herman Miranda in Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland and had a role in Tango and Cash *shudder*.