News

An X-Men: The Animated Series fan-favorite's underrated horror experience is headed to a new streaming home.

Per Tubi, 1981's Happy Birthday to Me is set to hack its way onto the streaming platform's catalog of free movies and TV shows on January 1. The classic slasher may not be as well known as the likes of Friday the 13th or Halloween, although several of its leading actors, such as Lenore Zann, are sure to be instantly recognizable to audiences.

Related Brendan Fraser's 21-Year-Old Looney Tunes Movie Gets Free Streaming Home

The Looney Tunes are getting "Back in Action" with a new streaming home for one of their most underrated feature film experiences.

Directed by J. Lee Thompson from a script written by Timothy Bond, Peter Jobin, John Saxton, and an uncredited John Beaird, 1981's Happy Birthday to Me starred Melissa Sue Anderson as Virginia Wainwright, a high school senior...

The slasher first established itself as the dominant art form of 1980s horror by capitalizing on the calendar. Arguably beginning with Black Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978), the formula began to solidify by setting brutal killing sprees on the dates of beloved holidays. With the subsequent success of Friday the 13th (1980), directors clamored to claim their own occasion and create a defining slasher film with a series of themed kills highlighting seasonal iconography. It was a win-win for both filmmakers and audiences–an annually rewatchable horror film allowing genre fans to eschew saccharine traditions and celebrate in style.

Lee Thompson’s Happy Birthday to Me (1981) features a slightly more nebulous occasion–after all, every day of the year is someone’s birthday. Rejecting the concept’s seasonality, Thompson and screenwriters John C.W. Saxton, Peter Jobin, and Timothy Bond patterned the mysterious killer’s actions around the idea of a grisly birthday party.

It’s time for a new episode of the Real Slashers video series, and with this one we’re heading back into the glorious ’80s to look at a film that was released during the slasher boom of 1981: Happy Birthday to Me (watch it Here)! This movie was directed by J. Lee Thompson, whose previous credits included the classics The Guns of Navarone and Cape Fear (not to mention Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes). To hear all about his contribution to the ’80s slasher era, check out the video embedded above.

From here, Thompson would go on to make several films with Charles Bronson, including 10 to Midnight and Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, as well as King Solomon’s Mines and the Chuck Norris adventure Firewalker.

Scripted by Timothy Bond, Peter Jobin, and John Saxton, Happy Birthday to Me...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products released each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Stranger Things: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book from Insight Editions

Insight Editions has released Stranger Things: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book, which will cost you 67.50. It’s illustrated by Stranger Things artist Kyle Lambert, while The Babadook book designer Simon Arizpe handled the paper engineering and Matthew Reinhart (Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy) served as creative director.

Happy Birthday to Me Blu-ray from Kino Lorber

Happy Birthday to Me will slash onto Blu-ray on October 18 via Kino Lorber. The 1981 film is presented in high definition with 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Lossless audio.

J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear) directs from as script by John C.W. Saxton (Class of 1984), Peter Jobin, and Timothy Bond (Friday the 13th: The Series). Melissa Sue Anderson,...

Aging much better than a freezer burnt, half eaten cake, Happy Birthday to Me (1981) stands out as one of the better ones from the golden era of slashers, when the major studios weren’t afraid to throw some blood soaked (Canadian) coin at a B level concept, and in the process giving it some A list icing.

The Canadian ties? Filmed in Montreal when tax credits were still flying fast and furious, Happy was one of Columbia Pictures early ‘80s ventures into the horror world. (Graduation Day, released the same year, was the breadwinner of the two.) Recruiting the Canadian producing juggernaut of Andre Link and John Dunning (David Cronenberg’s cohorts on his mid ‘70s output, Shivers and Rabid), Columbia was guaranteed a good return on their investment. Of course, the Canuck connection doesn’t stop there – the cast includes such faces of Canadiana as Lawrence Dane (Scanners), Jack Blum...