User reviews

Odd thing about the post/cover art for this: you'd have no idea it was a horror movie at all, it just looks like a straight comedy. I knew it was a horror spoof, though, and watched it almost back to back with Student Bodies (1981), which I feel was slightly better than this one. This almost feels like it was made for TV.

It starts off with a shot of the moon, and we see the shadow of a wolf baying on the moon's surface, which is revealed to be cast by hands doing shadow puppets, which become hands grabbing a football pass. Four cheerleaders get skewered by a long javelin toss by a mystery killer, so long, the javelin is more like a heat-seeking missile. It makes a shish-ka-bob of them. This is in "It Had to Be, Indiana" at It Had to Be University (It Had to Be U - I like Bullwinkle's Whattsamotta U better).

Years later, a woman reopens the cheerleading school. Each of the new students is introduced by a caption "Victim #1," "#2," etc. Exposition is accompanied by an "Exposition" caption, then "Still More Exposition" etc. A bit weak. Student Bodies relied on captions for humor too.

Isabella Telezynska plays a character spoofing Maria Ouspenskaya's Maleva character from Universal's The Wolf Man, offering a warning in rhyme about pompoms. Carol Kane plays a Carrie-like psychic girl raised by an oppressive mother.

Meanwhile, a driller killer who turns his victims into wood furniture somehow has escaped from prison, and a madman wearing a mask has escaped from an asylum and they hit the road together. The madman's doctor is in pursuit.

Tommy Smothers is the local cop, a Royal Canadian Mountie, for some reason, who has a horse with a circle painted around one eye, and a deputy or servant played by Paul Reubens, doing his Pee Wee Herman voices and laughs, but behaving surly.

The deaths are not quite as odd as in Student Bodies, but there are a lot of them. There are a number of good actors in this movie (like Donald O'Connor and Phil Hartman) who are on screen for so short a time, and given so little to do, often stupid, that they are wasted.

There are some funny lines in the movie, and it is just funny enough not to be a total waste of time.

I am a big Judge Reinhold fan, didn't know about this until I did a lookup on his early career for something else.

A person named colleencouch10 had said she couldn't find this in 2013, if she has watches set for her reviews she will find out that this is now watchable as a rental on Amazon Prime and if one looks in Amazon they might be able to get a DVD of it.

Looks good enough as a premise to watch it, normally I'm not into slasher movies or takeoffs of such like Scream, but since I like his work ( see Stripes or Fast Times at Ridgemont High if you really want some great early work of his, Stripes has a recently new directors cut that adds 17 mins but it explains a hell of a lot.

This spoof of slasher films is hit-and-miss (sexy-eyed Carol Kane as a Carrie-like heroine is a hit; Paul Reubens as an idiotic assistant to the sheriff is a miss), but it's likable enough, and the characters are quirky and developed enough that - dare I say it? - you actually feel kinda sorry when they meet their (cartoonishly over-the-top) ends. The film often diverts from the horror genre and goes every which way and as a result it doesn't have much momentum, but it does make you laugh at several points. My favorite line: "Do you want me to come with you?" - "Sure, if we can time it". **1/2 out of 4.

A stellar cast of comedians from the past, but not a clever spook of Friday the 13th movies, just kind of dumb. I'm sure most of the cast would like to not remember this experience. As for the writer and director...well...proof that there are plenty of drugs in Hollywood

I've heard about this movie for many years, and finally got a chance to see it. A massive murdering of cheerleaders back in 1963 and 1969 eventually cause a cheerleading camp to close up. Fast forward to 1982, and Bambi, a former student, opens it back up with new recruits, among them Candy (Carol Kane), Glenn (Judge Reinhold), and Sandy (Debralee Scott). One by one, they are murdered by the killer, until only one remains. It is then when we find out who did it and why.

Also in the movie are Tom Smothers doing a terrible accent as a Canadian Mountie, and Paul Reubens doing his Pee-Wee Herman schtick. The plot overall isn't very well developed, and quite lame, but some funny scenes do occur, namely the House of Bad Pies and the strip poker scene. The ending seems like it's thrown together, which is a shame.

Overall, good for about ten or fifteen minutes total, the rest you can just fast forward through. Maybe catch it on TV, but it's not worth buying.

I was quite shocked at how unfunny this film was considering some of the talented actors involved (Tom Smothers, Carol Kane, Tammy Alverson, Phil Hartman, Eileen Brennan, Judge Reinhold, Marc McClure, Pat Ast, Paul Reubens, Eve Arden, Tab Hunter, Edie McClurg, Donald O'Connor, and many others you'd recognize but probably not know their name). Tommy Smothers, playing a mountie with his deputy, Reubens, are on the trial of a killer at a cheerleader camp. Smothers manages to overcome the awful material in a couple moments and Kane has a few moments as well, but most of the film is shockingly unfunny. Only worth watching for 80s nostalgia value, although the film is more of a 1980s version of the 1950s Riverdale/sock hop era.

In the wake of the monumentally successful "Airplane!" came dozens of parody/spoof films in the same vein (or attempting to be in the same vein.) This one has to count as an attempt, and a fairly poor one at that. Someone has been killing cheerleaders for decades near the town of It Had to Be, Indiana. (Thus giving the film makers the opportunity to have a university called It Had to Be U.....) It falls to Smothers, as a Canadian Mountie, to crack the case. Azzara has just begun a cheerleading camp (with participants Candy, Sandy, Mandy, Andy, Randy and Glenn) and, before too long, the killer starts to pick them all off. Also on the loose are a prison escapee and a mental asylum escapee. The plot is deliberately slim (and even then doesn't really make much sense) to make way for the various (mostly horrible) jokes and sight gags. Among the many stabs at humor, only a scant few things emerge as even remotely amusing. What makes the film palatable, if it is at all, is the cast of familiar faces (some quite surprising along the way) and the general amiability of the film. Meant as a spoof of "Friday the 13th" (it was even called "Thursday the 12th" in pre-production), it lacks the graphic violence and vulgarity of that film and its sequels and opts for a kinder, more coy approach. This disappoints fans of the actual slasher movies and is aimed more toward an audience who probably doesn't even really watch such films! Smothers (headlining a feature film in 1982?) doesn't really have a lot to do, but does fit his role well and utilizes his deadpan style admirably. (His horse tends to get more laughs than anybody!) Reubens, as his assistant, basically does an adult extension of his Pee Wee Herman character to middling effect. Most of the high school cheerleaders are (as an in joke to the genre) pushing 30 and they all try to bring a lot of energy and spark to the proceedings, but they have been left out to dry with substandard gags and even more substandard direction. The jokes and potentially humorous visuals are often filmed with minimal creativity and impact. A few amusing things slide through such as a trip to a (really!) greasy spoon diner and a planeload of Japanese (who employ an unexpected and ludicrously funny stewardess.) If one doesn't expect much and gets enjoyment out of intentionally stupid humor (and checking out some stars before and after they were stars), it isn't that hard to get through and is mercifully brief. It pales mightily next to anything Jim Abrahms and the Zucker Brothers did, though. Hunky Hunter, as a football star, shows more animation here than he did during his whole career as a contract actor! Arden looks terrific, but should have skipped this. "Grease" was one thing, but... Many other notable character actors turn up briefly with varied results.

"Pandemonium" had potential but fails. The production obviously involved effort and even care. Almost nothing seems to click in ways that are genuine parody. The silliness is simply silly.

The overall look of the film is ugly. That would not be bad were the ugliness not apparently accidental rather than by design.

I have rarely seen a film that wastes such a remarkable cast thrown away in an aimless script. Individual effects reveal a good eye for film design but the narrative never engages one. Surly, the people involved in making this film sensed that it lacked focus. I wonder when it got to editing what one had on film, that one just did what one could to splice the mess into something that vaguely resembled a movie—well, their effort failed. It never becomes even the semblance of a parody. There is no soul here, not even a ghost of one. How could so many talented people be wasted this way?

Save the microwave popcorn for something funny and fun. Skip this one.

Even though the overall quality level of "Pandemonium" is just average, I don't believe I ever laughed as hard in my life as I did with one of the dumb jokes here. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, there's a scene where an elderly Romanian and superstitious woman bumps into a couple of teenagers running around the house at night. She asks: "Are you frightened of the night?", to which the boy replies: "Baloney!" and then the old lady looks very confused and mumbles in herself: "You're frightened of baloney??". Okay, admittedly this is a really dumb gag, but it was actually so hilarious that I nearly choked in my drink and laughed for five minutes straight. There are a handful more of jokes like this, genuinely hilarious I mean, but also a whole lot of embarrassing moments. Still, in comparison with the other contemporary horror spoofs/parodies – like "Wacko" and "Saturday the 14th" – this one is fairly successful. The opening sequences are in good old-fashioned Hammer Studios style, with Gothic music and (completely irrelevant) images of a traditional castle. Back in the early 60's there was a serial killer targeting the young and obnoxious cheerleaders at a summer camp. He/she killed so many of them that they eventually had to shut down the camp, but now a former employee intends to reopen it. Naturally, the grand reopening coincides with the return of the killer. There are several inventive characters in "Pandemonium", including the Canadian Mountie and his inseparable horse (and I do mean inseparable) and a Carrie who fires off laser beams with her eyes. The film is well- directed, oddly enough by the same guy who made the hugely suspenseful "Alice, Sweet Alice".

I don't think I would find this even remotely funny even if I was 12yo. It is like bunch of skits(?) and most annoying stereotypical characters that would not make in even in the worst police academy sequel or worst SNL skit. Guess this tried to be horror comedy minus both things. Even part where takes a poo (hehe) and there is bomb in the toilet (hehe) flies up the air next to airplane full of asian tourists everyone carrying a camera (did I mention the stereotypes) Just laugh and take pictures. Sounds silly fun, mut they even managed to make that annoying. Don't get me wrong. I can enjoy even the dumbest comedies out there but this thing "missed the mark" on everything. Thought I watch this randomly at the evenening just to have some gigles, but I just ended up going to bed full of hate. Way worse than someone making silly faces to amuse infant.

During the height of the slasher era, various comedy filmmakers took a shot at spoofing their conventions. Other famous examples include Greydon Clarks' "Wacko" and Mickey Roses' "Student Bodies" (the latter being the best of the bunch, in this viewers' humble opinion). This one has some good ideas; one of the most obvious is making the hero (played by legendary funnyman Tom Smothers) a Royal Canadian Mountie, in reference to the Canadian origin of slashers such as "Prom Night" and "My Bloody Valentine".

The set-up is that a bunch of cheerleaders are massacred after a big football game at It Had to Be U (ha, ha) in the 1960s. After various attempts over the years to create a cheerleaders' school in the area, a character named Bambi (ever-perky Candice Azzara) is making a last ditch-effort to get one going, recruiting youngsters whose names mostly tend to rhyme: Mandy, Sandy, Andy, Candy, Randy.....and Glenn (Glenn Dandy). They're played by Teri Landrum, Debralee Scott, Miles Chapin, Carol Kane, Marc McClure, and Judge Reinhold. But wouldn't you know it: there is once again a psycho on the loose who likes to butcher cheerleaders.

"Pandemonium" was the last theatrical feature film (as a director) for Alfred Sole, who'd made a pretty interesting 70s shocker called "Alice, Sweet Alice", and thereafter functioned as a production designer. He doesn't seem to have a real flair for comedy, although the script (by Richard Whitley and Jaime Klein) predictably throws out all kinds of silly gags in the hopes that at least some of them will hit. But unfortunately, "Pandemonium" just doesn't have that many laughs to offer. Two cast members who do manage to be hilarious to watch are David L. "Squiggy" Lander as a guy named Pepe, and Paul Reubens, cast as Smothers' assistant who resents his boss giving his horse Bob preferential treatment. Reubens, giving a very Pee-wee Herman-esque performance, is a riot at times, especially in the memorable "going through the drawers" gag.

One impressive thing that "Pandemonium" can boast is an amazing roster of comedy talent in many of the roles, with lots of familiar faces turning up in either cameo roles or bits. I'll let the prospective viewers discover most of these for themselves. The main players keep things watchable through the sheer force of their comic energy; Kane is endearing as always, and Smothers is just a hoot. Overall, the ridiculousness of the material is just not as inspired as it is in "Student Bodies".

Perhaps the funniest thing about "Pandemonium" is that it was filmed under the title of "Thursday the 12th", and was changed in order to avoid confusion with another horror spoof called "Saturday the 14th".

Six out of 10.

"Pandemonium" is a horror movie spoof that comes off more stupid than funny. Believe me when I tell you, I love comedies. Especially comedy spoofs. "Airplane", "The Naked Gun" trilogy, "Blazing Saddles", "High Anxiety", and "Spaceballs" are some of my favorite comedies that spoof a particular genre. "Pandemonium" is not up there with those films. Most of the scenes in this movie had me sitting there in stunned silence because the movie wasn't all that funny. There are a few laughs in the film, but when you watch a comedy, you expect to laugh a lot more than a few times and that's all this film has going for it. Geez, "Scream" had more laughs than this film and that was more of a horror film. How bizarre is that?

*1/2 (out of four)

at first glance in the tele mag i thought that Pandemonium would be a disappointing film to watch, but i watched it anyway and to my delight it was a well spent hour and a half.

It's a comedy spoof of friday the 13th. there are many refrences to friday the 13th in the film like when they play strip poker and how there are 3 boys and 3 girls, and one teacher.

If you like comedy and you like spoof films this is definitely the film for you. All the characters have their own comedy side to them essential to the nature of the film.

Watch out for appearances by Judge Reinhold and Pee Wee Herman!!!

Like Student Bodies this one is a parody of slasher flicks. Unlike Student Bodies this one never has scenes that are too serious. Having said that it isn't the best movie ever, it is merely tolerable. Though I loved Paul Reubens (Pee Wee). His character made me laugh any time he was on screen.

In the Blu-ray extras, the director said Pandemonium wasn't supposed to be a spoof on slashers, so maybe I'm way off base by saying Student Bodies and the first Scary Movie did this thing better. Well, there IS a killer on the loose, offing cheerleaders, amongst a bazillion stars. Some really wild deaths in this, just don't expect anything graphic (PG movie). There are a handful of good laughs, and just the "wow" factor of what an oddball film this is makes it worth checking out. Light on extras for a Vinegar Syndrome release. About a 15-minute interview with director Alfred Sole (peppered with clips from the movie you just watched, always an annoyance), plus a still gallery that had, I don't know, FIVE stills in it?

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Pandemonium; before launching into my critique, here's a breakdown of my ratings:

Story - 0.75 Direction - 1.25 Pace - 1.25 Acting - 1.25 Enjoyment - 1.50

TOTAL - 6 out of 10

Pandemonium will not bust your gut, but it should put a smile on your face and a giggle in your mouth. Some of the gags are dated by today's standards, though unlike most of today's humour, these have some thought behind them. We also run the gamut of comedy with sight and verbal gags, word-play, and slapstick. Everybody's funny should be catered for here. Though not all the jokes work, I particularly loved the Cheerleader Shish-ka-bab and the Bad Pies Cafe, and the way Mandy brushes her teeth is something else.

Unfortunately, these skits take centre stage, and the narrative becomes secondary for the writers. Had they decided to make the sketches part of the story and not weave a story around the sketches, the movie may have been a more gripping tale of murder and mayhem. But what we have is a below-average slasher story.

The director does his best with the direction, and sometimes he hits the spot dead centre, as with the Bad Pie Cafe segment. Regrettably, this is not always the case, and his aim is slightly off. The trouble is, with comedy, slightly off is a chasm. A hit works, and a miss, however slight, doesn't - Which is the case with the Strip Poker segment. Nothing about it comes across as funny, though by the narrative and dialogue, it should be. Some of the misses could be down to his timing. The pacing of the whole film needed to be crisper and more precise. Several scenes come across as sloppy, especially the Singing Mountie parody, though it is mildly humorous if you remember the antediluvian film it's parodying - Which was ancient in 1982.

The cast is sublime and surprised me. At the beginning of the picture, the performers present as less than brilliant. But that is down to their characters. The story calls for dumb bimbos, stupid nerds, and sexily vivacious cheerleader types, and the cast gives you these in spades. Sometimes they do it too well. Mandy, played by Teri Landrum, comes across as the atypical blonde airhead. She's so good that you start to believe it's her real character and not one she's created for her beauty pageants. Then we get to the Tooth Decay and Toothbrushing skits, and we see her sexy side. It would have been nice to have had this Mandy a few extra times, maybe when she was around the other dumb blonde, Glen Dandy. I have to admit I liked the way the writers and director let the principal performers have their time on camera. Each has a funny sketch. I enjoyed Miles Chapin as Andy discovering his dead best friend. He goes way over the top, but for him, it works. And I cannot go without mentioning how good Carol Kane is, or the fact that she looks as cute as hell in her sky-blue onesie running around the campus to escape the killer.

If you are looking for an easy-going killer flick with laughs, then Pandemonium could be for you. It entertained me for an hour and a half. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. It's not the best out there, but it's worth a watch, at the least. Though I will say, I'm not sure if I'll return to it in the future. Pandemonium may be a one-watch-wonder.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror, Killer Thriller Chiller, and Just For Laughs lists to see where I ranked Pandemonium.

Take Care & Stay Well.

whenever I rate a comedy, i rate how much i laughed, and to be honest i laughed quite a bit while watching this lesser known horror spoof. the acting is actually decent, everyone does a fine job. I'm also going to have to disagree with everyone who said Paul Rebuens was the best part of the film, he wasn't in my opinion, he was rather annoying actually. I also smiled every time Tom Smothers said oot instead of out, hah. anyway I must say this is a rather enjoyable comedy that hits more then it misses, I was not disappointed and I would recommend people to watch this lesser known comedy film, it's tons better then ungodly crap like Meet the Spartans, of course i'm sure every comedy ever made is better then any of the goddawful tripe those fools put out, but that's another review for another time, eh? I'd probably rate this a 7 or an 8 out of ten, but i've never been that good with ratings ya know, it's a good comedy, it's no "Blazing Saddles" but it's worth the 82 minute run time to watch.

This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, it's just brilliant! It is full of classic smothers brothers/airplane-esquire humor that you just can't miss. I wish this movie was out on DVD! They don't even have it at any of my local video stores, so I haven't seen it in probably 4 years, when it was on HBO for about a week.

The humor is blatant and the plot/script simple, but that just makes it all the better. It is the type of movie you watch when you just want to laugh for about an hour without even the possibility of the humor going over your head, :). It's very clever and witty and is sure to make anyone laugh.

I highly recommend this movie, it's a classic. If you can find it, don't pass it up.

This is the type of movie that one doesn't watch to learn anything or feel any great huge emotions. It's one of those "time-to-kill" films that many people will enjoy, and many others will not. The jokes are not killer, and the script falls a bit flat, but the actors manage to make a good deal of it work. So many stars are in this movie (some not as famous as others), most very good in their roles, but if you are not interested in the big names in the film, then the plot might not hook you, either. All in all, Pandemonium is a movie which could have been better, but succeeds at what it is...a nice little boredom buster with some cute laughs and just enough camp to make this horror parody float.

Since today is Thursday, September 12, I thought I'd watch a movie I knew was originally was supposed to be called Thursday the 12th. This was a horror spoof I remembered being promoted on HBO back in the early '80s but for some reason, I didn't get to see this until now on YouTube which retained the original HBO "feature presentation" opening sequence from that time. Anyway, it opens with a football game from 1963 where a murder happens afterwards, then goes to 19 years later when some others will take place. I'll stop there and just say this was very funny to see perhaps because of the way many horror movie references were used to comic effect and the way the performances were gleefully over-the-top the whole time. Depending on your familiarity of many movies and TV shows, you may also get a hoot of how many of the players were recognizable though I was surprised one of them, Phil Hartman, was so small in screen time. I did know he was an associate of another player here-Paul Reubens, best known as Pee Wee Herman-and he hadn't had his big break on "Saturday Night Live" yet so that was probably why his was just a cameo. Anyway, on that note, I highly recommend Pandemonium.