The Third Saturday in October Part V

Charmed by the sincere tribute to Grindhouse cinema with the Horror comedy The Third Saturday in October (2022-also reviewed), I was happy to find that the other film in the series was being shown at the Soho Horror Film Festival, this led to me counting down to the third Saturday.

View on the film:

Recorded as the fifth in a series where parts 2-4 don't actually exist, returning editor/writer/director Jay Burleson & cinematographer Chris Hilleke slam the franchise into the pre- Scream (1996) early mid-90's, which they wonderfully capture in flat, plainly lit for video, wide-shots, limited sides of Slasher set-pieces, and extended takes for attempts at Comedy sequences, which stumble on the dead-end that the Slasher had hit by this point.

Along with emulating the visual state of Slasher flicks from this period, the screenplay by Burleson sadly strays a little too close to the writing style of this era, with the playful riffs on Grindhouse from the earlier movie, being replaced here with plodding, witless dialogue tangled up in a Slasher series which had overstayed its welcome by the third Saturday in October.

If you were expecting your steak to be seared at 1,700 degrees fahrenheit, you came to the wrong place. This flashback to a great decade in horror was ideal for those who enjoy a well-stocked buffet, however. Before you review this future cult classic, be sure to study up on the genre first. Understand the masterful way in which the producers not only filmed Harding's angst, but also the thematic touches from the early 80s. It was meant to be watched on VHS; not Blu-Ray.

The manner in which they intertwined "the big game" was outstanding, although I'm not sure any true football fans would leave for catfish or any upstairs hijinks. Hackleburg is a dangerous place for teenagers; IMDb is similar for those not privy to past slasher films and how well they captured the essence of the era in a mere 89 blood-soaked minutes.

Appreciate the steak and all the sides for what they are. I left the smorgasbord feeling quite satisfied and plan to return.

Contrast the reviews for this film against the "first" film, and you'll raise your eyebrows. Just saying.

The poster for the film is great. That is the only positive contribution I have to make. There's no homage here. There's no tribute to slasher flicks...its one nonsensical kill after another.

The mask is not interesting in the least. All of the mystery about the killer is nullified in the first 20 minutes. None of the characters are likeable.

I have no idea how the filmmakers got any funding for this enormous waste of time. If you're on the fence about watching The Third Saturday in October, hopefully this review helped you make a decision.

Logged on and couldn't believe this thing had 100% positive... then I realized that's because it only has 5 votes, lol. That tracks. I saw this and it's prequel being really pushed by Bloody Disgusting this October for some reason. My guess is that someone on the staff is related to these folks, because this movie is ROUGH. I'm sure it is intended as some sort of parody, but it doesn't feel nearly clever enough to pull it off. It just feels like a bad, low budget effort. Not so bad it's good, just so bad it's... mid?

I also feel bad for several of these actors. The little girl in particular, because you can tell that they are new to acting, which is fine (everyone has to start somewhere), but they also aren't being given much direction, so it feels like they are just tasked with filling in their own dialogue for much of their scenes, and the result is extreme unnatural awkwardness. The little girl has nonsensical, overly long bits where she's basically making small talk with cats (or a picture of a cat in one part) but was given no instructions on what to say, so she's just rambling on to fill time, like "i like catfish, do you like catfish? You are a cat... do you like fish? Maybe you are also a fish? Are you a catfish?", or asking a picture of a cat if it's "hungry" and "about ready for dinner?"... then just meowing repeatedly after she runs out of things to say to it. She (and the babysitter) are also obviously instructed to dance to music in several scenes, but it's clear they hadn't locked down the music selection yet, so they are dancing to a completely different beat, and/or just awkwardly making fists and unnaturally jerking them in the air to simulate "dancing", ala Elaine from Sinefeld, lol

The special effects are also rouuuuugh. So far (i'm only like 30 minutes in) i've seen a very bad, photoshop style cartoonish animated "rip" as a head comes off, some off screen awkward kills, horrible dialogue like "make like a gravy train and get those greased wheels down the road and outta my face boy!" and an awkward guy in "gameface" makeup unenthusiastically walking out of the bedroom singing "do the commonwealth shuffle. The commonwealth shuffle. Come on yall, do the commonwealth shuffle" in a monotone, while his daughter responds (also in monotone) "stop being embarrassing".

And the killer, isn't ominous, and honestly doesn't even make sense. He just casually, almost lethargically drives from house to house, blandly walking in without any real purpose and killing people in the most unenthusiastic, color by numbers way, before shuffling off to repeat, He also seems to be immortal, which is demonstrated in the most uninteresting way. A guy points a gun at him and tells him to leave, then oddly, and unemotionally just shoots him anyway, the killer doesn't react, or even flinch, a really cheap after effects, subdued blood spray plays, the guy opens fire several more times, same cheap special effect, no reaction, then they both just sort of stand there looking at each other, presumably waiting to be cued on whatever the next line is lol, this isn't intentionally bad, despite what you've heard. This is just plain of middling bad.

The dude who directs these flicks has a lot of potential. He sets up the scenes real well and the edits work to keep the suspense.

Unfortunately, this sequel is plagued by the same problem as the first. The dude who plays the killer can't act. He's horrible.

In this film he walks around with a skull like plastic mask mugging inside it like an imbecile. It really brings the movie down bug time.

Too bad because this actually could have been a classic with better actors (especially the killer) and a wee bit more story.

Instead we get a thinly drawn storyline of some maniac killing people with a 2 inch pocket knife! WHAT?

Sad.