Saturday the 14th: An Overview of the Horror Spoof
Forget Friday the 13th. Just when you think you’re safe…the real fun starts. In the horror spoof, Saturday the 14th, a family moves into a new house filled with secrets. The adventure begins when little Billy comes across The Book of Evil. He soon finds that the monsters pictured in the book have disappeared from the pages and are now freely roaming around the house, spooking the family members, doing the dishes, trashing the kitchen, but most importantly, looking to find the book that brought them to life. Meanwhile, a vampire couple is staking out the house, also desperately attempting to get their hands on the book. However, the stakes rise when the family meets Van Helsing and he reveals that many creatures have been in search of this book for ages because it’s no ordinary book. In fact, whoever controls the book controls the world! Unfortunately, the book is nowhere to be found, and with a big family dinner planned for Saturday the 14th, everyone is in for a few surprises.
Take a look at the trailer to preview some of these surprises:
While today most are familiar with films that parody the horror genre, Saturday the 14th is in a category of its own. This film, produced by Julie Corman in 1981, avoids spoofing familiar storylines and villains from horror films and instead creates its own fantastical world with hilarious characters and creatures. Howard Cohen, the writer and director of the film, first developed his offbeat sense of humor during his time at Second City in Chicago and channeled this creativity into creating this fictional world.
One of the more memorable fictional monsters from the film has his moment of stardom when he surprises Debbie, the daughter of the family, in her bathtub. At first the viewer is tricked into thinking that some sort of shark is swimming in her bathtub since only a tiny fin appears above the water. However, once she is fully submerged in the water, the monster slowly reveals himself as a full grown, green-scaled, bathtub monster (how did he fit under the water??) that chases the young girl through the house.
Yet, the most interesting of the monsters and characters that appear in the film would have to be Waldemar, the vampire who has staked out the house and stops at nothing to find The Book of Evil. Jeffrey Tambor, known best now for his Emmy-nominated role in Arrested Development, made his second film appearance playing Waldemar in Saturday the 14th. His quirky sense of humor is present in this film and his facial expressions are priceless.
Yet Jeffrey Tambor isn’t the only big name in the film. The husband and wife in the film were played by real life married couple Dick Benjamin and Paula Prentiss. Great actors separately and together, they both have a deep understanding for what is necessary in comedy and they both shine in this film. In fact, Paula Prentiss, who turns into a vampire towards the beginning of the film, refused to wear the vampire teeth she was supposed to wear for the part because she knew she could give a strong performance without needing the teeth…and she was correct. Perhaps the funniest moment in the film occurs when she falls out of the bed trying to bite her husband’s neck.
But not every part of production on this film ran so smoothly. With a 3-4 week production schedule, chaos is inevitable. When shooting the last shot of the film, the actor who played Billy was unable to be on set, forcing the crew to find a boy on the spot that could pass off as Billy. Although the boy they found was six inches taller than the real Billy, tricks of the camera were able to make the switch is unnoticeable in the film.
Seven years after the release of Saturday the 14th, the sequel, Saturday the 14th Strikes Back was released (1988). The sequel stays true to the tone of the original, but takes viewers on a brand new adventure.
Check out the trailer here:
