My Summer Lair Chapter #62: What Is Your Favourite 80s Horror Movie?
Welcome Lisa Langlois and Lesleh Donaldson to My Summer Lair!
Lisa and Lesleh are two delightfully spunky actors from Happy Birthday to Me a charming Canadian horror movie released on May 15, 1981!
Lesleh played Bernadette who was the first person killed in the movie; she barely survives the opening credits before her throat is slashed! Oh snap!! To be fair she was sneaking out to meet her boyfriend…oh classic 80s horror movies.
Lisa played Amelia who survived the horror movie! Oh Yes! Please Note: this doesn’t mean she takes the killer down.
Happy Birthday to Me was directed by J. Lee Thompson who shot Cape Fear, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes: Fresh.
The movie starred Melissa Sue Anderson aka Mary Ingalls (remember Little House on the Prairie?) in one of her attempts to prove she’s no longer a little girl and wants to be taken seriously as an actor: In Happy Birthday she smoked weed, made out with boys (yes…plural!) and even removed her shirt; helpful if you’ve any desire to see what an 80s bra looks like…oh classic 80s fashion.
Melissa is having a birthday party only…when the kids refuse to come she makes them…you’ll see: wait for the happy birthday scene at the end. Nothing can top Sleepaway Camp’s final scene but Happy Birthday’s final scene is up there.
Some of the kills in the movie…a motorcycle wheel to the face, a weight lifting demise, the use of garden shears, a beef skewer to the face and a classic tub drowning. These punk kids clearly regretted not showing up to her birthday party!
Lesley & Lisa will be 2 of the great guests at Horror-Rama
Toronto’s only All-Horror Convention
November 4 & 5 2017
918 Bathurst St.
http://www.horrorramacanada.com/ has all the scary details.
Our conversation isn’t limited to Happy Birthday to Me…it extends to the real life horror show of sexual harassment in the entertainment business. Having been making movies since the early 80s, with some occasional modelling these women have stories and experiences to share. So we got some wine and turned on the mics and it all…just unfolded.
Happy Birthday To Me…
Horror-Rama @ W • T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Thursday October 30, 2017 at 6:00 pm (at Girth Radio)
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