American Gothic (1988)

Written by Michael Vines & Burt Wetanson
Directed by John Hough

The 1980's were the heyday for cheap horror films, and it seems like anyone with half an idea got the chance to direct one, and American Gothic is yet another in the long line of this beloved genre. The only difference is this film fits snugly into the horror genre, but sub-genre wise it's a strange amalgamation of all kinds of different films that were popular during the time period, but still somehow it manages to work for what it is.

Cynthia (Sarah Torgov), fresh out of the mental hospital after the horrific accidental drowning of her baby, and her boyfriend Jeff (Mark Erickson) go on a supposedly relaxing vacation into the Pacific Northwest in their Cessna airplane. Quickly their trip with their friends begins to turn into a nightmare when the plane breaks down and the group is forced to land on a remote island off in the Pacific Ocean where they decide to set up camp and venture out for help.

On their expedition for a helping hand, they come across a creepy old house, and like they always do in any good 80's horror movie, they trespass straight into the house and start molesting the stuff inside with complete disregard for the fact that someone might actually live there. Of course, someone does, and they quickly return home to find their house a bit mussed by the wreckless kids and their carefree behavior.

Ma (Yvonne De Carlo) and Pa (Rod Steiger) run a strict household, they have no electricity, or as Pa puts it "those new fangled contraptions!" so the kids are invited to stay for dinner and even the night until some possible help might come along in the form of one of Pa's friends. Quickly, the kids realize that something isn't quite right about this family, and their fears are justified when Ma and Pa's strange adult children start showing up and acting like they are still adolescents.

When one of the kids from the main group does something that Ma and Pa deem wrong or indecent, of course, they are quickly offed one by one. What's different about this film is it jumps back and forth from straight up slasher, to crazy kidnapping family, back to slasher, back to kidnapping family, etc. Of course it all comes down to one character, but this one doesn't quite end like you would expect it to, there's a bit of a Stockholm Syndrome explored here, and it changes what the ending of the film is really about, which if you can't guess, it's about Cynthia and the trauma she endured losing her baby and blaming herself over it.

The film isn't really gory at all, most of the kills are showed post-mortem, or if the kills are showed, the actual gore happens off-screen and is shown in situ. The locations are well used, the house is pretty creepy, if straight forward, the people that play the adolescent acting adults are quite creepy, but the saving grace of this film are the characters of Ma and Pa, played expertly by the respective actors. They are really the only reason to watch this movie, unless you want to see the genre bending and unusual ending in action. For fans of 80's horror, not many other people.

6.3/10