Four movies, several SPOILERS.
Vegas Vacation – Beth grew up with these movies, and references them frequently, but I didn’t watch any of them until my adult life. And I only just got around to seeing this one. It’s the last and least of the four, and the only one not to have John Hughes as a writer or National Lampoon in the title. Not surprisingly, a lot of it is about Clark becoming addicted to gambling, spending insane amounts of money to try to show up a smug blackjack dealer played by Wallace Shawn. I think they kind of overused this, as it was really just the same joke repeatedly. Meanwhile, Wayne Newton hits on Ellen, Rusty gets a fake ID and starts hanging out with high rollers, and Audrey is convinced by her cousin to take up go-go dancing. Randy Quaid also returns as Cousin Eddie, who is now living outside the city on government land that used to be used for nuclear testing. Part of the humor with him is that he’s poor and has brain damage, which is kind of punching down, but he delivers bizarre lines with such infectious exuberance.
I’ve heard that both Quaid and Chevy Chase are considered problematic nowadays, but that’s not really what this is about. Christie Brinkley makes a cameo that calls back to the first movie, and Sid Caesar plays a lonely old man. I thought the part with the casino that runs children’s games was funny, and Clark drives a tour bus into Newton’s house. It’s easily the worst of the bunch, but it definitely has its moments.
Cult of Chucky – The last of the movies in this series (unless you count the remake) seeks to tie up some loose ends, but also tries to screw with the audience’s minds in a way the others didn’t. When we had finished watching this, Beth said basically the same thing I thought, that we figured it would be about a group of people worshipping Chucky, or at least devoted to him. Instead, it’s about how he can transfer his consciousness into other dolls, and even people. Since we don’t find this out until somewhat later in the movie, it’s confusing in a way the other movies aren’t. Sure, the characters in the movie are always confused by what’s happening, but the audience knows what’s really going on. Nica from the last movie is locked in an insane asylum, where a few Chucky dolls mysteriously show up, and the inmates are gradually killed off. The doctor in charge at first seems to be somehow in league with Chucky, but no, he’s apparently just a perverted, gaslighting sicko for reasons that have nothing to do with the killer doll. Andy, who is unsurprisingly traumatized and obsessed, has been keeping Chucky’s severed head in his apartment, pretty disturbing even if his intentions are at least partially to keep him from harming anyone else. And Tiffany is still in league with Chucky, and knows about his duplication plan. So it was obviously made by people who were familiar with the series, but it felt different in tone than most of the others, even considering that two were mostly comedy I assume the scene where Nica gives gum to another inmate is a reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Satan Wants You – We’d seen some other stuff about the Satanic Panic in the 1980s, but this 2023 documentary focuses on the book Michelle Remembers, and how it served as a catalyst for the whole thing. The book, published into 1980, was based on the memories of Victoria, British Columbia woman Michelle Smith, who told her psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder about having been sold by her mother to a Satanic cult that subjected her to horrible torture and sexual assualt, and killed a lot of babies. Several people in the documentary pointed out some of the holes in this story, like how her picture appears in the school yearbook for a year she was supposedly a captive, and how the number of babies she said were murdered would have been a majority of all the babies born within the year. A lot of her supposed experiences also lined up with Pazder’s own religious beliefs and from some religious ceremony he claimed to have seen in Africa. And I believe there was something about the Virgin Mary showing up and healing her scars, which is why she didn’t show the signs of physical abuse. Apparently Mary spoke in French; I would have thought Aramaic would be more likely, although I guess she’s had plenty of time in Heaven to learn other languages. What’s even weirder is that Smith and Pazder later divorced their respective spouses and married each other, and went on press tours together, where he would usually speak for her. While the book had several editions and covers, they kept showing this one from a paperback version, quite possibly because of how it seems impossible to take seriously.
I suppose it’s hardly the only allegedly serious book with a silly cover, though. Despite all these problems, the story stoked a lot of fear and caused many wrongful arrests. The film also compares the Satanic Panic to more recent conspiracy theories.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest – I sort of figured this was another Don Bluth movie, but it isn’t, although it’s a non-Disney animated feature from the nineties. I had seen part of it as a kid, but I don’t think I watched it all the way through. I do remember my sister quoting lines from it. It takes place in Australia, although nobody has the accent. FernGully is inhabited by fairies who use magic to help plants grow. They once lived alongside humans but now largely see them as a myth. When a logging company comes into the area, they accidentally release a destructive being named Hexxus, who had been trapped inside a tree years earlier. He’s voiced by Tim Curry, and sings a strangely seductive song about toxicity.
A boy named Zak, who has what appears to be dyed blond hair, is working for the loggers, is accidentally shrunk down by a fairy named Crysta and taught a lesson about environmentalism. He also uses slang that confuses the fairies, and hits on Crysta with her apparently not noticing it. While the message was pretty blatant, I feel like the filmmakers kind of chickened out by making the villain a supernatural monster instead of the people who are actually destroying these biomes in real life. The loggers are mostly just dimwitted and oblivious, and hence susceptible to Hexxus’ control. Sure, there’s a mention of human greed helping Hexxus, but it’s largely downplayed. The ending didn’t really seem to resolve that much either. Hexxus gets trapped in another tree, but since he got out this time, what’s to keep it from happening again? And while Zak promises to do what he can to help, I’m not entirely sure how he can. I don’t think going to his bosses and telling them they can’t cut down more trees because there are some magic fairies living there would be a particularly effective strategy. Robin Williams voices a bat named Batty Koda, who has PTSD and fear of humans due to being the subject of lab experiments. It’s pretty dark, but again downplayed by the fact that, since it’s Williams, he does a bunch of jokes and impressions. This was before he voiced the Genie in Aladdin, which came out later the same year. Cheech and Chong also do voices, Tone Loc is a lizard who wants to eat Zak, and Crysta’s voice actress Samantha Mathis played the Princess in the 1993 Mario movie. It’s a visually appealing film, with a lot of lush scenery and animals, and some excellent animation on Hexxus in particular. I do think the fairies look kind of weird, but I guess that’s just a stylistic choice.
VoVatia 