Evil Laugh (1986)

That was an excellent one.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Blistering performances.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

A group of medical students head to an isolated mansion to help their friend renovate it into a pediatric clinic. What they don't know is that a series of brutal child murders happened at this house years before when this place was a foster home. Caretaker Martin was falsely accused of molestation by some kids and he returned the favor by murdering everyone. Now it appears he is back and doesn't take kindly to folks cleaning up his former crime scene. This is about as standard as you can get when it comes to the slasher genre, but EVIL LAUGH does have its moments. Director Dominick Brascia (the fat kid victim in Friday THE 13th PART V) co-wrote the script with lead Steven "brother of Scott" Baio and you can't really tell if they want to spoof slasher films or just imitate them. The deaths aren't very intricate, but do involve lots of splashing blood. The highlight is probably Baio getting his head baked in a microwave. Lots and lots of cleaning montages in this one with some cheesy 80s pop songs. Jody Gibson supplies the film's only nudity, which is odd as final girl Kim McKamy would go on to a highly successful adult film career as Ashlyn Gere a few years later.

An on-the-cheap, shot-on-video and quickly made 80s slasher that's enthusiastically pitched and made the more interesting for being made by Dominick Brasica (which Friday the 13th fans would pick up as being the memorable first death in "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning") in what feels like a labour of love. It might not be ranking up their with the best the 80s had to offer and could be seen as just another slasher, but the quirky "Evil Laugh" had its moments. Even some creativity, as some elements actually reminded of Wes Craven's 90s slasher "Scream". Plenty of self-knowing quips feed the shonky script (mainly from a horror-buff character) and there's a plethora of references to other horror mediums (horror magazine Fangoira to "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th"). The story is simple, as it builds up the standard conventions and its over-the-top macabre (which includes some dancing while cleaning and jittery music score) where a group of young medical students decide help out a friend re-open an abandoned orphanage, although they don't know of its terrible past which saw ten years ago the custodian murder the residents. But this weekend is not going to be any ordinary weekend, as people start disappearing and find themselves at the mercy of a jump suit wearing killer with a mask and beanie. Yeah, sadly the murderer doesn't live up the illustration on the artwork and naturally the heroine points out the horror fan for being the murderer. The execution does match the budget, as it's a slapdash of blood, nudity and humour. Sometimes things would happen off-screen, but other times we get flashes of tatty gore. The random performances are acceptable with Kim McKamy making a solid heroine and a decent Steven Baio (who also produced and co-wrote). Nothing new, but it's full of spontaneous energy."No legend is going to scare me".

The plot to this movie, well it's that same old routine Slasher movie plot = A couple of friends travel out to a house in the country to fix it up and make it a foster home again. Ten years ago the foster home was shut down as a madman called Martin killed all the kids. They are supposed to meet Jerry at the house but when he never shows up, the friends start to suspect that something's wrong. They decide to try to not think about it too much and have some fun instead and start working in the morning. That might not be such a good idea since some of them will probably never get to see the morning as it seems as if Martin has come back to the house. Well for one thing I have to say the title is half right it does have a laugh but it sure as hell wasn't an evil laugh but the cover is rather deceiving I was expecting someone in a reaper mask to pop up and kill the teens, but nope, no reaper mask in sight. We do get a very silly mask near the ending though, which we were only to see in the last 2 or 3 killings and not in the first ones, was there some point of that.The directing is so and so, nothing too special, but I have to say that I was impressed by the use of lights in the dark basement, you can see everything that you're meant to see in the dark and that's not very common in horror movies, especially not slashers. But to be honest the movie isn't all bad I mean it does have one original kill death by microwave that's the only reason why I gave this movie an extra star.All in all I didn't think this was that bad but I have to say that it didn't live up to my expectations, nor its box art. For a slasher fan like myself, this was quite entertaining. But I really think you have to be a slasher fan to be able to watch this movie since it is pretty cheesy and slow in some parts. I might watch this again and see if it grows in my mind, though, I highly suspect that it won't.

Man! those were the 80's slashers... "Evil Laugh" is among other movies that tried to grab a piece of the gold mine of the 80's slashers. Sadly, this movie is terrible in all aspects. The dialog, the music (the music please!), and the acting are horrible. But there's something about this movie that makes it enjoyable. I really regret for not buying the VHS when I could.Anyways, you've seen the plot many times before. A group of (guess what?) teenagers stay in a house at night and fall victims of a (guess what?) maniac. Don't pay attention to the box cover, it has little to do with the movie.Still the gore makes the movie watchable. It tries to be brutal and shocking but only generates laughs. Although the sub-plot concerning a child molestor is dark, the movie follows a series of non sense events that have zero creepiness.The ending will please you if you enjoy ULTRA CHEESY scenes. I won't spoil it but expect something like "April Fool's Day". Do yourself a favor and watch it if you loved the 80's slashers.Also, this movie has one of the most disturbing scenes on any slasher flick. When a couple is making love (or about to) the dorky guy, hiding under the bed, starts to rub the man's butt and seems to enjoy it! When the couple find out about the dorky guy they just start to laugh. That was one scene I want to erase from my memory.