He Knows You're Alone

Pitch: A woman in a crowded theater screams. No one takes any note because the movie showing is scary. Her friend, sat directly next to her discovers that she's not responding. There's been a murder! Fade to black: He Knows You're in a Crowded Theater But That Won't Stop Him! - Producer: How attached are you to that title?

As I've been telling people for years, the real problem with all these '80s slasher flicks is not that they're "sick" or misogynistic or overly gory or anything like that. Most of 'em aren't even all that violent, considering. The problem is that they're boring. Tom Hanks has a small part; even though he was a nobody at the time and I'm sure he was grateful for his first movie role, he *still* looks embarrassed to be in this piece of drek

Yet another slasher, this time about a cross-eyed skank about to get married to a speedo-sporting manchild while some weirdo goes about killing people connected to the wedding. It also has a mustachioed police officer who looks like he's constantly in abdominal pain and Tom Hanks is in there as well. If this sounds good, that's because the awesome from my fingers is spilling into my keyboard and from there further into the internet and this website. The film actually kinda sucks.

Derivative of Halloween of course, but what wasn't in the 80s?

The original, which spawned the sequels "He Knows When You're on the Toilet" and "He Knows When You're Taking a Shower" and the Christmas special "He Knows If You've Been Bad or Good" (ok, totally made those up). Look out for Tom Hanks as "The Guy in the Background with the Bad Hair". Overall, had potential but failed.

I actually enjoyed this lower-tiered slasher. I found the characters to be surprisingly fun and while the kills aren't that great they aren't terrible either.

Coming off the height of Halloween we get this pre delightful little slasher. Some decent kills

Cheapjack horror comic full of fashionable slashing and screaming; of no cinematic interest whatever.

Tom Hanks' first film-acting credit. By far the best actor in this classic post-Halloween 80s horror schlock.

A cheapo Halloween knockoff shot in two weeks and probably most noted these days for Tom Hanks’ screen debut in a very small role in a couple scenes. Perhaps slightly differentiated from other Halloween knockoffs in that the characters are actually all in their twenties instead of being teens and its delightfully cheesy-ass electronic keyboard soundtrack. Ultimately it is still full of seemingly suicidal characters making stunningly dumb decisions though.

30.500

I thought this was quite interesting; It's obviously an early entry in the slasher cycle and rips off Halloween down to the soundtrack, but on the other hand there's not yet a clear formula in place and therefore the film makes some interesting choices. The characters are fleshed out more than usual; too bad that the killer is just a random madman and doesn't really make an impression. I'm a bit surprised that it's not better known (even with Tom Hanks) but maybe that's due to lack of gore.