Studio: Dark Sky Films
Director: Jay Burleson
Writer: Jay Burleson
Producer: Frank Crafts, Ian J. Cunningham
Stars: Kansas Bowling, Poppy Cunningham, Taylor Smith, Bart Hyatt, Autumnn Jaide, Parker Love Bowling, Tom Hagale, Devan Katherine, Daniel Cutts, Antonio Woodruff, Andrew Wasserburger
Review Score:
Summary:
Seven years after his last attack, a supernatural serial killer resurfaces in a small Alabama town for another killing spree.
Review:
Retro horror/comedy “The Third Saturday in October Part V” only explains part of its gimmick upfront. An opening text crawl tells us that this fictional slasher franchise began in 1980 as a cheap “Halloween” knockoff. Despite hitting cult status among hardcore horror nerds, the first film gradually faded into obscurity, which is why we haven’t heard of it until now. Nevertheless, “The Third Saturday in October” proved popular enough to spawn a series of sequels, with “Part V,” purportedly from 1994, being the fourth of these follow-ups.
The hitch is, those middle movies don’t actually exist. Part I does, more on that in a moment. But the idea here is to emulate an experience someone might have had in the ‘80s or ‘90s, when they went to a video store and their choice of rentals was limited to whatever was available. If you wanted a “Friday the 13th” film, for example, you might have to settle for Part III or Part VI without having watched the entries that came before, simply because that’s all you could find. That’s how “The Third Saturday in October Part V” puts another prong on its premise by going a little meta with its gag.
This sounds like a fun idea, and it is, although it’s also a little weird. It’s weird because watching fright franchise films out of order back then really wasn’t a big deal. Let’s face it. Old school slasher series were never known for deep narratives. Maybe you’d miss the backstory about Dr. Loomis’s ongoing obsession, but it’s not like you’d have all that much trouble following “The Return of Michael Myers” if Part IV was your first “Halloween” film. We’re talking about masked maniacs merely slaughtering teens across small towns, not Christopher Nolan brain-benders.
Even if you’re aware that the first and fifth “Third Saturday in October” films are the only ones there are, what you might not know, since I don’t see how this information gets relayed to someone who doesn’t regularly read genre news websites or receive emailed press releases, is that the filmmakers intended for viewers to watch Part V before watching Part I (review here). This of course means if you watch Part I first, you’re technically doing it backwards, even though everything we know about numerical order instinctively tells us to put that one before the other.
Don’t be miffed if you made that unknowing error. I watched both films back-to-back in the intended order and I can tell you, I don’t see how it matters which one comes first. Part I and Part V are entirely standalone stories set 15 years apart, with completely different casts where the killer is the only recurring character, unless you count a football coach seen on TV or a diner that pops up in both as a location. It would make more sense if watching them reversed without the in-betweeners for context set up some clever scenes, or if this sequel humorously referenced events from the ones that don’t exist, but “The Third Saturday in October Part V” doesn’t attempt anything like that.
Coming up with cool concepts yet coming up short on the follow-through is rather reflective of the seesaw that bounces “The Third Saturday in October Part V” between borderline brilliant and alternatively bland. Inventive ideas accompanied by inspired execution edge out repetitive redundancies that fall flat. Still, for as entertaining as the film can be, there’s a sense it only scratches the surface of something fresher and funnier if it were to risk pushing further.
The title refers to an annual “holiday” that takes place in the sleepy farming town of Hackleburg, where residents gather in groups around TVs to watch a traditional college football game between archrivals the Alabama-Mobile Seahawks and Tennessee A&M Commonwealth. On that day in 1979, serial killer Jakkariah “Jack” Harding went on a murderous rampage in the area after somehow surviving his Death Row electrocution. He’s been on several supernatural slaughter sprees since, but hasn’t been seen for years. Now it’s the third Saturday in October, 1994, and Harding has suddenly returned for more mayhem as a new assortment of friends, neighbors, hopeful hook-ups, and a babysitter’s young ward see their day of touchdowns turn into a night of terror.
“The Third Saturday in October Part V” is a rare homegrown horror movie where having an amateur edge is an asset. I can’t be sure how many of the performances are shaky by design, or how many might be routine bad acting. That ratio is irrelevant. With a roll call featuring the folksy faces of average country kids, greasy spoon patrons, and other trucker cap types, casting friends and family members works well for capturing the awkward charm conveyed by these characters. See the film’s faux commercial for a local restaurant called Catfish Cabin for an outstanding example of how to use inexperience as an advantage.
In fact, writer/director Jay Burleson could have a second career creating the kind of kooky content the “WNUF Halloween Special” filmmakers are known for. “Part V’s” opening recap includes clips from the imaginary sequels, with one of the better bits being an exchange where an undressing woman asks, “Don’t you want to see my tits?” and a distracted gamer’s response is a monotone, “Not right now” in dryly delivered deadpan. There’s a strong tendency to go overboard when imitating retro styles for humorous effect, but Burleson has a strong grasp of knowing when too much is too much, further evidenced by how he keeps the synth score and film grain effects toned to reasonable levels so they read as relatively real rather than unrealistically distracting.
Some viewers whose antennas may be oriented in the wrong direction could misinterpret some of the movie’s intentional shabbiness as typical backyard B-movie sloppiness. That’s not commonly the case. For instance, one might see wheelchair-bound bozo Lester as gratingly annoying, especially when he shrilly shouts “Neil!” repeatedly. Then you remember he’s specifically satirizing how obnoxious the similarly handicapped Franklin of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” was and Lester’s shtick starts becoming unexpectedly amusing.
Unfortunately, “The Third Saturday in October Part V’s” streaks of self-aware slickness are inconsistent, and occasionally painted over by pedestrian proceedings. It’s okay that there isn’t much of a plot. The productions being parodied didn’t have much of one either.
But slashers need to pay their penance for thin fiction with creative carnage, and this film’s kills aren’t all that imaginative. One briefly memorable gag involves melting a face with a piping hot slice of pizza. Other than that, most of the murders involve standard slashing or else occur offscreen. The humor half of horror/comedy fulfills its quota thanks to the roster’s endearing weirdos and their ability to sell the staging of certain scenes. But the other half of that slash gets bogged down by boring filler, like excessive shots of Harding driving his hearse down same-looking country roads.
Speaking of Harding, it’s also a sin for a fright franchise figure to have such a forgettable appearance. To put it bluntly, Harding’s mask just plain sucks. It looks like a child’s papier-mâché project pulled from a middle school trashcan, and that’s virtually unforgivable when treading in territory usually occupied by iconic imagery.
I realize I just ran off a light laundry list of grumbles, so let me boomerang back to stress that, despite core warts, “The Third Saturday in October Part V” remains much more enjoyable than most throwback thrillers that aim to recreate a particular era or feel. This is also what true indie horror is at its heart, full of scrappy spirit and sincerity, even if the fun they evidently had making it doesn’t always equate to equal amounts of fun watching it. Assuming you’re in the right frame of mind for the styling it showcases, I recommend “The Third Saturday in October Part V” regardless, though it’d be even easier to recommend for a night of chicken wings and whiskey if there were more sleekness to the slaughter, and a better look and hook for the villain.
Review Score: 60
If you want to see impossible amounts of blood explode crimson colors like the world’s worst version of a gender reveal, well, “Abigail” at least has that.