Saturday the 14th (1981)

Saturday the 14th
Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Look at the Calendar Again.
Directed By	Howard R. Cohen
Produced By	Julie Corman
Starring	Richard Benjamin Paula Prentiss Severn Darden Jeffrey Tambor Kari Michaelsen
Music By	Parmer Fuller
Cinematography	Daniel Lacambre
Editing By	Kent Beyda Joanne D'Antonio
Release Date	August 14th, 1981
Runtime	75 Minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross	$4 Million

Saturday the 14th is a 1981 American horror-comedy film starring real-life husband and wife Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin, co-written and directed by Howard R. Cohen and produced by Julie Corman.

A spoof of classic horror movies, it was followed by Saturday the 14th Strikes Back in 1988.

Plot

An all-American family inherits a deceased uncle's house. John (Richard Benjamin) and Mary (Paula Prentiss), together with daughter Debbie (Kari Michaelsen) and son Billy (Kevin Brando), move in, but Waldemar (Jeffrey Tambor), a vampire, and Yolanda (Nancy Lee Andrews), his wife, want desperately to get into the rundown house because it contains a book of evil.

Billy finds the mysterious book. He reads of a curse hanging over the date of Saturday the 14th. As he turns the page, a monster is unleashed, and with each turn another disappears from the page and is materialized within or outside the home. The house is soon swarming with monsters.

Strange things start happening: eyes appear in John's coffee, sandwiches are mysteriously eaten, the television tunes into The Twilight Zone only, dirt is found in Mary's bed, dishes get done by themselves, neighbors disappear. As this is happening, neither John or Mary suspect anything, oblivious to the spooky occurrences around them.

Waldemar gets into the house by turning into a bat. Mary keeps hearing noises at night which she thinks are made by owls, but are actually the sounds of Waldemar the bat. John hires an exterminator to get rid of the owls. The exterminator turns out to be Van Helsing (Severn Darden), who is also after the book of evil.

John and Mary begin planning a housewarming party for Saturday the 14th. Guests arrive but cannot leave. When they try, a thunderstorm appears outside the door. As the night unfolds, the monsters begin to kill the guests one by one.

Eventually a duel between Van Helsing and Waldemar erupts, where it is discovered that Helsing wants the book in order to rule the world, and Waldemar was only trying to stop him from getting his hands on it. Good triumphs over evil, as Van Helsing and the monsters are defeated.

The family ends up in an upscale new home while Waldemar and Yolanda keep the original house as their own.

Cast

• Richard Benjamin as John, the father of the family.
• Paula Prentiss as Mary, the mother of the family.
• Jeffrey Tambor as Waldemar, vampire figure looking to buy the house.
• Severn Darden as Van Helsing, evil genius disguised as an exterminator.
• Kari Michaelsen as Debbie, daughter of John and Mary.
• Rosemary DeCamp as Aunt Lucille
• Kevin Brando as Billy, son of John and Mary.
• Nancy Lee Andrews as Yolanda, wife of the vampire Waldermar.

Release

The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures in October 1981. It was later released on VHS by Embassy Home Entertainment

The film was released on DVD by New Concorde Home Entertainment in 2001. This release is currently out of print.