Teen Movie Hell: A Quick Review Of The New Book On Eighties Teen Movies From A Special Guest Reviewer!

I've been friends with Donzig for more than 30 years, including a few years spent working with the dude side-by-side in the bowels of the University of Maryland Stamp Student Union at the famed Record Co-Op. Donzig's got good taste, but he's also got a near-encyclopedic knowledge of Eighties teen movies. In fact, he ran a website for years called Ferris Saves that cataloged these films, and this was in an era when Eighties nostalgia wasn't as ripe as it seems now.

When I heard about the new book, Teen Movie Hell: A Crucible Of Coming-Of-Age Comedies From Animal House To Zapped!, my first thought was to ask Donzig to review it. The book, out right now from Bazillion Points, is by Mike "McBeardo" McPadden, and here's Donzig's review of the fine volume.

In the early to mid-1980's there was a flourishing of pop culture, much of it aimed at young people and teenagers in particular. Music became more creative, whether it was New Wave, post-punk, or early forms of Britpop. This innovative era also saw the advent of the VCR and the CD, and the birth of the music video as a distinct art form. It was a good time to be young, and no one really needed the internet to have fun.

Coming into its own at this time was a genre of films of and for teenagers. Sometimes dramatic, sometimes comedic, and ranging in quality from the sublime to the ridiculous, this genre catered to teenage tastes, aspirations, and fantasies. Virtually any Eighties film with the words "beach", "break", or "ski" in the title belongs to the more comedic (and raunchier) end of this teen movie spectrum.

Contributor Katt Ellinger sums up the genre well in Mike "McBeardo" McPadden's new book Teen Movie Hell: A Crucible Of Coming-Of-Age Comedies From Animal House To Zapped!, by observing that these "highly anarchic comedies had so much resonance with teen audiences. Parents were largely absent or peripheral figures on a landscape where kids had infinite freedom... These films represented the ultimate teen fantasy, an exciting place where rules were made to be broken. Left to their own devices, the kids came up with some pretty wild ways to entertain and enrich themselves; these insane plots were uplifting. Not by accident, the snooty rich bullies and the beautiful people are frequently carved out as villains, and the kids from the fringes get the last laugh."

After introductory essays by McPadden, Ellinger, and others on the spirit behind teen films, essays which give some history and perspective on the genre, Teen Movie Hell earns its subtitle (A Crucible Of Coming-Of-Age Comedies From Animal House To Zapped!), by serving up reviews of well over 200 films. The reviews are sometimes as funny as the films themselves. Included are such early gems as 1963's Beach Party, the modest and chaste precursor to all future teen beach (and ski) movies, and 1978's Animal House, which brought the raunch to teen films and showed the huge box office potential of the genre. The bulk of Teen Movie Hell, however, discusses films from the the genre's heyday during the Reagan years, from the famous (John Hughes, Cameron Crowe titles) to the infamous (Golan-Globus, Roger Corman ones) and a great deal more in between. Even the most devoted fans of teen comedies will find more films covered here than they ever knew existed.

There was a gratifying mini-revival of the teen film genre for a few years around the turn of the Millennium (think stuff like She's All That and others), and Teen Movie Hell: A Crucible Of Coming-Of-Age Comedies From Animal House To Zapped! covers this revival with essays and reviews as well.

Today, MTV no longer plays music videos. VHS has long since been driven to extinction by the DVD, while streaming is now in the process of of killing off both DVD's and CD's (though vinyl is making a well-deserved comeback!). They don't make many of these fun-filled teen movies anymore. Entertainment formats may come and go, but the spirit behind the teen films of the Reagan Era lives on, because no matter what might be happening in the worlds of politics, culture, or technology, one thing is certain: Kids always wanna rock -- in both senses of the word! -- and that's what these films are all about.

Teen Movie Hell: A Crucible Of Coming-Of-Age Comedies From Animal House To Zapped! is a good reference guide to teen comedies, coming-of-age flicks, and teensploitation films for both the collector and casual viewer. Those too young to know many of these films, or who just weren't paying attention at the time, may find some of these classics and also-rans on DVD and streaming services. The true obscurities and hidden gems still exist out there somewhere, if only in thrift stores on the original VHS format, to be found by those devoted movie fans willing to dig. Devotees and newbies will find this a fun read and a reliable guide to navigating this entire genre.

Thanks Donzig!

Teen Movie Hell: A Crucible Of Coming-Of-Age Comedies From Animal House To Zapped! by Mike "McBeardo" McPadden is out now via Bazillion Points.

More details on Eighties teen films from Donzig at Ferris Saves.