Remote Control (1988)

Nostalgia is a big factor behind movies.  This topic always seems to come up because it’s always true.  People want to see what they grew up on.  There’s a dreamlike quality to reliving the memories of childhood even if those memories have been changed by the different artists working on a remake, reboot, or other kind of retelling.  That’s why there are movies based on 1980s and 1990s properties that are getting movie adaptations.  Other decades also get nostalgia put into movies.

1950s sci-fi was the concept that Remote Control thrived on.  It was a movie that used the cold war paranoia of the 1950s to tell a science fiction horror story in the 1980s video rental era.  People would rent a movie called Remote Control.  It was a 1950s science fiction movie about a video tape that caused people to become homicidal maniacs.  The only thing was that this 1950s movie was doing the same thing to its viewers as the movie within the movie was doing.  Are you following that?  In the 1980s, people became homicidal maniacs after watching a movie where people became homicidal maniacs after watching a movie.  I get that the explanation might be confusing.

Much like last week’s post, this will be a rundown of the movie with thoughts and elaboration throughout.  There will absolutely be spoilers, as there always are with this kind of post.  Subjects will be touched upon that could expand into larger posts at a later date.  For now, this post is going to be mostly about 1988’s Remote Control.  Time constraints mean that this post needs to be done quickly, and this is a quick way to do it with some form of decent quality put into the writing.

The opening scene set up the villain’s weapon of choice, with the movie within a movie.  A man and woman were getting ready for some kinky sex with costumes and whips and masks and stuff.  The woman went to the bathroom to get into her sexy suit while the guy sat on the bed watching Remote Control, a 1950s science fiction horror movie.  In that movie, the characters watched a movie called Remote Control.  The woman in the 1950s science fiction movie became transfixed with what they were watching when she appeared on the screen she was watching.  She then used her high tech knitting device to kill her husband before staring straight into the television.  The man who was on the bed in 1988 then became transfixed when the movie dissolved and began showing an image of him sitting in the bedroom.  After a few moments, the woman came out of the bathroom, looked at the television, and began strangling the man with a whip.

This whole section set up what the movie will be.  Remote Control (the movie, not the movie within the movie or the movie within the movie within the movie) was a throwback to 1950s science fiction while still being a 1988 horror movie.  It had a story like one of the science fiction movies from the 1950s, except updated to fit the 1980s.  The throwback was done through meta storytelling as much as it was done through straight horror writing.  This all began within the three layer deep Remote Control movie.  The audience was watching a movie featuring a movie named Remote Control that featured a movie named Remote Control.  If you think that’s as far as the meta aspects went, just wait until later in the movie when things got more ridiculous.

The main story of Remote Control began with the introduction of the main characters.  Cosmo (Kevin Dillon) and Georgie (Christopher Wynne) worked at a video rental store.  They had just received a shipment of VHS copies of Remote Control, and were setting up a display to showcase these new arrivals.  Customers were going crazy for the movie.  Everyone wanted a copy.  Allegra James (Jennifer Tilly) got her hands on the last copy and signed it out before Victor (Frank Beddor) could.  Cosmo tried to convince Allegra to take a different movie because he wanted to make Victor’s girlfriend, Belinda (Deborah Goodrich), happy.  He was interested in her, even though she had a boyfriend.

The five main characters were set up in this scene.  But there was something else about the scene that was worth noting.  Nostalgia was a big theme throughout the movie, and a little bit of unintended nostalgia came out of the rental store setting.  Rental stores are mostly a thing of the past.  People prefer to stay home and stream their movies off of sites like Netflix.  There’s no waiting in lines, no needing to have awkward conversations, and no worrying that the movie you want isn’t in stock.  You just browse, find something you like, and watch it.  All of this is from the convenience of your home.  Nostalgia can come up with the video rental stores because of the human interaction that came with them.  It was a way to meet people that lived around you and talk about similar interests in movies.  It was as much about the browsing with people as it was about getting the movies.  There was a community in the video rental stores, particularly the independently owned ones.  The people were friendly, the atmosphere was everything a movie lover would want, and you always went back wanting more.  Blockbuster changed that, and Netflix demolished it.  Because of all of that, watching this 1988 movie brought back nostalgia for the days when selecting a movie was a community experience.

When Georgie found another movie that Allegra wanted to watch, Cosmo convinced him to visit Allegra’s house and ask to watch it with her.  He was being a wingman for his friend.  They headed over to Allegra’s house.  Vincent had already shown up, wanting the Remote Control tape for himself.  Cosmo and Georgie peeked in the window and saw Vincent choking Allegra.  They thought it was some sort of sex thing.  Allegra’s next door neighbour yelled at the duo for peeping, which would cause a lot of trouble for them during the rest of the movie.  They fled, and Vincent ended up killing Allegra and her family as a result of the movie’s power.

I’m going to skim over a bunch of stuff right now because it can be condensed.  We have passed the setup of the movie.  The characters are in place.  The story is in place.  The different obstacles for Cosmo, Georgie, and later on, Belinda are in place.  What you need to know is that the movie Remote Control had the ability to control people’s minds and turn them into murderers.  Oh, and also that peeping thing came into play because when the police found Allegra and her family killed, it made Cosmo and Georgie the prime suspects.  The next day while working at their video store, the police showed up, kicked everyone out, and arrested them.

The bulk of Remote Control was Cosmo, Georgie, and Belinda trying to destroy every VHS copy of Remote Control that they could find.  Cosmo and Georgie escaped from the police when one of the officers saw the movie, killed his partner, and attempted to kill Cosmo.  They immediately found Belinda and kidnapped her because Cosmo knew Vincent was the killer.  Cosmo convinced her of the danger of Remote Control and they went from video store to video store to destroy every tape that had been distributed.

One of the more interesting things about this section of the movie was the wide array of movie posters that could be seen in the stores.  Surely, some of the movies were made up for Remote Control.  That usually happens in movies with video rental stores.  It prevents the need to pay to use someone’s imagery.  Not all of the movies were made up, though.  There was one recognizable poster because it was a movie I have seen.  It was a movie that was featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  It was Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  I saw that poster in one of the rental stores and got super excited that one of the movies being covered would have the poster for another movie that has been covered.

At the last of these stores, the movie kicked into its next section.  The trio of heroes found the distribution company for the movie and headed over to the production factory to put an end to the problem.  They pretended to be filmmakers looking a distributer for their newest movie.  The man running the building brought them up to an operation room where they saw how the Remote Control tapes were made.  Cosmo, Georgie, and Belinda attempted to stop the production but were prevented from doing so by the people working there.  A fight broke out, Georgie was shot, and the three ran away.

This was where Remote Control got even more meta.  When the producers showed Cosmo and crew a part of the movie, it was almost exactly what they were experiencing.  The only difference was that what they were seeing was 1950s science fiction, while they were experiencing it in real life.  When the three of them escaped the room, the “master controller” guy watched the movie to see what they would do next.  Everything that was happening in the real world of Remote Control happened in the 1950s science fiction movie Remote Control.  Except for Georgie.  There was no Georgie surrogate in the 1950s version.

Cosmo destroyed the entire production plant when he crashed a forklift into some explosive tubes.  This sequence was intercut with footage from the 1950s Remote Control as whoever was the hero of that movie drove a forklift into explosive tubes.  Cosmo and Belinda escaped the warehouse, but Georgie had passed away moments earlier from his gunshot wound.  The danger was almost over, but there were a couple more tapes that needed to be destroyed.  Cosmo and Belinda headed off to destroy the tapes that had been rented out of the different stores.

Everything was tied together in a final sequence where the pair went to Vincent’s house to get the final copy of the tape.  They encountered Vincent who was being controlled by Remote Control and fought for their lives while coming under the influence of the movie themselves.  Vincent, in one last bit of meta quality for the movie, spelled out how the ending was going to happen, and then fought to the end of his life against Cosmo.  Cosmo then played right into what Vincent was saying by becoming entranced in Remote Control’s possessive qualities and attempting to kill Belinda.  He overcame the power of the movie and destroyed the final copy before he could kill Belinda.  They went off happily together, though I have a feeling they didn’t stay together in the end.  That’s just me though.

One final scene capped off the movie.  Like any horror movie, particularly from the 1980s, there needed to be that final scene to set up a potential sequel.  That sequel never came, but the scene was there all the same.  The sole survivor of the production warehouse explosion went outside to his car and found a copy of Remote Control that he had stashed away.  He said that it was not over and the movie ended.

So that’s the movie.  That’s Remote Control.  It’s a movie that felt of the time while feeling ahead of its time.  Meta concepts like that wouldn’t hit the mainstream in a big way until the mid-1990s.  It would be interesting to see Remote Control made now, with meta concepts being more popular, and video rental stores having disappeared for the most part.  The movie could be going through streaming services which would add a new twist to the idea and give a refreshing update that would be justified.  Not that the original is all that bad.  But it would be cool to see a modern take.

Remote Control was a movie of its time and of the past all at once.  It called back to the 1950s while being a 1980s science fiction horror movie.  There’s a lot to like about it.  However, not a lot of people know about it or care about it.  It’s an almost forgotten gem of the 1980s that made it into the Sunday “Bad” Movies based on nothing more than not having an audience.  Remote Control is a lot of fun if you just go with it.

Let’s get some notes and then get out of here:

• Remote Control was suggested by @thenickisaac, who has also suggested D.E.B.S., Drop Zone, and Mom and Dad Save the World.
• I mentioned last week’s post, which was for a movie called Squanderers.
• The poster for Hamburger: The Motion Picture was featured in Remote Control.
• Tad Horino made an appearance in Remote Control.  He was also in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.
• Two actors from Halloween:The Curse of Michael Myers were in Remote Control.  They were A. Michael Lerner and George P. Wilbur.
• Al Eisenmann returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Remote Control, after being in Theodore Rex.
• Finally, John Lafayette was in Remote Control.  He had previously been in Jaws: The Revenge.
• Have you seen Remote Control?  What did you think of it?  What did you think of the meta layers within it?  Let me know in the comments.
• You can also let me know what movies I should check out for the Sunday “Bad” Movies in the comments or my Twitter timeline.  I’m always looking for something I might not otherwise know.  Sometimes I find movies like Remote Control that I like.  Find me, tell me, and maybe I’ll watch the movie.
• When I’m watching bad movies, I sometimes like to put clips of them up on Snapchat.  I sometimes put other stuff up there too.  If you want to see this stuff, add me.  jurassicgriffin.
• I’m excited for next week.  I probably won’t like the movie as much as this week’s movie, but that’s okay.  I’ll be diving back into the world of The Asylum.  It’s been a while since I dipped into that pool.  In fact, the last time I saw a movie from The Asylum was Little Dead Rotting Hood way back in October.  It’s nearing a year.  Wow.  Next week’s movie is going to be a western called 6 Guns.  This should be good.  See you then.