Friday Flix: October 1982

The year is flying by and we are in October. A month when horror movies should rule the box office.

There’s a decent amount of movies released in October 1982, but I only saw two of them. There’s a big name horror franchise movie and a couple smaller horror movies.

One of my favorite movies was also released this month, an action movie, not horror.

Let’s jump into the movies of October 1982.

Movies from October 1982

First Blood

The one that started it all. John Rambo, the wandering loner. First Blood isn’t the adrenaline fueled action movie like the sequels that followed. It’s a movie with serious undertones of mental health and PTSD. It’s still an action movie and a great one.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) travels to the Pacific Northwest to visit an old Army buddy. He discovers that his friend died a few years earlier from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. Rambo is depressed and heads to town to get a bite to eat.

While Rambo is waling into town Sheriff Teasle (Brian Dennehy) sees him and offers him a ride to the outskirts of town and tells him there is a nice diner 30 miles up the road. Rambo refuses to leave and Teasle arrests him.

Once Rambo is getting processed in the local jail flashbacks of Vietnam give a clue of Rambo’s mental state.

I could go on and on about First Blood. You can hear Jason, Eric and I talk about the greatness of First Blood on the TRN Drive-In podcast. It’s worth listening to for all the great behind the scenes tidbits and trivia.

First Blood is a fantastic movie and one of my favorites. Roger Ebert gave it 3 out of 4 stars saying “a very good movie, well-paced, and well-acted not only by Stallone … but also by [Richard] Crenna and Brian Dennehy”.

First Blood made over $51 million in the US and went on to earn over $125 million worldwide.

You can watch First Blood on HBO Max.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

This movie is severely underrated. It received tons of flack for not bringing back the main villain, Michael Myers as the bad guy. Creator John Carpenter’s originally vision for the Halloween movies wasn’t a recurring boogeyman, it was an anthology series set around Halloween night with new cast and stories in every movie.

Halloween III was the first step toward that end. Unfortunately it wasn’t well received and Myers was brought back for in the fourth installment, aptly named Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

I love Halloween III, it’s one of my favorite in the franchise. Even though it is usually a footnote when the franchise is mentioned. Sometimes it’s left off the list completely.

In Halloween III the Silver Shamrock corporation is producing killer Halloween masks. Each mask has a microchip and a fragment of stone from Stonehenge. When the microchip is activated the mask kills the person wearing it and anyone nearby.

The head of Silver Shamrock wants to bring back the old pagan ritual of sacrificing children on Halloween night. In order to get all the kids wearing the masks at the correct time he stages a big giveaway.

He markets the giveaway so the children will wear the masks while watching the commercial for the giveaway. The flashes during the commercial will activate the microchips and kill everyone.

Overall it’s a good movie. I’ve been singing the Silver Shamrock song for the last 40 years!

Happy, happy Halloween
Halloween, Halloween
Happy, happy Halloween
Silver Shamrock

Fun Fact: Legendary stuntman Dick Warlock (what a great name) plays the android assassin in Halloween III. He also played Michael Myers in Halloween II. Warlock was the personal stunt double for Kurt Russell for 25 years and has over 200 credits on IMDb.

You can watch Halloween III: Season of the Witch on Peacock.

Other movies released in October 1982

Here is the list of movies released in October 1982.

Android was voted the best Sci-Fi movie of 1982 by a few newspapers. I may add it to my watch list.

Split Image is directed by Ted Kotcheff. He also directed First Blood.

Q and The Sender are two horror movies I missed over the years. The Sender is regarded as one of the best horror movies of 1982. Bold statement considering, Poltergiest, Creepshow and The Thing were also released in 1982. I’m going to watch it an see if it’s the best of ‘82.

The Sender is also an inspiration for A Nightmare on Elm Street. Wes Craven is a known fan of Thomas Baum; Baum wrote The Sender. Craven has never explicitly said The Sender influenced his Nightmare movie franchise.

If you’ve seen any of them let me know in the comments below.

While I only saw two of the movies in October 1982 they are both great. Halloween III is underrated but has gotten a little more respect over the years. I like the idea of John Carpenter making a horror anthology series. The world wasn’t ready, but it could have been good.

When it comes to Rambo movies First Blood isn’t usually the first one that gets reference. It’s usually Rambo: First Blood Part II, the action packed sequel. First Blood may not have had as much action but it was just as good, maybe better. My friends and I all wanted to be Rambo. I even had a knock-off Rambo survival knife. I still own it today.

What are your favorites from October1982?

Let us know in the comments below. Or you can tag us on Twitter. The main channel is @TRNSocial and I’m @MileHighSamurai

Next week we’ll look at October1987.

Until then the balcony is closed.