Review of Strangeland (1998) by Robin W — 22 Jul 2010

Years before Rob Zombie made a successful transition from heavy metal star to horror filmmaker, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister fame decided to make an attempt at it by writing and starring in his own bizarre horror project; despite this being first attempt at writing a screenplay, I guess they considered him prestigious enough to put his name above the title and call it "Dee Snider's Strangeland".

I do have to give Snider credit for being ahead of his time with the movie's set-up, involving teenage girls being lured by a predator posing as a teenage boy in a chat room on the Internet; even though this is a fairly common and well-known problem today, this was a pretty fresh idea in 1998.

However, despite the strong set-up, Snider isn't much of a storyteller as his screenplay basically just consists of a 45-minute storyline repeating itself; the first half involves Snider's "Captain Howdy" character kidnapping the protagonist's daughter before being arrested, and the second half just consists of him being released and doing the exact same thing all over again! Snider's performance as Captain Howdy is also hit-and-miss and his acting skills leave a lot to be desired, but I do give the movie props for its hilariously ironic casting of Robert Englund as a vigilante parent who tries to murder Captain Howdy and only winds up unleashing his wrath.