SHANNON’S DRIVE-IN: BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER

Shannon watches the wild suspense movie Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker and ponders what makes this “bad mom” tick.

An orphaned teen finds himself at the center of a murder investigation due to his psychotic aunt’s antics.

Director: William Asher

Writers: Stephen Breimer, Boon Collins, Alan Jay Glueckman

Stars: Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrell, Bo Svenson, Julia Duffy

“See a woman become unhinged as you never have seen before.”

That was the description my friend Paul gave before my first viewing of this little movie called Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker, and I don’t know of anyone who loves this movie more than him.

He was also absolutely right on about Susan Tyrrell’s performance as Aunt Cheryl.

The best reason to watch Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is Tyrell’s bonkers performance as a spinster aunt obsessed with her nephew. Once the sheer insanity of this character starts jerking you around, going from odd maternal figure to screaming murdering psycho, you’ll forget all about Jason’s disturbed mama in Friday the 13^th.

Released in 1981, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker came out at the time when slasher films were surging in popularity. Right after the successes of Halloween and Friday the 13^th, the slasher floodgates opened wide to unleash every bizarre idea ever made, making audiences go wild. The best were the ones that defied explanation and stuck out from the rest using rowdy characters, non-sensical plots, and scenes that were built to raise hell. Even the title of this movie makes no sense, but still better than the less dramatic alternate moniker it goes by, Night Warning.

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker doesn’t get crazy. It starts crazy from the opening scene.

The movie wastes no time introducing Cheryl and her nephew Billy before killing off Billy’s parents in a car wreck involving a logging truck way before Final Destination 2 traumatized audiences years later. A fiery crash ensues and Cheryl is thrust into a guardianship with her nephew and becomes his mother figure.

Years later, a teenaged Billy (Jimmy McNichol) has a lot on his mind, mainly trying to get a scholarship to the college his girlfriend Julie (Julia Duffy) got accepted into. After Cheryl kills a plumber, chaos ensues when local detective Joe Carlson (Bo Svenson) suspects Billy to be the killer. He is also weirdly obsessed with Billy’s sexuality after finding out the victim is gay. Not only that, he’s fixated on everyone else’s sexuality, questioning and accusing Cheryl and Julie of being gay.

As the movie progresses, Cheryl loses her mind more and more, fearing she’s going to lose Billy to Julie and college life. She’s a woman possessed by the fear of abandonment along with a weird, off-putting sexually-coded desire for Billy. It’s weird and gross, but at the same time, her performance is one where you can’t look away. Both Cheryl and Carlson are both despicable people doing very bad things, but it’s these two that drive the film to make it what it is. They’re not subtle at all, both terrorizing the other characters in their own distinct ways.

On the other side though, there’s Billy’s coach Tom Landers (Steve Eastin), a gay man who is the victim of homophobia in this town. It’s an early portrayal of a gay character not as a negative stereotype, but as a positive figure in Billy’s life. While Cheryl and Carlson both believe gay people are “sick,” they themselves are both demented and cruel people, trusting they know what’s right, while Landers is a source of stability, even coming to the rescue by the film’s end.

The last twenty minutes turn into slasher-time as characters run around trying to evade Cheryl and whatever weapons the woman can find. She is a force of nature, never stopping as her sanity unravels without an ounce of shame to be found.

The movie is tawdry and melodramatic, often feeling like a more ridiculous version of a Lifetime movie. Director William Asher helmed a lot of episodes of TV series, could explain the made-for-TV feel of the movie. He also directed a handful of beach party movies in the sixties which makes for a strange twist in his history to go from those to this part-slasher, part-bizarre character study. Maybe he was jumping on the slasher train to make money, or trying out a new genre of movie to see if he could do it. No matter the reason, he succeeded in making a thoughtful and memorable film.

Shannon Grant is a writer, performer, adventurer, and horned cryptid living in the wilds of upstate New York. Her work can be found in many small press anthologies such as A Guide to Useless Sidekicks, Catskill Chaos, and The Lizzie Borden House Anthology. She is currently at work on a vampire novella. When not writing, she can be found haunting drive-in movie theaters, karaoke bars, and looking for ghosts in the woods.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.