FINAL GIRL explores the slasher flicks of the '70s and '80s...and all the other horror movies I feel like talking about, too. This is life on the EDGE, so beware yon spoilers!

Nov 17, 2009

slow on the uptake

So, after all our reminiscing about Summer School, I decided to give it a whirl last night, and whirl we did! Whilst watching the exploits of Larry, the student-turned stripper-turned student, I thought to myself, "Hmm. Whatever happened to that Craig Sheffer? He was in this, and April Fool's Day, and Night Breed...surely he's still working."

Well, kids, the joke is on moi. Apparently there exists an actor named Ken Olandt and he's the one in Summer School and April Fool's Day. It's not Craig Sheffer at all! It never was! Everything I know is wrong! Am I losing my mind? This is totally, like, the opposite of that Spice Girls song "2 Become 1".

At any rate, yes, they've both been working steadily since not being the same person in the 80s.

In other news, man...I just don't fucking get Night Breed.

13 comments:

Frank White said...

Nobody does; it's like the wind, baby.

Cronenberg's pretty scary, though.

Verdant Earl said...

Craig Sheffer will always be Hardy Jenns from "Some Kind of Wonderful" or Joe Kane from "The Program" for me. Always looking way too old to be in high school or college.

SeangSTM said...

He also played Jason Vigo, some poor sap that the Ferengi blackmailed into impersonating Cap'n Picard's son on Star Trek: The Next Generation...

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Jason_Vigo

Ashlee Blackwell said...

I suppose...

Craig Sheffer can easily be mistaken for someone else. Although, that's a mistake I'll never, ever (ever!) make.

You can currently see Craig... well, I just caught his Dracula 2: Ascension appearance. I'm late to the party, true but my rent-a-copy did not want to play ball so I finally found someone gracious enough to put it on youtube. Plus one of the dozen of the Hellraiser films. Again, old but as long as Sheffer's in them, they'll always be fresh to me!

Don't forget Mr. Olandt's buff guy typecast in Leprechaun.

Aaaaand there's another Summer School alumni whose recently made rounds in the horror circuit... C'mon, you know this person...

Unknown said...

Nobody gets Nightbreed.

Stacie Ponder said...

Shawnee Smith goes without saying, having appeared in The Blob shortly after Summer School. Just about the only Summer School alum who really HASN'T worked in horror is the person who started the whole thing off to begin with: Courtney Thorne-Smith.

Chopped Nuts said...

Throw up a picture of David Boreanaz and you've got yourself a trifecta.

David Robson, Proprietor, House of Sparrows said...

NIGHTBREED - The monsters are the heroes, Craig Sheffer is their messiah/Neo, and David Cronenberg is a fine actor.

Other'n that, not much to get.

I wish I liked Clive Barker's movies more.

Stacie Ponder said...

I mean I get the story...to clarify, I meant that I don't get why people like it.

I agree RE: Clive Barker. Other than Hellraiser and Candyman, I don't really dig any of his stuff, although Dread is supposed to be quite good.

tattytiara said...

Clive Barker falls into his own bellybutton and loses the thread too often, but I'll always watch his stuff just to marvel in the flood of creativity. For me Nightbreed was about really cool creature effects and David Cronenberg being really sexy because I had a huge crush on him when I saw it. Plot? Who needed a plot? That was enough for me.

Nik Holmes said...

I was like 'whoah, Craig Sheffer was in Summer School? Well I never!'
I share your confusion, for me Elias Koteas and Chris Meloni. Every time I get them confused, they're even losing their hair in tandem, they confuse me so.

As with most of Barkers work, there were some nice visuals in Nightbreed but the direction was too laboured under it's own grand scale and forgot that a monster movie really should be fun. Cronrnberg was great though.

Unknown said...

What is lame is that it's been so long since you've seen Mr. Shoop chastise those lovable scamps Chainsaw and Dave. But it's ok, I'm sure it won't happen again. :-) What's there not to like about that movie? It did cause me to see the end of Texas Chainsaw Massacre before I had even seen the film. (I was only 12 and a scaredy cat)

Unknown said...

Summer School was all about Chainsaw and Dave, i remember when Chainsaw was dreaming and woke up, his room was awesome with the Friday The 13th posters and stuff. I think of Craig Sheffer and all i can think about is the 10205923815 times the guys watched "The Program" in my old dorm...