Remote Control

"As close to home as your VCR".

Now that the whole world is living inside an 80's apocalyptic Animé, the best we can do to save us from certain death is to stay home and do nothing. Yes, you read that right, stay home! do nothing! And more importantly, now that every service has been shut  down (save for the health, food & gas industry thankfully) You can comfortably stream (download, or play) your favorite films from home.

Remote Control is a 1988 80's on steroids horror comedy that I had completely forgotten about had it not being for Richard Clark, a man of culture who's been re-watching the films of Jeff Lieberman lately. 

In a nutshell RC is about a  video store clerk that stumbles onto an alien plot to take over earth by brainwashing people with a 1950's Sci-Fi VHS tape. Obviously, He and his friends race to stop the aliens before the tapes can be distributed world-wide and so on and so forth. 

"Yes, ma'am we have a hardcore porn section".

Product placement.

While Lieberman's past works include more graphic and serious horror storytelling, RC feels like it was made to be enjoyed by the whole family. Ha! it even includes a kid that has to cover his eyes when going through the adult section from Village (the fictional rental store). However, he does take a peek, bad boy! Anyway, Cosmo (Kevin Dillon. Yes, Matt's sibling) works at Georgie's video store, and they do what clerks used to do when people rented movies in glorious VHS tapes. Georgie (Christopher Wynne) brings the latest in home video entertainment: Remote Control! a new old hot flick that is so sure of its success, producers are handing out free copies at every video store in town, and probably, the whole world. Naturally, "free" is a powerful word, so the clients go crazy for a copy of a movie they've never heard of before.

RC features all of the 1980's a e s t h e t i c s people who weren't in the 80's can think of when they watch cyberpunk Animé from the decade. However, and this is coming from a kid that was actually there, what we see is a fluorescent exaggeration of the decade. Yes, we did love fuchsia and every blinding shade of blue, green and red we had back then (these colors are making a comeback anyway) but not everyone dressed like that and although cool, neon signs weren't in every home. However, RC is probably one of the most 80's film to ever come out of the 1980's. Every home in every country had a VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) and rental stores where the tits. Not only Blockbuster was big in their game, but hundreds of small stores around the world. I still have fond memories of the smallest ones which brought the oddest and rarest movies from the Philippines exploitation scene, and tons of B movies that, had it not being for the effort made by the store manager, I would have never heard of these fantastic titles.

We all loved aerobics in the 80s!

8 0 s  a e s t h e t i c s .

To add up to the 80's recipe, RC also features an aerobics scene filled with tight neon lycra suits with the proper soundtrack. Moreover, like a lot of movies and Animé from the decade, they try to bring to the table a futuristic look. For instance, houses look nothing like the actual 80s. Coincidentally, rental stores and houses all have flat screen TVs, and believe you me, they don't look like the very few some Chinese restaurants had for Karaoke purposes, they look a lot like what we have today. In addition, the fact that a videotape comes with a cursed movie that will lead into murder was years ahead of Ringu (the Japanese horror classic featuring Sadako that was later remade into The Ring) So yeah, talk about the future!

Plotwise, Cosmo, Georgie & Belinda (Deborah Goodrich) are your average action trio. Cosmo is the young daredevil, Georgie the more careful adult chicken and Belinda the damsel in distress. On the other hand the bad guy is Victor (Frank Beddor) a tough looking Wall street face that happens to be Belinda's prince charming. 

More cool 80's  a e s t h e t i c s .

it's not a good idea to play the video in front of hundreds, is it?

But, what about the videotape you keep mentioning?

Ah, yes! the videotape! Well, Remote Control is the name of 1950's sci-fi film everyone's been getting free copies of. The movie inside the movie is essentially, a futuristic couple that rents a videotape from the 80's. As soon as the film starts they realize they're inside the movie, or at least that's what they think. The tape seem to posses some kind of hypnotic power that traps their viewers, leading them into murdering whoever is around. Later we discover the film comes from an alien race led by the "Master Controller". Their plan is to empty Earth before they arrival so they can easily settle in.

OK, but how do they produce these tapes if they're not even on Earth yet?

Well, for some reason, Polaris Video, is mass producing the tape because they have to serve their "master controller". Why is that?, no idea. Moreover, why do they carry machine guns? and why the bosses are all Japanese?* Why do workers get to see the video without the murdering side effect? How are they making money out of a film that is given away for free? And last but not least, why are humans serving an alien race that wants us dead?

WTF! we're on candid camera!

Woot!?

While those questions may spoil the fun of the film, they're still valid to a degree. RC is meant to entertain, and considering it was made 33 years ago, it serves more of as a time capsule for those who weren't there, and maybe as a nostalgic piece for those who were there. 

Music wise, the soundtrack neither features top dollar artist from the decade, nor a memorable score that you'd like to own on cassette tape to boost your early morning Walkman walks. 

Audience wise, as above mentioned, RC is a movie for the family. No cursing, no sex, no nudity, no graphic violence, no drugs consumption and not really THAT scary.  

Some trivia before we go about our business:

1. Johnny Depp auditioned for the role of Georgie.

2. Jeff Lieberman slept in the director's trailer during the shooting of all the scenes at the video rental outlet.

3. Kevin Dillon did his own stunts.

4. Jeff Lieberman's first VCR can be seen in the movie.

5. The interior of the Retro club was a set inside of a warehouse.

6.* Jeff Lieberman cast all Asians as the aliens as a tribute to Japanese science fiction movies from the 1950's and 1960's.

7. The black and white film within a film was shot in pre-production.

8. The jacuzzi in the opening scene was only a foot deep.

9. Jamie McEnnan (Cosmo's little brother) was cast because of his remarkable resemblance to Jeff Lieberman when Lieberman was eight years old.

10. The film was released in a limited edition blu-ray and dvd on Jeff Lieberman's official site.

11. When Kevin Dillon's character plays the remote control tape in the video store there are a lot of tapes on top of the VCR, one being Rumble Fish, which his brother Matt Dillon was in. 

 

12. Gerard Christopher, the actor that played Clark Kent/Superman in the Superboy TV show from 1989 to 1992, is the hero in the cursed video.

 

The infamous videotape.

Save the day, save the world.

Overall, Remote Control is a cheesy 1980s horror comedy that serves as a tribute to the Sci-Fi industry from the 50s, and as window to the 80s, for those curious or nostalgic enough. Good fun for the family. Stay home!

Here's the movie trailer: