And like Jigsaw, Howdy is - at least according to his own twisted logic - doing it for their own good he repeatedly claims he is giving them a rite of passage, opening them up to some kind of spiritual experience. Like Jigsaw in the 2004 film Saw, arguably one of the earliest entries in the "splatter film" era, Captain Howdy in Strangeland incapacitates his victims and subjects them to terrifying body horror. Strangeland is definitely one of these movies. Twisted Sister was one of the bands targeted by the Parents Music Resource Center for making "obscene music," which led to Snider testifying in front of the United States Senate.īefore the rise of grisly horror films like Saw or Hostel, some movies were already dealing with themes of captivity, bondage, helplessness, and victimization. Midway through the film, Captain Howdy is captured and declared not guilty by reason of insanity, during which time Snider also plays Carleton Hendricks, a mild-mannered version of the character who wears glasses, cardigans, and puts concealer over his tattoos.īefore his appearance in Strangeland, Snider was already well-known as the frontman and lead singer for Twisted Sister, a heavy metal band popular throughout the '80s. As Captain Howdy, Snider sports tribal tattoos over half of his body, as well as various body piercings and teeth that have been filed to points. Snider plays a modern-day monster going by the handle Captain Howdy who claims he is trying to spiritually improve people by kidnapping them through internet chatrooms and subjecting them to forced body modification.Įven though the film has been widely panned by critics, it developed something of a cult following over the years, especially from people who remember picking it up off a Blockbuster shelf based on its cover art alone.Ĭredited as both writer and producer on the film, Dee Snider also stars as Captain Howdy AKA Carleton Hendricks, a schizophrenic sadist whose online alter-ego delights in kidnapping people and subjecting them to painful and involuntary body modification. It plays on fear of the burgeoning internet and touches upon themes of mental illness, moral panic, and vigilante justice. Written by, produced by, and starring Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider - and inspired by one of the band's songs - Strangeland is an unusual slasher flick steeped in the body modification subculture of the '90s. While Strangeland may not rank as one of the scariest '90s horror movies, that cover - along with its connection to Twisted Sister, one of the leading hair metal bands of the era - was enough to make plenty of people pick it up off the shelf only to be mystified by what they saw when they sat down to watch it. In the days before Saw, Hostel, or other films of their ilk, the image was certainly heady. Anyone who haunted video store aisles in the late '90s looking for horror flicks probably remembers the cover of Dee Snider's Strangeland: bold red and white text over a muted blue photo of a woman with her mouth sewn shut.
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