The scene where he is attacked, beaten, and left for dead always bothers me as he really isn’t responsible for the things that his other personality does and in my opinion most of the people in the group that attacks him are just as bad as Howdy is in a lot of ways so I don’t feel too bad for them when he eventually comes after them for revenge. When he is on his meds he is a soft spoken and nervous guy that wouldn’t hurt a fly (hey, a Psycho reference!) and I actually felt sorry for him when the angry mob comes calling for his blood. You can’t help but feel sorry for Hendricks despite the fact that his other personality makes him a sick and twisted individual that enjoys hurting people as he is just as much as a victim in a way as the people that he tortures. Not only is he totally and completely creepy as Howdy, but he is also very good at playing the character’s true personality, which is the sad and pitiful Carlton Hendricks. I always dug the fact that Howdy doesn’t really set out to kill anyone so to speak and is more interested in giving them unwanted piercings, brandings, and other forms of body modifications because in his twisted mind he believes that he is doing them a favor by doing so.ĭee Snider (who also wrote the script) is awesome as Captain Howdy and you can tell that he had a field day playing the character. I think that the premise is pretty cool as well as original, and it works on many levels. They fail to do so and he reverts back to his Captain Howdy persona (he had been taken medication since his trial to keep this personality at bay as he is diagnosed with schizophrenia) and before you know it he’s back to his old tricks as the detective who arrested him (whose daughter was victimized by Howdy) tries in vain to bring his reign of terror to an end for good. In a Freddy Krueger-like moment he ends up not going to prison as the jury finds him not guilty by reason of insanity and he is released, much to the chagrin of the local townspeople who eventually hunt him down and attempt to kill him. After doing it for a while his luck runs out and he finds himself being arrested and sent to trial for his actions. So, our basic premise is that this oddball that calls himself Captain Howdy pretends to be a teen boy and lures teenagers (and some adults) via an online chat room to his home where he proceeds to put them through all sorts of tortures in the name of body modification (he’s really big on painful piercings and one poor young man is on the receiving end of one of these at one point in a scene that never fails to make me wince). While Strangeland is a little out there and isn’t for every taste I always thought that it ruled and believe that it is one of the most underrated horror films of all time for a number of reasons. Of course, the movie differs from the songs in a few ways but in general it is about a guy that uses the chat room handle of Captain Howdy that does some pretty messed up things to people. Years later this became a reality when Strangeland was released in 1998 and I couldn’t have been happier as it was just as awesome as I’d always hoped it would be. When I finally got my grubby little paws on a copy of their album Stay Hungry (on cassette, of course) there were two songs on it that I’d never heard before as they had never been released as singles called “Horror-Teria (The Beginning): Captain Howdy and Street Justice.” These songs told the story of a scary-sounding dude named Captain Howdy that did some pretty horrible things and even in my ten-year-old mind I thought that they would make for a great movie. Review-When I was in the 5 th grade I was really into heavy metal, hard rock, and hair bands, and Twisted Sister was one of my favorites. A deranged man that goes by Captain Howdy lures people to his lair via Internet chat rooms (remember those?) where he subjects them to a number of cruel and painful body modifications.
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