When Scream was released in the 90's everyone called it groundbreaking because of it's self-referential style and it's horror movie-loving characters. The people who said that obviously never saw two (admittly seldom seen) 80's films, There's Nothing Out There and Evil Laugh. Laugh, released in 1988 was the first of those films and it should have been given the credit that Scream reaped. Why didn't it get the same attention? Well, probably because it wasn't as good of a movie. But Evil Laugh is still good and it's place in horror history should not be forgotten.

Evil Laugh tells the story of a group of friends who are helping a professor renovate an old house which, years earlier, served as an orphanage before a psycho killed all the children... or almost all the children... I bet you can't guess what starts to happen early in the film. If you guess people start to die, then you win your own plate of liver(watch the movie, then it will be funny). The characters are all stereotypes(the jock, the rich kids, the nerd, the sexpot)and they all die in a rather predictible order. What makes the movie enjoyable is the pure weirdness that seeps into almost every scene. Since you've probably seen Scream, the irony of this film will likely seem tired and played out, but you have to remember it came out much earlier. Yes, the actors aren't as pretty and it isn't as slick or stylish, but it was original and that's a hard thing to find when it comes to horror.

The gore effects are pretty lame but that doesn't matter as it plays into the film. As for skin, we get a naked ass(a guys, unfortunately)and a nice set of breasts(a girls, fortunately). There's also some s&m action for you kinky types, but this movie doesn't play up the exploitation factor which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on where you're coming from.

Directed by Dominic Brascia(Joey from Friday the 13th Part 5)and written and produced by Stephen Baio(brother of Chachi, I mean Scott), a duo who teamed up to make a very funny if somewhat uneven film. The acting is cheesy, gore is cheesy, the story is cheesy, hell even the title is cheesy. But it's supposed to be! If you like extra cheese on your horror then you should see this movie.