It’s safe to say that if the long-rumored sequel/reboot ever comes to fruition, it won’t come close to the original’s reported budget of $1.1M. Strangeland features numerous locations, hundreds of extras, actual fire, and a cast of characters that includes names like Robert Englund, Amy Smart, Robert LaSardo, and Dee Snider himself. It’s not as extreme as you might remember, but it’s still quite the rush (get it?). There’s also genital piercing, hardcore suspension, all sorts of weird skin-puncturing sequences, and a good ol’ fashioned lynching. So… Robert Englund dances for a marionette of his murdered wife in his underwear. As you can imagine, I was pretty popular back then. I remember buying the soundtrack to Strangeland back when CD stores still existed in the mall. The soundtrack is literally a time machineĬoal Chamber? Bile? Snot? Sevendust? If those names don’t get you amped, then we definitely weren’t friends in middle school. In fact, his turn as the empathetic Carleton Hendricks is arguably one of the better stints of the film. Most of the dialogue is absurd, but Captain Howdy remains a unique, thought-provoking, and, dare I say, poetic figure even in 2019. Dee Snider’s performance is genuinely good Or if, for whatever reason, you’ve never seen it all. It’s 90s AF, but there’s a HD version available on iTunes if it’s been a while since you last revisited it. Strangeland even thumbs its nose at law enforcement’s inability to keep up with budding technology–a problem that remains true today. It’s 90s as fuckĬhat rooms, nu-metal, and mentions of pagers color a script that feels strangely relevant in a world where online dating has become the new norm. You see, I have a particular soft spot for Strangeland, so when I saw Modern Horrors’ own Final Girls were diving into it as part of their listener request month, I knew it was time to revisit the strange world of body modification and Xibalba once again. The image of a young woman with her mouth sewn shut practically begged my brother and I to ask our mom to rent it for us, and of course she did. There was a brief moment in 1998 when few films on the video store shelf caught your attention quite like Dee Snider’s Strangeland.