Columbia Pictures, 1981
starring: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane and Tracey Bregman
directed by: J. Lee Thompson

the plot: Virginia Wainwright (Anderson) is on the cusp of her 18th birthday, and, while her life looks good on the surface, she carries a dark secret. The teenager returned to school following a terrible accident that killed her mother and caused Virginia to lose most of her memory. Working with her psychiatrist, Dr. David Faraday (Ford), has helped some memories return. But, it’s when she hangs out with her friends—the popular clique at her school known as the “Top Ten”—that other, more tragic memories surface. During a race over an opening drawbridge one night, Virginia begins having flashbacks of her accident. Soon thereafter, she begins to feel as though she’s being stalked by someone, and her friends start disappearing one by one. Virginia pulls closer to her best friend, Ann (Bregman), and the two are left helpless as the Top Ten slowly reduce in numbers. Days before her birthday, Virgina’s father (Dane) is called away on business and Virginia is left home alone. With more and more memories returning to her each day, Virginia soon suspects that she, herself, may be the cause of her friends’ disappearances. Virginia runs to Dr. Faraday for help, but not even the doctor is prepared for the results of the girl’s returning memories. When Virginia’s father returns home, he’s greeted with a grisly sight, and the troubling knowledge that his daughter may well be insane.

why it’s good: “Happy Birthday to Me” was part of the first wave of slasher flicks that came out following the success of “Halloween,” and it’s an overlooked gem of the genre, overshadowed by “Friday the 13th” and the like. It’s a shame, because “Birthday” is an all around pretty good movie, one that’s miles above its brethren. Melissa Sue Anderson (better known as Mary Ingalls from the “Little House on the Prairie” series) gives an unusually strong performance as Virginia, a character who gets put through the ropes more than the typical slasher film victim. It helps that “Birthday” has competent direction from J. Lee Thompson, too. Thompson, an Academy Award-nominated director whose early films included “Cape Fear” and “Guns of the Navarone” (and whose later films included Charles Bronson vehicles like “The Evil that Men Do” and “Death Wish 4: The Crackdown”), can build suspense and create an atmosphere of dread with the best of them. He’s also able to effortlessly switch gears between gory shocks and the everyday lives of the film’s characters. And, while “Birthday” eschews the gratuitous nudity that became a slasher hallmark, it is chock full of gore, including the infamous kebab-through-the-throat scene that ended up adorning “Birthday’s” theatrical posters. There is, of course, a twist ending—mandated by the studio and wholly unrelated to anything else in the movie—but even with that last-minute flub, the movie still holds up.

why you should own it: As with most slasher flicks, unless you’re really into gore, you can skip owning “Happy Birthday to Me” and rent it, instead. However, if you count “Halloween” and the original “Black Christmas” among your favorite horror flicks, “Birthday” is a must own. Sony’s DVD is bare bones; however, because of “Birthday’s” cult status, it’s difficult to imagine that a “special collectors edition” won’t come out in the near future.