When you're a kid, you don't always have control of what you get exposed to. I'd seen this movie when I was like... 6 or 7? Suffice to say, it left an imprint on me at that age. I always thought Eddie Furlong was the coolest. He had that bad-boy teenage drama that I always envied. Girl problems, a misfit way of life, and an otherwise seemingly dope lifestyle.

He plays "Michael", and Michael's room always seemed like a cool place to me. He lived in the attic with a lot of "cutting edge" mid-90s technology, and even his own damn refrigerator up there. I was always kind of fascinated with that aspect of his life. Plus, his dad was never around, so he basically lived by himself. I always thought it would be cool to live in an attic room like that, but in real life, most attics are just cramped spaces with itchy insulation.

A lot of the movie is centered around horror fandom. It's very much a Fangoria-inspired movie, and the horror genre itself is obviously a major part of it. Michael runs a "Horror Club" at school where he would screen splatter flicks. Anyone ever watched horror flicks in school? Let alone on a regular basis? It's got to be a sweet life for Michael.

The writers needed to give Michael a handicap in order to balance the universe, so they gave him a leg injury. I distinctly remember being terrified of that brief scene of knee gore, always fast-forwarding that scene when I watched it on tape. A recorded tape that was borrowed from a neighbor and never given back. Of course, that gore scene is very brief and tame by today's standards, but I still felt unsafe watching it.

This movie is very much a time capsule of the horror culture in the 90s. It isn't necessarily a great movie, but I've always loved it, even if that Trickster guy isn't as cool as he thinks he is. He's like a really ugly version of an 80s glam rocker, but he has his moments. Langella doesn't do much in the movie, but I appreciate his presence nonetheless. And the protagonist's friend "Kyle", I always recognized that guy in a Halloween M&M's commercial. If that's all he ever did, I would count that as a fulfilling life.

IMDb Trivia:

Director John Flynn did not get along with Edward Furlong during filming. He later recalled, "Eddie Furlong was a 15-year-old kid who couldn't act. You had to slap him awake every morning. I don't want to get into knocking people, but I was not a big Eddie Furlong fan."

Edward Furlong's aunt Nancy Tafoya and half brother Sean Furlong lost custody of him to his mother in 1993, after the duo consistently fought with Furlong during the filming of this movie.