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The town that dreaded sundown. (2014) I'm not the greatest fan of remakes but I have to admit that I was quite intrigued by the idea of this one. The original, directed by Charles B Pierce tends to split opinions. Personally I love it but even I admit the film is usually mis-sold to the public as some kind of slasher when in reality its more a true crime pot-boiler that takes occasional liberties with the subject matter. People coming to it are often quite disappointed given they sit down expecting a more formulaic and bloody stalk n' slash. What pleased me most with this 're-make' is rather than simply re-tread the original film, here the original exists and is a Texarkana halloween regular at the drive-in where kids get thrills from the on-screen mayhem while other residents protest, feeling its making light of the towns sad history. This Halloween however the killer has returned and is hell bent on re-creating the killers mayhem. The big question being is it a copy cat, the ghost of the original killer or something else. This remake certainly deserves recognition for originality, and the film even manages to raise some interesting questions about the films place in local folk-lore, the re-packaging of tragedy as entertainment and the impact of the towns legacy on its young. The film is stylishly shot, including a lengthy tracking shot at the drive in that's pretty impressive. Perhaps too stylish in places the camera trickery and editing feel a little too 'showy' as if the film is a product of someone fresh out of film school after writing endless dissertations on Orson wells. In other places the film falls a little flat and the quality of the digital image is a little too perfect. Overall the film is perhaps a little too flawed, it veers more into slasher territory than its predecessor, but is too flat and uneven to work as it should. I would recommend giving it a shot as it certainly ranks as an impressive and interesting failure and certainly not as unwatchable as the fog or nightmare on elm street remakes. No contest. Followed up the interesting and somewhat mixed town with a film that pretty much delivers perfectly on what it promises and a good thing too Channel 5 and late night sky tv queen Shannon tweed, cause of many a taxi drivers blush at the video store, plays an ex-martial arts movie star hosting a beauty pageant. Before anyone can shout 'tits oot.' A bunch of crooks have taken the building hostage and its up to Shannon, ably assisted by Andrew 'dice' clay and Robert davi. The crooks are mainly a bunch of misogynistic pigs, worst of all being the thug played by wrestling star Roddy piper and pretty soon Tweed finds herself playing John Mclane against the bad guys. No contest is shallow sexist guff peppered with mindless violence and hot women. In other words its excellent! My only gripe is the lack of nudity, a real mystery when Shannon tweed is involved, but the film cracks by at a quick pace and its marvellously entertaining in its violent stupidity. Anyway... shall be starting halloween night with two classics... satans little helper.jpg hell night.jpg Then its either phantasm or some bava... decisions decisions.... |
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Wolfcop Not as quite as good as I was expecting but still a lot of fun. Small town inept and alcoholic cop is turned into a werewolf one night and sets out to clean up his town. Not saying much more as it will spoil the story. Acting not great but it doesn't matter in a movie like this. The werewolf effects are a little hit and miss at times but nice that they didn't use CGI. Also some good gore and black comedy. Sure to become a cult classic. Can't wait for wolfcop 2. 8/10 Halloween 3 season of the witch Gets a bad rap and not hard to see why, people were expecting another "Halloween" and so ended up disappointed, also the pace is a bit off and it can't make up its mind what type of film it is, is it a thriller,a horror or sci fi. But it still very enjoyable and creepy. The scene were the family are experimented on is partially creepy espically if you don't like creepy crawlies and snakes. Will never be considered a classic but still a decent little movie that might of be better received with a differnt title. 7/10 All Hallows' eve A low budget anthology film It's halloween night and a girl is babysitting a brother and sister. The brother finds a VHS tape in his bag, so they decide to watch it. The 3 story's are loosely connected by a creepy clown. While watching it strange things start to happen. First story is about some women kidnapped by some demon type creatures, second a woman is stalk by a space creature that looks like a reject from classic doctor who and the last being set in a gas station. Dispite it's low budget and poor acting I found myself enjoying it. It's obvious the makers of the film have a passion for the genre and they are little nods towards classic movies, ie a young female babysitter looking after two young children a boy and a girl on Halloween night just like Halloween. 6.5/10 Now watching Halloween, going to give its score in advance as its pretty obvious what it's going to get. 10/10. Will be saving nightbreed and amitivillie 2 for tomorrow night along with part 2 of Halloween. Watching Halloween has put me in the mood for the classic thing from another world so if not too tired when it finishes will be watching it :halloween: Last edited by trebor8273; 31st October 2014 at 10:21 PM. |
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Satan's little helper. After years of inactivity, out of the blue a New Jeff Lieberman film turned up on the shelves at work. Lieberman had made some corking films such as Blue sunshine, Just before Dawn and Squirm before seemingly disappearing. Then suddenly we get an almost perfect little low-budget Halloween movie. It's Halloween night and a young boy obsessed with a video game satan's little helper, spies a stranger posing a corpse out on a porch, assuming its Satan the little kid decides to be his helper not realising he's a deranged killer on the loose. SLH offers incredibly well delivered black comedy and a fantastic, dialogue free performance from the actor playing Satan. Plus how many films get to utter the line "jesus is satan!" A must view on halloween for me. Hell night. A somewhat neglected 80's classic where a bunch of frat kids stay overnight in a spooky old house only to find out the old stories about it are true. One of the best non exorcist Linda Blair films outside of Savage streets, Hell night does nothing original but does it well. Its a fun and brisk 90 minutes of fun that stands re-watching well. |
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I thought this was utterly wretched. Really slow, uninteresting cheap rubbish. Felt depressed at the fact this was by Lieberman. Maybe it's good one day of the year...maybe... |
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the final movie in my Halloween week: The Shining (1980) Great movie with some great cinematography but my chief complaint about the film lies with Jack Nicholson who typically hams it up. Here he plays the same character he plays in all his movies, that of 'Jack Nicholson'. In fact you could interchange the characters of Jack Torrance and Jack Napier in their respective films and still have 'The Shining' and 'Batman'.
__________________ Alea iacta est." |
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