Halloween

[Andy Turnbull]

Hopefully this will be better than the two Rob Zombie efforts.

[Andy Turnbull]

Well it was.

So were Kills and Ends both of which I watched today. There were better stories in amongst the mess that made it to screen.

[Pinwig]

I noticed the original one of these is on Netflix at the moment. I don't think I've ever watched it. I've always been a Freddy fan and have all those on blu-ray, but I've never gone further than Halloween 3 with that series (which I know was an experiment in turning the series into unconnected anthologies and doesn't go with the others).

[Andy Turnbull]

I too preferred the Nightmare films, but strap in and Professor Turnbull will take you on the tour of the sequels:

Halloween IV - return of Michael, Dr Loomis decent enough film, great ending,
Halloween V - retcons the great ending, introduces some bollocks lore at the end
Halloween VI - introduces Ant Man to the world, awful cut, the director wanted his name taken off it. There's an assembly cut that makes a bit more sense - tries to fully explain the lore of Michael.
Halloween H20 - ignores everything past 1 and 2 - return of Laurie Strode - written by Scream scribe, reeks of that era
Halloween: Resurrection - reality TV, Busta Rhymes roundhouse kicks Michael - you'd think that would be the lowest point of the franchise but no wait...

Rob Zombie's Halloween - grimy, relentlessly fucking awful and spends a lot of time on pre-Shape kiddie Michael, typical Rob Zombie shite, Malcom McDowell as Loomis
Rob Zombie's Halloween II - the only watchable thing is Malcome McDowell's Loomis. Fucking awful.

Halloween - I quite liked it, a bit needlessly gory for my tastes.
Halloween Kills - germ of a good story, muddied by poor storytelling and people being stupid.
Halloween Ends - again underneath there's a story here, some unintentionally hilarious bollocks.

[Toph]

I don't know which one of the last two it is, but I always thought the basic concept of the entire town finally being done with the psycho slasher bullshit, and rising up against Michael was just insanely clever.
Which I knew would never be executed anywhere near good enough to do it justice.

My job, any time we're carrying a knife, we have to loudly and repeatedly announce "Knife! Knife! Knife!" until we've reached our destination.
...I now need an edit of Halloween where Michael says that.

[Andy Turnbull]

Halloween Kills - and yes it's a bloody good idea, badly executed.

[Pinwig]

Wow. There's quite a lot of them then. I will have to give the first one a go. I tend to shy away from horror films these days.

[The Doctor]

The original Halloween is a genuinely good film. It's not what you would expect.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

The biggest problem with the original Halloween is how many imitators sprung up and aped Carpenter, badly I should add.

The original is an absolute classic, Carpenter on a small budget with limitations really singing, him and Deborah Hill making an absolute masterclass in economy of storytelling, there is no fat in this film. Everything matters and counts.

The sequels...less so.

[Pinwig]

I've never watched Friday 13th either. I like being surprised by films turning out to be something you weren't expecting. First Blood was a good one.

[Andy Turnbull]

Friday the 13th is a lot easier to run through as they are all for the most part - shite.

1 - dated, does have Crazy Ralph, not good
Part 2 - sequel last appearance of Crazy Ralph - less good.
Part 3 - In 3D - hockey mask debuts - 3d gimmick is fun, film is meh
4 - The Final Chapter - Corey Feldman, still meh
5 - A New Beginning - fans hate it, call it the worst, it's not, but it's pish.
6 - Jason Lives - one of the most watchable films, first Kane Hodder as Jason.
7 - The New Blood - he fights Arcee and her daughter - not good
8 - Jason Takes Manhattan - I'd like to say it's the worst.
9 - Jason Goes to Hell - The Final Friday - this is pretty close to the worst.
Jason X - bollocks in space, watchable.
Freddy vs Jason - dumb but watchable movie.
Friday the 13th Reboot - fucking awful.

[Toph]

Only ones I've seen are Jason X and Freddy vs Jason. The latter I was part of a radio promotion audience for, and got to see it a few weeks before it was released, for free.

Fun fact! Freddy vs Jason was also the only Nightmare I've seen!

[Andy Turnbull]

In that case then let me give you the overview:

A Nightmare on Elm Street - genuine classic, Freddy is scary
II: Freddy's Revenge - the role reversal, guy is the scream queen, his GF saves the day, lots of gay subtext. Interesting, but kind of loses it's way. Exploding parakeet.
III: Dream Warriors - the most popular one of the series, Freddy becomes quip machine, still more evil than comedic, not for long.
IV: Dream Master - Freddy becomes the quip machine, the start of the decline
V: Dream Child - pregnancies and Freddy's rebirth, script not finished due to writer's strike when going into production and it shows.
VI: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare - the sad limp ending to the series, 3d, celeb cameos but absolutely pish.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare - very meta, ahead of it's time and an under-appreciated classic.

Freddy v Jason - dumb but watchable.

A Nightmare on Elm Street - wasted the perfect casting of Jackie Earle Haley with a horrible mish mash of scenes from the first 3 with one germ of a good idea which they wasted.

[The Doctor]

Tell us about the Children of the Corn, Andu.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

That is easy.

Children of the Corn - interesting premise, solid.
All sequels - shite
Children of the Corn remake 1 - not good
Children of the Corn remake 2 - downloading but i suspect will be pish.

[Andy Turnbull]

And lo he was correct in that the lastest appearance of He Who Walks Behind The Rows was indeed, pish.

[The Doctor]

Wasn't there a Freddy TV show?

I only recently became aware of the Exorcist TV show.

-Ralph

[Toph]

I think the Nightmare tv show was like Tales from the Crypt, and was an anthology using Freddy as a host.
Or maybe I'm thinking of something else, like the Friday show?

[Andy Turnbull]

Yes and Toph is correct, there were two Freddy centric episodes one showing the origin (before 6) and the other focusing on the daughters of the cop who arrested him in the origin episode.

[Pinwig]

I remember thinking I was missing something special when the Freddy TV show came out because back then there was no way to see it. Was it shown here at all? I think the episodes about Freddy eventually turned up as DVD extras. I'm sure I saw them that way.

[Pinwig]

I concur with Andy's Elm St overview. One and three are definitely the cream. I can happily watch any of them though.

Friday 13th sounds like it would be a slog. I should watch these though. Other series that I've never quite got to.

[Andy Turnbull]

Never on terrestrial TV but Sky had it in the early 90's, there were a couple of VHS's thats how I saw the Freddy origin ep - directed by Tobe Hooper.

[Andy Turnbull]

Nov 29, 2023 21:46:54 GMT Pinwig said:

I concur with Andy's Elm St overview. One and three are definitely the cream. I can happily watch any of them though.

Friday 13th sounds like it would be a slog. I should watch these though. Other series that I've never quite got to.

Same, if they are on I will always watch, but would only go out of my way to watch 1, 3 or New Nightmare.

The Friday films would indeed be a slog, they are beer and company films at best.

[Pinwig]

Ah that's it. I remember now. Sky. That was the reason I knew about it but couldn't see it. I've got the Blu-ray set for those films, which replaced an American DVD box set. The Never Sleep Again documentary is worth watching too.

[Andy Turnbull]

I've seen it and agree.

There's a Friday the 13th equivalent - Crystal Lake Memories, also worth watching.