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Halloween

Started by Bad Ambassador, June 08, 2018, 08:02:50 PM

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Bad Ambassador

I did a podcast on III a while, approaching it in from a positive aspect, and found that it doesn't really hang together at all. It's full of good bits and images, but nothing to really connect them into a satisfying whole. I'm rewatching the whole series at the moment, and II remains a bit step down from the first film - with too much gore - while 4 and 5 are largely cack, 5 particularly.

Big Mclargehuge

Quote from: Malcy on June 11, 2018, 01:27:55 PM
What's the reference?

Theres a bit where Laurie is screaming for all the kids to get inside (I assume its halloween night) and 3 of the kids who run past the camera are all wearing Silver shamrock masks :) blink and you'll miss it but I just liked the fact they acknowleged the movie xD

Big Mclargehuge

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 11, 2018, 01:52:44 PM
I did a podcast on III a while, approaching it in from a positive aspect, and found that it doesn't really hang together at all. It's full of good bits and images, but nothing to really connect them into a satisfying whole. I'm rewatching the whole series at the moment, and II remains a bit step down from the first film - with too much gore - while 4 and 5 are largely cack, 5 particularly.

I think thats a pretty reasonable analysis. Its not a coherent movie but it looks damn good, sounds damn good and has just enough mystery and unexplained elements to make it unnerving and weird. There are moments of H3 that feel genuinely woozy to me. That being said I highly recommend watching this both on Bluray and VHS as both completely alter the vibe and feel of the film.  :)

Though H5 is a pile of shite. jeeesus.

Bazooka

It's been some years, but is Halloween 4 where Myers gets shot to fuck at the end and falls into a well/mine?


Bad Ambassador

That's the one. 5 picks up straight away with him crawling out of the bottom into a river, where he's fished out and tended to for a year by a hermit. This is a real film.

While we all know 6 is the only film to co-star Donald Pleasance and Paul Rudd, don't forget that H20 is the only collaboration between Janet Leigh and LL Cool J.

Big Mclargehuge

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 11, 2018, 02:24:18 PM
That's the one. 5 picks up straight away with him crawling out of the bottom into a river, where he's fished out and tended to for a year by a hermit. This is a real film.

I dont know about you but i'd have MUCH rather seen halloween 5 be nothing more than 90 minutes of the relationship Michael and the hermit built up over the 12 months of care...they lived, they laughed...they maybe even loved. And then Michael would stab him multiple times in the end and go off into a ploom of red mist...

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: St_Eddie on June 10, 2018, 03:53:12 AM
I know what you're saying because believe me, I enjoy my fair share of cheesy horror movies but at the same time, it's possible to make a good horror movie (cheesy or otherwise), without resorting to horrendous stereotypes.  Some things belong in the past and that particular stereotypical trope is one of them.

It saddens me that the media continues to show a complete lack of cognisant awareness and understanding towards mental health disorders (criminal or otherwise).  Mental health stereotypes need to be viewed in the same manor as racial and gender based stereotypes; it's not acceptable.  Fuck the 'cheese' factor.

Eddie, are you saying psychopathic characters in horror films and thrillers are offensive now? I know that the disabled community people have objected to villains often being portrayed in wheelchairs or disfigured.

Mister Six

Quote from: New Jack on June 11, 2018, 01:31:35 PM
Was reading the TV Tropes (I know I know) page and was surprised to learn Carpenter was the producer.

IIRC, Carpenter's original plan for the franchise was for it to be an anthology, with each film being unconnected other than being set on Halloween. Of course, the popularity of the original led to Halloween 2 being a continuation of the Myers story, but Halloween 3 was a return to the original plan - if only temporarily.

That might all be misremembered bollocks, mind you.

Bad Ambassador

That was the plan from III onwards, but it was abandoned after it did poorly. IV would have been a ghost story of some sort, originally.

I think Eddie's issue is that all the cackling weirdos in the asylum are little more than stigmatising the mentally ill. However, it's just a trailer and the scene needs to be seen in context. I don't think he meant psychopaths or Myers himself. My assumption with the series is that the authorities put him in a secure hospital because he was a multiple murderer who was too off-the-scale in behavioral terms for regular prison, not because he fit some definition of psychopathy. There was just nowhere else to put him.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 11, 2018, 02:51:09 PM
I think Eddie's issue is that all the cackling weirdos in the asylum are little more than stigmatising the mentally ill. However, it's just a trailer and the scene needs to be seen in context. I don't think he meant psychopaths or Myers himself.

Bingo jingo.

colacentral

Halloween 3 is probably the only sequel that I'd consider good; the rest are varying levels of shite. It could easily have been directed by Carpenter himself - its vibe feels like a mixture of They Live and The Thing to me, but with the serious tone of the original Halloween. It's not perfect, but what a payoff with the ending.

The original Halloween was a complete story that should have been left alone. The ending confirms that he's no longer human but doesn't explain anything else. You have a brief shot of his face which, rather than taking the mystery away, presents more questions. And the final sequence of shots of houses with the heavy breathing over the top suggests that he could be anywhere now, an effect which is ruined somewhat by having Halloween 2 occur immediately after.

Of all the other sequels, I feel like Halloween 6 (the one with Paul Rudd) might be the best, or rather, the least bad.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 11, 2018, 02:51:09 PM


I think Eddie's issue is that all the cackling weirdos in the asylum are little more than stigmatising the mentally ill. However, it's just a trailer and the scene needs to be seen in context. I don't think he meant psychopaths or Myers himself. My assumption with the series is that the authorities put him in a secure hospital because he was a multiple murderer who was too off-the-scale in behavioral terms for regular prison, not because he fit some definition of psychopathy. There was just nowhere else to put him.

Ah I see now. Thanks. I completely agree that any film that depicts an asylum that has a small cackling man (preferably on a child's tricycle), an angry starey eyed woman with witch's hair and a big ugly bald bloke banging his head against a wall with a daytime gameshow on the communal TV should fuck off now.

New Jack

He's The Shape. I like him being that, his transformation is complete. He's no longer the star of Wayne's World. He's the Shape. Sinister, lurking, unknowable, unfathomable, not even the merest shred of identity left - jettisoning his name

I do believe he's called The Shape in the original film credits.

The theme is ace but I LOVE the little burst of whatever it is.. Electronic noise... When he bounds across the car. ('The Shape Escapes', soundtrack fans! Listening to it in my garden on a sunny day and it fits. It fits.)

Like so much great horror, the first one works because its all so fucking quotidian and into this lurks a horrible fear... And that's how fear works, that's how tragedy or terror hurts most. When it's in your neighbourhood, when it bursts into your life. When it's outside your home, when it's prowling your comfortable life.

Actually, I said earlier he shouldn't play tricks, but the sheet on head / ghost scene from the original is a bit like that, when he snuffs the boyfriend and wants to snuff his bird too.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: New Jack on June 11, 2018, 03:02:20 PM
He's The Shape. I like him being that, his transformation is complete. He's no longer the star of Wayne's World. He's the Shape. Sinister, lurking, unknowable, unfathomable, not even the merest shred of identity left - jettisoning his name

I do believe he's called The Shape in the original film credits.

Two actors are also credited with playing Michael as a child and an unmasked adult.

Halloween II was Dana Carvey's first film. He appears near the start as a TV news crew technician.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on June 11, 2018, 03:00:44 PM
Ah I see now. Thanks. I completely agree that any film that depicts an asylum that has a small cackling man (preferably on a child's tricycle), an angry starey eyed woman with witch's hair and a big ugly bald bloke banging his head against a wall with a daytime gameshow on the communal TV should fuck off now.

Indeed.  Stigmatisation of the mentally ill is one of the last acceptable bastions of prejudice within society at large.  Speaking as someone with severe mental health issues, it makes me sick to my very core.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and calm down by riding my child's tricycle around the neighbourhood.

New Jack

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 11, 2018, 03:08:40 PM
Two actors are also credited with playing Michael as a child and an unmasked adult.

Halloween II was Dana Carvey's first film. He appears near the start as a TV news crew technician.

Aye... Michael age 23, is played by Tony Moran

But THE SHAPE is Nick Castle. I like that. He's changed.  He's become!

Is 2 the first time Mike Myers and Dana Carvey were on film together then? Arf

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: St_Eddie on June 11, 2018, 03:09:28 PM
Indeed.  Stigmatisation of the mentally ill is one of the last acceptable bastions of prejudice within society at large.  Speaking as someone with severe mental health issues, it makes me sick to my very core.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and calm down by riding my child's tricycle around the neighbourhood.

A friend of mine is a criminal lawyer who has represented murderers with mental illness and he can't watch any films about serial killers because the portrayals and depiction of police and judicial procedures are so way off the mark it makes him furious.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on June 11, 2018, 03:18:56 PM
A friend of mine is a criminal lawyer who has represented murderers with mental illness and he can't watch any films about serial killers because the portrayals and depiction of police and judicial procedures are so way off the mark it makes him furious.

Absolutely.  The stereotypical depiction of mental health issues in general is bad enough.  However, I've read up on and watched many documentaries about serial killers (who almost always suffer from mental health issues) and the depiction of such people in movies pisses me off as well.  Understanding is the first step to enlightenment but why bother with understanding when you can just paint those afflicted by mental illness (whether they're within the small minority of killers or not) as being freaks and weirdos, completely detached from the norms of human behaviour and emotion.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: St_Eddie on June 11, 2018, 03:25:31 PM
Absolutely.  The stereotypical depiction of mental health issues in general is bad enough.  However, I've read up on and watched many documentaries about serial killers (who almost always suffer from mental health issues) and the depiction of such people in movies pisses me off as well.  Understanding is the first step to enlightenment.

I wonder how this new movie deals with the subject? The graphic novel was very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX8ajObK81A

St_Eddie

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on June 11, 2018, 03:30:17 PM
I wonder how this new movie deals with the subject? The graphic novel was very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX8ajObK81A

It's a great film.  There's one scene towards the end that I didn't care for but other than that, it's bloody brilliant and the portrayal of Dahmer is handled with compassion and objective truth for the most part.

Malcy

Quote from: Big Mclargehuge on June 11, 2018, 01:53:25 PM
Theres a bit where Laurie is screaming for all the kids to get inside (I assume its halloween night) and 3 of the kids who run past the camera are all wearing Silver shamrock masks :) blink and you'll miss it but I just liked the fact they acknowleged the movie xD

Cheers, couldn't see it.

Hundhoon

I'm just glad that Halloween Resurrection from 2002 will not be the last film in the series. always thought that was a really sad way for a franchise to go. it was just nothing... it was one of the worst films I have ever seen, an absolute travesty, it was like they were trying to bring some sort of Scary Movie comedic element into it.  it was a  reality tv show set in the Michael Myers house with Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks.  I remember thinking it did not feel like a horror film, felt like a parody of some sort it was weird.
and the way they killed of Laurie Strode in the mental hospital, Jamie Lee Curtis only did it to fufil some contract with the studio. surprised its taken 16 years to get around to making amends for Halloween Ressurection.

i always liked Halloween H20 however


New Jack

Quote from: Hundhoon on June 11, 2018, 04:30:51 PM
I'm just glad that Halloween Resurrection from 2002 will not be the last film in the series. always thought that was a really sad way for a franchise to go.

Someone's forgetting Rob Zombie's films!

... Lucky bastard

It's all just been like trying to relive the first heroin hit since the 1978 original, which was a one-off whose greatness was unreplicable.

colacentral

Quote from: St_Eddie on June 11, 2018, 03:34:51 PM
It's a great film.  There's one scene towards the end that I didn't care for but other than that, it's bloody brilliant and the portrayal of Dahmer is handled with compassion and objective truth for the most part.

You should be banned from using this word.

New Jack

Quote from: St_Eddie on June 11, 2018, 03:34:51 PM
It's a great film.  There's one scene towards the end that I didn't care for but other than that, it's bloody brilliant and the portrayal of Dahmer is handled with compassion and legitimate truth for the most part.

Fixed!

St_Eddie

Someone should realise that I don't reply to them for a reason and haven't done so for quite a while now.  How about doing likewise for me?  Ta.

colacentral

Quote from: St_Eddie on June 11, 2018, 06:06:25 PM
Someone should realise that I don't reply to them for a reason and haven't done so for quite a while now.  How about doing likewise for me?  Ta.

Believe me, it's taken a Herculean effort to take a deep breath and not reply to most of your bollocks on a daily basis.

All of the sequels have been terrible. Except for Scream.

Shaky

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 11, 2018, 02:24:18 PM
don't forget that H20 is the only collaboration between Janet Leigh and LL Cool J.

I'm confident we'll see more from this pair.