Day 333: Halloween 3: Season Of The Witch

Halloween 3: Season Of The Witch

I don't remember Halloween being so red

The Halloween movie franchise is Michael Myers. Just like Jason in Friday The 13^th and Freddy Kruger in A Nightmare On Elm Street, it's hard to conceive of a Halloween movie without the blank-faced killer. It actually happened, though, believe it or not. The Halloween movie series was planned to produce a different horror story every year under the Halloween name. Michael Myers was never really supposed to be the face of the franchise. The idea wasn't a terrible one in theory as it would keep the franchise from being boring and predictable. It only happened once though. Could the non-Michael Myers Halloween be that bad as to completely throw out the original plan and go back to the slasher well?

Halloween 3 is a science-fiction horror movie starring Tom Atkins (Maniac Cop, Night Of The Creeps) as Dr. Dan Challis. On October 23^rd, store owner Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry, Re-Animator, The Last Starfighter) is chased down and attacked by mysterious men in suits. He collapses at a gas station , is taken to a hospital, and placed in the care of Dr. Dan Challis. Dan notices that Harry is clutching a jack-o'-lantern mask from the Silver Shamrock toy company. Commercials for the masks have been playing nonstop, advertising some sort of raffle on Halloween night for anyone who purchases a mask. Even Dan's children have the masks. Another man in a suit finds Grimbridge in the hospital and kills him before blowing himself up in the hospital parking lot. Bothered by the incident, Dan begins to investigate the incident with Grimbridge's daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin, Bullets Over Broadway, The Twilight Zone). They travel to the small town of Santa Mira, home of the Silver Shamrock company. The town is practically abandoned other than the factory and it's workers. One night in their motel, a saleswoman for Silver Shamrock notices a small chip that falls off a mask. The chip shoots a laser into her face, burning her horribly and releasing bugs from her mouth. Dan and Ellie, who slept together the night before, receive a tour of the factory from the owner, Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy, Robocop, Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe). Dan sees the men in suits near the factory and also notices Cochran's secretive “finishing” process for the masks. What does Conal Cochran have planned with his killer masks and will Dan be able to stop him in time?

"No, I'm not happy with my long-distance rates!"

Well, this is a pretty huge departure from the first two Halloween movies. And I mean that in more ways than one. Gone is the slasher theme, the large amount of gore and violence, the pacing, the fear, and just about everything that made the first two Halloween movies so good. I understand the desire to separate the third movie and I don't really have a problem with wanting to do something different. I have a problem with a story that is so convoluted it makes my head hurt. It's as if three or four different horror movies were blended together and someone forgot to have things make sense. I thought the movie was going to be something about supernatural masks that kill the wearers, but instead we have a goofy sci-fi plot with some magic thrown in for the hell of it. Cochran's plan is as confusing as it is silly. I still have no idea why the men in suits were needed in the movie, adding a strange and unnecessary subplot.

The first two Halloween movies had a lot of suspense and plenty of fears. Halloween 3 has neither. The middle is incredibly slow and devoid of atmosphere. There isn't much in the way of scares either. The movie is strictly by-the-numbers and, if not for the Halloween name, would probably have been lost to the campy 80's horror dustbin a long time ago. Co-writer John Carpenter manages to get in plenty of social commentary, taking shots at commercialism, consumerism, and marketing. It's good commentary that makes sense, though it comes wrapped in the extremely annoying theme music for Silver Shamrock's commercial. The acting is ok, but nothing special. Tom Atkins plays his usual tough and gruff self, which would have been fine if his character was a police officer or investigator. Instead, he's a doctor, but never really acts like it. The one truly good thing the movie does is the ending. I don't think I've seen a movie where I hated 99% of it, but loved the last 20 seconds. Those last 20 seconds were everything the movie wasn't. It was intense to the point where I was literally leaning forward in anticipation.

This calls for Green Jelly's "Rock And Roll Pumpkin"

Switching things up in Halloween may have been full of good intentions, but it ended up damaging the franchise to the point where they decided to just stick with Michael Myers. Halloween 3 did poorly at the box office and for good reason. The movie is simply not good. The story is all over the place, a hodge-podge of different ideas that don't work. There isn't a lot of action and almost no suspense or fear. The social commentary is good, but heavy at times. The movie isn't a total loss as the masks are cool to look at and the ending is intense. Sometimes it's good to mix things up, keeping a franchise fresh and interesting. Of course, having a good story helps.

3.5/10

Day 305: Halloween

Halloween

Who wants pumpkin pie?

C'mon, like I was going to review any other movie on Halloween. Sex In The City did cross my mind, but even I can't handle that type of unspeakable horror. While not the first in the slasher genre (Both Black Christmas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre predate it), Halloween propelled the idea to the next level, spawning countless knock-offs, remakes, and sequels. It also helped make John Carpenter a household name in the world of horror. While Halloween was not intended to be a franchise based on Michael Myers, the character proved to be so popular that when the third Halloween had nothing to do with the killer, audiences reacted negatively. Rather than randomly picking a movie out of the franchise and possibly suffering through the one with Busta Rhymes, I figured it's best to start at the beginning.

Halloween is a 1978 slasher horror film written and directed by John Carpenter (They Live, The Thing). The movie stars Jamie Lee Curtis (Trading Places, True Lies) as teenager Laurie Strode and Donald Pleasance (Escape From New York, Prince Of Darkness) as Dr. Sam Loomis. On October 31, 1963 in Haddonfield, Illinois, a young boy named Michael Myers brutally murders his sister with a butcher knife. Michael is sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium where he is placed under the care of Dr. Loomis. For almost fifteen years, Michael remains in an almost catatonic state, showing no emotion and never speaking. The night before Halloween, Michael escapes the sanitarium and Dr. Loomis desperately tries to track him down, believing he will head back to his childhood home. The next day, high school student Laurie Strode continuously has the feeling that she is being watched and followed. She is unaware that Michael Myers is the one stalking her. That night, Laurie babysits a young boy named Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews, Halloween II, The Great Santini) while her friend Annie (Nancy Kyes, Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog) babysits a young girl named Lindsay Wallace. Tommy is constantly afraid that the boogeyman is going to get him, but Laurie reassures him that there is no boogeyman. Dr. Loomis combs the streets with the local sheriff, searching in vein for Michael, who is going around the neighborhood killing people. Annie goes to see a boy and drops Lindsay off with Laurie, but is soon murdered by Michael. Will Dr. Loomis be able to stop Michael in time before he gets to Laurie and the kids?

It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a JESUS, LOOK AT THAT KNIFE!

This is the movie that started it all for slashers and it did so on the strength of it's story, not with a big budget or fancy effects. Made for around $325,000, Halloween manages to be scary and thrilling without the use of gimmicks. Carpenter weaves a story that is entirely realistic which helps give the movie a scary credibility. Setting the events in the suburbs and in people's homes brings the fear straight to the audience. The atmosphere is dark without drifting off into fantasy. The music is probably one of the most lasting parts of the movie. Everyone knows the classic theme music, but it's the simple 2-note piano throughout the film the truly creates tension. We know something is going to happen, just not what or when or where. The movie has a good amount of action with some fun and unique kills. There is a decent amount of blood, but nothing compared to today's movies. There are some truly great scenes like when Laurie continuously finds bodies in the house and when she fights Michael at the end.

The character of Michael Myers is the manifestation of all our fears. He is unstoppable in his singular goal of murder. There is no reasoning with him, no pleading for your life. He does not speak and his featureless mask (a modified Captain Kirk mask) allows the audience to project whatever they want onto the killer. Carpenter does a great job of drawing the audience in at the beginning and then paying off when it comes to the action. Jamie Lee Curtis is very good in her role and comes off as a believable heroine at the end. The movie does run into a little bit of trouble with the “annoying kid” factor, but so much is going on that it's easy to ignore. Donald Pleasance is great as Dr. Loomis, exuding an air of urgency while still remaining level-headed. It's his steely resolve that makes his mission seem all the more important. If he was frantic and terrified, it would have made the movie cartoonish and silly. Thanks to Carpenter's writing, the characters are all believable and enjoyable to root for.

Paper beats rock, gun beats giant butcher knife

While it wasn't the first slasher, Halloween may be one of the most important horror movies. It is proof that you don't need a big budget to make a lot of money and have an impact on future generations. The story is highly enjoyable and treats the audience as equals. Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis are both very good in their roles and help make the movie more complete. The action is solid and the kills are fun to watch. The movie has the right kind of atmosphere, thanks largely to the great, simple music. While a little tame compared to today's standards, Halloween still has a lot of frights and a genuine feeling of horror. Once you're done trick or treating and partying, turn off the lights, curl up on the couch and watch the horror classic.

10/10

Day 188: Sorority House Massacre

Sorority House Massacre

Phi Beta Whoa, Mama

If you only watched horror movies from the 80's, you'd think serial killers were terrorizing sexy girls at every turn. You would think there were horrible mass murders going on in every location imaginable. The 80's were practically a massacre jamboree. Even when “Massacre” wasn't in the title, like Sleepaway Camp for example, you still knew what it was. Crazed killer slashing his way through a bunch of supporting cast members trying to get to one specific character. Despite this cliché, many of these movies were and are still fun to watch. Of course, those are more well-known “Massacre” movies. How about one that sounds like it would fit right in, but you may not have seen.

Sorority House Massacre is a 1986 slasher starring Angela O'Neil as Beth, a young college girl who just joined a sorority. When she moves in to the sorority house, she begins to have strange, realistic dreams involving murder inside the house. She is unaware that as a child, her brother Bobby (John C. Russell, killed their family inside the very same house and was committed to a mental institution. Her sorority sisters Linda, Sara, and Tracy try to determine what the dreams mean while the rest of the house occupants go on a trip. Meanwhile, Bobby has snapped out of his mental stupor and escapes the institution. The girls are joined by a few boys, each one fitting an 80's cliché. Beth's dreams intensify, leaving her clues to what happened when she was a child. Through her dreams, she is able to find the knife Bobby used to kill her family. Bobby arrives at the house, looking to finish his business and kill Beth. He terrorizes the house, stabbing and killing the boys and most of the kills. Will Beth be able to stop him?

And will she still look like Tom Cruise?

If it feels like I skipped over a lot of story or missed something, I didn't. The movie is only about an hour and fifteen minutes long and there really is no violence until about 25 minutes left. You would think that by having a shorter movie, they'd get to the killing quicker, but no, they take their sweet time telling a story that we've all seen before in far better movies. It's not like they filled in that time with important dialogue or foreshadowing. We're “treated” to a scene where the girls try on different horrendous 80's clothes set to wailing sitcom saxophone. I guess they needed an excuse to show the girls topless, but come on, trying on clothes? That does not make for good movie watching. The story and certain scenes are very similar to Halloween. Shooting from the killer's perspective, never really seeing his face, killing as a child and going to a mental institution. Even the knife is similar. Unintentional laughs insure when Bobby walks into a hardware store and, instead of grabbing a mask like Michael Myers, he just smashes a glass case with his hand and steals a knife. They weren't exactly going for subtlety or atmosphere.

The movie tries to go a different route with the dream sequences, but they are confusing and not put together well. It is difficult to tell what is going on between dream and reality, but not in the good, crazy “whoa that was just a dream” way. It's more like “What the hell is going on. Oh, it's a dream. So?” Many scenes are too dark and the direction is too shoddy to always follow what is happening. The acting is passable, which is actually a compliment considering that the actors did not have much to work with in terms of story or dialogue. The wacky dreams bring to mind Slumber Party Massacre II, which came out not too long after Sorority House Massacre. I don't know, maybe I just have “S-word noun Massacre” movies on the brain. It actually took some effort not to type Slumber Party Massacre instead of Sorority House Massacre while writing this review.

 How can 3 sorority girls look so unsexy?

The 70's and 80's were a great time for slasher flicks. Somewhere towards the middle of the 1980's, though, the movies became lazy, repetitive, and cliched. Sorority House Massacre falls into all three of those descriptions as the story is too similar to Halloween. We've seen this type of movie many times before and when you don't do anything special to make it stand out, it's not going to end well. It takes too long to get to the slashing and there is a serious lack of blood and gore. There are no creative kills and a lack of suspense. The dream sequences were an attempt at creativity, but they failed to elicit any real depth or emotion. There is a good reason why the majority of people haven't seen or even heard of Sorority House Massacre.

3/10

Day 138: Trick 'r Treat

Trick 'r Treat

Give me something good to eat

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love Halloween. Maybe it's all the costumes and candy, but just that time of year is perfect. The weather is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, football has started, and lots of horror is on TV. Some horror movies just use Halloween as background, just to set the scene or an excuse to have actors dress up in silly costumes. Other movies, though, fully immerse themselves in the holiday to create an atmosphere perfect for horror. It doesn't hurt when it's produced by Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects).

Trick 'r Treat is a 2007 horror anthology consisting of 4 stories: The Principal, The School Bus Massacre Revisited, Surprise Party, and Meet Sam. Unlike other horror anthologies like The Creepshow and Deadtime Stories, these stories all take place on one Halloween night in a small town. Each story is connected through various ways including the presence of a pint-sized trick-or-treater in an orange onesy and a burlap sack mask.

In The Principal, Dylan Baker (Spider-Man 2, Road To Perdition) plays the school principle, Steven Wilkins. He catches a young trick-or-treater stealing candy from his yard. He carves a pumpkin while talking to the boy and hands him some more candy. The candy contains poison and Wilkins buries him in the backyard. His neighbor, Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox, X2: X-Men United, Red) yells at him to keep the noise down and is attacked off-screen by an unknown assailant. Wilkins' son Billy is home and almost catches his father burying the body. Billy continues to nag his father about carving a jack-o-lantern. What does Steven have in store for Billy?

Sorry, I just thought about something funny while I was burying this child

In The School Bus Massacre Revisited 4 kids have plans to scare another girl in their class, a savant named Rhonda. They tell her the story of the Halloween School Bus Massacre, where a school bus carrying mentally handicapped children, was driven off a cliff at the behest of their parents. The kids head to the spot where it supposedly occurred. They try to scare Rhonda by saying the children have come back from the dead, but all is not what it seems.

Surprise Party stars Anna Paquin (X-Men, True Blood) as Laurie, the insecure virgin. Dressed as Little Red Riding hood, she attends a Halloween party with her skanked-out sister and friends. They pick up a few guys and head to a bonfire in the woods. Meanwhile, a vampire has been claiming victims and is stalking Laurie. Have we already seen this vampire before and is Laurie really the one in danger?

When does Wolverine jump out?

The final story, Meet Sam, visits Mr. Kreeg, whom we saw being attacked in The Principal. Kreeg is in a life or death battle with the diminutive Sam. During the fight, Kreeg is able to rip off Sam's mask, revealing a disfigured jack-o-lantern skull face. Sam brutalizes Kreeg, but leaves before the killing blow. It is revealed the Kreeg was the bus driver from the Halloween School Bus Massacre. Even though Sam left, is Kreeg really safe?

This movie was flat-out awesome. The stories are all creative and interesting, not an easy task when trying to cram so many stories in a short amount of time. What's even more impressive is that they all connect in unexpected ways. The work very well for the most part, though I was a bit confused while watching, but all is eventually revealed. The writing is fluid and tight while the dialogue never feels unnatural or forced. I'm not sure if each individual story could stand to be a feature-length film, but they all compliment each other so well that it would be unnecessary to stretch each story out. While there's no outright fear induced by the movie, there are a few scenes that will make you feel uneasy, in a good way. 

Deadwood trained him well

There is lots of good action and violence with plenty of excitement to keep you on the edge of your seat. There is a decent amount of blood and gore, but nothing over the top. The movie really succeeds because of the great acting from all involved. Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, and Brian Cox all play their parts perfectly which strengthen the already strong stories. Director and writer Michael Dougherty (X2 and Superman Returns) has a good eye for capturing the action without resorting to fast cuts and shaky cameras. If I have one complaint, it's that the movie is a bit too dark in certain scenes, but really, that's just nitpicking.

Trick 'r treat is a well-crafted horror movie through and through. The stories are interesting and are weaved into a creative and cohesive connection that is truly unexpected. The writing and direction are old solid, bolstered by great acting performances. There is a good amount of action and violence, enough to keep you entertained for the entire movie. Trick 'r Treat is a fun ride from start to finish and worth your while, no matter time of year you watch it.

9.5/10

Day 118: Mask Maker

Mask Maker

Stupid mask. We can see the zipper.

I have to get this out of the way before I can start. Mask maker, mask maker, make me a mask. Find me a find, catch me a catch. Ok, I feel much better now. I haven't watched a slasher movie in a while and decided to give a modern movie a try. It feels like most modern slashers just go through the motions and come off like Friday The 13^th and Halloween rehashes. Will Mask Maker show me something new or just the same old stuff?

Mask Maker (originally and unfortunately titled Maskerade) is a 2010 horror slasher starring Nikki Deloach (Days Of Our Lives, Ringer) as Jennifer and Stephen Colletti (One Tree Hill, Kill Katie Malone) as her boyfriend Evan. Evan secretly purchased a 19^th century plantation home and takes Jennifer out to see it. At first she is mad that he made such a big decision without her, but she quickly gets over it pretty quickly. They invite their friends for a house warming/fixing party. The house has a history and locals refuse to talk about it. One man, Mr. Peck (Terry Kiser, Weekend At Bernies, Friday the 13^th Part VII) is particularly afraid of the house and refuses to answer questions. The group unknowingly resurrect the man who used to live at the house. He suffered from some sort of skin condition and had to stay wrapped in bandages. Though some sort of voodoo, he has come back and is an unstoppable killing machine. He goes on a killing spree of the friends, cutting off their faces and wearing them as masks (hence, Mask Maker). Jennifer discovers that Mr. Peck is connected with Mask Maker through their sordid past. Will Jennifer be able to stop Mask Maker and get out alive?

Fork you

If this feels like you've seen this movie before, you're not alone. On the surface, it's pretty much your average “College Kids Go To Murdertown”. There are plenty of slasher movie cliches, including people going off to have sex only to be killed, the silent, faceless inhuman killer, and secretive townspeople. There's the usual nudity and the killer uses an axe as his weapon of choice. The movie deserves credit with their attempt to add some voodoo/magic curse into the mix, but it's never fully explored and just left me kind of confused. Ultimately, none of the back story is important, which is a shame because it could have helped set the movie apart from other slashers. Really, its just a combination of all the good slasher tropes with a dash of originality.

The film is well shot and looks good compared to some of the lower-budget affairs that are now polluting the horror genre. The directing is fine and the acting is passable, though Terry Kiser plays a drunk the way Andy Dick plays someone normal. There are some good acts of violence, though the movie lacks the amount of blood and gore necessary to make it particularly thrilling. That's not to say there isn't plenty of stabbing and chopping, just not as much as I expected. I mean, the killer wears people's faces. You'd think that'd be incredibly gorey and violent, but not really. In fact, there is one scene where he wears one of the female friend's faces complete with long hair. It is unintentionally funny as he looks like a cross between Leatherface and Bjork. 

Weekend At Bernie's gets a gritty reboot

If you've seen a slasher movie before, you've already seen most of Mask Maker. While it's not particularly original, it still has some entertainment value. There are some good kills, though the lack of extreme blood and gore is unfortunate. The movie has it's moments and it's not a bad watch, but it could have been better.

6/10