What are your MUST SEE movies for Halloween?

[MoonSylver]

Well, I made a shopping trip into the big city this am to divest myself of some of my carefully horded birthday money. I got an itch to round out the Halloween series, after picking up II the other night to go with the 1st one. 1st stop Wally World, where I scored "Curse of" (#6) & "Resurrection" out of the $5 bin. Ran across the street to Meijer & added "H20" for about $6+. So then I hopped on the freeway & headed to Best Buy & scored 4 & 5 on sale for $5! So all in all I picked up 2 & 4-8 for a grand total of about maybe $30? Not bad at all. So, looks like a "Halloween" marathon has been added to the list as well!

[acealive1]

since i was a kid, no matter who's house i was at for halloween.......it ALWAYS consisted of people dressed up, tons of food and horror franchises played back to back for the duration. so we'd start with the friday the 13th series and move into nightmare, so each year it seemed we'd have one more nightmare film to watch............then the last one to play would be a bootleg vhs copy of the newest film that hadnt come out yet. so they sent everyone home happy.

[bassman]

I gotta ask dude...what's with the gyrating skank ho in your signature?

[MoonSylver]

Well, finished up me run on Elm Street earlier today (details of 1-4 HERE: http://forum.homepageofthedead.com/s...-Street/page15) #5, pretty much as read in #4. The set pieces might even be more elaborate in this (the SPFX on Dan's transformation into the cyborg motorcycle rider is damn impressive). I did like how they drew the parallels between Alice w/ the unborn child & Amanda Kruger returning to reclaim her bastard offspring. The flashback of Amanda being trapped in the asylum is pretty disturbing, but overall more of the *meh* same. #6 Is takes more of a turn into the surreal/bizarre, with a near-post apocalyptic Springwood, a wasteland devoid of children. It's an over-the-top, unbelievable premise, yet oddly compelling. Add a tacked on "Luke, I am your father", a made up mythological explanation of how Kruger got his powers, & a wrap up of the whole "souls of my children" thing that they intro-ed in #4 (which I actually LIKED) & there ya go. Also watched "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" for the 1st time. I was skeptical of it years ago when it 1st came out, which is why I never got around to watching it. It had a mildly interesting premise, but failed to really make much of an impression on me. It's kind of oddly placed, as it isn't a cheese fest like the rest of the series became & stands alone instead of fitting into any kind of story arc. I'm skipping Freddy vs Jason for now. I'll probably watch it as a part of the F13th series. Now I've moved on to "Halloween". I enjoy the 1st one every time I watch it, but I've been struck in recent years at how positively STAID it is in terms of pacing. If it moved any slower, I'd have to accuse it of somnambulism. But I do have to admit, it gives the final act a lot more punch, as after the slow build up, when hell DOES break loose it packs a wallop & doesn't let up.

[bassman]

So I finished the Friday series last night with Jason Goes To Hell. What a piece of shit. I barely made it half way through when I couldn't sit there anymore. I ended up doing stuff around the house and kinda glancing at it every now and again. But damn....how awful is that movie? I would rather watch ROTLD 4 or 5. So my final vote on the Friday series...The first 6-8 or so can be entertaining if it's around the halloween season, but I can't see myself watching them at any other time of the year. And they're all basically the same as the last but with a few minor changes. And speaking of Jason Goes to Hell....how did he get back to Crystal Lake for the beginning of the film if he was killed in Manhattan in the previous film? Maybe I missed something. So being in a good mood, i'll give the series as a whole a 6/10.

[MoonSylver]

So I finished the Friday series last night with Jason Goes To Hell. What a piece of shit.. Yeah, out of the whole series it's the one I REALLY hate. LOATHE actually. Shame, 'cause the opening scene is a lot of fun, but everything else about that movie, even the makeup for Jason... So my final vote on the Friday series...The first 6-8 or so can be entertaining.... Sounds about right. Other than JGTH I like the whole series, but can break it into thematic "segments", which fall in order pretty much of how much I like like them: 1 (ok) 2, 3, 4 (the best) 5(meh) 6-8(undead Jason: 6 & 7 good, 8 meh), Jason X & FvsJ (I actually LIKE Jason X as an "alternate reality/What IF?" type of thing. The concept of the Regenerating Jason captured by David Cronenberg+the over-the-top notion of Jason In Space, Cyborg Jason, etc is just too much cheesy goodness for me! . FvsJ is great just for seeing the 2 of them together, plus it was an interesting look & take on Jason) And speaking of Jason Goes to Hell....how did he get back to Crystal Lake for the beginning of the film if he was killed in Manhattan in the previous film? Maybe I missed something. Part of the "fun" of being a F13th fan is applying "meta-logic", reasoning out the gaps in logic & continuity & trying to make it all fit. The conventional wisdom is that   Jason wasn't REALLY turned back into a kid by the toxic waste. Remember she's been having psychic visions of him as a kid earlier in the film. In reality, Jason is "melted down" a bit (which is SUPPOESD to explain his "swollen mutant" appearance in JGTH) & washed out to sea in the flood. From there, he just trudges back home So being in a good mood, i'll give the series as a whole a 6/10. Sounds about right. I'd maybe go as high as an 8, even 9? There's something about the series as a whole that is more than the sum of it's parts to me. It's hard to explain. It's like being a Godzilla fan (which I am), or a Star Trek fan. It's like being part of something bigger. Check out some of the F13th boards sometime. They analyze the most minute detail & extrapolate as much as possible the same as we do over the dead films! ************************************************ While I'm at it, Watched Halloween 1 & 2 last night. Can't say a lot more about 1 than I already did, other than (to me) it still holds up well, and that after thinking on it a while, the pacing really works for me. The very slow build up is like the calm before a storm. It has a moody suspense. It's like watching a slice of mid west americana, every day life, with something sinister boiling just below the surface. Halloween II: I enjoyed quite a bit. Hadn't seen it in years. I've heard some people think it's slow & drawn out, but I like the leisurely pace it takes. Honestly, to me it wasn't boring AT ALL, as something new or interesting happens roughly every 10 min. It has lots of peeks & valleys & continuously develops at a steady pace. It's very METHODICAL in its development. Not a WHOLE lot new in terms of story (except for the "big reveal"), but it really does feel like a continuation of the same night to me (other than you can see a difference in the way it's shot. You can tell they had a few more bucks to spend). Loomis, as usual, has some great lines & scenes (where they discover Michael's break in at the school is great), & I really like how they handled Michael in this one even if it throws logic & believability to the wind). From here, IIRC the series devolves into more of a cheesy F13th direction (but I still like it). It never QUITE gets there, thanks to the presence of Donald Pleasence, who lends a sense of gravitas & seriousness to the proceedings, probably making them seem a bit more credible & sophisticated than they are. I'll give more thoughts on the rest as a I watch them. I remember liking that they took on a serial, running narrative...an over arching meta-plot (as silly & cheesy as it ends up becoming...). From what I remember, I LIKE the rest of the series, but it never recaptures the straightforward, serious tone of these two & becomes more of a "standard" slasher series.

[Mike70]

So I finished the Friday series last night with Jason Goes To Hell. What a piece of shit. I barely made it half way through when I couldn't sit there anymore. I ended up doing stuff around the house and kinda glancing at it every now and again. But damn....how awful is that movie? I would rather watch ROTLD 4 or 5. So my final vote on the Friday series...The first 6-8 or so can be entertaining if it's around the halloween season, but I can't see myself watching them at any other time of the year. And they're all basically the same as the last but with a few minor changes. And speaking of Jason Goes to Hell....how did he get back to Crystal Lake for the beginning of the film if he was killed in Manhattan in the previous film? Maybe I missed something. So being in a good mood, i'll give the series as a whole a 6/10. jason goes to hell is a dinosaur sized turd of a movie. the whole thing makes zero fookin' sense. i watched a bit of it last night on fear fest and was "why the hell am i watching this piece of crap?" even the presence of steven culp and john lemay isn't enough to make me hang around. the friday series suffers from the same malady that other slasher series do. jason shows up, he kills folks like they are oysters at shucking contest, then is seemingly stopped. ok. whoppity-do. the first 3 movies are quite watchable in my book and i'll admit that i do enjoy part II quite a bit; part III also has its moments but after that, it goes downhill fast.

[MoonSylver]

the friday series suffers from the same malady that other slasher series do. jason shows up, he kills folks like they are oysters at shucking contest, then is seemingly stopped. ok. whoppity-do. the first 3 movies are quite watchable in my book and i'll admit that i do enjoy part II quite a bit; part III also has its moments but after that, it goes downhill fast. Yeah...but I could give a long list of things that aren't good that I shouldn't enjoy, but I do anyway...

[Wyldwraith]

Aww c'mon, You won't give Fri 13th Pt. VII points for originality? When BEFORE it was made do we EVER see a Slasher-villain confronted and even (temporarily) confounded by mystic/psi-abilities of the protagonist? Hell, I love NoES 3: Dream Warriors for much the same reasons, but Freddy smacks them down too easily for it to be satisfying. The psychic blond in Fri. 13th VII really runs Jason through the ringer, and you can really FEEL his confusion/frustration conveyed silently by the body language and subtle movements of the actor depicting Jason. I'm not a big fan of her daddy popping up to re-chain Jason, but it works with the campiness. I gotta take a stand on this one in defense of Part VII. Particularly after the Return-to-basic-formula for V and VI. At least they tried something new and different in the last few. I agree that Jason Goes to Hell is overall crap, but I LOVE the opening, where the military baits him into that overkill ambush. THAT was priceless. The body-possession crap the rest of the movie I can definitely do without, although there are a few redeeming lines by the black guy who ends up taking a big bite outta Jason's putrescent heart. Part VIII in Manhattan was novel, I'll give it that, and Jason X also wins a novelty award for the sci-fi/slasher juxtoposition. I woulda liked to see them follow up on the foreshadowing at the end of the movie that Jason would now be stalking the woods of the new unspoiled colony planet he seemed to burn up in the atmosphere of when the marine grabbed him in space and used his booster rockets to throw both of them into the planet's gravity well. I will say this though. The newly re-invented Friday the 13th, cheesy as it is, stands head and shoulders above Rob Zombi's take on the Halloween franchise. Rob's lackadaisical Michael Myers, who seems more interested in emotionally reaching out to his young female blood relative than killing her...to the point of allowing her to get his knife away from him and stab him into temporary submission made me cringe. Where was the Michael Myers who negligently took a blast from a double-barrel shotgun, then swatted the weapon out of the way before the would-be hero could fire again, followed by an equally offhand execution of the hapless teen? Nah, the re-imagining of the Fri. 13th franchise, dodgy as it is, captures more of the original's feel than Rob Zombi captures of the Halloween ambiance

[acealive1]

I gotta ask dude...what's with the gyrating skank ho in your signature? it's kelly clarkson. would you rather it be a man?

[Mike70]

Yeah...but I could give a long list of things that aren't good that I shouldn't enjoy, but I do anyway... i'm guilty of the same. the friday series though...i can only hang in there with it for a bit. -- -------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 PM ---------- it's kelly clarkson. would you rather it be a man? who the fark is kelly clarkson??? seriously, all joking is aside.

[MoonSylver]

A I will say this though. The newly re-invented Friday the 13th, cheesy as it is, stands head and shoulders above Rob Zombi's take on the Halloween franchise. Rob's lackadaisical Michael Myers, who seems more interested in emotionally reaching out to his young female blood relative than killing her...to the point of allowing her to get his knife away from him and stab him into temporary submission made me cringe. Where was the Michael Myers who negligently took a blast from a double-barrel shotgun, then swatted the weapon out of the way before the would-be hero could fire again, followed by an equally offhand execution of the hapless teen? Nah, the re-imagining of the Fri. 13th franchise, dodgy as it is, captures more of the original's feel than Rob Zombi captures of the Halloween ambiance I haven't even gotten around to RZH yet, & probably WON'T. I don't like what I've heard of his "re imagining" of MM & his white trash/psycho hillbilly origins (WTF is up w/ RZ & rednecks anyway? Dude was born in Massachusetts FFS. Was he locked in a closet & made to watch an unending reel of "Deliverance" & TCSM? ). One of the things I always liked about MM was that he came from a normal, whitebread family, w/ no dark secrets. He was just evil, & he killed. Period. He was an enigma (until later when they added the "Thorn" storyline to explain why he killed & why he couldn't BE killed. It was fun, in a comic book sort of way, but eh...). On one hand, props I guess to RZ for trying something different, but on the other...eh...sometimes trying to re-invent an icon doesn't always work...I think I'd rather he did the same story with an ORIGINAL character than an established one. If he'd have invented a whole new character/franchise that would have been a lot easier to take, but then again, there probably wouldn't have been the financing available, or the instant PR+box office that comes with an established brand name either. It is in the $5 bin right now, so maybe I should give it a shot, just so I can speak from my own experience, but I never did get a good vibe from it, & nothing I've seen or heard since its release has changed that opinion... Now the F13th reboot, I did like, for the most part. They were pretty successful at reinventing the character a bit & making him fresh & yet still keeping him faithful & returning to the roots, more or less (the only stumble might've been capturing the girl that reminded him of mom, but eh...*shrug*) who the fark is kelly clarkson??? seriously, all joking is aside. Winner of the 1st "American Idol"...as much as it shames me that I even KNOW that...

[Mike70]

Winner of the 1st "American Idol"...as much as it shames me that I even KNOW that... that explains it. i am not hip to any of the latest pleb trends.

[acealive1]

that explains it. i am not hip to any of the latest pleb trends. i wouldnt call her a trend............. someone that can actually sing in today's world is kinda rare

[bassman]

it's kelly clarkson. would you rather it be a man? In the same outfit? Sure. How did you know that's what i'm interested in? I just thought it was funny that someone has a gif of a girl doing that little jig as a signature...