October 31, 2012

31 Days to Scare ~ Halloween

by Joe 31 Days to Scare, Down from the Shelf, Movie Review • Tags: Donald Pleasence, Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Carpenter, Kyle Richards, logo, Nancy Loomis, PJ Soles, Studio, Tony Moran, Trancas

The Facts:

Synopsis: A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets.

Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, PJ Soles, Tony Moran, Nancy Loomis, Kyle Richards

Director: John Carpenter

Rated: R

Running Length: 91 minutes

TMMM Score: (9.5/10)

Review: The high water mark from which all horror films of the 80’s and onward would be judged against, John Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece more than earns its stripes and remains a surefire winner for those looking for a good scare. Movies like this that are such a part of our cultural identity can be difficult to return to because they can start to remind us of the imitation films we’ve seen along the way. Halloween bucks that trend with ease, making repeat viewings almost essential to remind audiences how to do horror right.

Carpenter didn’t set out to make a genre defining classic when he wrote and directed the film on a shoestring budget. Originally intended to make some money to finance future projects, I’m not sure anyone really imagined the film doing the kind of business it did or receiving the kind of critical praise resaved for big-budget Hollywood films. Because Halloween was made with modest intentions, it had no preconceived notions or expectations of what it could become. It was created to entertain and scare the pants off of audiences and it does that and so much more.

Before the credits even begin, Carpenter’s unforgettable score hits our ears and establishes a mood from the get-go. This is a film that has a heartbeat to it…and it brings you along with it making our pulse quicken right along with it. Carpenter gives us lasting frights as he puts the camera in place of a killer in the prologue, shows us what happens one rainy night at a mental asylum, and terrorizes poor Laurie Strode (Curtis) as she and her friends are stalked on October 31 by a masked killer returning to his hometown.

The casting of Curtis was nearly a glorified publicity stunt. Wouldn’t the daughter of Janet Leigh (who so memorably took an ill-fated shower in Psycho) be great to headline her first film in the same genre her mom found such success with? Well…stunt or not it’s clear that Curtis was perfect in the role and it’s in her performance that I feel the movie really cements its place in history. Without a lead character to root for, the audience wouldn’t be as afraid for her as they are as she is hunted in the night by Michael Myers.

Subsequent sequels would flesh out the connection Strode and Myers had but in this film it’s the not knowing what his motivations are that are the most frightening. In this first film the lumbering Myers (referred to as The Shape by many) doesn’t hunt his victims so much as he stalks them with an eerie curiosity like a caged animal would look at prey that has strayed too close to the bars. The deaths in the film are not without meaning or feeling…Carpenter is good at establishing who these people are before Myers dispatches with them.

That’s not to say the film isn’t without its flaws. While Curtis is exceptional it’s strange that top-billed Pleasence has relatively little to do in this entry. He’d become a major part of future installments but he’s largely a secondary player here as the crux of the film involves Curtis and Nick Castle as Myers (ironically, Castle would go on to become a director of family-friendly films). As the best friends of Curtis, Soles and Loomis are a fun bunch but lack something in the acting department. Loomis especially confuses insincerity with wiseacre a bit too often…but it does play nicely off of the demure performance Curtis turns in.

Most film fans know that Myers kept coming back for more over the years in sequels that couldn’t measure up (even though Halloween II is a strong follow-up and should be watched in tandem with the original). If you can, try watching the movie without thinking about the legacy that these films have spawned over the past three decades. It really is a masterwork of fright that’s on display here, a can’t miss and must-see film. I’ve seen it more times that I’ll admit here and continue to get something out of it with each viewing.

Click here for my review of Halloween II

Click here for my review of Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Click here for my review of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Click here for my review of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

Click here for my review of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Click here for my review of Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later

Click here for my review of Halloween: Resurrection

October 31, 2012

31 Days to Scare ~ Friday the 13th

by Joe 31 Days to Scare, Down from the Shelf, Movie Review • Tags: Adrienne King, Betsy Palmer, Jason Voorhees, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon, logo, Paramount, Sean S. Cunningham, Studio, Victor Miller

The Facts:

Synopsis: Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child’s drowning.

Stars: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon

Director: Sean S. Cunningham

Rated: R

Running Length: 95 minutes

TMMM Score: (9/10)

In May of 1980, the horror boom was not yet upon us and John Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece Halloween was still the pinnacle of what could be done with a small budget and big scares. The rampant plague of sequel-itis hadn’t spread around Hollywood because the films that spawned these endless repeats weren’t around yet. If Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is the granddaddy of the slasher film then I would consider Halloween and Friday the 13^th as twin fathers of the genre that started a movement in the film industry that still exists today.

Like Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, the first film of the series is unquestionably the best…and remains to this day one of my go-to films for its excellent first hour, healthy performances, and ingenious scares. Director Cunningham works with Victor Miller’s thin script and creates a real fine thrill ride…drawing out the suspense so long that it’s easy to feel the last half hour is a bit of a letdown considering how much build up there’s been up to that point.

Cunningham sets up the menace right out of the gate by taking Carpenter’s brief use of point of view camera work in Halloween and making it almost an entire character in Friday the 13^th as the unseen killer stalks the counselors as they prepare to open a summer camp long-since closed. When I was young, these types of movies were all about the blood and the gore but as an adult I have to give a lot of credit to the director for making a film that transcends its smarmy but humble plot.

Viewing the film again for the first time in a few years, I found myself getting genuine chills along the way. From its frightening freeze frame pre-credits image to several fiendish kills that still give me the willies after all these years, Friday the 13^th doesn’t show its age as a thirty two year old movie. I think it’s actually gotten better with age as the simple efficiency it employs feels refreshing in our current film climate of bigger, better, faster, meaner.

As I mentioned before, the first hour of the film is really a striking cat and mouse game…where the mice don’t have a clue as to the kind of trouble they’re in. The finale of the movie where the killer is revealed (I’m not going to say it here but it’s such a cultural touchstone that at this point who doesn’t know?) is when the movie starts to become less interesting. That’s partly the fault of the actors involved with this sequence, partly the fault of Cunningham for not marinating the grip he’s had on our throats, and mostly the fault of the script that I’m guessing didn’t have a lot more to say. It does bounce back nicely in the famous final minutes, though, so all is quickly forgiven in my book.

Cunningham gets solid if unremarkable performances from his cast – this was still early enough when good actors could be recruited for horror films and before acting in one became a mark of shame. Like Halloween, this first Friday the 13^th was an independently financed picture that was eventually purchased and distributed by Paramount Pictures. A healthy cash cow for the studio over the next decade, the Friday films would run from very good (Jason Lives: Friday the 13^th Part VI and Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter) to the schlocky (Friday the 13^th: 3D) to the just plain wrong (Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning). If you want to get the job done…stick with the original trip to Camp Crystal Lake.

October 31, 2012

31 Days to Scare ~ A Nightmare on Elm Street

by Joe 31 Days to Scare, Down from the Shelf, Movie Review • Tags: A NIghtmare on Elm Street, Amanda Wyss, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Johnny Depp, logo, New Line Cinema, Robert Englund, Ronee Blakley, Studio, Warner Brothers, Wes Craven

The Facts:

Synopsis: In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him.

Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, Ronee Blakley, John Saxon, Amanda Wyss

Director: Wes Craven

Rated: R

Running Length: 91 minutes

TMMM Score: (9/10)

Arriving relatively late on the scene in the scope of teen horror films, A Nightmare on Elm Street nevertheless established itself as a force to be reckoned with. In 1984 the movie-going public had already had three Halloween films and four Friday the 13^th installments so it was a tall order that director Craven was looking at when given the greenlight to film his script concerning an evil madman that stalked dreaming teens.

Craven was a moderately established director at the time, most notable for Last House on the Left which many have enjoyed and I found pretty unpleasant. Inspired by a story he read about South East Asian men who had died in the middle of having nightmares, the first of the Elm Street films is still its best and is buoyed by striking production values, a solid script, and performances that work well even if they operate on different levels from one another.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is credited with launching its distributor, New Line Cinema, into a mid-level Hollwood player…even the executives subtitled their company, ‘The House that Freddy Built’. Strange then that Freddy Krueger (a gleefully sinister Englund) is really a supporting player in the suburban reality and threatening dream world that Craven crafts.

The star of the film is Langenkamp and while she has the right amount of Noxzema-esque freshness…her acting skills here are pretty uneven. She improves as the picture goes along but it’s hard not to wince at a few of her more dramatic line readings. Langenkamp looks positively comatose when compared against Blakley as her tuned-out mother. By all accounts, Blakely was a handful to work with and it shows in a performance that feels like it found its way into the picture via a daytime soap opera.

Famously introducing Depp to audiences was another claim to fame the movie can stand behind and it’s Depp along with the ill-fated Wyss who strike the most memorable chords. Wyss is put through the ringer in one particularly harrowing sequence that shows some simple but brilliantly inventive camera work thanks to cinematographer Jacques Haitkin. The whole film is quite well constructed, actually, and it’s stood the test of time better than most films of the era.

Soon the Elm Street series would take off and become less scary with each passing entry…Freddy Krueger would become more menacing for his one-liners than he would be for his burnt skin and knives for fingers glove. I’ve found a lot to like in the sequels but they can’t come close to the style and shocks this first film offered up.

This inaugural trip to Elm Street is an effective horror film that explores deeper themes of the fractured suburban existence and the tragic loss of innocence at the hands of violence. Preying on our fears of what can happen to us when we sleep it brought a new spin on the horror genre by making the terror about something we can’t avoid. If JAWS freaked you out, you could stay out of the water. If Jason gives you the willies you can avoid going into the woods. Sleep, however, is what we need to survive so how do we fight a villain from our dreams? It’s a wonderfully dark question to throw out there and Craven has done it the right way.

Even though Craven would have a nice renaissance with the Scream franchise, I still consider A Nightmare on Elm Street to be his best work to date. It’s a well-regarded classic for a reason and one that still has the power to keep you up at night.

October 31, 2012

31 Days to Scare ~ Terror Train

by Joe 31 Days to Scare, Down from the Shelf, Movie Review • Tags: Ben Johnson, David Copperfield, Hart Bochner, Jamie Lee Curtis, logo, Roger Spottiswoode, Studio, Terror Train, Twentieth Century Fox, Vanity

The Facts:

Synopsis: A masked killer targets six college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong years earlier and whom are currently throwing a large New Year’s Eve costume party aboard a moving train.

Stars: Ben Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hart Bochner, David Copperfield

Director: Roger Spottiswoode

Rated: R

Running Length:

TMMM Score: (7/10)

By the time Terror Train hit the rails in 1980 its star Curtis was already the anointed Scream Queen of her generation. Since 1978’s Halloween she had gone on to star in John Carpenter’s follow-up, The Fog and filmed the middling slasher film Prom Night back-to-back with this underrated little chiller. Like Prom Night, this is a Canadian made film that was picked up for US distribution by Twentieth Century Fox…and who could blame them? Curtis was an established horror star and with the popularity of Friday the 13^th the horror genre was about to take off like a rocket.

Often a forgotten Curtis film when you consider her body of work as a whole, Terror Train has always been a favorite of mine. It’s not in the same league as Halloween or Friday the 13^th but it holds its own with an interesting premise, devious killer, and a twist that continues to work nicely.

After a brief prologue charting a fraternity prank gone wrong, Terror Train picks up on New Year’s Eve three years later when the same frat boys and sorority girls are getting ready to board an all night leisure train for fun. As this is a college party there’s lots of booze, sex, and even a mysterious magician (Copperfield in a performance that is hysterically serious) that may be move involved with the past than anyone would expect.

Every time I see the movie I find myself forgetting that while it’s nicely effective in moments, its flimsy plot is filled with holes the size of the Grand Canyon. These plot holes become easier to navigate if you just give yourself over to it without fussing too much.

Knowing some of the twists that await the audience, I always find myself cringing at some of the more obvious moments when the film shows its hand to viewers that are playing close attention. Even so…I’ve introduced this to several friends and none have really picked up on where it’s headed.

While I still stick by my classic films for Halloween, a new BluRay upgrade of Terror Train was released this year and I had to pick it up and give it another spin. The thirty-three year old movie looks better than ever and has several honest-to-goodness seat jumping moments that are as effective today as when I first viewed it.

October 31, 2012

31 Days to Scare ~ Hocus Pocus

by Joe 31 Days to Scare, Down from the Shelf, Movie Review • Tags: Bette Midler, Hocus Pocus, Kathy Najimy, Kenny Ortega, logo, Omri Katz, Sarah Jessica Parker, Studio, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw, Walt Disney

The Facts:

Synopsis: After 300 years, three sister witches are resurrected in Salem Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it us up to two teenagers, a young girl, and an immortal cat to put an end to the witches reign of terror once and for all.

Stars: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw

Director: Kenny Ortega

Rated: PG

Running Length: 96 minutes

TMMM Score: (8/10)

Review: Though it has gone on to have a healthy life on home video/DVD/BluRay, it’s hard to believe now that when it was released in 1993 Hocus Pocus was a disappointing flop for Walt Disney Studios. Receiving mixed reviews the movie underperformed at the box office and barely made back its production costs.

Don’t blame it all on the movie, though. For some strange reason Disney released the film in mid July up against Free Willy…the soon-to-be blockbuster film that opened big and left Hocus Pocus in its dust. For a film centered on Halloween it’s a mystery why the film was unceremoniously dumped into a busy summer movie season. Had it been released in late September or early October I’m betting the film would have landed better with audiences…especially families.

That’s not saying Hocus Pocus is a kiddie film because it’s really not. Viewing it now, I’m a bit struck by how much it teeters on the edge of its PG rating with its plot hinging on a virgin bringing back three witches that were hanged three centuries before. Add to that some scary situations, costumes, and effects and parents of younger children will want to make sure they are ready for what is otherwise a total ball of a movie.

Though on the surface Hocus Pocus was fashioned as a star vehicle for Midler, she graciously shares the attention with Parker and Najimy as they join her in chewing the scenery to bits. You get the sense that all three ladies are having a great time and that energy is infectious to everyone and everything they come in contact with. Yes, they are playing some pretty bad witches but filtered through a mostly family-friendly lens they are never truly threatening.

As the trio of pesky kids that threaten to ruin the witches plans to drink up the lifeforce from all the children of Salem, Birch, Katz, and Shaw are a mixed bag. Birch was still in her whiny brat casting phase before she took on more serious fare and doffed her top in American Beauty. Katz (who I still remember from Dallas) and Shaw (Ladybugs – love it!) are bit on the bland side but their fresh-faced look and squeaky clean appeal suggests an updated version of Tommy and Annette.

It’s really all about our witchy sisters, though; as they encounter a Salem that is far different than the one they last saw. Some fish-out-of-water jokes are to be expected and it’s thanks to the comedic talents of the trio that even when they don’t exactly hit the bulls eye they are able to bounce back with another joke that does. A funny cameo by Garry and Penny Marshall allows all five comic actors to have some fun with one another. (Though suggesting that the brother/sister Marshalls are husband and wife was kinda iffy to me.)

Director Ortega (who was coming off another Disney flop, Newsies) presents his film with a nicely saccharine view of some dark proceedings but is smart enough to play on the talents of his stars. It’s nice to hear Parker’s breathy voice used as a lure for children and Ortega would have been run out of town if he didn’t get Midler to sing a few notes. Sing she does…and famously so in a brief musical number that cleverly riffs on the song “I Put a Spell on You”. I often will pull up that clip on YouTube if I need a pick-me-up – it’s a perfect moment that riffs on Midler’s turn in Gypsy and a clever nod to her concert days.

A top Halloween favorite of mine, Hocus Pocus really delivers with each viewing. It’s a nice example of casting gone right…the film wouldn’t have been nearly as good without Midler who often cites this film as her personal favorite. Add a game Parker and goofy Najimy, mix in a dash of magic, a virgin (!), and some Disney fueled scares and you have a solid winner….but you probably know that already.

October 31, 2012

31 Days to Scare ~ Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

by Joe 31 Days to Scare, Down from the Shelf, Movie Review • Tags: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi, Bud Abbott, Charles Barton, Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert, logo, Lon Chaney Jr., Lou Costello, Studios, Universal

The Facts:

Synopsis: Two hapless frieght handlers find themselves encountering Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man.

Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Glenn Strange, Bela Lugosi, Lenore Aubert

Director: Charles Barton

Rated: NR

Running Length: 83 minutes

TMMM Score: (8/10)

Review: In retrospect, I can’t even begin to fathom how I made it through my childhood without seeing this classic film from the true heyday of the Universal Studios and their monster films. It’s a little like The Avengers with an ‘all hands on deck’ approach from the studio that were responsible for most of, if not all, the indelible monster movies from the 1930’s-1950’s.

I must confess that this is the first Abbott and Costello movie I’ve ever seen. I know, I know…sacrilege…right? Still, I think I always thought of them as another version of The Three Stooges and once I grew out of that part of my childhood I didn’t see the need to revisit another comedy team. Boy, was totally off base because the greatness of the comedy stylings of Abbott and Costello are hard to measure by today’s standards. I would have been able to pick Lou Costello out of a line-up but couldn’t say the same for Bud Abbott…the long-suffering straight-man to Costello’s bumbling bafoon.

Their word play, physical comedy, and crack comic timing work wonders to elevate this film from its humble beginnings to the true classic that it is. It also helps that along with the dynamic duo you have Lugosi reprising his role of Dracula, Strange as Frankenstein’s Monster, and Chaney Jr. going another round as The Werewolf. Add sultry Aubert to the mix and you have a solid grouping of the best of the best.

The title of the film may not be totally accurate as the movie is just about Abbott and Costello meeting Dracula as it is about meeting The Wolfman…but at the time Frankenstein was the hot seller so above the title he went. It’s really a caper film with Dracula wanting to substitute Costello’s simple brain for the more aggressive one inside Frankenstein’s Monster. Along the way there are copious amounts of comedy, action, good special effects, and jaw-dropping set pieces.

This was in the day when movies were made on the back lot of their studios but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from the impressively detailed set designs, strong use of miniatures and special effects. More than once I blurted out, “Just LOOK at that! That’s a SET!” Director Barton was experienced with our two stars and would work with them on several other Abbott and Costello Meet __________ over the years – his technique seemed to be best when he just lets Costello do his thing and allowing Abbott to get more flustered.

Widely regarded as the best film from comedy duo Abbott and Costello, it’s not hard to see why. It’s a fast, funny, frantic film that has moved onto my list of annual films to watch around Halloween. You don’t need to wait until next year to track this one down…it’s available in a striking new BluRay presentation celebrating the 100^th Anniversary of Universal Studios.

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31 Days to Scare ~ Halloween

31 Days to Scare ~ Friday the 13th

31 Days to Scare ~ A Nightmare on Elm Street

31 Days to Scare ~ Terror Train

31 Days to Scare ~ Hocus Pocus

31 Days to Scare ~ Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

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