I wasn’t sure weather I should add this to one of the other Topics called Episode 68!
Anyway - I’m so glad you guys picked up Wilderness. I was going to suggest that Erica watch that instead of the Breed which sounded like a load of rubbish! There are some awesomely gruesome death in it too. If there’s one thing we British can do it’s Horror :-)
It’s a shame that it sounds like Halloween sucked! Freddy must be so sad because he loves that movie.
And sorry to anyone that hates Kelleys “Are we doing a show?” but I like it.
By the way the lead actor in Wilderness is pretty awesome and he was amazing in another British movie that everyone should see called Dead Man’s Shoes.
It’s a low budget film by Shane Meadows that has two of the best performances I have ever seen - Toby Kebbell and the absolutely fantastic Paddy Considine (who is in the Bourne Ultimatum atm).
On the Halloween subject - I think I will give it a miss when it get to the UK! Its sounds really awful. Another note - I didn’t realise they were remaking April Fools Day. Although I really should have because they’re remaking everything now because no one can come up with new ideas anymore.
It sucks that you guys hated Halloween… as I’ve said before, I really enjoyed it. But I look forward to renting The Wilderness, it sounds fantastic.
Honestly, if it was just a generic movie about a serial killer, I would have been alot more forgiving. Sure, it was a little boring (okay, a lot boring), but it had some pretty good parts. It’s the fact that the Halloween name was placed on it that makes it horrible. Too much emphasis was placed on explaining all of the aspects of Michael Myers. His background, the mask. Coming from the broken home he came from in the remake would explain the evil deeds he did, but the lack of explanation kills the horror aspect. It makes you want to hate the place he came from more. In the original, nothing brought it on. He was just pure evil. No reason, no motivation, just evil. Giving that something to come from reduces that. It makes MIchael a kind of victim.
Adding in the mask to his past calls back to Michael the man too much. There is a reason Michael was credited as “the Shape” in the credits of the first film. They made a mask to remove all of the expression and emotion from the face. It takes away the humanity from the person. There’s no remorse, no pity, and no glee. He just kills, like a machine. He becomes Death itself. To place that in his past, and to explain why he wears it, totally destroys why they put Michael in the mask to begin with.
Rob Zombie, for all the praise I can give his direction, felt compelled to explain the origins of evil, and by explaining it, destroyed everything exciting about it.
It sucks that you guys hated Halloween… as I’ve said before, I really enjoyed it. But I look forward to renting The Wilderness, it sounds fantastic.
Honestly, if it was just a generic movie about a serial killer, I would have been alot more forgiving. Sure, it was a little boring (okay, a lot boring), but it had some pretty good parts. It’s the fact that the Halloween name was placed on it that makes it horrible. Too much emphasis was placed on explaining all of the aspects of Michael Myers. His background, the mask. Coming from the broken home he came from in the remake would explain the evil deeds he did, but the lack of explanation kills the horror aspect. It makes you want to hate the place he came from more. In the original, nothing brought it on. He was just pure evil. No reason, no motivation, just evil. Giving that something to come from reduces that. It makes MIchael a kind of victim.
Adding in the mask to his past calls back to Michael the man too much. There is a reason Michael was credited as “the Shape” in the credits of the first film. They made a mask to remove all of the expression and emotion from the face. It takes away the humanity from the person. There’s no remorse, no pity, and no glee. He just kills, like a machine. He becomes Death itself. To place that in his past, and to explain why he wears it, totally destroys why they put Michael in the mask to begin with.
Rob Zombie, for all the praise I can give his direction, felt compelled to explain the origins of evil, and by explaining it, destroyed everything exciting about it.
Fair enough. All good points. But (again, as I said in another thread) I only watched the original Halloween for the first time a few months ago, so I don’t have that nostalgic attachment to it that makes you guys sensitive to what Rob Zombie did to the story, for better or for worse. I walked in the theater with low expectations, but optimistic anyway, hoping the best for the project on a whole. So, the whole back story didn’t bother me quite so much, and would’ve been almost welcome if it didn’t take up half of the movie. Regardless of whether or not the movie was good though, it showed me, like you guys said in Episode 68, that Rob Zombie is actually a superb director. He even got a fine performance out of Sheri Moon (I don’t think she did as well as Erika made it sound, but I could sense genuine effort in her acting). What it all comes down to, for me anyway, is this; If Rob Zombie directs a movie with a good script written by someone else, I think we’d all be in for a treat.
Oh my, looks like I got a bit off topic there… ah well, my point’s been made. :)
Fair enough. All good points. But (again, as I said in another thread) I only watched the original Halloween for the first time a few months ago, so I don’t have that nostalgic attachment to it that makes you guys sensitive to what Rob Zombie did to the story, for better or for worse.
I think it’s possible to judge it fairly, out of the context of nostalgia for the original. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with two other remakes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead, which are right up there in my Top 5 favorite horror movies with Halloween, so I was willing to give this one a chance. I even thought the trailer looked promising.
TonyHex - 04 September 2007 08:09 PM
Regardless of whether or not the movie was good though, it showed me, like you guys said in Episode 68, that Rob Zombie is actually a superb director. He even got a fine performance out of Sheri Moon (I don’t think she did as well as Erika made it sound, but I could sense genuine effort in her acting). What it all comes down to, for me anyway, is this; If Rob Zombie directs a movie with a good script written by someone else, I think we’d all be in for a treat.
I would welcome that. The script for Halloween was terrible. One of the most cringe-worthy pieces of dialog was between Loomis and Sheriff Brackett. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was something to the effect of:
Loomis: He’s come back for his sister.
Brackett: To do what?
Loomis: I don’t know…..nothing good, though.
Fair enough. All good points. But (again, as I said in another thread) I only watched the original Halloween for the first time a few months ago, so I don’t have that nostalgic attachment to it that makes you guys sensitive to what Rob Zombie did to the story, for better or for worse.
I think it’s possible to judge it fairly, out of the context of nostalgia for the original. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with two other remakes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead, which are right up there in my Top 5 favorite horror movies with Halloween, so I was willing to give this one a chance. I even thought the trailer looked promising.
TonyHex - 04 September 2007 08:09 PM
Regardless of whether or not the movie was good though, it showed me, like you guys said in Episode 68, that Rob Zombie is actually a superb director. He even got a fine performance out of Sheri Moon (I don’t think she did as well as Erika made it sound, but I could sense genuine effort in her acting). What it all comes down to, for me anyway, is this; If Rob Zombie directs a movie with a good script written by someone else, I think we’d all be in for a treat.
I would welcome that. The script for Halloween was terrible. One of the most cringe-worthy pieces of dialog was between Loomis and Sheriff Brackett. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was something to the effect of:
Loomis: He’s come back for his sister.
Brackett: To do what?
Loomis: I don’t know…..nothing good, though.
Yech.
I read the working script, and trust me, it was gonna be a lot worse if they didn’t fix it up for theatrical release.
I just finished listening to the episode, I remember battle beasts!!!!! Growing up with 6 brothers meant that I got their toys and I was used as an excuse for them to buy toys, Battle Beasts were great and the battles if I remember rightly was like rock, paper, scissors where one element would beat the other.
Also I agree with your review of Halloween by Rob Zombie, I have no idea why he wanted to humanise Myers for.
I just finished listening to the episode, I remember battle beasts!!!!! Growing up with 6 brothers meant that I got their toys and I was used as an excuse for them to buy toys, Battle Beasts were great and the battles if I remember rightly was like rock, paper, scissors where one element would beat the other.
Also I agree with your review of Halloween by Rob Zombie, I have no idea why he wanted to humanise Myers for.
I left all my Battle Beasts behind when I moved away from Florida. I can no longer have Fire fight Wood fight Water. Let’s not forget the Sunburst warrior! He beats EVERYONE!
If you don’t know Battle Beasts were an offshoot of Transformers. Apparently the Autobots met them on some far away planet. I don’t remember seeing those episodes in the US, but I’ve seen screen shots of them.
Japan had a higher tech series of Battle Beasts later into the the toy’s run. I think they were laser beasts. Their chest pieces did not need to be rubbed to reveal their type. Apparently you could look into the upraised chest piece to find out its type.
I had a ram guy with 2 right arms. In my fights he had a special whilrwind attack. I’m going to have to Ebay some more nostalgia thanks to you guys. I’ll add Battle Beasts to my growing collection of MASK, Visionary, and Thundarr toys.
Does anyone remember the point when Transformers toys switched from having obvious Autobot and Decepticon insignias to the kind you had to rub to reveal their affiliation? I think they started doing that before Punch/Counterpunch was made. It may have even been around the time triple-changers were made (Blitzwing and Astrotrain were the first). They did go a little crazy and make a 6-changer at one point though. I thought it looked crappy and never got it.
I’m falling into a nostalgic, geek, Rain Man, stuporous rant. I go now.
“House of 1000 Corpses” and “Devil’s Rejects” were—bar none, flat-out—the two worst films I have ever seen in my life.
“House of 1000 Corpses” particularly was inept, but both were loaded with cliches and easy excess and zero intelligence and zero suspense.
That said, even if the brand-name “Rob Zombie” evokes the words “train-wreck” or “traffic accident,” I’m still not really curious to find out how bad he could smurfin-up “Halloween.” My imagination tells me that Rob Zombie can smurfin-up anything pretty good.
To me, this is like Bush/Cheney demanding airstrikes on Iran for WMD. WTF? Again? And yet, the gullible sheep of America will baa, baa, baa follow right along. “Rob Zombie’s Halloween”? You gotta be F**king Kidding. How could anybody think it would be anything but flaming red-hot feces?
On a positive note, Kelly’s comment about “555-9111” made me laugh out loud. And I’m looking forward to checking out DZ’s podcast.
Hey, DZ, your last name wouldn’t be ....... Zombie? I hope not.
I haven’t seen Zombie’s entire collection of work, but I think he’s a pretty decent director and he’s got such a great eye for detail and he evokes such a specific sense of time and place that I was almost willing to give Halloween a shot.
But then I got distracted because it was really nice outside.
That said, I have to agree with Freddy - I’m curious enough about Zombie as a director to check out his future works.
I was trying to remember, it’s been so long since I saw the original Halloween - is it the first horror movie where we learn that the suburbs aren’t safe?
I was trying to remember, it’s been so long since I saw the original Halloween - is it the first horror movie where we learn that the suburbs aren’t safe?
Nope, The Last House on the Left came out in ‘72. And there were probably otheres.
