An All Hallow's Evening

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Well, it´s that time of the year again, folks, a time for haunting, howling, tricks and treats. As an adult, I find that Halloween still holds a little excitement for me, and it's something I look forward to each year: The cold bite in the air, the smell of fire places burning wood, eerie clouds in the night sky set against a full moon, and haunted houses and corn fields opening up everywhere. All of these things announce the coming of the day kids wait for: Type 2 diabetes day! Or, you could call it "Halloween" if you wanted to, I suppose.
If sweets aren´t really your idea of a good time, however, perhaps scary movies are. Some of the staff here at DVD Town have gotten together to provide you, our discriminating public, a movie trick and a movie treat recommendation for this All Hallows Eve season. Perhaps it will give you some ideas for a scary movie marathon or a single movie matinee.

So, without further ado, here is our judgment:



Halloween Trick: "The Haunting," 1999

Director Jan De Bont's 1999 remake of the 1963 classic, "The Haunting," is testament to the fact that well enough should be left alone. De Bont pretty much avoids everything that made Shirley Jackson's novel and the first movie so successful--the chills, the suspense, the unseen terror--in favor of big-time special effects. The new "Haunting" is also a reverse testament to the effectiveness of using black-and-white to create a mood. The garish colors in De Bont's "The Haunting" pale in comparison to director's Robert Wise's choice of B&W. De Bont, you're no Robert Wise.

Halloween Treat: "The Haunting," 1963

In 1944 horror-movie producer Val Lewton gave Robert Wise his first directorial job, finishing up "The Curse of the Cat People." Wise went on to do "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "West Side Story," and "The Sound of Music," and in 1963 he made "The Haunting" in homage to Lewton.

Based on Shirley Jackson's psychological ghost story "The Haunting of Hill House," Wise's tribute to his old mentor is probably the best haunted-house movie ever made. And it accomplishes its feat without resorting to blood, gore, monsters, or elaborate special effects. In short, it's what we don't see in "The Haunting" that makes it scary. It's the atmosphere of the place and its effect on the people in it; it's the sounds and the lighting and the shadows. Watch this movie by yourself one dark and stormy night; then try to get to sleep. Pleasant dreams.



- John J. Puccio (Staff)





Halloween Trick: "Maximum Overdrive" (1986)

Under Stephen King's first-time direction, customers and employees at an interstate truck stop take refuge in a similarly structured "siege" film. But a sillier horror-thriller is hard to find. It doesn't help one bit that the film stars the Man of One Face, Emilio Estevez, who at one point utters one of the worst lines in movie history: "A man gets tired." Umm, so do audiences, and this simpleminded muddle about trucks and cars and other machinery turning on humans is nowhere near as effective as the King short story ("Trucks") upon which it was loosely based. Three years earlier director Lewis Teague did a much better job with a scaled-down King siege story in "Cujo," but King apparently didn't pay much attention if he was on the set. "Maximum Overdrive" plays like a bad B movie and is guilty of the worst moviemaking sin of all: it's flat-out boring. By the end, we're hoping the trucks run over the lot of them, just to be done with it.

Halloween Treat: "Night of the Living Dead" (1960)

Director George Romero has it both ways in this low-budget shriek-flick. Because it contains delicious morsels of black humor as well some genuinely gruesome and scary sequences, the film appeals both to lovers of Sixties' camp and fans of scare-me-senseless horror. When flesh-eating zombies terrorize the countryside, a group of people hole up at a farmhouse and try to devise ways to survive the terror. The zombies are frightening as they forage for flesh, but the shoestring budget also contributes to the atmosphere. Years before "Blair Witch Project," this had a similar home-movie feel, which reinforced a sense of surreal reality and contributed to a sustained sense of tension and fear. And it's also a hoot! What more can you ask for on a dark and spooky night, after the neighborhood rugrats have finally stopped ringing your doorbell?



- James Plath (Staff)





Halloween Trick: "The Haunting," 1999

In picking the same trick that my colleague John Puccio selected, I suppose I sound unoriginal, but, this film has been a bit of a thorn in my side since I first viewed it. I vaguely remembered seeing "The Haunting" six years ago, so I rented it to reaffirm my choice as a "Trick." The 1999 version of "The Haunting" had the potential to be as good as the 1982 horror film, "Poltergeist." Director Jan de Bont chose an amazing location and mansion for the film. The set design and feel of the picture were dead-on for a horror flick. He had some very big talent in Catherine Zeta Jones and Liam Neeson. All de Bont had to do at this point was "drive it home." However, "The Haunting" is living proof that even the most-perfect conditions aren´t enough to save a Titanic picture. Dr. Marrow (played by Neeson) invites three of his subjects to partake in an experiment under false pretenses at a long-abandoned mansion. He introduces a false suggestion to his subjects that the mansion has a violent history, and that deaths were involved. It´s not long before the mansion starts showing signs of life, or rather, afterlife. A lot of the film is filled with cheap tricks to make you jump, and horrible CGI, even for the time. To be fair, I did like the first half of "The Haunting." There are some over-the-top dialogue errors in the first half, but they are easy to forgive because the story is well paced at that point and the suspense is building. However, as you might expect, the story starts to fall apart at the mid point. The rest of the film is filled with silly jump scenes, attempts at better CGI, and more corny lines.

Halloween Treat: "The Blair Witch Project" 1999

What started out as just another Sundance film turned into a national phenomenon. "The Blair Witch Project" is the story of three student filmmakers who travel to Blair, Maryland, to film a documentary on an urban legend, "The Blair Witch." Hiking through the desolate, thick-wooded countryside of Maryland, miles from anywhere, the students are never heard from again. Two years later, their belongings, along with the film footage of their documentary, are found and made into the film "The Blair Witch Project."

Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, "The Blair Witch Project" grossed roughly 930 times its production cost of $30,000 in its opening weekend sales alone. This movie had the same effect on me as the spine-tingling campfire tales I was told in my childhood, amidst dark and eerie woods. These are the sort of tales that make your skin crawl. A few years ago, some friends and I upped the ante and took a couple hundred feet worth of extension cords, a DVD player, TV, some blankets, and some choice scary movies into the woods near a friend´s house. The woods were thick enough that the campfire was our only light source, other than the TV. Let me tell you, folks, with all of the creaks, groans, and other such sounds that occur in the woods at night, watching "The Blair Witch Project" under these circumstances is enough to unnerve even the most experienced of horror film buffs!



- Josh Lambert (Staff)





Halloween Trick: Dee Snider's Strangeland

While I praised the bad acting in "Evil Dead 2" I can give no such quarter
to this piece of filth. It tries to be scary but ends up only laughable.
The acting is stiff, wooden and lacks any sense of drama or emotion, the
antagonist is so over-the-top that he exceeds believability, and the
culminating scene, which should be a dramatic catharsis for the audience
through the death of the serial killer, ends up as a groan-inducing bunch of
bull. I watched this with a group of friends and it took us about 20
minutes to figure out just how bad this was and to start ripping it apart.
If you've got a lot of alcohol, this might actually be a fun rental.


Halloween Treat: Evil Dead 2

There's something to be said about a bad movie that gets everything right.
I've seen this movie a half dozen times and still jump right when director
Sam Raimi wants me to. Sure Bruce Campbell isn't the most emotive actor on
the planet, but he plays Ash to perfection. The rest of the cast is much
the same, lousy, but purposefully so. If they were good actors, this campy
concept probably wouldn't work. And, not to belabor a point, but the film
is effective. I had nightmares the night after watching Evil Dead 2 for the
first time, owing mainly to the "Swallow your soul" and "Dead by dawn"
dialogues. This movie isn't as polished as much as modern audiences,
experiencing it for the first time and accustomed to "Dawn of the Dead" and
"Land of the Dead" or even "Shaun of the Dead" might like, but it's
excellent, excellent stuff.



-Justin Cleveland (Staff)





Halloween Trick: Thir13en Ghosts- 2003

Yes, another remake but this time, it's a remake gone wrong. Thir13en Ghosts is the second film to be produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis' Dark Castle Entertainment and so far, they haven't really made a good film yet (Ghost Ship being their best). Like all of the Dark Castle films, the production design in Thir13en Ghosts was superb, yet the film took a wrong turn and became kind of cheesy. When ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos is killed during a hunt, he leaves his house and fortune to his nephew, Arthur, and his children. Upon entering the house, the family activates a machine that one-by-one releases the house´s inhabitants: 13 very angry and very deadly ghosts. One of the things that drove me crazy was the amount/volume of noise. The sound of destruction eventually sounded like nails on a chalkboard but the main negative thing was the "cheese factor." The only other positive things were the ghosts in the film, who were just fantastic. Despite their disapointing track record so far, Dark Castle Entertainment is still one of my favourite production companies and I will continue to watch every film that they have to offer for years to come.

Halloween Treat: Invasion of the Body Snatchers- 1978

The original 1956 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was an interesting and charming film (aren´t all b&w films like that?) about "a small town doctor who learns that the population of his community is being replaced by alien duplicates." 22 years later, director Philip Kaufman and writer W.D. Richter came along and created a masterpiece of a film- the 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The film is much darker and has absolutely no charm which is a good thing because charm wouldn´t have fit into a movie like this, but we do care for the characters more. The only flaw is that the "cloning" begins too early into the movie- at around the 15 minute mark. I would have liked to have seen more of the characters living their everyday lives rather than in panic mode. The directing and photography is also VERY good. All of the colours and attention to detail is very well done. To top it all off, this remake has one of the most satisfying endings I´ve ever seen. You will never look at people the same way ever again. People loyal to the original may hate this film but in my opinion, it´s possibly one of the greatest alien invasion movies ever made.



- Roger Yip (Staff)





Halloween Trick: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Having recently seen "Serenity", it makes me sad to know this movie exists in Joss Whedon's filmography. Of course, we can't blame the man whose original script was rewritten into oblivion. The clever, snappy dialogue that is Whedon's trademark is nowhere to be found. Instead, it all sounds like what a bunch of middle-aged men thought was young hipster talk. Not even Donald Sutherland and Rutger Hauer could save this blunder. Skip the movie, watch the show. And check out "Firefly" and "Serenity" while you're at it.

Halloween Treat: The Brood (1979)

This year, I really wanted to pick something most of you haven't seen or maybe even heard of. A hidden gem, so to speak. "The Brood" is an early work of David Cronenberg and features his grotesque take on childbirth. A recent divorcee gives birth to a litter of demented children, manifestations of her inner rage. Like Oompa Loompas from Hell, they cause havoc in the life of her ex-husband. Features the late-Oliver Reed in the role of a Frankenstein-like therapist. Amusingly, Cronenberg wrote this film while going through his own divorce. Even more amusingly, Cronenberg considers this his version of "Kramer vs. Kramer."



- William David Lee (Staff)





Trick: EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING (2004) – Renny Harlin

Say what you will about Michael Bay, but at least he has a style. It´s a pandering, sugar-fueled, imbecilic style, but at least it´s his own. Renny Harlin, on the other hand, must be the most non-descript director in the history of Hollywood. It´s not just that the plot twists in this ridiculous movie are predictable, but rather that you can anticipate every single shot and every single cut in this movie. Hey look, there´s a sarcophagus, I bet we´re about to see a fat old bug crawling out of it… yep, there it goes. Now cue the flickering lantern… bingo. Also, I don´t think I have ever seen a film that takes such joy in depicting children being tortured and killed. How many times do we return to the image of the little girl being shot by Nazis? Five? Ten? (Oh quit your whining, it´s not a spoiler.) Must the camera linger so lovingly and in such voyeuristic closeup on every instance of a child being bitten, stabbed or injected? My advice? Don´t hire Renny to baby-sit for you anytime soon. And don´t waste your time watching this turkey.

Treat: DEAD ALIVE (1992) – Peter Jackson

You don´t have to give up your sex life just because you´ve become a zombie. Peter Jackson teaches us this valuable lesson and more in his intestine-lined gore fest. Zombies can love, and zombies can have babies. And then the zombie babies can split open your skull from the inside. Oochie coochie coo! "Dead Alive" has more than zombie babies, though. It also has kickboxing Kiwi priests, demonic rat monkeys and the best use of a lawnmower in film history. Very possibly the goriest film ever made, "Dead Alive" nonetheless manages to be both fun and funny. It´s dismemberment with a smile. Fun for the whole family. It´s also better than at least two-thirds of the Best Picture winners in Academy history. You can´t possibly go wrong with a film that features the line, "That´s my mother you´re pissing on." Forget about "Lord of the Rings" or Jackson´s art-house sellout "Heavenly Creatures." "Dead Alive" is his masterpiece.



- Christopher Long (Staff)





Halloween Trick: "House of the Dead," 2003

Notoriously inept director Uwe Boll created a candidate for one of the worst films in recent history when he finished "House of the Dead". "House of the Dead" is based on the very popular video game with the same title. In the film, actors Sonya Salomaa, Will Sanderson, and Enuka Okuma are college students who coincidently attend a rave on an island inhabited by zombies. Need I say more? With this astonishing ridiculous plot, the horrible acting and the redundant scenes, it´s evident that this project was doomed from the very beginning. The only frightening thing about this "film" is that it managed to make over ten million dollars at the box office. Boll, apparently determined to leave an Ed Wood like legacy on the film industry, has now completed his new movie, "BloodRayne," with Ben Kingsley and Michael Madsen. Yes, that´s right; Ben Kingsley and Michael Madsen have roles in an upcoming Uwe Boll film. May God have mercy on their careers.

Halloween Treat: "Nosferatu the Vampyre," 1979

Director Werner Herzog helmed this masterfully atmospheric and creepy film, when he chose to remake Murnau´s 1922 silent classic, ´Nosferatu´. For those who don´t know, "Nosferatu the Vampyre" is Herzog´s take on Bram Stoker´s Dracula. The film has a fantastic opening sequence, beautiful scenery, and a haunting score that complements the tone of the film flawlessly. However, it´s Klaus Kinski´s performance that´s the real treasure here, as he crafts a sympathetic and a deliciously creepy Count Dracula. There is plenty to appreciate in this terrific film and it´s a great way to get introduced to Werner Herzog´s brilliant work.



- Kurtis Jameson Beard (Staff)



Happy Halloween from the DVD Town Staff!


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