What have you watched recently? 3D!

There is a trend with some publications that no matter how bad something Irish is, you add a few extra stars regardless. I used to long have my suspicions, but I was told by someone who used to work for a certain long running Irish music magazine that they pretty much have this as an unwritten rule for Irish music/film reviews.

I recoded Venom when it was on TV recently and really enjoyed it. Wasn't sure at first but it got better as it went on. Some very funny bits and good action. Will definitely go see the new one when it comes out. I thought Tom Hardy made the film, without him it would have been rubbish.

Apparently there were 40 minutes of scenes deleted so it would be good to see the extended cut.

Stillwater

Great Drama/ kind of thriller. Matt Damon stars. Great Juxtaposition of Damons American Character against the European City in which it all plays out. Kept my attention all the way through. 8/10

The Mauritanian

True story about a Mauritanian national being held illegally for years in Guantanamo bay. Jodie Foster stars as the pro Bono defense attorney assigned to his case. Some of the ways in which the detainees are depicted as being treated make for hard watching. Good film , 7.5/10

I watched that a couple of years ago. Really enjoyed it.

Halloween (2018)

This annoyed me. Halloween (78) is one of my favourite ever movies and imo the best horror ever made so reboots/remakes/reimaginings in the majority leave me cold.

It basically ignores everything that happened from the end of Halloween (78) and is a direct sequel to that with Michael in an institution for the last 40 years. Lo and behold, 39 years and 364 days to the date a couple of investigative journalists pay him a visit and bring with them the mask he wore when he went on the rampage nearly 40 years previously.

Michael "feels" the mask in his presence and manages to escape captivity and go on another rampage.

The cast are annoying, the plot is wafer thin, the kills are terribly uninspired and the ending is fcuking stupid.

What annoyed me most was the knowing Easter eggs to fans of the franchise. I'm OK with low key nods (eg the trick or treaters that are wearing the masks that feature in part 3) to source material but flat out plagiarising iconic scenes (eg the end of 78 when Michael is lying on the grass then disappears) is imo a lame attempt at showing how down they are with the franchise.

All in all, a terrible movie.

'Halloween'

In 1978 John Carpenter managed to get together some friends, some equipment, the daughter of a famous acting duo, a relatively big name in horror and around $320.000 to make his small movie about a crazed, deranged, killer that stalked teenagers on October 30th. Beginning life as "The Babysitter Murders', upon the suggestion of producer Irwin Yablans, the title was sensibly changed to the more simple and effective 'Halloween' and it was released to slew of nasty reviews that almost universally considered it a piece of trash. Even so, the movie proved to be a success with audiences and in a very quick turn around, the original sentiments of the critics also became a subject of review in which a number of them revised their initial position and reversed their original assessment. Some of them going so far as to even offer such high praise as to make comparisons with Hitchcock.

Since then, of course, 'Halloween' has gone on to become one of the most highly regarded horror movies ever made and, while certainly not the first "slasher" movie, it became responsible for the rake of imitators that formed the body of that sub genre throughout the 80's. The likes of Freddie and Jason, for better or worse, would never have seen the light of day if it wasn't for the impact Michael Myers had on young cinema goers in the late 70's.

But unlike those latter movies, and indeed its own sequels, Carpenter's movie is almost bloodless and has a body count that would make some Disney movies laugh. It's a steady, considered, film that's never in a rush to get anywhere and is content to build its tension gradually. In fact, most of the movie's action takes place in the last 10 minutes where the unlikely - for the time - heroine, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), confronts the killer that's been knocking off her friends. For most of the story Myers is happy enough to stand around looking menacing in his workman's overalls and Captain Kirk mask and spends the first third of the film casually driving around Haddonfield in a Ford LTD County Squire!

But in a way that Freddie and Jason could never manage, Myers remains a spooky nutcase. He never speaks, he doesn't run and he has no visible humanity to him. Unlike Freddie, who never shuts up and Jason who is essentially a ridiculous zombie in later 'Friday the 13th' sequels (although to be fair this criticism can also be levelled at Michael Myers as the Halloween series progresses). Carpenter has referred to him as "the shape" although that moniker is never used in the movie and he's merely meant to be an embodiment of an unstoppable evil. However, this is where Myers receives his greatest strength and also his greatest weakness. Myers is relentless in his pursuit and has no compunction to negotiate, but he also appears to possess supernatural strength and abilities. His reluctance to succumb to number of gunshot wounds has to be either down to a magical ability to absorb damage or Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is just a woeful shot. Personally, I prefer the second "explanation", because I'm not at all fond of the first. But none of that really matters for the first and second instalments of the franchise and Myers unwillingness to die is left suitably vague.

It remains unfortunate, though, that 'Halloween' couldn't have remained a one off picture because it really works as a stand alone story and as Carpenter himself said, "there was no more story to tell" even if, as I write this, there are currently 10 Michael Myers movies made (including remakes) and another 2 in various production stages, which is utterly remarkable for such an anaemic yarn where everything that needed to be said was done so in the first 90 minutes.

'Halloween' went on to make a very tidy profit resulting in it being one of the most financially successful independent films ever made. However, little of that money saw the insides of the pockets of either John Carpenter, Deborah Hill or anyone else who worked on it. This led to Carpenter and much of his team making the choice to get together again in 1981 and make the sequel, 'Halloween II' as they figured that it was inevitably going to be done so why shouldn't they get some money out of it this time? Carpenter was determined to make 'Halloween II' the last word in Michael Myers but as we've seen, he failed to make that a reality. He has since made statements regarding his loathing of the sequel(s), while still holding his original movie close to his heart and in his later years he's made quite a considerable amount of money from the various remakes and reboots.

In the end, though, the original 'Halloween' is well worth the time of any film fan although I'm sure that a lot of younger horror fans will be very disappointed when they sit down to it and will truly wonder what all the fuss is about. They may well see it as a tired, redundant, and overly restraint version of what came after, replete with all the cliches that became a staple of the sub genre it helped spawn. But one should remember that tedious tropes like sex leading to death and the virginal "final girl" weren't a thing in horror movies at the time and they were also far from the film makers minds, despite what some subsequent critical analysis might have to say. Carpenter and his crew have gone through great pains to refute the claims that 'Halloween' was some sort of morality play when all he and co-writer Hill had in mind were ordinary teenagers being stalked by an extraordinary killer. It therefore tends to get lumped in with many other serial killer movies despite the fact that it's more than a step up in quality over the likes of 'Friday the 13th', 'Prom Night', or 'Happy Birthday to Me'.

8.5/10

'Halloween II'

An inevitable, albeit, uneasy follow up to John Carpenter's 1978 movie, 'Halloween II' was offered to the director in the wake of the original's spectacular success. But it wasn't something that either Carpenter or Deborah Hill were interested in, except as a way to make some money off of their initial creation. Even so, they agreed and sat down, with copious amounts of beer, to write a script that saw a direct continuation of the story which takes place on the same night and sees Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital to be treated for the injuries that she sustained in her fight with escaped lunatic Michael Myers, while Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) searches the town with the local police looking for his former patient.

With a bigger budget and film crew, 'Halloween II' ups the ante with a larger kill count and boasts much better special effects in an attempt to compete with the likes of 'Friday the 13th' which had been made in wake of the triumph of Carpenter's original film and over the years audiences and critics have refined their opinions about it although it's always had its fans. But it was, perhaps, forever going to be the case that the sequel to one of the most successful horror films ever made was ultimately doomed to live in its shadow, and while it's certainly not as good as the first movie, it's creditable enough and in its own right not a bad little horror flick. Although it must be said that there is absolutely nothing new here, even for 1981, and Carpenter and Hill's story creaks with the strain of the struggle it took to get it onto the page. It's telling, however, that Carpenter refused to take on director responsibilities this time around and instead handed off that particular role to journeyman, Rick Rosenthal. But, as with the "did he or didn't he" situation re: Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper on 'Poltergeist', it's unclear whether Carpenter had more of a role in directing the film than would first appear although he unconvincingly maintains that he had no influence in that area at all. There are certainly flashes of his touch here and there and combined with Dean Cundey's instantly familiar cinematography, it thoroughly feels like a John Carpenter movie at times...as much as that would stoke the man's ire, so loathing of the final outcome as he is.

But, personally, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for 'Halloween II' and despite some obvious shortcomings, I consider it to be easily the best of the Michael Myers Halloween sequels, even if that can come across as damning with faint praise as none of them are anything to write home about by all accounts. But it's reasonably entertaining in what it sets out to do, has some gruesomely effective kills, and Haddonfield's curiously sparse and strangely underpopulated hospital makes for quite a creepy setting. What's probably the greatest boon about 'Halloween II', though, is the fact that Carpenter managed to get most of his cast and crew back which helps it no end and goes a long way to making it feel like a genuine continuation of October 30th 1978. Curtis and Pleasence obviously have the most screen time, but Nancy Stephens and Charles Cyphers (as Marion Chambers and Sheriff Leigh Brackett) also turn up to do their bit. Even Nancy Loomis, as Annie Brackett, makes an appearance in a three second cameo on a ambulance stretcher. Absent, though, is Nick Castle who played Myers in 'Halloween', though his replacement (Dick Warlock) does an adequate job as the masked killer.

'Halloween II' is an altogether nastier film than its predecessor, as well, with a few squirm inducing moments sprinkled throughout. An unfortunate kid is brought to Haddonfield Memorial because some particularly sociopathic creep had put razor blades in the treats he received, mirroring some of the urban legends that were spread around at the time. There's also some hypodermic horribleness that will have the trypanophobic reaching for the remote, and a victim meets a particularly hot end courtesy of a therapy bath that can heat to unrealistically high temperatures.

Perhaps the biggest downfall of the movie, however, is the ill-conceived plot twist that comes in the its final third and it's been said by Carpenter that this was done out of sheer desperation, early in the morning, and with far too much beer involved, which I can well believe. But even though it's a curious development and wholly unnecessary, it doesn't sink the film which manages to flow on pretty seamlessly and feel like an organic progression from the original story.

Unfairly, 'Halloween II' was largely savaged by the critics when it was released to cinemas in October 1981 and shared the fate that most sequels did at the time in that they were usually written off instantly and without much consideration. But there were some critics who compared it favourably to the other "slasher" fare that was on offer in the early 80's and over the succeeding years the film has found its audience, with many people considering it to be an essential extension to the original. There are some, like myself, that consider 'Halloween' and 'Halloween II' to be the only entries in the Michael Myers story and dismiss everything else that came after. Although Myers has seen a lease of new life with the lazily titled and lacklustre 'Halloween', a reboot from 2018 which saw Jamie Lee Curtis reprise her role as an OAP Laurie Strode and focuses on her resumed battle with her former nemesis, while simultaneously eliminating every sequel from 'Halloween II' onwards.

6/10

'Halloween III Season of the Witch'

After having a torrid experience on the set of 'Halloween II' it's not surprising, at all, that both John Carpenter and Deborah Hill were reluctant to even consider doing a second sequel to their 1978 movie. But Carpenter, who's on record calling 'Halloween II' an "abomination", eventually came around to the idea provided the story he and Hill were to pen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Michael Myers which the producers, Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad, agreed to. In the end, both Carpenter and Hill, also distanced themselves from writing duties and Nigel Neale, the British screenwriter who created Quatermass for the BBC in the 1960's, was brought in to handle the script, which ended up going through numerous re-writes much to veteran screenwriter's displeasure. It was also Carpenter's idea that if the Halloween series were to continue, it would be as an self contained story with each entry being different to the last. Certainly an interesting idea and a shame that it never took off.

Carpenter also wanted nothing to do with directorial duties either and instead offered up the idea that his mate, Tommy Lee Wallace (production designer and co-editor on the original 'Halloween'), take up the mantle. Wallace also had a hand in revising the script, too, and was very uncomfortable about the title which he felt would end up being a bane to the whole production. Suggesting that it should merely be called 'Season of the Witch' (which, presumably, would have never happened as that clashed with George Romero's 1973 film of the same name), he was overruled by the producers and financial backers and had to be content with it as a sub-title. It's clear that his understanding of the potential future problems with the titling of the film was to the forefront of his mind and he envisaged that a Halloween movie without Michael Myers was going to be met with some backlash from fans. But he salved his conscience, somewhat, with the idea that the III in the title could refer to the three Halloween masks that featured in the picture and that really the sub-title was the actual title of the movie. Although this was more down to his inability to change matters more than anything else as the people fronting the money weren't ever going to consider taking Halloween off of the title. A situation therefore occurred that meant a Halloween sequel without Halloween in the title would see its financial backing withdrawn. But a film without the killer associated with that title was destined to be be rejected by most of the fans of I and II. All of this resulted in 'Halloween III Season of the Witch' being doomed to be the bastard red headed stepchild of the series.

When 'Halloween III Season of the Witch' was released in 1982, a year after 'Halloween II', it was met with utter destain and a critical and audience slaughtering that made the reception of 'Halloween II' look mild in comparison. As Wallace had feared, fans of the first two films mostly hated it by the fact that they felt cheated with the absence of the killer they were waiting to see and critics felt that the story was confusing and unnecessarily obscure. In fairness, the story of an Irish toymaker who wants to kill millions of American kids and thus return Halloween to its pagan roots (somehow), was pretty out there it has to be said. It was the type of kitsch, B movie, fare that was never really going to catch on with growing fans of the slasher sub-genre who's, let's be honest, unsophisticated tastes were never going to be catered for by such. Plus, up against the competition of 'Poltergeist' which had the cache afforded to it by Spielberg's name being attached and 'Friday the 13th Part III' which dragged out its killer Jason for another round of teen murder, a Halloween movie without Michael Myers was always just going to be an "also ran".

By the time it was withdrawn from cinemas, though, the movie managed to accrue around $14 million on a budget of about $2.5 which wasn't at all bad with all things considered. But it certainly wasn't the profit margin that the producers were expecting and 'Halloween III Season of the Witch' effectively killed the franchise stone dead. At least until Moustapha Akkad ended up with the rights entirely and resurrected Michael Myers for the stale and woefully derivative 'Halloween IV The Return of Michael Myers'.

But that's not where the story of the film ends, as over the decades there's been a constant stream of fans of the movie who have been quite appreciative of its batshit crazy plot and its sheer "what the hell is going on" elements. It has gone on to become a well loved cult movie and one that eventually found its place as a stand alone tale. In fact there's the distinct possibility that if the film had been released as just 'Season of the Witch', or some other title bereft of the Halloween header, it may have been better received in 1982 and perhaps even have a bigger following today. It's certainly well loved, albeit in a kinda meta way with an understanding that, yes, the film is utter nonsense. But what ludicrously enjoyable nonsense all the same.

There are also a lot of John Carpenter fans who recognised his touches in the story which play heavily on an anti-capitalist, anti-Corporate, anti-advertising angle. Much in the way that his later film 'They Live' would. This is clearly displayed in the appallingly catchy jingle that advertises the Silver Shamrock masks and the big event associated with them that plays constantly throughout the movie. It's at once completely irritating yet absolutely brilliant at the same time and goes a long way to help bury the film in people's memories. But it's a sharp little dig at that marketing realm where the television is literally destroying the minds of the people watching it. Carpenter's anti-Conservatism is reflected in his view of small town America, too, with the robotic nature of Santa Mira, the town where Cochran's Silver Shamrock factory is located and where he holds his power over a largely fawning and unquestioning townsfolk. It's also no accident that the name of the town is taken from 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. It's such little snippets like that that make 'Halloween III Season of the Witch' an enjoyably snarky stab at the burgeoning worries about Reagan's America.

The film also boasts an impressive electronic score by both Carpenter Alan Howarth which is very different to the previous movies and wisely so. But like the soundtrack to 'Halloween' and 'Halloween II' it remains an essential ingredient, although there's nothing in there that's as instantly memorable as Carpenter's double-four-time theme music from 'Halloween', apart from the 'London Bridge if Falling Down' inspired Silver Shamrock advertisement jingle. However, everything about it suits the film perfectly. Coinciding with a familiar Carpenteresque soundtrack, the camera duties are again handled by long time collaborator Dean Cundey who's distinctive style does much to make this feel like a John Carpenter movie, even though it's difficult to say just how much input Carpenter actually had as he was busy with 'The Thing' for much of is production time.

'Halloween III Season of the Witch' is a real marmite movie and probably always will be, despite the fact that it now has a respectable gang of fans that are willing to accept its oddities in order to enjoy it. And if one removes it from the series it's unfortunate to belong to it remains very entertaining, even if the basic requirement for that entertainment is simply to go where it takes you.

6/10

'Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers'

After the critics and fans got together for the crucifixion of 'Halloween III Season of the Witch' in 1982, the Halloween franchise seemed to be as dead as its villain was in 'Halloween II'. But just like the "deaths" of Michael Myers this proved to be false and Myers found himself miraculously brought back to life, Jason style, for another entry in the troubled and messy timeline of Halloween.

This only became possible because John Carpenter and everyone involved with the original threw their hands in the air, said "sod it" and sold off all rights to Moustapha Akkad who was eager to try an capitalise on the slasher craze of the 1980's. But, by the time the rights has passed to Akkad and the fourth film in the franchise was a goer, Freddie (the late comer) had seen himself in three movies, with a fourth on the way and Jason (Michael's main rival) had six movies under his belt and another one nearly in the can. So Moustapha was falling behind and needed to make up some ground. The way he was going to do this was to revive the killer at the centre of 'Halloween I' and 'Halloween II' and, to be fair, he was correct that fans of those films (who refused anything to do with the third film) would be more welcoming to that idea than they would be to another Halloween film sans Myers.

In this film, which obviously eliminates 'Halloween III Season of the Witch', Michael Myers is re-introduced to us a comatose patient ten years after his immolation in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital at the hands of Dr. Loomis, who is later seen laughably sporting mild latex injury appliances even though he was involved in the same incredibly violent explosion that absolutely nobody could have survived. Myers eventually comes to life and, in a move that mirrors the ill-conceived twist in 'Halloween II', he finds out that he has a niece in the shape of Laurie Strode's daughter, Jamie (Danielle Harris), and he's sparked off again to go on a familial killing spree to which Loomis and Jamie's step sister, Rachel (Ellie Cornell), are compelled to combat...and that is, essentially, all that this movie has got.

You could say that that's all it needs and in the hands of better film makers, that may be true. But 'Halloween 4' is hamstrung by the fact that it is really just a pale retread of number one and it lacks the visual umph that that movie possessed. Without any Carpenter touches or even that of cinematographer Dean Cundey, the film comes across as a dull 80's TV movie despite its best efforts to replicate what made the first film so good. 'Halloween 4' tramps along in a lumbering way and is never more than passable fare in its best moments, but it too often just hovers unsatisfyingly between mediocre and bad.

But, perhaps, the worst element of the film (spoilers warning) is the ending, which is ludicrous, hilarious and disastrous all at once, because out of nowhere Myers' Niece, Jamie, suddenly decides to kill her stepmother, Darlene (Karen Alston), with a pair of scissors in a murderous action that's reminiscent of her uncle's murder of his sister in the opening of the first film. This ending scene is so forced and ham fisted that it comes off as truly laughable and utterly impossible to forgive, even in a dumb horror movie, because it's such a cynical move on behalf of the producers to simply keep their options open no matter how absurd the events unfolding on the screen are. As such the final scene of the movie destroys any forgiving feelings the viewer may have had toward it in one astonishing move.

'Halloween 4' is, effectively, just a reboot of the Halloween movie series long before that phrase became commonplace among cinema goers. It tries to revitalise the series to a competitive level with its rivals but fails to inject the adrenaline that's needed and, ultimately, comes off as a disappointingly lazy copy that lacks everything that the original John Carpenter film had.

2/10

The problem with it, though, is that it largely comes out of nowhere. Sure, there's a touch of hands between Jamie and Michael, but that's just not enough and I wholeheartedly agree that the "pseudo-magical gubbins" does not work at all. I can certainly see where they were trying to come from and what they were trying to do, but it needed a much better story teller to bring that conclusion out in a logical state. We understand that the kid has been subjected to trauma and terror throughout the story and that she's tried to reach out to her uncle, but that's not enough to justify the about face at the end. Why she would try to do what she does makes no real sense.

Mmmm. It appeared that that's what they were originally going for and it was done away with in between films.

Halloween is the first film covered in the new season of The Movies That Made Us on Netflix. I didn't realise the lack of blood. As they were saying, they wanted it to just be hinted.