For The Blood Brothers show on Halloween Night...
We're offering some libations (read: beer and wine) at the beginning of the evening. Those that come in costume get a free beer or glass of wine. For the rest, it’s $3 for either.
Leering at the young ladies in the lobby,
James "Halloween Treat" Comtois
Labels: Blood Brothers, Nosedive Productions, Stephen King
posted by Jamespeak at 11:08 AM
12 Comments:
Hi James,
Question 1: If you had to recommend just one scary movie for Halloween to someone's who's never seen a scary movie before, what would it be?
Question 2: Have you seen The Exorcism of Emily Rose yet?
Oh, hey Ian! Hmmm...I'd have to say Halloween (the John Carpenter original). Absolutely terrifying but not at all gory. Definitely Halloween.
And I have not yet, although (I'm almost embarrassed to admit this) I finally saw Re-Animator for the first time last night. (I know, I know, it's shameful.)
Halloween? I don't know James – Carpenter's a bit schlocky even for me.
I think I saw Re-Animator when I was a kid. Any good?
Blasphemy, sir. Blasphemy!
Actually, Halloween is quite different from his usual fare. It's actually a masterful exercise in calculated restraint. In other words, it doesn't have the hokeyness of Big Trouble in Little China or They Live (even though I love those movies).
Or are you just yanking my proverbial chain, sir? :)
Although there's some silliness with Re-Animator (the scene where they're fighting the, um, "cat" is really something to be seen), I dug the living hell out of it. It was just what I was looking for last night.
I guess I'd have to see it again. I think I prefer BTLC, They Live, and EFNY. I'm not sure Carpenter's MO suits calculated restraint. Not in my book, anyway.
I recall this long shot from Halloween where it's basically looking at the house from the outside for about 30 seconds, as if from Myers' perspective . . . and in the middle of the shot there's a cut and then it picks right back where it was, like he ran out of film mid-shot and decided to piece it together with another bit of film or just loop it back to the beginning. Maybe I'm being silly, but it kind of ruined the film for me.
Mind you, I think that may have been some awful pan & scan TV-ready cut from back when DVDs were new and people still though pan & scan was OK.
The break, if I recall, comes at the point where he puts on the mask. It's pretty seamless (unless you're specifically looking for it), so it sounds like you just saw a shitty print of it (damn magnetic tape!). In terms of it not suiting him, you'd be surprised with Halloween.
Ahh. That makes sense.
For the record, this was the version I watched last time I watched it:
http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Television-Version-Brian-Andrews/dp/B00005KHJT
I'm not sure what makes it the "television version" – but there it is.
Yeah, don't know what the "television version" means, either. I've seen different prints (VHS, DVD, and 25th Anniversary DVD), and to the best of my knowledge, the cuts themselves haven't changed (just the quality of the picture). I could be horrifically wrong about this, though.
This from Wikipedia on the versions:
Several versions of Halloween exist today. The original 91-minute version is the most widely known and seen. A modified television version released in 1980 that aired on NBC runs for 101 minutes and features re-shoot scenes not included in the initial 1978 cut. This edition was released in 2001 on DVD as Halloween: The Extended Version. In 1998, for the 20th anniversary of the film's release, new sound effects were added to the film's audio track with John Carpenter’s approval. Both versions were released on VHS and DVD.
Television rights to Halloween were sold to NBC in 1980 for $4 million. After a debate among John Carpenter, Debra Hill and NBC's Standards & Practices over censoring of certain scenes, Halloween appeared on television for the first time.[9] To fill the two-hour time slot, Carpenter filmed twelve minutes of additional material that include Dr. Loomis at a hospital board review of Myers and Dr. Loomis talking to six-year-old Michael at Smith's Grove, telling him, "You've fooled them, haven't you Michael? But not me." Another extra scene features Dr. Loomis at Smith's Grove examining Michael's abandoned cell and seeing the word "Sister" scratched into the door. Finally, a scene was added in which Lynda comes over to Laurie's house to borrow a silk blouse before Laurie leaves to babysit, just as Annie telephones asking to borrow the same blouse.
The new scene had Laurie's hair hidden by a towel, since Jamie Lee Curtis was now wearing a much shorter hairstyle than she had worn in 1978. The new scenes were shot during production of Halloween II. An extended cut of the television version was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2001 as Halloween: Extended Version, which was actually the same as the second disc from the 1999 limited edition DVD.[46]
Ah, the plot thins.
And obviously I haven't seen that version. Not sure I feel compelled to (aside from satisfying some vague "completionist" interest).
I think there's an extra scene with Yoda from Star Wars in there too.
Imagine asking a film director to add 10 minutes to an already released film so that it could fill a TV slot? Unheard of – previously or since, I hope.
Oh wait. There's the ongoing filmic genocide the folks in Atlanta GA call PeachTree TV – hacking and chopping so that otherwise-decent films can fit into tidy little boxes.
Are we still talking about Re-Animator?
Ugh.
Yeah, they've done shit like that before. Superman: The Movie and Dune immediately spring to mind where extended cuts were released for TV (and also, if I'm not mistaken, one of the Police Academy movies).
And yes, television is the giant unrelenting maw. I remember trembling with rage at watching one of my favorite Simpsons episodes that cut out an entire scene to fill space for more idiot commercials. Which is of course ridiculous, considering the show was designed to accomodate commercial breaks. Ah, seething seething hatred.
So yes. Re-Animator. Pretty kick ass. Sigh...
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