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40oz. of Horror! Podcast - Horror News, Brews, Booze & Drunken Reviews – The #1 Drunken Horror Podcast on iTunes
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Movie Reviews

New ‘HALLOWEEN’ movie makes a welcome return to slash away its predecessors

October 22, 2018 by Jeff T. Smith No Comments
New Halloween Movie Review

You’re not afraid of the bogeyman? You should be!

What can you say about a dream movie that no HALLOWEEN franchise fan thought would happen?

For all intents and purposes, the original saga of films ended following the poor feedback from Halloween: Resurrection in 2002 which saw the end of Jamie Lee Curtis’s titular character Laurie Strode. Rob Zombie did his take on the original story with two films that are held in mixed regard but they didn’t carry the weight that the original series had. Enter 2017, with Producer Malek Akkad (son of original producer Moustapha Akkad) getting the green light with Blumhouse Productions to bring on the team of director David Gordon Green with writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley to give a revitalized taste to the Michael Myers flavor. The key ingredient that sold the concept to many, including this writer, was in September 2017 when Jamie Lee Curtis announced she would be making her return for one final confrontation with Michael Myers. News sites lit up and fan base hearts starting beating. Not all was glorious when it was revealed that Halloween II (1981) through Resurrection were being completely discarded (there are Easter eggs though!); the story reverting back to the simplicities of an evil being committing a random act of terror on an innocent teenage girl and how, over 40 years, that girl’s post-traumatic repercussions have influenced her life.

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Blog

MY FIRST FINAL GIRL – The importance of Laurie Strode

October 19, 2018 by Jeff T. Smith No Comments
Halloween 1978 Laurie Strode

Thank you, Jamie Lee Curtis.

She isn’t just my first final girl because, let’s face it, she was THE first final girl to hit a mainstream horror audience. With due kudos to final girls such as Marilyn Burns‘ Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Olivia Hussey’s Jess in Black Christmas, it was in 1978 that young starlet Jamie Lee Curtis first graced the screens as a 17-year-old babysitter who did not succumb to her attacker and continued to fight until the very end. This babysitter was named Laurie Strode in John Carpenter’s masterpiece, Halloween.

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Movie Reviews

TRICK OR TREAT BABY! Ranking the trailers of the entire ‘HALLOWEEN’ series

October 26, 2016 by Jeff T. Smith No Comments
Halloween Series Trailers Ranked

Now that we’re in single digits in our countdown to the greatest day of the year — Halloween, if you’re new here — it’s only proper to acknowledge the definitive granddaddy of all seasonal horror series. Always important to any project is the marketing, and theatrical trailers have become a staple of anticipation, no matter the genre, as they are the first introduction to the characters and the world of the film. Sometimes the hype is better than the final product, but that’s the art of a good theatrical trailer. I’ve reviewed theatrical trailers for the entire Halloween series and ranked them, starting with the least effective. This article is purely subjective, but I trust some of you out there will agree.

10. Halloween II (1981)

Ironically, my favorite entry in the franchise actually ranks least in the trailer department. It starts with a bang and keeps the momentum going — complete with the more gothic version of the theme. However, it seems too choppy, and when we reach the closing moments of Michael Myers chasing Laurie Strode, they employ the same formula as the original trailer. It works, but this trailer should have felt larger than the original, and it didn’t happen.

9. Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Some consider Halloween: Resurrection to be the worst film in the franchise, but it certainly has its moments — and the trailer rings true to the hype of being greater than the film. It establishes the story, and offers something fresh and modern to the millennium while making sure it gives credit to the franchise history. The payoff is seeing Laurie ready to take on Michael once more. The downfall? It begins to risk giving away too much and, sigh, shows Busta Rhymes kicking Michael out the window. Boo!

8. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

I love that the trailer for Halloween 5 gets right to business, and the narration does the trick that the Halloween II trailer didn’t: pack the pace and make it clear that this film is going to be a thrill ride with higher stakes. But, like many trailers, it just reveals too much and runs too long to make it the magic that it could’ve been.

7. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

The opening to this trailer for Halloween 4 immediately brings any viewer who knew the original two entries to the immediate realization that it’s a Halloween film returning to its roots. While it does seem choppy at the time, it shows that Michael is strong, that a child is in danger and that fan favorite Dr. Loomis is back on the hunt. Donald Pleasance’s delivery of the dialogue carries this trailer from start to finish.

6. Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

One of the greatest things of the series is Mrs. Blankenship’s monologue explaining why we celebrate Halloween. It’s chilling and intriguing at the same time. We are Danny, sitting and listening as she combines the sincere and the sinister. It’s only fitting, then, that Dimension Films used this moment to carry the entire trailer and give us a glimpse into where Michael is now and what these characters are going to face — and it feels like the Halloween season. Nothing is spoiled! It leaves eyebrows raised, pleasantly wondering what is in store.

5. Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007)

Is it a sequel? No. Is it a remake? Let’s call it a “re-imagining.” Is it Halloween 1978? Hell, no! This trailer is edited so crisp and uses the fantastic tableau shot that Zombie incorporated into a key crime scene moment to send a chill into the audience. This is going to be like nothing seen before while giving us more of Michael, for better or worse, and bringing the horror to the extreme.

4. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

It’s 20 years later. The scene is established. The mood is set. Jamie Lee Curtis is back, and is Michael the predator or the prey?  The late ’90s setting is apparent. We know Laurie is haunted, we know she’s been in hiding, and when that moment comes, we know that she’s going to stop running and confront Michael in an all-out war. That’s something worth 20 years of waiting.  The trailer is also capped off by a light-hearted but welcome moment between Curtis and real-life Mom Janet Leigh, giving a respected nod to the original in the process.

3. Halloween (1978)

Part of the corruption of innocence, the unexplained phenomena of psychopathology, was an inspiration behind young Michael Myers, and never had the audience seen something where the child was directly responsible for some kind of brutal murder (Village of the Damned aside). What was to be a shocker to the audience is actually revealed when Myer’s parents pull the clown mask off and we see the kid in full view. This is the classic film that sets the benchmark, and while the trailer does a fantastic job in setting up the narrative and the suspense, including the cliffhanging moment of Michael chasing Laurie, it exposes certain moments that should have remained out of it — and that’s why it just can’t rank #1 in my book.

2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

What the hell am I thinking? This is a weird trailer because the teaser is tacked on at the top. If it really played like that, then it’s just off-setting from the beginning. Similar to Mrs. Blankenship, Dan O’Herlihy’s fantastic monolog about the dark roots and rich heritage of the Halloween season sets the tone that none of the other trailers possibly could. Because this is a Halloween film, even Myers-less, it has to establish the season. Masks, murder, children in danger, robots and science fiction? This is just something incredibly creepy, and we aren’t given any insight into how this film will play out. They even worked in the closing moment of the film without viewers realizing it. Clever!

1. Rob Zombie’s H2 [Halloween II] (2009)

You can love it or hate it — whichever way you want — but this trailer is beautifully strung together. The scenes transition nicely. It does not hide the violence. Any clip of Michael is fast and kept to the bare minimal so as to not overexpose his signature masked look or the new unmasked jacket version. The scene of Annie (Danielle Harris) looking in the bathroom mirror only to see Michael is back haunts me to this day; I still turn when looking in my mirror. It’s a great scene, and its placement in this trailer       segues nicely into something even more bizarre: the haunting resurrection of Sheri Moon’s Deborah Myers in spirit form cueing Michael during his murders. It’s bizarre, it’s some seriously fucked-up, hardcore shit, and it’s coming at us as fast as Michael himself. Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) says it best… Michael is more evolved. This is everything I want to see in a theatrical trailer, to the point where I may just go and watch the movie again right now.

There you have it, everyone. Making any ranking list, especially on one’s favorite series of all time, is not an easy task, and sometimes I was bouncing the numbers around just by one spot. I also wanted to be as honest with you, the reader, as I could. I couldn’t just put the original trailer in the #1 spot — just couldn’t. It would seem like a sell-out.

In closing, I simply say, no matter the rank you might give each trailer, I only wish you one thing — and that’s “Happy Halloween.”

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Movie Reviews

CURSE NO MORE – How Rue-Morgue Magazine and the new Box Set has finally brought Halloween 6: The Producer’s Cut to the prominence it deserves.

September 19, 2014 by Jeff T. Smith 3 Comments
Halloween 6 Producer's Cut

Halloween 6 Producer's Cut“Enough of this Michael Myers bullshit.” was a line spoken by character John Strode (portrayed to brilliance by actor Bradford English) in Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers.

Turns out in 1995 when the movie was released theatrically, many of the Halloween fans and genre fans alike said the same thing. One of the most renowned cases of poor test audience and studio interference, Halloween 6 has become one of the most talked about entries in the franchise. Many feel that it was a hack-and-slash mess that left fans more sour than satisfied. It was not until after the release when the world of horror learned of the original edit – a concept and piece that much more related to Screenwriter Daniel Farrands’ vision and brought the series full circle.

On September 23rd, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Scream Factory (two distributors who have become Gods to the many VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray collectors out there) have combined their strengths to produce the ultimate combination of the Halloween Franchise into one large box set. Although countless versions have been released over the years, this box set not only has new material but the long awaited and too-often-bootlegged version of Halloween 6 known as “The Producer’s Cut.”

Thanks to Rue-Morgue magazine out of Toronto, Halloween fans got treated to the first ever theatrical release of The Producer’s Cut on Thursday night. The magazine routinely hosts movies in what they have called their ‘Cinemacabre’ movie nights. Rue-Morgue Editor-in-Chief Dave Alexander took a few minutes to discuss how it came about.

“Well, with Cinemacabre, I’m always trying to do things that are a unique experience,” said Alexander, “or a little bit outside of the box. There is a lot more competition for genre screenings especially in Toronto, a lot more than when we started Cinemacabre years ago. We showed the Director’s Cut of Mimic when it came out and Guillermo Del Toro came out to the screening and did a Q&A with us so I kind of had that stuff on my mind.”

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With many cases in filmmaking, often what is seen on screen was not the original concept and Alexander continues that “the idea [is] that we have these interesting filmmakers [that] have their version or what’s close to their version shown on the big screen. The fans love it and often the companies like it too because it’s good promotion for them coming out so it’s just kind of one of those things that work well for everybody.”

On the Producer’s Cut showing specifically, Alexander says it is for “the horror fans and for the Halloween fans that drove in from out of town that want to get a chance to see a totally unique screening.”

The film begins on October 30, 1995 and picks up six years after the events of Halloween 5

The now 16-year-old Jamie Lloyd (sadly not portrayed by original actress Danielle Harris due to the studio unwilling to negotiate a fair salary) is being treated inside Smith’s Grove Warren County Sanitarium. Through a flashback, the audience gets to see how Jamie ended up in the clutches of the mysterious Man-In-Black and still threatened by her Uncle, Michael Myers. From there, we are introduced to the Strode family – relatives of Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie character – who are now living in the old Myers house. Besides Michael and Jamie, the main character we are pleasantly re-introduced to is Dr. Loomis portrayed by the legendary Donald Pleasance. Sadly this was Pleasance’s final appearance in the franchise and the swan song for Dr. Loomis. Pleasance’s untimely death was not foreseen and unfortunately, caused the iconic character minimalized screen-time in the theatrical release because no new footage could be shot. With over 40+ minutes of scenes cut or altered, it is no wonder fans were left with a product that bordered on dismal. If The Producer’s Cut had of been released in its original form, it very well could be the best of the sequels in the series. With the emphasis on the origins of Michael’s evil that included the ancient rituals of Sam Hain and Celtic Legend (all primary factors into the essence of the Halloween lore), the film fleshes out and brings to a close certain elements established through the previous three Myers entries. Eliminating spoilers as much as possible, it is safe to say though that by the end of this cut, Loomis has now discovered why he was destined to battle Myers for all these years but no matter what curse was imposed on Myers as a child, he is what original creator John Carpenter always envisioned, his own, independent agent of evil. If this were to be the last entry in the franchise (which was not the intention but could have been following Pleasances death and prior to Jamie Lee Curtis willing to return), The Producer’s Cut brings closure to the entire series while leaving just enough for the fans and the story to retain its longevity.

Lively helping-hand and current Rue-Morgue Intern, Brett McNeill, had not seen the theatrical cut so watching the series up to that point; it was a first time experience which left him very pleased. After the credits rolled, McNeill was happy to share why he found it to be “the best Halloween sequel.” Many fans that have seen the movie will probably agree with him that “the fact that it all happened in the Myers house” brought relativity back to the original and because of it, brought the audience “more suspense.”

Alexander elaborated on the film’s significance to the franchise, “For the people who know The Producer’s Cut, it gets a lot more into the whole curse of Thorn subplot which was subsequently abandoned after they re-cut it, which, was one of the most interesting things to happen to the Halloween series when they introduced occult nature to the evil of Michael Myers. You get to sort of go back into that world and there is a real interest in it. There are people that have done fan films based around the whole curse of Thorn cult stuff that we’ve done articles on. It’s sort of like a ‘What If?’ kind of scenario. What if the Halloween franchise went in that direction and embraced this whole other path.”

Both the theatrical and the Producer’s Cut plot-points were abandoned for the next installment, Halloween: H20 – a decision that was made during the course of production by Jamie Lee Curtis. H20 was not without its share of script revisions but in relation to Halloween 6, could not compare. Alexander mentioned that he “talked to a fellow tonight that has read several different versions of the script that were posted online and this is still far from what Screenwriter Daniel Farrands had in mind, but at least it puts a whole different coat of paint on the series.”

The landscape of Film and Television in 2014 has certainly changed and that is where the importance of The Producer’s Cut cannot be overlooked. For almost 20 years, petitions surfaced online pleading for the movie’s release onto DVD. It is fitting then that this pinnacle version of Halloween 6 is now getting the treatment it deserves and speaks volumes for the power of the fans and followers of these films.

In a last note, Alexander brought up a very valid take on the subject: “I think that’s what is significant [about the film]. We sort of live in an age now where everything comes out, people’s scripts get posted online [and] stuff gets leaked. People talk about what could have been, you know they make trailers for movies that don’t exist and posters for things that don’t exist so it’s kind of come into the control of fans. They let their imaginations kinda run wild on it and I think this [film] fits firmly into that mindset.”

It is a blessing that events such as Cinemacabre and the people responsible exist. Through the support of the distributor, Anchor Bay Entertainment (who now own the rights to this version), the Rue-Morgue crew was able to bring life back to the Halloween series one last time. Maybe by coming out to The Royal Theatre, and buying the upcoming Box Set, the admiration of The Producer’s Cut release allowed fans victory and closure; allowing them to properly say with pride:

“Trick or Treat, Mother-Fucker!”

For more information on Cinemacabre and Rue-Morgue, visit www.rue-morgue.com
For more information on the Halloween franchise, visit www.halloweenmovies.com

Special Thanks to Dave Alexander, Brett McNeill, Rue-Morgue Magazine and Anchor Bay Entertainment

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News

Halloween Returns to the Big Screen October 25

September 19, 2012 by Brandon Gentry No Comments

The slasher film that started it all, the 1979 John Carpenter classic Halloween, is coming home — to theaters that is.

For a limited run in the United States, each showing of the famous fright flick will be opened with a documentary titled You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman: 35 Years of Halloween. Screenings will begin on October 25.

In case you are numb to the genre, Halloween features a psychotic murderer named Michael Myers who has been institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister. After 15 years, Myers breaks out on the night before Halloween and proceeds to stalk and slay a group of teenagers lead by the character Laurie Strode (played by a young Jamie Lee Curtis).

If you haven’t seen Michael Myers torture teenagers on the big screen, this might be your last chance.

from TGDaily

Halloween was truly the Pulp Fiction success story of its day because it was an independent film that cost $320,000, and made back $40 million, a huge return on investment, and the major studios immediately took notice. Yet unlike Pulp Fiction, which was released by Miramax, who were then under the Disney umbrella, Halloween was a truly independent film that succeeded outside the system.

Like a low budget B movie, Halloween went around the country state by state, “bicycling” prints from city to city, and within three to five months, it became a phenomenon. (Carpenter didn’t even know it was a hit until Avco Embassy offered him a two-picture deal, and he made The Fog and Escape From New York for the company). Like Tarantino and Hitchcock, Carpenter also became a star director, and his name became synonymous with screen terror.]

Check out this 1979 screening with audience reactions.

Will you go see Halloween this… err… Halloween?

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