Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Friday, October 26, 2018
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Halloween 2018 in IMAX
Bleeding Cool...
The IMAX release of Halloween will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Halloween 2018 - review (SPOILERS!)
THE NEW HALLOWEEN is an unapologetic love letter to the franchise,
honoring what has come before while simultaneously trying to reanimate it to
remain pertinent in the present day and make a man in a mask utterly terrifying
in the post Modern world
of rampant terrorism and widespread shootings.
It wisely jettisons the baggage of the preceding 9 movies and tangled
continuity of thorn cults and stripper moms to wipe the slate clean and bring
Halloween back to its roots of a maniac without boundaries loose on a night of
potentially limitless horror.
Although the prior movies are wiped from continuity their ghosts and
bones remain in this movie. There are
deep cut references to the thorn cult, the sister trilogy, the clownish cops of
Halloween 5, the silver shamrock masks from Halloween 3, and the bathroom
stalking scene in h20. Even the name of
one of the journalists investigating the myers murders is the same as one of
the security guards from Halloween: resurrection. Despite these easter eggs and references to
what has come before, the movie makes it clear its only interested in following
up on the immoral classic; only the original counts now, and myers has been
locked up for forty years since his original Halloween night killing spree.
The beginning of the film is defined by denial. Laurie, the lone survivor from the original Halloween
killing spree, insists that evil is out there, that they are not safe, that the
bogeyman exists, but after so long nobody really wants to hear about it anymore. She is a prophet of doom living uncomfortably in a time of
peace. That Halloween night so many
years ago defined her entire life; she stays scared to survive, but others
included her own daughter and granddaughter, doubt there is anything to fear in
the first place.
And of course evil just bides its time; Michael escapes during a
routine prisoner transfer on hallows eve to return to Haddonfield, and wastes
no time staking up the body count. Michael
is a force of nature here, stalking from one house to the next, killing the
occupants in brutal fashion and moving on as trick or treaters flow through the
suburban streets outside none the wiser.
He spends the most time stalking a blond bombshell, continuing the Halloween ritual he began in the first film
of systematically murdering nubile teen babysitters that reminded him of Judith,
his first kill and arguably his first thrill.
it isn’t long until laurie is teased out of hiding to hunt myers
down before he can repeat the havoc wrought on halloween forty years ago. She seems eager to face her fate this time;
she wants the pleasure of killing him for revenge . She acts as the new dr. loomis of this film,
although there is another false loomis haring in the mix, the controversial dr.
sartain.
Dr. sartain is introduced as
an understudy to dr. loomis, however he shares none of the late doctors ideas
about what to do with myers. Dr. sartain
sees it as an opportunity to study pure evil and try to understand it. Loomis wanted nothing short of seeing myers
destroyed. Dr. sartain seems oddly
protective of his patient michael myers; he even goes as far as murdering a cop
to try to preserve that evil. He is more
like dr wynn from Halloween 6, fascinated by unbound evil, desperate to
understand it and maybe control it. Dr sartain
could be a snarky jab at the Halloween fanbase who share in his desire to see
michael live to create unlimited sequels, to preserve the shape so he can spread
terror indefinitely. The late producer
malek akkad once famously said Halloween would have no less than 21 entries,
dr. sartain seems to be on the same page.
Dr. Sartain is operating under
the assumption that michael and laurie are cosmic counterpoints to each other
as predator and prey; that michael lives to stalk laurie, and laurie lives to
avenge the deaths of her friends forty years ago. While it certainly is apparent that laurie
never shook the horror of that original Halloween night and has been waiting
for the bogeyman to return ever since, its uncertain how michael feels about
it. Every effort to illicit a response
from him seems futile, his refusal to speak confounds any attempt to attach a
motivation to his actions and leaves journalists and doctors desperate for a
reason to his madness other than evil merely existing. dr. sartain corals michael to lauries sanctuaryhome
in the woods to force a final conflict in an attempt to learn more about the
condition, to observe michael as loomis has, in the wild.
The final act plays out almost
exactly how you would expect with some role reversal between laurie and the
shape thrown in; at one point laurie even stabs michael with his own knife, the
ultimate Freudian subversion of male strength.
By the end every institution of safety fails laurie and her family
making all of her prophetic musings about survival ring true; it is up to them
to dispatch the evil themselves, to face fate no matter what it brings. Little does michael know hes walking into a
well laid trap of feigned female vulnerability, leaving him in a smoldering wreckage
much like the ending of the original Halloween 2, not to mention a few fingers
short. The final shot of the film is 3
generations of defiant strode women riding off into safety, a final girl expose.
The soundtrack was done by
carpenter himself and is on point as expected.
I can see myself spinning it quite a few times this season for those classic
Halloween feels. There are many musical
cues and call backs to the original film; the zingers are back, the slasher is
back. This new entry is exactly what the
genre needs, a true Halloween resurrection.
It honors everything that came before while expounding on some of the
original themes and subtext if the immortal classic. I have already seen it three times in the
theater and plan on another trip before it is through. While it is impossible for a movie to live up
to its hype I felt like this one was not a letdown and will be in regular
watching rotation come next Halloween season, right next to the classicks.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Halloween 2018 - review coming soon
Happy Monday maniacs! Hopefully you have all seen Halloween 2018 by now, I want to watch it a few dozen more times before formulating a complete deep dive review, but for now all I've got to say is what a nice love note to the fanboy and girl fanatics! It's had me re-watching the classick Halloween movies all week. Halloween triumphant; the Shape will never die!
Friday, October 19, 2018
Revenge of the Slashback Video
Man I would love to visit this exhibit someday, so rad! Totally gives me the nostalgia feels for the video store of yesteryear, a regular Friday round of cheesy horror and greasy pizza. I love this stuff!
Thursday, October 18, 2018
The Ranger - 2018
THE RANGER is another retro friendly entry into slasherdom; a CANDY
COATED PUNK EXPLOTATION SLID SNUGGLY INto A SLAStastic TEMPLATE, another eighties throwback that does
it right. THE LEAD CHARACTER AND FINAL
GIRL IS EMBEDDED IN THE PUNK CULTURE OF FAST MUSIC, FASHION, AND DRUGS, but a drug
bust gone sideways sends her and her wannabe rocker gang deep into the woods,
where they encounter the enigmatic RANGER; a blue blood by the books backwoods
badass determined to keep city filth off his mountain. the ranger also shares a mysterious past with the
main character, a tragic moment from her childhood that she can barely remember
through a blurry haze drugs and partying. The
ranger deadpans esoteric government code and regulation while cutting the fashion
punks into ribbons for his revered mountain wolves to devour. He wants the girl with the pink hair to
remember that she is a wolf too, wild and deadly and just like him she has a hidden
dark side waiting to howl out in pure animistic blood-lust, to revel and embrace
the violence of the wild world. after all, Wolves recognize
wolves.
The ranger was shown before Halloween in imax, with the frontman from
the rock band in the film giving a brief intro, delving into the punk roots of
the film and how he got involved. The film
is very pretty, neon pink and blue highlights, some decent bloody bits and one liners; its sure to
engage anyone that has ever delved into the punk scene and enjoys the marriage
between horror and hard rock.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Halloween tiki mug from MONDO
The merchandise is really going some weird places haha...
Get yours HERE!
See you kids at the theaters friday!
Monday, October 15, 2018
Halloween hype...one more week!
This Friday the new Halloween movie drops! Checking out the original in IMAX on Wednesday, I can't wait. It will be shown as a double feature with The Ranger, a movie I know near nothing about but am excited to see none the less. Check out this alternate title poster for Halloween.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Friday, October 5, 2018
Thursday, October 4, 2018
McFarlane Halloween 2018 sketch
Man I love me some Spawn; I have every single issue and appearance of said character and have been a fan of McFarlane for as long as I've read comics. This is TOO RAD! My favorite worlds are colliding! Now if only they could have Image continue the Halloween comic series with Stef Hutchingson writing and McFarlane art....nerd gorgasm.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
MONDO Original Halloween soundtrack - Re-issue, new art!
I was lucky enough to snag the first release, but this looks tempting as hell too!
Hello all! Our HALLOWEEN vinyl series comes to a close this week with the release of the 40th Anniversary Edition of the soundtrack to John Carpenter’s seminal slasher film HALLOWEEN. It’s available for the first time in its original mono form, as heard in the film.
Death Waltz Recording Co., is proud to celebrate the 40th anniversary of John Carpenter’s seminal slasher film, HALLOWEEN.
The soundtrack features music composed and performed in 1978 by John Carpenter. The audio is taken from the “music stem” derived from the 35mm mono tracks that comprised the dialogue, sound effects, and music of the original film, which when combined, comprise the complete soundtrack of the classic film.
The first LP album of HALLOWEEN – released in 1982 – was a stereo remix of the original 16 masters by Alan Howarth with instructions from John Carpenter to re-mix the tracks to represent the best sound of the music, and not necessarily commit to match the music as mixed for the film. In our 40th anniversary release, Alan Howarth carefully transferred the film’s music stem and assembled the score in chronological order as presented in the movie; the listener can visualize the film in their mind’s eye while taking a musical journey of the most famous horror score ever! It’s the first time it’s been presented in this manner, and is absolutely terrifying!
Featuring all new artwork by Mike Saputo, mastered for the format, and pressed on 180 Gram Clear with Orange and Black Splatter vinyl (also available on 180 Gram Orange vinyl).
New Halloween 2018 merch - FRIGHT RAGS!
Support!
I'm loving this stuff, but man my wallet is hurting this month!
FRIGHT RAGS HALLOWEEN 2018 COLLECTION
Halloween painted art
My girlfriend rules! She made this for me in an astonishing 3 hours, framed and everything!!!
Support FANGORIA
Support horror in print! The premier issue cover made it an easy choice for me. Old school is the ONLY WAY! VHS FOREVER! Splatter punk and gorehound for life! American horror forever!
FANGORIA!
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Monday, October 1, 2018
Halloween 2018 hype - 10/01/18
Happy OCTOBER maniacs! Here's more HALLOWEEN 2018 art to start your week right!
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