The Energon Pub

So you might remember me posting a thread asking what the deal is with Horror movies and that I wanted to watch a few more, well I did.
I decided to go with Halloween, the classic which started the whole genre of Slasher horror movies and yes I know Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released a few years before and is technically the first Slasher movie but it Was Halloween that pumped live into the whole genre.
So John Carpenter was inspired by Alfred Hitchcocks "Psycho" (haven't seen that yet? WTF?! Go ant watch it right now and not a remake the actual one), especially the famous "shower scene"
Look at me! I'm Michael Myers daddy, and Jasons daddy and Freddys and Pinheads and ... damn why did I never use a condom?

So if you enjoy the Slasher genre, you should respect Texas Chainsaw Massacre for being the first, like Halloween for actually starting the genre and worship Hitchcock for making the movie that inspired the whole genre - do it and do it now!

The past two weeks I watched the entire series, partly since I wanted to watch them and party to get my mind of RL issues.

So I imminently fell in love with the first movie, sure the characters kinda sucked especially the teen but the music and the movie as a whole made up for it. I loved how Michael was just this mysterious, silent, emotionless, faceless killing machine - just a (The) Shape.
Dr Loomis was kinda cool how he kept insisting that people would listen to him and kept warning them about how dangerous MM is. Loomis was the only protagonist I actually liked, which is saying much as I wanted him to die along with the entire cast that got speaking roles, damn you Michael for taking your sweet ass time killing those damn kids.
but seriously, why did nobody switch on the lights in that movie I mean they clearly had electricity?

H2 was a pretty good sequel apart of Michaels sister surviving and, WTF is up with that Hospital? Seriously no patients, no staff, no lights - was it really so broke that it couldn't even afford turning on the lights? Loomis was even better in this, sacrificing himself to take out Michael Myers for good only to have Myers leave the flaming room and walk a few steps like a great big "F**k you old man" before he finally collapsed.

The kind of Slasher Jeremy Clarkson likes since he's on fire!

H4 H3, Season of the Witch never happened, so in part 3 we find out that Michael and Loomis both survived the fire and almost burnt to death - almost. The room had fire instead of air and Loomis a normal guy survived that explosion and roosting?
Loomis = Badass

Ok back on topic, Loomis has pretty much given up his live and spends all his time watching over Michael, protecting the world from this monster. So it turns out that Michael is being transported to a new asylum without anybody telling Loomis also Michael finds out that while his sister is finally dead (thank you god) she had a daughter - who is still alive. Michael decides to kill her since that's his thing. Loomis and the new Sheriff save the girl and her step family and shoot Michael to bits.

Well the next few movies pretty much establish that Michael Myers and Loomis cannot be killed and that Loomis can and will beat Michael to a pulp with a plank, gutted or not.
The series also decides to go down bullshite lane and retcons Michael into being cursed into killing his family as a sort of sacrifice, which is the only downside to the sequels past 4. And the only reason Loomis actually died was due to his actor dying meaning he could no longer play the role (damn you death!).
Then H20 ignores all the sequels after H2 and suddenly Laurie is still alive and has a son, f**k, and yes she is even more annoying as an adult. Michael shows up kills a few people, then she chops his head of.
H Resurrection was good for the fact it finally killed Laurie but kinda failed past her death scene.

Rob Zombies remake I kinda like it, a couple of good thing in here but ultimately not as good as the first couple of movies:

Michael while freaking huge (which I like) spends a lot of time without a mask on, meaning he now has a face you can associate him with, sure it's a kid's face but that's still all I can see when he goes out killing people with his mask on.

Loomis is kind of an ass

The teenagers are even more annoying than in the old movies.

It gave an explanation to MM's actions and has thus destroyed the mystery surrounding him and everything he was.

The sequel to the remake:
Shite absolute shite

The same as in the first movie, just Michael spends most of the movie without his mask, the teenagers are even more annoying and painful to watch (I suddenly want the original Laurie back) and Loomis is completely out of character. Oh and WTF is up with the visions Michael has in this movie? First he has them and suddenly his sister has them too even before she finds out what they are and they suddenly have them at the same time? I thought Zombie wanted to go a realistic route with these movies staying away from magic.
Oh and Michael Myers is basically a tall hairy tramp in this movie.

Also some thing I didn't like about these movies is that Michael Myers talks, moans and makes noises while killing people on top of revealing his face every five minutes, basically the opposite of what he should be.
Michael Bay makes better Slasher remakes as the guys actually stay in character and stay pretty true to the idea behind them.
Now I even understand why Zombie's Halloween 2 was a direct to DVD release over here.

I hope the Halloween movie that's been announced for this Autumn isn't by Rob Zombie.

Excellant write up.

I'm gonna mention a few things, not to rain on your parade, but to help your expansion into the Horror genre.

First you picked a great film to start off with Halloween is honestly a great example of horror done right. Very little blood, but very much suspense.

One of the small touchs and my favorite, is how in the end Laurie escapes to progressively smaller environments, subtly cutting off her escape routes...outside, living room, hallway, bedroom, closet.

As for the rest of the franchise...II is decent, but yeah the hospital seeming has Laurie as a patient, and infants (but apparently no mothers who birthed them)????? They even send that poor kid who had a razor stuck in his lip home!???

And what a messed up staff...three nurses, one on call drunk doctor, two ambulance attendants, an aid, and one security guard.

It was designed as the last Myers film, as the original idea was a new story with each film. Carpenter didn't want to do a sequel to the first film but the studio insisted. Carpenter agreed to be involved as long as they would end that story and have a brand new film for the third.

Which was a huge flop...actually at its heart its pretty creepy...I mean a toy maker using the hottest selling fad to sacrifice children...its kinda chilling. But the film is slow, and boring in parts, and downright silly in other parts. The end is a good piece of acting by Atkins...otherwise forgetable film.

4 while writting around plot problems left by 2 is actually pretty good, there's great chemistry between the girls which makes the early killing of Rachel in part 5 one of the problems with the next film.

5 is just pretty sad its plot and transfer of the connection made in 4 poorly. Were also intorduced to the Man in Black or as some call him The Man with Silver Tipped boots who has some connection to Myers...the one and only saving grace is the cliffhanger ending of the film, which is actually decent.

6 or Curse of came much later do to studio issues and suffers from it and internal issues...first its a lame dog of a script, that has Myers hunting relatives so remotely connected its silly. Second the creative team just couldn't decide on what they wanted...the writer wrote one thing (which actually had a helicoptor scene with Myers clinging to the landing skid attacking people fleeing...no joke), The producer had one set of ideas which is what was filmed, then the director scrapped a lot of plot and moved stuff around...then Pleasence died causing some reshoots to have to be worked around.

In an odd turn of events TV airings have actually aired some of the Producer Cut footage and is readily available via pirated DVD's fans compilied and burned.

Which one is better? Neither, they are differant, but both kinda stink hard.

Oh and the fact that Danielle Harris was not asked to reprise Jamie was pitiful.

H20 was pretty decent, it was the perfect wrap up point, but it also basically ignores 4-5-6...but doesn't outright denounce them which means Laurie kinda left her daughter behind to be slaughtered on purpose so she could disappear...kinda harsh.

Resurrection had some cleaver moments but was disappointing overall.

Zombies prequel/remake has moments of brilliance like Myers slowly retreating into himself in Smith's Grove...but overall it runs like a trashy remake of a classic.

RZ H2...again has a few moments but falls even shorter than his take on H1.



Last I heard, but I think this fell through, the team behind My Bloody Valentine 3D (one of the FEW decent remakes lately) were supposed to do H3, picking up where H2 left off. But I know they have a few projects in the mix so they may have passed on that or had to have passed on that.




Now Texas Chainsaw is a disturbing flick but worth watching.


Psycho is considered a slasher film but its more of a suspense film, it didn't turn slasher until part 2.

Oh and just for info purpose, Carpenter took ALOT from a film called Black Christmas...its not a great film but you can clearly see that Carpenter was taking notes from it when he did Halloween.

Psycho 1 is great, 2 not bad, 3...not aweful but a little sloppy, 4 is likely the best film since 1.

The remake as dead as Norman's stuffed birds.

And just plain stay away from a TV film called Bates Motel, its like the Love Boat meets the Twilight Zone at the Bates Motel...with none of the charm of any of the three properties.


I'd also recommend The Exorcist, but not Exercist 2 which is aweful. Exorcist 3 has some good moments but ends poorly. And the two finale films both of which a prequels are the same film essentially but they filmed it once with one director, which the studio hated, and then hired a new director who recast some parts, changed the story and refilmed it.....both films are decent, but flopped hard.


I've rambled...see what happens when I read posts at 3:45am?