Halloween Trilogy (David Gordon Green, 2018/2021/2022)

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Big Ben
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#26 Post by Big Ben » Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:48 pm

There's also the possibility that said being isn't exactly entirely human. The trailer makes the point that Loomis unloaded on him with his revolver (And that he survived falling off a balcony afterward!).

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Luke M
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#27 Post by Luke M » Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:02 pm

Just wanted to comment on trend of internet trailers having a mini trailer before the actual trailer in the same video: can we not?

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domino harvey
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#28 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:05 pm

Luke M wrote:
Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:02 pm
Comment. Trend. Mini-Trailer. Can. We. Not! Luke M's post about the Halloween trailer is here!
Just wanted to comment on trend of internet trailers having a mini trailer before the actual trailer in the same video: can we not?
Fixed your comment so busy people can enjoy it now

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knives
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#29 Post by knives » Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:09 pm

I agree, I just meant I thought it was unintentionally silly to have the young psychologist treat the mask like a magic totem in that manner.

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Murdoch
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#30 Post by Murdoch » Sun Jun 10, 2018 3:06 pm

Myers was never an interesting villain and I think the biggest fault of the sequels (outside 3 of course) is continuing with him as the central figure. There's only so much you can do with someone like that where there's no larger concept to play around with, much like how Friday the 13th wasn't interesting until it veered into self-parody.

All this talk of 80s slashers reminded of the terrible Final Exam, which is still the only example I can think of where the killer is a random nobody whose face is never hidden and his motivation is never explained. In fact, he's such a non-character that he doesn't really appear until the last third of the film (outside of the obligatory opening kill scene)! But that movie also spent 2/3 of its running time as a college sex comedy where the audience was left to wonder if the opening was just a non sequitur to capitalize on the slasher craze.

I do wonder if this reboot will play up Myers' inexplicable super-human strength and invincibility since it's been a characteristic since one (although much more downplayed in Carpenter's film than the others).

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domino harvey
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#31 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jun 10, 2018 3:10 pm

As the unfortunate self-inflicted viewer of well over a hundred 80s slashers, I regret to inform you that a great number of them have no problem showing you the assailant. I mean, most of these use "escaped mental patient" et al as motivator, so not exactly no motivation, but close enough. Final Exam is staggeringly awful though, on that we can agree

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Luke M
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#32 Post by Luke M » Sun Jun 10, 2018 6:26 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Luke M wrote:
Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:02 pm
Comment. Trend. Mini-Trailer. Can. We. Not! Luke M's post about the Halloween trailer is here!
Just wanted to comment on trend of internet trailers having a mini trailer before the actual trailer in the same video: can we not?
Fixed your comment so busy people can enjoy it now
Well done, sir

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Murdoch
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#33 Post by Murdoch » Sun Jun 10, 2018 9:01 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Sun Jun 10, 2018 3:10 pm
As the unfortunate self-inflicted viewer of well over a hundred 80s slashers, I regret to inform you that a great number of them have no problem showing you the assailant. I mean, most of these use "escaped mental patient" et al as motivator, so not exactly no motivation, but close enough. Final Exam is staggeringly awful though, on that we can agree
I don't even recall getting the cliche escaped mental patient explanation, I think he's just a completely random person who shows up for no explicable reason and starts killing everyone!

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domino harvey
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#34 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jun 10, 2018 9:41 pm

It took me a while to find since search function is broken, but turns out I actually agreed with you 100%:
domino harvey wrote:Final Exam (Jimmy Huston 1981) This early slasher at least tries to set itself apart from the more extreme post-Halloween ripoffs by devoting time to character development. A lot of time. Like, 2/3 of the movie is just the college kids with almost no threat of violence lurking in the corners. This would be great if any of the characters were the least bit interesting. Funnily enough, the film goes through such strains to make the victims into characters that it ignores the killer, who is the blankest cipher I've ever seen in one of these films. No name, no motive, no history, not even a good look at him (outside of his very bad haircut)!

While biding my time through the extended antics of the characters, another venue of value for these sorts of films occurred to me. I remember Henri Langlois saying in the Phantom documentary that he'd heard an interior design college had the world's largest collection of amateur porn because it provided the best insight into the living spaces of average people. In that same spirit, these slasher films, with their small budgets and minuscule resources, give a neat and extensive peak into the everyday fashion trends during filming, and I enjoyed taking in the various choices the cast made, all no doubt steeped in period authenticity. It's a weird thing to praise, but at least it helped me pass the time.

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Murdoch
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#35 Post by Murdoch » Sun Jun 10, 2018 10:18 pm

I actually watched it just last month after Prime uploaded a ton of slashers to its streaming service so it's fresh in my memory (for better or worse!). I did find myself viewing it in the same time capsule approach as you, if only to make the script's attempt at Animal House more bearable. Bad Haircut was the most interesting part of it for me, largely because of how disinterested the movie is in giving him any reason to be there!

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#36 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:59 am

New trailer. Looks interesting, especially how Michael isn't stalking empty streets but walking among hoards of trick or treaters.

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Big Ben
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#37 Post by Big Ben » Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:13 am

All of the reviews I've seen coming out of TIFF have been positive with at least one saying it's the best sequel out of all the many ones that exist. Admittedly that isn't raising much of a bar but the impressions I read insist it's actually very good for what it is.

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Aunt Peg
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#38 Post by Aunt Peg » Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:29 am

The review in The Guardian appears to be the exception so far.

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JamesF
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#39 Post by JamesF » Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:27 am

A.A. Dowd also wasn't keen.

I've been pretty indifferent to this given, as Dowd mentions, we've basically gone through this all already with Halloween: H20.

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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#40 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Oct 10, 2018 4:56 pm

Image

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Big Ben
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#41 Post by Big Ben » Wed Oct 10, 2018 5:23 pm

I think it'll be interesting to recontextualize this new Halloween in this current political climate (Trauma, Women as victims etc.). Although Fox News is being Fox News I feel the paranoia element is certainly a topic for discussion. Although an undying evil that stalks you is a far more tangible reason to carry a gun than illusory senses of superiority through gun identity.

McCrutchy
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#42 Post by McCrutchy » Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:08 am

I saw this tonight in Dolby Cinema, and I thought it was good, but not great. The highlights have to be Jamie and Nick together again, Michael Myers on screen again, and of course, Carpenter's score, which is pretty fabulous.

However, it feels like a long time before the film
SpoilerShow
switches gears to following Michael and then, finally, Laurie, and the "podcasters" were two of several minor characters who added essentially nothing to the film (the bit with the mask could and should have been handled by the doctor, which would have made it more believable). I also found Laurie's daughter and her husband, as well as her granddaughter to be ho-hum, while the granddaughter's boyfriend is another character who adds little if anything to the movie and apparently doesn't even get killed, either. The other high school kids are bland and the intentionally less attractive guy friend who is ever so slightly out of shape was annoying. However, the bit in the neighborhood that does work is the middle section with the babysitter. The teenage actress has pretty good chemistry with her younger co-star, and even though her and her boyfriend's fates are predictable, this portion of the film is one of the most satisfying, along with the death of the doctor. The ending initially worked well for me, but the more I think about it, the less I like this characterization of Laurie Strode. I know the writers have said that they abandoned all the sequels, but this Laurie feels like a cousin of "basket case" Laurie from Halloween: H20, complete with single parenthood and a sort of a doomsday prepper vibe. I would have thought that it would have made much more sense to have Laurie be a success in life who has learned to defend herself when necessary, but for reasons that aren't explored, that baton was passed to her daughter. And for whatever reason, that daughter, who wants nothing to do with her mother, still lives in the same town as her.


The more I think about it, the more I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. Overall, the film is decent, with some good kills and Curtis doing her best to look both strong and kooky, but I was hoping that the film would be less generic and have less stereotypical characters.

Also, I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Dolby Cinema presentation. I didn't notice any Dolby Atmos or Dolby Vision logos during the end credits (only Dolby Digital 5.1), and the image often seemed to have a sort of wavy noise pattern in the few bright scenes, so I suspect that the film may have gotten a fairly last minute "makeover". There was also a logo I don't recall seeing before for something called "LiveGrain" that according to the credits is responsible for the "Texture" (of the image?), whatever that means exactly. I assume this has something to do with replicating the look of celluloid for digitally-shot films, but maybe Universal need to take another crack at this one before the UHD Blu-ray release.

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tenia
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#43 Post by tenia » Fri Oct 19, 2018 4:46 am

Halloween doesn't appear on the Dolby master list for theatrical releases with Atmos and/or Vision.
About LiveGrain, there is a (quite marketing) article with its creator, but this forum discussion might be more technically interesting.

GTO
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#44 Post by GTO » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:44 pm

Big Ben wrote:
Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:48 pm
There's also the possibility that said being isn't exactly entirely human. The trailer makes the point that Loomis unloaded on him with his revolver (And that he survived falling off a balcony afterward!).
re: isn't exactly human

http://www.cracked.com/blog/a-strangely ... en-series/

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big ticket
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#45 Post by big ticket » Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:07 pm

tenia wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 4:46 am
Halloween doesn't appear on the Dolby master list for theatrical releases with Atmos and/or Vision.
About LiveGrain, there is a (quite marketing) article with its creator, but this forum discussion might be more technically interesting.
Indeed, I was going to remark that not only was the content not ATMOS, the audio is 5.1. Probably not worth shelling out for the PLF, unless the mere presence of additional speakers and a larger screen is worth it for you (and it very well may be!).

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Big Ben
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#46 Post by Big Ben » Sat Oct 20, 2018 7:06 pm

So this is a pretty interesting piece of the franchise for a variety of reasons most notably for the fact that it understands tension is more important than playing gotcha at every available opportunity. It's also a very violent movie that doesn't show as much as you'd expect (Suprisingly so I thought.). In that sense it's closest to the original in structure and form.
SpoilerShow
It's a film about contextualizing and understanding trauma decades after it occurs. While to outsiders Curtis' characters preparation may seem like an end of the world scenario type of thing it's positioned in a film (At least I thought) as a unfortunately (Yet perfectly normal reaction) to a deeply traumatic event. Curtis' character is ready to literally face her demon when he reemerges and when the end finally comes it feels like a perfectly acceptable way to end this nightmare/movie. The film also takes care to subvert the usual expectation of the final girl. It's a good looking movie too. Making sure for instance to not show Michael's actual face at all. There's also an excellent long take that culminates in murder.

The moments of humor however were pretty hit and miss for me. With the instance of the young child making a humorous statement while his babysitter is being slaughtered made me raise an eyebrow and certainly could have been removed. While I would usually pass a bad joke as innocuous it really didn't work for me here.
It's not a film that's going to change the world but it feels like a legitimate attempt to return the franchise to form after decades of atrocious sequels and reworkings. The audience was into it too, gasping and cheering when necessary. I look forward to re-watching it when I can see it again on Blu-Ray. It's certainly a Halloween film I'll be happy to revisit.

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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#47 Post by bearcuborg » Sun Oct 21, 2018 11:33 am

I found this to a miserable experience on nearly every level. First of all, it’s never scary. Despite all the talent involved, from Green and McBride to Carpenter and Curtis, it never really worked.

There’s an interesting pre credit opening, and the more I read about the movie, I’ve come to understand they put it together by abandoning what was scripted, and sort of improvised the scene...one wishes they had did that with much of the movie, at at least the very end which you see coming a mile away.

The original had atmosphere, a classic economy of style from the sound design, to the pacing...less is more. This one feels less of the direct sequel we were promised, and more like a continuation of the shitty series they sought to reboot.

When it was over I thought about T2, and unfortunately Curtis isn’t given the kinda role that Linda Hamilton nailed, weird/disturbed/bad ass. Sure, there isn’t any one deep character in the original, but a pro like Pleasance could sell the lines. This film greatly misses that kind of actor.

Horror (and comedy) is such a unique formula, one never knows what’s really gonnna work-and Carpenter and his crew had it working for them, unfortunately Green and his did not.

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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#48 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:18 am

This was not a very good movie. Acting was all over the place, and Jamie Lee Curtis in particular just does not show up, doesn't deliver anything resembling a consistent or compelling performance, and the house of cards above her all goes tumbling as a result. Nearly every choice here is the wrong one, with McBride and Green's insistence on giving every character some kind of backstory or one-liner resulting in a movie chock full of character actors (aside from one young kid) who aren't up to that kind of task, and that includes usually solid stalwarts like Toby Huss, who seems as though he's three sheets to the wind in every scene in which he appears. A couple decent kills, a fetching Rebecca Hall-lite whose role in the film (along with her podcasting partner) is totally misutilized, a funny kid, one eventual victim who riffs with the kid well and does her job about as sufficiently as one could ask for, and everything else is just a sticky, gooey mess. Biggest disappointment of the year.

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domino harvey
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#49 Post by domino harvey » Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:27 pm

Have you seen Halt and Catch Fire? The Toby Hussaisance is real

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mfunk9786
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Re: Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)

#50 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:30 pm

He's in this year's Destroyer and The Front Runner too! Two films that are at least scratching the surface of big awards attention. I loved him in The Adventures of Pete & Pete (of course, how could you not) and he was very good in one of the more thankless roles in Carnivàle. He is truly terrible in this, though

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