Having watched the recently released
80’s horror movie documentary In Search
of Darkness, it had reminded me of the many great horror franchises. Though
as an avid horror fan I have seen quite a few entries in the various popular
series such as Friday the 13th,
Halloween, The Nightmare On Elm Street
etc… there have always been the one or two films within each series that I have
missed and have always meant to catch up on.
So that’s what I did. And here are
my off the dome thoughts on them:
Halloween H20: 20
Years Later (1998)
I have actually seen this one before a long
time ago but can’t remember much of it save for the fact that there was a
ridiculous final chase/fight sequence with Michael Myers at the end of the film.
On a side note, for the longest time I thought this film was always referred to
as ‘H two O’ as in the chemical compound for ‘water’ – dumb I know – as H20
quite obviously refers to the release of this film coinciding with the
twentieth anniversary of the release of the original Halloween back in 1978.
This is actually the 7th film in the
series that came before the awful 8th entry Halloween: Resurrection (the one where Busta Rhymes fights Michael
Myers in a Big Brother House!) and the Rob Zombie helmed ‘re-imaginings’ that
came in 2007 and 2009. And you know what – this one is an ok entry. Not great but not
terrible either. It came in a post-Scream
era where horror was getting a revival and hip young faces were being cast to
help sell the movie. Jamie Lee Curtis returns again as Laurie Strode (now the headmistress
of a private school) but the film now also features Josh Hartnett as her son
and Michelle Williams as his girlfriend. Hartnett was a rising star (also
having starred in Robert Rodriguez’s The
Faculty that same year) and Michelle Williams was just starting out in Dawson’s Creek. LL Cool J also has a bit
part as the school’s security guard and a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets offed
with an ice skate to the face in the pre-credit sequence.
It’s interesting how the latest Halloween film (2018’s David Gordon
Green’s enjoyable reboot – which you can read a little bit more of my thoughts
of here) has a similar plot point of
an older Laurie effectively living in hiding, suffering from PTSD whilst
awaiting Michael Myer’s inevitable return. The 2018 film does however differ in that it only
continues on from the original 1978 film meaning all sequels (including this
one) are now deemed non-cannon, so Laurie no longer has a son and instead is a
grandmother with a daughter and grand daughter (played by Judy Greer and Andi
Matichak respectively) but it’s interesting to see the seeds of this idea (her
paranoia, over protectiveness of her children, the belief that the return of
Michael Myers is simply a matter of ‘when’ rather than an ‘if’) being initially
presented in H20 before going on to be explored more fully in the 2018’s reboot. That
film also does away with Michael and Laurie being siblings, which is referred
to several times in H20, making for slightly jarring viewing when it’s Laurie
herself repeatedly stating this fact to other characters.
As stated earlier, the film only really picks
up in the final act when Michael is stalking the cast members in an abandoned
school and finally squares off against Laurie – a sequence which does go on for
a good while with Michael taking an ungodly amount of punishment. He gets axed,
stabbed, dropped off a balcony, thrown through a car windshield, thrown off a
cliff and sandwiched by a van. Only a swift decapitation can finally put an end
to his relentless advance – well at least until he somehow returns in the next
film. It’s silly and beggars belief considering he is supposed to be just a dude (with no supernatural powers to speak of) but it sure is entertaining.
Cult of Chucky (2017)
The seventh film in the Child’s Play franchise following on from the ‘soft reboot’ of 2013’s
Curse of Chucky which first introduced
the character of Nica Pierce, played by Fiona Dourif (the real life daughter of
Brad Dourif - who continues to provide the voice of Chucky).
Largely set in a
mental institute, this entry continues the story of Nica as she is confined to said location following the events of the previous film. Cult of is better than I expected and I give kudos to the series
for evolving and trying different approaches whilst not straying too far from
what makes the Chucky films so appealing.
The most impressive feat here is writer/director Don
Mancini managing to tie this film in with the rest of the Child’s Play continuity. So whilst the film is largely focused on
Nica, it actually opens with a grown up Andy (from Child’s Play and Child’s Play 2, played by the same actor
Alex Vincent(!) as well as the return of Tiffany Valentine (from Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky - played by Jennifer Tilly) plus a few other
surprise cameos from previous entries. Mancini’s love for the franchise is
clearly on show here and the whilst the film occasionally evidences its direct
to video budget, the kills are suitably gory and the Chucky animatronics and puppets used are
seriously impressive. Oh and there are multiple Chucky’s toward the end of the
film which is fun.
I actually also watched the 2019 Child’s Play remake, though despite Mark
Hamill putting in solid effort as the new voice of the killer Buddi doll, this
version doesn’t actually share any continuity with the other films and is
largely forgettable. Perhaps the biggest misstep is having scrapped the pulpy ‘serial
killer transposes his soul into a doll via voodoo’ origins of the character to
a simple AI gone rogue set-up which greatly reduces the character to literally
just a dull killing machine. I can see what they were going for with the modern update
to the story in order to reflect the amount of technology utilised in homes
today and working off of that fear of that technology eventually betraying you, however
this has the side effect of greatly diminishing the character of Chucky and just making
it a ‘thing’.
Friday The 13th
Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
The campy tone for this one is clearly set
early on. A zombie Jason Vorhees is revived by lighting striking his corpse in an
open grave. There is even a James Bond pastiche (with an eye instead of a gun
barrel) at the opening credits. It's utterly incredible. A character turns to
the camera to directly address the audience with: “Some folks sure got a strange idea of
entertainment”. I mean, I can see why this is considered a fan favourite – if you like a
hefty dose of cheesy 80’s humour with your horror - but it just didn’t really
hit home for me as much of that aspect of it feels terribly dated now.
For example there is Police Academy-esque sequence of some random characters paintballing
– just some caricatured nobodies goofing around until they inevitably come
across Jason in the woods and meet their demise. Literally just paper thin filler.
But maybe that’s why people enjoy it, Jason Lives is a
fairly stripped down Friday the 13th
experience in terms of story that doesn’t take itself too seriously – just Jason
going on a murderous rampage whilst the closest thing to a series regular opponent
Tommy Jarvis (this time played by Thom Matthews of The Return of the Living Dead
fame) runs around trying to warn everyone though as expected no one believes him until it's too late.
And that’s it.
The indestructible zombie Jason as the newly
introduced concept is a cool one, however instead of being slow and somewhat
lumbering as he is often portrayed, there are a few moments when Jason just
snaps around to face another direction or sits up lighting fast which was
presumably supposed to be threatening but just looks comical and not in an
intentional way.
As I said earlier I wanted to check this one
out as Part VI is considered by many
as one of the better Friday the 13th films of the series, but I
guess the humour and inconsequential tone kind of detracted the enjoyment for
me. I couldn’t fully get on board and found it kind of dull after a while.
I think I just like the concept and character
of Jason as an horror icon – most of his films are actually pretty terrible for
the most part though I have admittedly enjoyed the odd moments from other entries such as Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Freddy vs Jason and Jason X,
though again I can't claim any of those to be particularly great films either. I guess Jason
Vorhees is just one of those characters whose legacy and place in popular
culture is much more prominent than would be suggested by the quality of the films he has
appeared in.
I might revisit the 2009 reboot at some point
though remember not being particularly impressed back when it came out, as it fell
foul to the ‘gritty reboot’ era that also saw lackluster remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and it's sequels, Rob Zombies' Halloween (2007) and Halloween 2 (2009) and The Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) reboot with Jackie Earle Haley in the iconic role of Freddy.
That being said it’s been more than 10 years now since the last entry – given the popularity of the Jason aren’t we
due for a new Friday The 13th movie yet?
25th April 2020
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