@MC_Lovecraft
@lemm.eehttps://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/friday-the-13th/
In recognition of this IRL Friday the 13th falling during Spooky Season, tonight I watched Friday the 13th (1980). I've seen this one a couple of times, but always in the context of a Halloween party or something, so this is the first time I actually learned the characters' names, which was nice. This was the first movie to try and replicate the success of Halloween, and it really kicked off the 80s Slasher boom. There are recognizable elements from prior horror classics as well, Psycho most notably, that make it clear there is more going on under the hood
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/halloween-4-the-return-of-michael-myers/
Last night I resumed my Halloween-athon with Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988). I never watched most of these higher-numbered sequels when I was a kid, so this is uncharted territory for me. This film sought (as it says on the tin) to return Michael Myers to the franchise after fans were left confused and angry by his absence from the last installment. Apparently, John Carpenter and Debra Hill were originally attached to this and intended to produce 4 as a ghost story, but when Moustapha Akkad demanded that Michael return in the flesh, they left the project
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/ghostbusters/
Apparently Halloweens 4-6 form something of a trilogy, so before I tackle that, I decided on a nice palate cleanser in the form of rewatching Ghostbusters (1984). I don't have anything to say about this movie that hasn't been said before. It's great. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis are just phenomenally funny people, and their script remains one of the most quotable of all time. Bill Murray is Bill Murray (more on that in a second). I always appreciate seeing Sigourney Weaver, and her portrayal of Zuul Dana is delicious. The real stars of the film for me though are
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/halloween-iii-season-of-the-witch/
Tonight's feature was, indeed, Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). I'll be honest, I went into this one with fairly low expectations. I knew exactly two things about this movie before tonight: That it was completely unrelated to the plot of the first two movies, and that this was the first one not written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. They do both return as producers, and Carpenter once more contributes his excellent score. With that in mind, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this movie. I have no idea why it was produced as a Halloween sequel, but
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/halloween-ii-1981/
I've decided that I want to watch the entire Halloween franchise this October, so I went ahead and moved on to Halloween II (1981) tonight. This is such a great movie, and such a great follow-up to the original. As I was watching, I wrote down the phrase 'Bigger, Louder, and Meaner' and I think that sums it up pretty well. Everything from the score, to the sets, to the kills benefits from the significantly beefier budget that this sequel had over the original, without completely sacrificing the minimalist ethos that drove the first film. There is also a dark
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/the-last-house-on-the-left/
Sticking with the spooky season theme, tonight I watched Wes Craven's directorial debut, The Last House on the Left (1972). Serious Content Warning on this one, I'm going to talk about sexual assault a whooole bunch in this review, so hold on to your butts. Holy Shit this was a weird movie. Wes Craven's first picture is a bewildering nightmare amalgamation of exploitation, horror, and slapstick comedy that I am struggling to wrap my brain around. I had picked up the basic plot of this film through cultural osmosis long ago, but this was my first time actually seeing it.
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/halloween-1978/
I imagine that I will be watching a lot of horror this month, so I figured I would start spooky season off right by revisiting Halloween (1978). This is one of the first horror movies I can remember watching. The image of Michael Myers effortlessly lifting Bob (John Micheal Graham) into the air, pinning him to the wall with a knife, and then just standing there, examining his work, is seared into my brain for life. The rest of the kills are comparatively low-key in this first installment, with Michael resorting to strangulation more often than his iconic oversized knife.
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/the-beast-from-20000-fathoms/
I followed up Them! with the classic Ray Harryhausen picture The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953). This was, as far as I can figure, the very first Atomic Monster movie. There had been films with giant creatures before, most notably Kong, but the Kaiju genre as we understand it really began with this film. Beast was released just over a year before Gojira, and the influences on the later film are manifold. All of the basic plot elements are there, and the original script even called for the Beast to breathe atomic flames just like his Eastern cousin. The biggest
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/them/
Tonight I thought I'd throw on some true classic monster movies from the golden age of the drive-in. I started the evening with Them! (1954). James Whitmore leads the picture as Ben, a New Mexico cop on the lookout for a missing person. He and his partner, played by Christian Drake, find a little girl wandering alone in the desert, mute and unresponsive. A little further up the road a travel-trailer lies abandoned, its vinyl siding slashed to pieces. A bizarre footprint is found. Little by little the evidence mounts that something very strange is happening in the high desert.
https://letterboxd.com/mc_lovecraft/film/rumble-in-the-bronx/
This is the movie that introduced Jackie Chan to America, and launched him to super-stardom. I watched the New-Line Cinema English dub, which cuts some scenes and adds others. If I can find it I'd like to see the Hong Kong/International cut as well. My first Chan film was Rush Hour, released a few years later, and this feels very much like the spiritual predecessor to that film (Although the Police Story films were probably the more direct influence on that series, I haven't seen those yet). Jackie plays Keung, who has just arrived in town from Hong Kong, for