the groundhog day project

Now, we move beyond the actual Hellraiser sequels past Bloodline because they are, well, not good. Instead, the spiritual sequel-- Event Horizon . Let us get the negatives out of the way: as io9 says, " Event Horizon commits many flagrant fouls when it comes to ripping off other, better films (including, but not limited to, Alien , The Shining , 2001: A Space Odyssey , Solaris , Hellraiser , and The Haunting )." Of course, that same io9 article claims that the film "tanked" at the box office. It was #4 its opening weekend, covering $9 million of its $15 million budget. The next weekend, it would drop to #11 but would still make another $4 million, another #3 million its third weekend, another million its fourth. Sure, its not blockbuster numbers, but I'm not sure that quite qualifies as tanking . Plus, I was there opening weekend, and I think I may have even seen it a second time in the theater. So, regardless of the facts, I just don't feel a tanki...

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is not a slasher film. It’s barely a witch movie. But, I’m watching it anyway. This film is a series of wrong decisions linked together. Though it’s not a slasher film, the opening sequence, leading up the murder in the hospital, plays like it’s trying to be a slasher film, except instead of a menacing killer with a mask, it’s a guy in a suit. Within the film—and in the planning bit for the film itself—the Silver Shamrock business model is seriously lacking; I mean, what costume company produces only three masks? For that matter, why are kids wearing these three masks with costumes that don’t relate? In casting, the young people who watch horror films don’t want to follow around some old divorced guy, even if you do team him up with a young girl. Which sounds funny, considering the original Halloween , but the old guy is the lead here, and this guy is no Donald Pleasance. Musical cues that slightly resemble previous Halloween themes seem lik...