And why do I say that? Because under no previous entertainment business model would it have been remotely possible for me to see some of the stuff that comprises the present update:
Blood for Dracula (1974), in which the sickliest vampire you ever did see goes looking for virgins in Italy, but just winds up getting his ass kicked by Joe Dallesandro…
Georges Melies Trick Films, 1896, by which I mean The Devil’s Castle, A Nightmare, A Terrible Night, and The Vanishing Lady…
Ginger Snaps (2000), in which a perfectly good suicide pact gets shot all to hell when one of its signatories comes down with a bad case of lycanthropy…
The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), in which it’s apparently too much to hope for that a needless, much-belated sequel have anything more to offer than a straight-up retread of the first film, even when the producers have the decency to bring back one of the original stars…
Saw II (2005), which came so damn close to being great that I just about wanted to cry when the obligatory twist ending screwed a whole kennel’s worth of pooches…
and…
Three… Extremes (2004), in which representatives of three different Asian movie industries join forces for a riff on the old Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors number.
#1 by blake on May 1, 2010 - 7:31 pm
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Do you plan on reviewing “Three” eventually?
#2 by El Santo on May 1, 2010 - 10:21 pm
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If it ever comes my way, sure.
#3 by PB210 on May 2, 2010 - 4:05 am
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“When a movie was adapted from the writings of a still-living author, and when that author wrote no sequels of his or her own, it bugs me in a way that I can’t entirely justify to see the film version sprout continuations.”
Interesting point. Someone pointed out on Yuku that many classic monsters did not return in sequels by the original authors (e.g. Count Dracula, Frankestein’s Creature).
“(It’s something of an open question whether this is the same place he was using in Saw— which would require the police to have forgotten or discounted Detective Tapp’s success in locating Kramer’s hideout earlier— or whether there’s just that much abandoned industrial real estate in whatever city this is supposed to be.)”
Perhaps in takes place in Detroit, which has plenty of abandoned real estate. I remember people wondering why Darkman (Peyton Westlake) could find so many abandoned warehouses. Well, the novel series by Randall Boyll explicitly stated that Darkman worked out of Detroit.
#4 by Mr. Rational on May 2, 2010 - 5:44 am
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Agreed about Saw II in every detail. I went to see it in the theater with very low expectations, having been lukewarm at best toward the first movie, and just kept being more and more pleasantly surprised by how good a time I was having. And then came the denouement of both the movie and my enjoyment. Nor was I the only one — after the show, a guy who’d been sitting two rows in front of me (who was, shall we say, VOCALLY displeased by the twist) actually made a scene trying to get his money back. Having sat through the whole film, he clearly didn’t have much of a case, but it didn’t stop him from trying.
I gave Ginger Snaps a pass some time ago, thinking it was going to be more formulaic teen horror crap. Clearly I’ll have to re-evaluate that judgment in light of your review. It’s already on my Netflix queue. Anything else in the modern werewolf oeuvre you’d recommend besides Wolf?
#5 by blake on May 2, 2010 - 10:25 am
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“Anything else in the modern werewolf oeuvre you’d recommend besides Wolf?”
If you’re referring to movies made recently and not those that are set in the modern times, I’d like to recommend a little movie called “Van Hels–”
*gets dragged away by two burly men in white clothes*
#6 by The Rev. D.D. on May 2, 2010 - 11:37 am
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El Santo, did the second Saw‘s ending piss you off more than the first one? It sounds like your experience with the second echoes the one I had with the first, and if this one’s ending is even more infuriating than the first one’s, it’s really going to refresh my refusal to watch the rest of this series.
I had remembered rather enjoying Carrie 2 in the theater. I picked it up for cheap on tape a couple of years later, and was left wondering what the hell my younger self had been thinking, because man it wasn’t good.
Then I recalled that I’d seen it with a rowdy group of friends–most of them hot young women–in an otherwise-empty theater, and no further pondering was necessary.
#7 by Braineater on May 2, 2010 - 12:35 pm
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Dumplings was also expanded into a full-length feature. Given that the subject matter has a much different set of associations in China than it does even in the U.S., I thought both versions were remarkably nuanced. Maybe I’ve seen too many of these movies, but I have to admit I took a certain ghoulish pleasure in the crispy sound effects.
#8 by Braineater on May 2, 2010 - 12:39 pm
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And by the way, I’d be interested to know what the community thinks about DVD being “obsolete”. Is Blu-Ray the wave of the future, or just this generation’s Digital Audio Tape?
I don’t have a Blu-Ray player, myself, and I have very little interest in seeing the zippers up the backs of my favorite monsters in any higher resolution. What about you? Any thoughts?
#9 by Blake on May 2, 2010 - 2:10 pm
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I have a hard enough time updating my VHS collection to DVD, let alone updating my DVD collection to blu-ray. I’m not in a big hurry to see all of the details on the monster suits or wires in my 90s wuxia films.
#10 by El Santo on May 2, 2010 - 6:18 pm
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Rev. D.D.: Yeah, the sequel’s twist ending bugged me a lot more than the original’s, but I strongly suspect that my reaction reflects as much on the relative quality of the two films pre-twist as on the character of the twists themselves. I’d been trying to make up my mind whether Saw deserved three stars or three and a half before the stupid ending knocked it down a peg, but Saw II was in the running for four.
Will: I don’t own a Blu-Ray player either, for exactly the reason you cite. A comparison between the VHS and DVD editions of The Evil Dead convinced me that beyond a certain point, sharper images do no favors to cheaply made films. I haven’t even made a conscious effort to upgrade from VHS to DVD (although I did part with my old tapes of Carnival of Souls, The Giant Leeches, The Bare-Breasted Countess, and The Ghost when various box sets put me in possession of equal or superior DVD versions), and in fact I’ll still buy or trade for movies on VHS if the price is right. (On which note, if anybody reading this has a playable copy of the old Thorn-EMI tape of The Evil Dead that they want to unload, send me an e-mail!) I’ll go to Blu-Ray when people start releasing films exclusively in that format (which is exactly what made me shell out for a DVD player), but until then, I don’t see that it has anything to offer me. Besides, I’m still using the cathode ray tube TV set I bought back in 1997, and I intend to keep doing so until it drops dead– would that screen even have enough pixels for me to notice the difference in resolution?
#11 by The Rev. D.D. on May 3, 2010 - 8:12 am
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El Santo: Well, if the second one’s better than the first, and has an even worse ending (or seems so relatively), then I’m not interested. Of course, if I’m expecting a crappy ending, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad.
I haven’t seen Three, but I did catch the full-length Dumplings a while back. Not a lot of surprises in where the plot goes, but the nuance and how they get there really carry things along. It was quite good, all told (though not for the squeamish–it’s not overly graphic, except maybe in the sound effects, but the entire thing’s pretty disturbing), and I would recommend it.
#12 by Not-So-Great Cthulhu on May 3, 2010 - 8:36 am
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Please excuse my de-lurking.
Mr. Rational: About the only good werewolf movie aside from Ginger Snaps that I’ve seen from the last… geeze, maybe 20 years now, is Neil Marshall’s “Dog Soldiers”. Well-made movie with very well done werewolf effects (they used practical effects and the beasties look similar to those from the original Howling). There may be some other decent ones that I just haven’t seen.
#13 by The Rev. D.D. on May 3, 2010 - 9:21 pm
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What I’ve seen of War Wolves, while I couldn’t call it good, was at least fun. I mean, Tim Thomerson AND John Saxon as werewolf hunters? Hard to hate on that.
#14 by Doc on May 4, 2010 - 1:08 pm
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“I don’t have a Blu-Ray player, myself, and I have very little interest in seeing the zippers up the backs of my favorite monsters in any higher resolution. What about you? Any thoughts?”
I have to agree. To paraphrase Johnny Carson, “That’s like putting caviar on a Big Mac.”
#15 by Ed on May 4, 2010 - 9:44 pm
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I’ve upgraded a few titles to Blu Ray but most of the films in my collection are either never going to make it to hi-def (the Cannon films, pretty much most of the Anchor Bay discs I’ve grabbed), have fantastic standard definition discs (the Alien films, James Bond, Rambo) or aren’t things I especially need in a pristine format (the TV stuff, the horror films, all the 80’s comedies).
I’ll upgrade if the film has good extras or if I just want an anamorphic transfer but otherwise…I bought the standard def version of Sherlock Holmes recently and am more than satisfied.
#16 by Cabal on May 5, 2010 - 9:51 am
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De-lurking as well, to second Not-SoGreat Cthulhu on “Dog Soldiers”. I went into that with modest expectations, and was surprised by the simple-but-engaging premise and the wicked sense of dark humor that ran through the whole thing. The creature and gore effects were pretty well-realized, too… the whole film was worth it just for the “kitchen brawl” scene.
If only del Toro’s recent “Wolf Man” remake had possessed “Dog Soldiers” sense of fun, that might have been good… alas, fun is increasingly hard to find in mainstream horror…
#17 by The Mud Puppy on May 6, 2010 - 10:36 am
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I actually have a Blu-ray player and an HDTV, but I mainly use it to play DVDs.
In my experience thus far, most movies don’t look that much better on Blu-ray than they do on DVD. This is especially true of modern movies. Older movies tend to look maybe a smidge better, but nothing groundbreaking.
However, thus far the most mind-blowing movie on Blu-ray was District 9. I dunno what it was about the movie that was responsible, but it looks amazing on Blu-ray.
#18 by Ed on May 9, 2010 - 6:52 pm
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Type your comment here
Same here. I have the standard def version of Batman Returns and it looks awesome on my Blu Ray player.