Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:05 pm
Though he was also an erratic filmmaker with some terrible movies in his output, Romero is a decent director far more deserving of his rep than Wes Craven.
Watching all of the Carpenter flicks I hadn't seen up until that point last year and earlier this year, I was expecting the worst from Ghosts Of Mars, considering its toxic reputation, and found it...bad, but not nearly that bad. Workaday, competent, dull but not horrendous. The funniest thing about it was how it honestly looked like it were made in 1981 instead of 2001...Carpenter had to be the only genre filmmaker at that time still using old-school miniatures and mattes...aside from the cast and the lack of Dean Cundey's lighting, you could place Mars right next to Escape From New York and honestly would find it tough to believe that two decades separate them. I actually kind of dig that about Carpenter, even in his later, lamer films...he's never really gone for "modernized" horror tropes, like shock cuts, loud banging noises on the soundtrack, overuse of CGI, and the like. That's why Escape From L.A. is one of his worst...the CGI in that film is HORRENDOUS and the film looks significantly worse and cheaper than the original, despite costing over $50 million to produce. Even in a throwaway effort like The Ward, it still had that smooth, gliding visual craftsmanship that Carpenter never really changed since Halloween.AndyDursin wrote:Yeah we def don't agree there. You'd rather watch GHOSTS OF MARS? I'd rather watch paint dry. That's his worst film by a wide margin IMO.
Yep...great transfer, copious extras, and it even has the isolated score track. And I got it for less than $15 shipped.I can't recall, but do you have the Arrow FURY? Nice transfer, much superior to the older Fox master TT had access to when they produced their Blu.
De Palma is a filmmaker much in the Carpenter/Romero/Craven vein of having such a great filmography to start, then having it begin to fragment and fall apart by the time the 90's rolled around. But, even in his weaker films, I can always find moments to savor, and he's never lost his voluptuous, overheated visual style...even now, I can always count on one or two bravura moments in a De Palma flick. The Fury is kind of a mess, but it's such an energetic, visually-stunning mess, I can't take my eyes off it. Plus, Amy Irving...damn.I like the movie OK, but I've always found the overall story depressing -- especially the ending. In fact I've always kind of found the central story kinda pointless. Very odd tonal shifts in it as well as you point out. Not a big favorite of mine, but I can understand your affection for it as a big DePalma fan, which I am not. Great Williams score which we can all agree on!
I was quite delighted by it. I can imagine why it's tanking at the box office, though...too genteel and "not scary enough" (i.e. subwoofer jump-cuts every thirty seconds) for the hardcore horror buffs, and too sporadically gruesome for the Merchant/Ivory crowd (I remember reading stories of little kids brought to Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, and parents BOOKING it out of the theater when the evil general bashes a farmer's face in with a wine bottle ). It's a film that will find an appreciative audience at home, ones that weren't promised a totally different film that the trailers did. A shame, though...its visual opulence will lose a lot in home theaters. I'm just glad I was literally the only person in the theater when I saw it...a "bad audience" experience would just KILL the movie's melancholy, reflective tone.AndyDursin wrote:You are seemingly on an island there with CRIMSON PEAK. I will get to it eventually!