Monsterfest 2008....
I'm a massive Halloween fan, basically as soon as.......Nov. 1st I'm already looking forward 100% to next Halloween. Other than the few Christmas movies I'll watch, i.e. A Christmas Story marathon on TBS I'm horror year round. And all a movie has to do for me to love it is be based on, or around Halloween. I've been reading the posts dogging MonsterFest/FearFest and Fear Friday.
It crushes me that I can't be out there running the neighborhood in costume trick or treating which is probably why I like everyone else on here look forward to MonsterFest year round, and am definitely also disappointed in the programming. My first memories of MonsterFest are of seeing marathons of The Invisible Man, Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man all night on their own day. First time I saw Young Frankenstein was on MonsterFest, and I believe it was hosted by Teri Garr, matter of fact most of the movies were "hosted" on the old Universal lots I think, or at least it looked like it. I agree with the earlier post by BelaKarloff who's also 26 that they don't believe we'll watch the classics mixed in with some updates. And it was awesome having a host, and showing the classics because it was without a doubt the only time you were ever going to see them. I think the movies should always be hosted; I miss seeing Joe Bob Briggs host MonsterVision on TNT and would love to see something along those lines for all of MonsterFest. Maybe they could get Elvira, or hey Joe Bob Briggs would be awesome hosting horror movies for a week, give it a touch of that old Creature Feature that so many remember and love. And I couldn't have been happier for them to turn Friday nights into Fear Fridays, I love it. Granted I don't always love the films they show, and lately it's gotten to be really stale with the same 10 or so films being shown all of the time. It's definitely not like the beginning where they showed lots of different interesting films, such as Kronos. So to see it go the way it has where they show crap like Pinata: Survival Island is disappointing, but I cannot join some people in bashing the showing of the Halloween series. I love the Halloween series, I'm more than open to admitting that anything after 2 is not good but I completely enjoy them all. I believe that Halloween day should be a marathon of the Halloween series. I have been doing that on my own already, watching 1 through Rob Zombie's Halloween as much as possible, along with films like Hocus Pocus, Wolfen, Fright Night, An American Werewolf in London, and so on. The 2008 schedule is once again quite ridiculous and sad. As much as I love the movie I don't see Constantine having a place on the list, it is crazy that Omen 2 makes it without the Omen, not a fan of Magic, Jeepers Creepers shouldn't be on the list, again Survival Island (even though it has its place on any list of crappy B movies), Resident Evil is a weak film. Why was Hellraiser removed, it's a great flick man, and the remake of Psycho over the original which is considered by most to be one of the best scare flicks of all time. There are some interesting films on the list, so it doesn't suck so completely, but also I don't think you can have Halloween 1 without 2, all of them should be shown. I refuse to boycott MonsterFest though; AMC has been good to horror fans. I also agree that 31 days is completely doable, and has been done. Before ABC Family was ABC, it was Fox Family and they used to do 31 days of Halloween, then they joined every other weak station in doing the 13 nights of Halloween garbage. Just cause you can reverse 31 doesn't mean you should, for someone who feels like July is when the decorations should come out, but prepares for Halloween 364 days out of the year, 13's not enough. MonseterFest should be 31 days long. But one more time lets not forget how good AMC has been to us horror freaks, there aren't too many of us out there so very few stations are willing to feed our need, a MonsterFest blog, marathon, one night a week all year, it's pretty cool.
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Very well said, luticrist. When you mentioned the fact that netowrks or whomever don't show as many classic films because they don't believe the younger audiences (16 to lets say 26?) won't tune in... that was a spot on comment. Maybe they won't, maybe they will, but have networks really given the younger audiences that chance in the last five years or so during prime time or maybe a little later? That would make a great debate. And something I'm interested in hearing from the mouths of that age bracket.
Myself, 29, I love all of the classic films dating as far back as the 1930's. Romero's Dawn of the Dead still remains to be one of my favorite horror films and I have seen the remake and thought it was decent, but definitely had its place in horror. At the same time, those that are younger than I, have stated they loved the remake so I turned them onto the original and most of them said they couldn't make it more than 20 minutes in because it was boring and the picture quality was lame.
So, the question is... do most of the younger fans find the original films to be less pleasing because they viewed the remakes first and didn't have the appreciation of where the remakes roots came from or is it really about technology altogether (HD, CGI, and etc.)? Or perhaps all about generational gaps? Maybe I am alone in this...
First I gotta say the age thing was brought up first by another poster, but you're right. I totally agree with you, with the just waves of remakes that are coming out, and have been announced such as Hellraiser, and Robocop, like films that have only been out a few years they're already looking to remake. I've had some friends who haven't seen the originals and they see these knew ones and just think they're so incredible, such as the new Halloween, then there's the side who've seen the original and no matter what the director or someone tries to say you know it's a remake, not a re-envisioning or whatever they try to say and if you're a fan of the original you approach it differently. With the Halloween I have it, but when I watch it I skip completely past Michael as a kid to the last......hour or so of the movie which is an absolute rip of the original. Even though people, including Zombie are claiming it was his view or whatever, the second chunk of that flick is an absolute rip. I think it's a combo of if you've seen the originals, and are a fan, and a generational gap of people who have some sort of respect for past films. Because teenagers, and some people even our age don't respect older flicks for the lack of technology, and not being HD and whatever stupid reason there is. So if you're coming into it with no love of the past, and already having seen the remake......you're going to approach it differently I think. I'm personally a fan of some older flicks, but there's also quite a few where the idea of acting was completely different because they were instructed to overact, from the connection to stage and silent film I guess, and it's difficult to watch and take seriously in some cases even for me.
Ah yes, Rob Zombie's Halloween. Truthfully, I hated just about everything to do with this movie. Not because it was a remake, because I was very excited about Rob taking the reigns and thought who better to have such a high appreciation for a classic film than he and then... opening night came and I sat there in the audience wanting to leave after the opening scene. Wow, if you wanted to make a Halloween film with your own rules and white trashiness then he should've done a sequel or went out and did another Corpses/Rejects film, because his "re-imagining" was terrible and a complete insult.
I agree about the over acting bit. Some of those older films are funny to watch when someone who wasn't in the conversation will come flying in from another room with some quirky, off-subject statement or line about something totally mind-boggling. And you find yourself saying "where the heck did this d-bag come from?". Hahaha.
I COMPLETELY agree with lutacrist, Halloween is my favorite time of year, and I dont like this years monsterfest at all. I ALWAYS look forward to Monsterfest and this year it just seems ruined... very dissapointed amc.....
Rob Zombie's Halloween was weak, but like I said if it takes place on Halloween i'm there. But I got annoyed with his white trash version, and annoyed with him stuffing the film with "his" actors ya know. And the backstory that he created was completely weak. It's scarier when psychos come from reality, from a loving home, but they're born psychos, or are somehow created through outside influences or something. The other problem is, I could swear I remember hearing that Zombie wasn't even a fan of the original, or at least it didn't feel that way. Felt more like he thought he was the genius who was going to fix a classic and save a franchise. I didn't mind Tyler Mane's Michael though, I enjoy his 180 degree take going from a quiet, controlled man on a mission to something that was extremely angry, and showed so much aggresion, like in the scene where he's smashing up the ceiling to get to Laurie. Also the score was terrible and just too loud for most, and having Laurie be the sister from the get go, well it just don't make sense, which is why a lot of people despise anything past the first film, not me, but i can see the beef.
2005 was a damn good year for Monsterfest. I seem to remember horor movies being on all month long that year. I'm pissed that there's no Halloween III this year. Bah!