Halloween (1978): He's Still Bringing It Home

Halloween (1978) - Having murdered his older sister on Halloween night in 1963, Michael Myers has been sitting in a mental institution, not saying a word for 15 years but  staring blankly into a wall. Waiting ever so patiently for this night when he will return to Haddonfield to finish what he started.

Halloween set in motion what would become the formula duplicated to a fault in hundreds of movies to follow. There have been knife wielding killers before, even masked killers in many of the Italian giallo movies as a staple and in some American horror movies of old. But on this Halloween night in 1978, the American slasher as we know it was born; patiently stalking his would-be victims until the moment is just right and springing on them in a spree of bloody carnage.

Michael Myers is a mysterious character. Even though everybody by now knows who he is, the only thing known about him is that at the age of 6 he killed his sister, 15 years later he return to the same town to kill again, and yet nobody knows why. Perhaps Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) has the answer in referring to Michael Myers simply as evil. Evil simply does not need a reason to do what it does, and that may be key to why Halloween worked so well then and continues to work so well for new and old audiences alike.

Pumped up with a tempestuous soundtrack, Halloween works at various levels. The music claws at the chalkboard of your nerves to get your heart beating faster. Then it kicks into high gear to get your heart racing as the tension on the screen crawls up your neck. Composition of light, shadow and music combine with skillfully controlled direction, bringing naturally developed characters into the arms of a faceless evil while the timbre of the audience rises to a scream.

I give it 5 Daggers. Halloween is simply a classic with high rewatchability.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Escape from New York (1981): Outdated but Still Fun

Escape from New York (1981) - En route to New York for a critical broadcast, the president's plane is hijacked forcing him to escape via a pod while the plane crashes down in Manhattan. Unfortunately the president's escape pod also comes down in New York City, now a prison of sorts, and with him is a critical message for the broadcast essential to world peace.

In order to save the president, a deal is struck with a convict, an ex-special forces soldier named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell). He has 24 hours to rescue the president and the message he carries or, as a special incentive to complete his mission, implanted explosives will rupture the arteries in his neck ensuring immediate death.

Escape from New York takes place in the not too distant future of 1997. Well, that was in 1981 when the movie was released, and now it is 20 years in our past. I'm wondering how New Yorkers are feeling about the representation of their city now? Of course the year the movie takes place can be easily overlooked and enjoyed for what it is, but the part that has always bugged me about the movie is this message the president carries is on a cassette tape. I realize the plot of the movie, and the way it ends, hinges on this one element, but it just seems silly to me.

Escape from New York is not entirely original. The main character of Snake Plissken is basically a retread of any of a number of gunslingers from any of a number of Italian westerns. He is a loner, rude, self-centered caring only for himself without a concern for others, and not a particularly chatty fellow. Of course I'm talking about Snake Plissken; didn't mean to confuse you thinking I was still talking about the Italian western gunslinger.

This movie comes at the end of better than a decade rife with post-apocalyptic movies and TV shows including Planet of the Apes, Damnation Alley, Ark II and many others. A post-apocalyptic world, a prison city, and a prison escape are not original to this movie, nor are most of the other elements of this movie culled from blaxploitation movies of the 70s, the aforementioned westerns and prison escape movies.

What Escape from New York does have is a well paced story, more interesting supporting characters than the main character, fantastic art direction, and of course the strength of John Carpenter's direction and composition. Despite its unsympathetic main character and incredibly silly premise it does work and is a lot of fun, in a Saturday morning cartoon sort of way.

I give it 3 Daggers simply for being a fun movie that is well put together.

Availability

Blu-ray and DVD

My Name is Nobody (1973): Bullets, Barfights & Buffoonery

My Name is Nobody (1973) - Riding off into the sunset of his life, Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) is only looking to retire peacefully from gunfighting. But the old west doesn't forget so easily and tagging along, much to his annoyance at times, is his number one fan, Nobody (Terence Hill).

Seemingly out of nowhere comes this stranger only calling himself Nobody. He has Jack at a disadvantage being he knows all about Jack, but Jack, nor anybody else, knows anything about him. He tells Jack all about his, Jack's, exploits as a gunfighter, how Jack is a legendary gunfighter, but not a LEGEND. In order to do that, Nobody says Jack will have to take on 150 men at once: the Wild Bunch.

The character of Nobody in this movie is about like a 7 year old who suddenly grows up but is still a 7 year old at heart believing in good guys and bad guys and heroes. He likes to be seen, even if some don't share his enthusiasm, and worships the ground Jack walks on, wishing he were walking on that same ground.

Taking Hill's energetic performance from the Trinity films, Fonda's experience from playing characters in westerns many times, and the flavor so traditionally pumped into Italian westerns and the end result is a fantastic story rife with boyhood fantasies of gunslingers. My Name is Nobody turns the traditional western on its ear as a successful comedy, then uprights it again being as good as any western ever made, and yet offering something so unique.

I give it 5 Daggers. Not only is it supremely entertaining, it is also eminently rewatchable.

Availability

Blu-ray and DVD

Video Trash: The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)

Released to UK theaters in 1972 and US theaters in 1974, The Flesh & Blood Show was a gimmick film with a 3D flashback segment in black&white, even though the film was in color. It was released in a VHS Big Box by Monterey Home Video with the very same movie poster for the film used as the cover, but the 3D segment is just a black&white segment, not in 3D, on the VHS home video release.

The Flesh & Blood Show was directed by Pete Walker (House of Whipcord, Frightmare, House of the Long Shadows) and featured Luan Peters and Robin Askwith. There are some bits of nudity in the movie, enough to get a 13 year old excited but not much beyond that.

The plot concerns a theater group rehearsing a play and looking for a place to rehearse and put on the show. They re-open an abandoned theater, shut down after a double murder there 30 years ago, but are soon stalked by a gloved killer knocking off the troupe members one by one.

Availability

Redemption Blu-ray 

Pete Walker Quadruple Feature DVD