For a long time, “Halloween” has been a lot about the inexplicable evil that arose in Haddonfield. But what Danny McBride and director David Gordon Green attempt to do is explain that Michael Myers is only symptomatic of what resides at Haddonfield. Like everywhere in humanity, there always has to be a scapegoat for to pit hatred and fear on to something, and Michael Myers was for a long time the epicenter of it in Haddonfield. “Halloween Ends” explores more the idea of evil as an amorphous entity rather than a maniac in a mask. While Michael Myers was every bit as evil and a force of darkness as we saw in “Halloween,” the final film in the new trilogy takes a step back to look deeper in to the darkness.
Tag Archives: John Carpenter
Seven Horror Baddies that Deserved to Be Bigger
For every Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Chucky, and Freddy Krueger we have, there are at least two dozen horror villains that either fell in to obscurity, or were never fully realized. Every horror geek has their own list of horror baddies that they felt could have and should have risen to mainstream popularity, or icon status, but alas sometimes the horror world isn’t in their favor. These are seven horror villains that deserved more films, or better films than they received, in the end.
What are some of your beloved horror baddies you think deserved a huge fan base or franchise?
My Top Five Movie Radio DJ’s
With “John Wick: Chapter 4” further dominating the box office and garnering much acclaim, it’s managed to stir a lot of ballyhoo from fans. In particular its use of great movie references that it utilizes to advance the narrative is a huge highly. In the climax as John Wick is on the run, a radio DJ (Marie Pierra Kakoma) pops up to inform everyone over the air waves on where he is, this leads to a big turn of events in Wick’s fight for survival. The obvious “The Warriors” nod is a brilliant callback, and one that inspired me to recollect some of my favorite movie Radio DJ’s.
Ranking Michael Myers’ Masks from Best to Worst
Yes, I know, I’m not the first to rank all of Michael Myers’ masks from the “Halloween” movie series, and I won’t be the last. But I figure since the highly anticipated “Halloween Kills” premieres on Friday and it features another alteration on “The Shape” and his guise, that it would be a good time to explore which of Michael’s many masks I loved and which I despised. The ranking just might surprise you. I know it surprised me. Michael has had so many different masks over the course of his film series due to various production issues and creative turns, so what better way to celebrate the impending release of the David Gordon Green sequel?
Five More Great Minority Movie Heroes, Part IV
It’s Black History Month and we’re hoping to kick off a month of great articles and reviews celebrating Black culture in film, and pop culture. To help usher in the month, here is yet another installment of the “Minority Movie Heroes” series. As I’ve explained in the past, it’s hard to find actual heroes in film that are people of color whether African American, Latinx, Asian, et al. So, as with all the previous entries I scoured film as much as I could to feature five more minority movie heroes that deserve celebrating.
John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A. (1996): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
In 1996, John Carpenter essentially pulled a Sam Raimi with one of his key creations, Snake Plissken. While “Escape from New York” is a great scifi action film, Carpenter is this time given a bigger budget and decides to cover a wider field of his mythology, cramming in as much as he could with this sequel/remake. While I wouldn’t call “Escape from LA,” it manages to rise above the rest in Carpenter’s ouevre with some very good concepts, and Kurt Russell doing a bang up job, as always.
The Lasting Mark of John Carpenter’s “Halloween”
The best way to explain the considerable impact John Carpenter’s original slasher has had on me can best be expressed through that infamous Halloween eve when I was a kid. Long before cable, network television played horror movies on Halloween; My brother and I were given the option to watch either “Creepshow” or “Halloween” my brother and I took the option of sitting to watch “Halloween.” I can fondly remember it as one of the worst Halloweens ever because when we sat to watch John Carpenter’s classic we were so scared by the second half that we started crying. This decision later was regretted by us and my mom took the time out to calm us down by letting us watch “Creepshow.”