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Post by sean on Jan 2, 2008 18:23:58 GMT
Halloween III: Season of the Witch The night no-one comes home... THE BLURB: DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR KIDS ARE TONIGHT?
The streets are quiet. Dead quiet as the shadows lengthen and night falls. It's Halloween.
Blood-chilling screams pierce the air. Grinning skulls and grotesque shapes lurk in the gathering darkness. It's Halloween.
The streets are filling with small cloaked figures. They're just kids, right? The doorbell rings and your flesh creeps. But it's all in fun, isn't it?
No. This halloween is different.
It's the last one.
The film is a superb, illogical fun mess of a thing, and as such is one of my all time favourites. The script was originally written by Nigel Kneale, who then requested that his name be taken off the credits because he didn't approve of changes made in later re-writes (mostly added gore). Still, the robotic employees of Silver Shamrock, and the town of Santa Mira echo the town Kneale imagined in Quatermass 2. The book is written by Jack Martin (who I think did the book to Halloween 2 and one or two early Cronenberg films (?)) - actually Dennis Echison, and who thus cheekily dedicates the novelisation to himself! Plot: loony bloke steals bloody great chunk of Stonehenge and uses it to make creepy masks which, when the kids wearing them watch a stroby pumpkiny advert, causes snakes and bugs to come out of their disintegrating heads. Robots guard the place where the masks are manufactured and a good doctor (with marital problems, naturally) sees one of these murder a patient and then incinerate himself in the car park. The victim's daughter ("Her breasts were high and firm..." - naturally) and himself decide to investigate... It's a shame the noveilsation is a bit dull, really. It sticks like a leech to the film, so all the 'classic' scenes are there (eg the test run of the mask) but it takes itself far too seriously. Well written enough, certainly, but nowhere near as much fun as the film itself Speaking of the film. here's the superb, somewhat illogical ending... (Erm, spoiler, probably). www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe_f4nKbZk4(Musical note: Giant Albino Penguin has got a song called 'Watch the Magic Pumpkin, based on this film. Thrilling, huh?) |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jan 3, 2008 7:55:58 GMT
I always thought Etchison an odd choice to do these novelisations (he did Carpenter's The Fog as well) because, as you say above Sean, his style doesn't really suit the sort of pulpy theatrics necessary to make these things a brisk and fun read. Nice idea dedicating it to himself, though
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jan 4, 2008 8:25:47 GMT
The Beeb recently reshowed the film. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I remembered. It is a one-off original though.
'Two more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween'
Aaarrgghhh!
I did have a novelisation of the first film which I remember having a lot of info about the date and its significance.
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Post by sean on Jan 5, 2008 13:41:22 GMT
First novelisation was by someone called Curtis Richards, I think. I've got it downstatirs somewhere...must dig it out.
I think I had the (Carpenter) Fog book at some point as well... that one was done under Echison's own name, wasn't it?
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Post by dem on Jan 5, 2008 22:05:44 GMT
Yeah, that was under his own name, Sean. I couldn't finish either The Fog or the Videodrome novelisations. His own stories are excellent, but I'm with you and John: I just don't think he was the right person for the job. |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jan 9, 2008 14:06:55 GMT
I'm pretty sure the recent BBC showing was the old cut version so I gave once that saleslady's face faded to black instead of bursting apart.
Sean - The Fog is indeed under Etchison's own name
Dem - I couldn't make head nor tail of the Videodrome novelisation. Good cover, though (in fact there were two - one of the poster art and one of Debbie Harry)
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jan 9, 2008 14:07:18 GMT
Did you spot the 'up' missing from the above?
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Post by dem on Jan 9, 2008 14:50:57 GMT
I definitely prefer that sentence without the 'up'.  Here's the cover and blurb for the NEL 1983 edition. In the world that lies ahead of us all, reality and hallucination will merge and interchange.
So when Max Renn saw the flesh of his stomach swell and redden as though a giant worm was moving beneath the skin, was that imagination – or reality?
And when the skin split and the flesh parted like giant lips, soft and bloodied. When-he could sink his fingers, his whole hand deep inside, feeling and probing through the wall of his own stomach. As the juices, thick and warm, clung and sucked gently at his finger-tips, drawing him in. As the bile rose, hot with revulsion in his throat … Was that a nightmare – or reality? |
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Post by sean on Jan 9, 2008 17:49:16 GMT
Ah, the 'Videodrome' book. When that came out, I asked the school librarian to order it for me, which she did. Duly, the book arrived and I went to pick it up, to be greeted by a rather shocked looking librarian who had obviously read a few pages of it and thus (a) refused to lend the book out, and (b) became firmly convinced that I was some kind of ill person. Ahem.
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ghannah01
Crab On The Rampage
It's dark in here. Anyone have a match?
Posts: 28
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Post by ghannah01 on Jan 25, 2008 9:01:05 GMT
I've got a soft spot for the Halloween III movie.
Did you know that the producers originally envisioned a different Halloween themed movie every year?
They had effectively killed off Michael Myers and this was a completely new story.
I think they envisioned a different self contained movie from then on.
Unfortunately, the film didn't perform as well as expected and they went back to Michael Myers and stayed with him.
Pity. The franchise could have gone in a new and completely different direction and maybe we'd still be seeing "Halloween" films in the cinema today as regular as the James Bond flicks (Although they just re-made the original didn't they?)
Glen
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