Halloween round up

So how did everyone enjoy their night? Sadly a combination of illness, tiredness and indeciseveness prevented it from being such an event as I would like, and has previously been the ritual. I did still watch a couple of television specials (as is my tradition) and part of a movie. Here's the brief blow by blow.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season 6 Episode 5 "All The Way"

Included mainly because of the atmosphere of the day evoked. I usually watch the series 4 special (Fear, Itself) but opted for this one for a change. As a stand-alone it's a bit too bogged down in continuity, which is to be expected for an ongoing show. Did have a brilliant cliche reversal though as an old man is set up as crazy and even given a horror film style back story, lures in children and is then killed by them as they are revealed as vampires, the show's twisting of such established formula being displayed in a microcosm. The seasonal touches were nice and give a great feel, particularly of the U.S love for Halloween, there is one hilarious joke moment but the whole thing is let down by a plot which, now, is culturally overdone and detestable, the whole "Twilight/Vampire Diaries" teen girl pining for a monster schtick which I have no tolerance for. Still a great show though with good acting, believable characters and a sense of fun.

*** (3/5)

The Simpsons
Treehouse of Horror 14

Sadly the opposite of that last sentence. Nowhere near as good as some of this show's specials, relies now on doing crazy things which the show proper couldn't do, and homaging films quite poorly, some great (The Dead Zone), others not even horror (Fantastic Voyage? seriously?). Crucially not very funny or imaginative, a real shame.

* (1/5)

Halloween

O.k, honesty time, I fell asleep about half an hour in. I will do a proper review, with scoring, at a time when I can watch the whole thing properly. What I did notice is the bold and unsettling nature of where Carpenter places the camera, adding to the disturbing feel. Point of view shots in the place of the killer, or even nobody in particular mesh with glimpses of the bogeyman far scarier than the excesses of modern horror, including the remake. Struck me as just a good film, outside of it's generic and historical background. I genuinely look forward to seeing it again properly on the DVD I bought over a year ago, and still haven't watched (though I have seen the film before, I like my opinions to be fresh though).

Hope the weather isn't getting people too down where you are, hope to catch up again soon...

MM