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Reviews
Halloween (1978)
Truly The Definitive 70s Horror Film
"Halloween" has become notorious with every horror fan today, whether they know it or not. The film was made in 1978, at the end of a genre defining decade where Chainsaw-Wielding Maniacs, Switchblade-Slicing Giallos, and Alien eggs took over the big screen, Halloween defines it all.
Halloween wasn't the first slasher film, although it often takes the credit for being the creator of the slasher genre. What really inspired Halloween was the other low-budget cinema being shot in the 70s, such as the low-budget exploitation flicks and Itallian Giallos; as well as classic horror films from the 50s and 60s. Director: John Carpenter really dug the old 50s B-Movies as well as the works of Alfred Hitchcock and Dario Aregento. Halloween blends the attributes of a great thriller with a very strange hint of supernatural undertones.
Everybody reading this knows the story of Halloween: A boy named Michael Myers kills his sister. He then gets admitted into a mental institution where he would soon escape from 15 years later. Michael goes back to his hometown of Haddonfeild, Illinois where he would go on to continue his body count he started 15 years before hand. Not far in his path, his doctor (played by Donald Pleasense) is determined to stop Michael, no matter the cost.
Most of the movie focuses around a group of teenagers: Laurie (played by Jamie Lee Curtis in her first film), Linda (PJ Soles), and Annie (Nancy Keys).
The teenagers are developed in an amazing way. They are realistic characters that the audience could relate to everyday people just as themselves, yet they are interesting enough to keep the viewer interested. All three actresses did a fantastic job and have great character chemistry. Donald Pleasense, who played Michael's doctor did an absolutely fantastic job. Michael (also known as "The Shape) himself was mainly played by Nick Castle, although there is one scene where he was played by Tony Moran for the unmasking scene.
The movie uses suspense rather than gore and loud noises to scare the audience. While I enjoy a good gory horror movie, it's still great to see a movie that builds up the audience for an amazing finale. The movie is tense and creepy all the way through, never slowing up the pace.
One of the most memorable things about the movie is the music, which commonly gives the movie reconition.
Halloween truly stands as one of the best horror movies ever made.
Highly Recommended 10/10
The Last House on the Left (1972)
The Most Powerful Movie Ever Made
After looking in depths of horror, into the old and the new, the cult and the popular; Last House on the Left is the most powerful movie ever made. While there are certain scenes that may not fit the film, such as the scenes with the comedy cops, but that doesn't take away from the films impact overall.
Everything about this movie is brilliant. Some of the actors may be better than others. Fortunatly, the villains are made up of the best actors in the movie, David Hess especially. David Hess made this movie feel brutally real and violent.
The rape scenes in this movie may not be explicit, but everything is still as powerful as the violence of life. Last House on the Left is truly one of the most powerful exploitation film because it exploits the power of real life violence. This movie doesn't encourage violence towards women, it encourages the exact opposite.
The movie also has a haunting soundtrack which can make you shed tears while watching the movie. Last House on the Left is one of the few movies to actually send me into tears.
I recently seen that they were remaking this movie. The trailer looks like it will be absolute rubbish.
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Day of the Dead (1985)
Greatest special effects ever, and that isn't even the best thing about this movie.
George Romero's zombie movies have always been standouts in the genre. Easily the best zombie movies ever, and contenders for the best horror movies ever. Night of the Living Dead (his first movie) set the ground work for every single zombie movie to come after it, and Dawn of the Dead, which came 10 years later in 1978 set the new standard for splatter and gore flicks. If you ask me, without George Romero's zombie trilogy, horror movies would have never been the same.
Day of the Dead takes place after the entire Earth has become over-run with zombies. Every human must either hide, fight, or die. The movie follows two groups of people: doctors and army men. The army men pose as the bad guys in this movie (just as Mr. Cooper did in Night of the Living Dead) and the doctors pose as the good guys (as Ben did in Night). The groups of people are hiding out in a secluded underground base. The zombies await outside, while the humans try to come up with a plan to eliminate the zombie plague.
Day of the Dead falls at the end of the trilogy. Being made in 1985, zombie movies were already high on the charts. Since the popularity of Dawn of the Dead, especially in Europe, a ton of independent film makers were pushing out these zero-budget zombie flicks faster than you could watch them. Finally, in 1985, George Romero and Tom Savini grouped back together to show the kids how it was done. Day of the Dead fixed all the mistakes that occurred in Dawn of the Dead, and turned out to be the perfect zombie movie. Day of the Dead IS the best zombie movie ever made.
The main mistake that was fixed was the way the zombies looked. In 1978, Tom Savini (special makeup effects) was fairly new to the job, and couldn't take on the very large amount of zombies he had to apply make-up to. Therefore, he simply painted their faces blue. Here, Tom Savini had his own team of make up artist. The zombies in Day of the Dead look far more disgusting and gross. Facial decays and bite marks were abundant in this movie. Not only that, but every zombie looked different. No two zombies looked exactly the same, which added a small shock element every time a zombie appeared on screen. The gore in Day of the Dead was even more amped up than Dawn of the Dead. It looked more real, and came in much higher amounts. Day of the Dead ranks up with some of the goriest movies of all time; only Cannibal Ferox and Dead-Alive surpass Day of the Dead. For the way the gore looked, Day of the Dead holds the trophy for the best special effects I've ever seen in a movie - bar none.
While the special effects have greatly improved, they aren't even the main reason I favor Day of the Dead over every other zombie movie. The reason Day of the Dead is, and always will be labeled as my favorite, is for the extremely serious tone of the movie. The characters in this movie (with the small exception of the doctor) are extremely serious and brutal in tone and pose an even bigger threat to the good guys than the zombies! It's Night of the Living Dead turned up to 11! The characters in this movie (especially Captain Rhodes) are very, very well written characters, although I wouldn't hold then as high as the characters in Dawn of the Dead.
Day of the Dead is an extremely serious zombie flick with absolutely no humor whatsoever. It's serious, it's brutal, and has an extremely thick script with plenty to offer. Remember to bring a barf bag!