Trick ‘r Treat sat on the shelf for over a year but we can finally now see Michael Dougherty’s feature film debut exercise in Halloween fun. It’s a shame this never made it to cinemas because this would be great fun to watch with a huge audience of horror fans. The film interweaves four separate stories much like in the tradition of the Tales of the Crypt 80′s series and all of the sequences work really well. The school bus sequence is a highlight and genuinely scary but the film takes on his black humour tone which is hard to resist for any horror fan. I don’t think I’ve seen a more polished Halloween film since the original Halloween (reviewed below) that captures the spirit of the American holiday. Whilst this isn’t in the same league of seminal horror greats, I look forward to popping this in the blu-ray player each and every Halloween. Dougherty at one point wanted to make one of these films every Halloween but I doubt that will ever eventuate. If I had to knit pick, the only downside was in the last sequence when the sack kid (Sam) removed his head sack. Better to keep it a mystery.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

The latest Harry Potter largely differs in tone to the previous films in the franchise. Whereas the others had various degrees of lightness and darkness, The Half-Blood Prince goes to the darkness and relies on dialogue and mood rather than the spectacle we are so used to with the other films. And that’s fine IF the performances can deliver. Unfortunately the three leads are still fairly average when it comes to delivering an emotional performance. I guess you could blame the actors in some way but I think it also comes down to direction. There is a major death in this film but for some reason, I didn’t emote like I should have. I’ve enjoyed most of the previous films in the franchise but I found this one very cold and quite frankly, boring albeit well-made technically. From my understanding this is the beginning of a major war in the stories timeline so I guess this is a setup film but at the same time, it’s two and half hours long and it feels ultimately uneventful and unsatisfying. Here’s hoping director David Yates can deliver the goods and reach (and hopefully go beyond) some of the cinematic heights of Afonso’s efforts in The Prisoner of Azkaban (the best film in the franchise imho) for the final two films.

Orphan (2009)

The psycho killer child. We’ve all seen at least one example in the genre but this one is actually rather effective. The performance from youngster Isabelle Fuhrman is both exceptional and incredibly freaky at times. This is certainly not one you would watch with kids either as quite violent at times but it’s also well directed and the performances for the most part are very good. The ending gets a little silly but if you get that far, you go with it regardless. Genre fans will lap this one up, everyone else will want to avoid.

Halloween (1978)

The original and still the best, I screened this at our Halloween party this year on blu-ray and it simply looks stunning! Sure it’s aged a bit but the mastery is all there – the music, the cinematography, the way Michael moves, the heavy breathing, the terrible acting (which I think adds to the mood), the building of suspense. It’s definitely on equal footing with Hitchcock’s Psycho (obviously where it gets its inspiration from) and oh my god, shits all over Rob Zombie’s pathetic reimagining. I’m still a little confused as to why it still carries an R rating here in Australia when there’s hardly any blood at all! I haven’t checked out the audio commentary from Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis and Debra Hill. Can’t wait!

My Name is Bruce (2007)

Serious Evil Dead and Bruce Campbell fans will probably get a kick out of this b-grade comedy where Campbell plays himself. I love the Evil Dead films and of course Bruce but this is very by-the-numbers material. Campbell plays himself who is kidnapped by a fan to help hunt a monster in a small town in Oregon. Campbell directed this one and there are plenty of Evil Dead cameos and references. The trouble is, you kinda want to see another Evil Dead film rather than this because it’s pretty terrible. It just goes to show what talent Sam Raimi has because he knows how to use Bruce well in a movie. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait until Sam decides to direct another Evil Dead. *Sigh*

Most of the photos show off Lyns’ talents in the creative arena, she went all out with cupcakes, punch, and even the True Blood drink and we really looked high and low for bottles in the shape of the True Blood drink used on the show. In the end we couldn’t source them in time but we managed to get a nice tasting, blood coloured drink with the labels all the same.

We also screened some Halloween movies perfect for the occasion including The Lost Boys (1987, blu-ray), Halloween (the one, the only 1978 Carpenter version on blu-ray which looked stunning btw) and the new Halloween favourite Trick R Treat (Great throwback to 80′s Tales of Crypt on DVD).

Joel also made a killer pumpkin:

Finally, I ran out of time to finish my Fangtasia logo animation to be playing on the TV in the background while people were mingling but I finished it off today and posted it below. Pretty happy with such a quick job:

World of Music

Really digging the following releases:

• Fuck Stereogum! Devendra Banhart’s new album ‘Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon’ is quite excellent if you’re in the mood for it.
• Liam Finn ‘I’ll Be Lightning’. Saw him perform most of the songs from his solo release before it’ was released. Now that it is, it’s a solid effort from the bearded little man who can.
• Whitley ‘The Submarine’. The 22 year old from my hometown is playing around the country this month and is well worth the $13 or so for the gig. ‘The Submarine’ has that indie country/great laid back feel to it that should garner him a new well deserved audience.
• Josh Ritter ‘The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter’. His 2006 record ‘The Animal Years’ is one of my favourite albums of the last five years so naturally the expectations were quite high. This one doesn’t quite reach the greatness but there’s still moments of genius throughout.

Upcoming Gigs:

• The Bamboos @ The Epsy (w/ Jackson Jackson, Labjacd, Bluejuice & heaps more apparently) (7th Sep). Tonight should bring some serious funk!
• Silversun Pickups @ Ding Dong (16th Sep). The album is great, the gig sold out extremely fast and it’s at Ding Dong so it should be a very, very awesome night.
• Parklife @ Birrarung Marr (22nd Sep). International DJ’s galore and I’m shooting this one for a mag. Bring it!
• Built to Spill @ The Corner (29th Dec). Falls sideshow brilliance to be expected. I’m sure more gigs will pop up before this one but I wanna get my tickets early (on sale 21st Sep).

World of Film

Yet to see The Bourne Ultimatum. Will do when time permits. Here’s a few notable screenings of late:

• Inland Empire – Keeping my fanboy nature aside, this really is the most definitive work Lynch has ever done. It’s epic, at times beyond comprehension but just so damn intriguing that it mezmorizes for days even weeks later.
• Sunshine – Ambitious considering the budget and for the most part, one of the most exciting sci-fi movie’s in years. The last third of the film is a slight letdown when it goes into Freddy Kruger territory, but I can forgive Boyle for doing such a damn fine job in the genre.
• Halloween (2007) – This is a review based on that ‘workprint’ version that was apparently all over the Internet so it’s not the one that ended up in theatres. I didn’t actually hate Zombie’s first two flicks so I was wondering why he’d go do a remake (or as he likes to put it, a ‘re-imagining’) of a classic rather than develop from an original script. Bad decision because this really is pretty terrible and adds NOTHING to the already dead series. By humanising Michael Myers it takes away any of the ‘unknown’ factors that makes the original so scary and effective and for the second half of the film he’s almost done a Gus Vant Sant ala ‘Psycho’ and gone for a shot-for-shot remake of the original. Meh indeed!…

World of TV

• Entourage season 4 – There were a few episodes in the middle there which seemed to drop in quality but the shows that lead up the finale are pure gold!
• Flight of the Conchords – My new favourite show. Their manager is pure David Brent but makes it his own. Business Time is my theme song for the rest of the year.
• The IT Crowd season 2 – Season 2 has just aired in the UK and it’s very funny, perhaps a step up from season 1. Yes please!
• Enough Rope – The Tania Major interview. The voice we have needed for soooooooooo long in this country. One of Denton’s best interviews.
• The Human Mind – Perhaps more of a simplified approach to explaining the human mind to cater for all audience types but still fascinating to watch.

World of Geek

• iPod touch – So it’s an iPhone without the phone part? Fair enough. But only 16Gb of flash memory? Dammit!!! I would have liked 40Gb or 60Gb at least! And even though the iPod Classic is now beefed up to a 160Gb model, it’s still a hard drive people! And we all know how reliable those hard drive based iPods are!
• Carrier Pidgeon Dave Werner’s podcasts – The young, talented creative director from San Francisco is not only a true inspiration to young design students but for anyone who encounters design and multimedia on a daily basis.
• Get This – The Triple M (!) podcast hosted by Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee (also one of the regular actors on Thank God You’re Here), with contributions from Richard Marsland. These guys are film geeks through and through (especially Martin) so it’s a great listen on the way to or from work.

Oh and expect this blog to change any day now. Frankly I’m sick of it since Facebook has replaced the need to post pointless crap. But don’t remove me from your RSS feeds just yet :)