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*