Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983) -- Tommy Lee Wallace
Andrea was not a fan of this, but I think it's a lot of fun. Sure, there are things I wish had been different. I wish that Tom Atkins ran through the streets yelling at everyone to take off the masks, even forcibly removing them from kid's heads instead of being a remote protagonist (so that it was more like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or any "one man's paranoia" movie). I wish the ending wasn't so half-hearted and that the main threat was a national issue that will go off at 9 PM in each time zone. What? News can't travel across the country in 1982 even without Twitter? The minute the east coast went down, the rest of the country should know what happened. I wish that Joe Dante had directed this, as was originally planned. Sure, it might have meant no Police Squad! episodes or his short in Twilight Zone: The Movie (which is the best short), but he would have brought a lot more style (and Dick Miller) to the show. I wish that the Halloween series had continued making a different movie based around the holiday instead of diving back into the Michael Myers well (I'm pretty sure he ends up in a well at the end of one of the sequels).
Still, you gotta love a plot line that involves the occult and a conspiracy to kill the nation's children. Plus, the more people who see it, the more people will undertand when you start singing this:
Wilderness (2006) -- Michael J. Bassett
Wilderness started an unofficial "isolated group" triple feature while I was making my Halloween costume. Since I was going to be distracted, I tried to pick movies I didn't think I'd have to pay much attention to, so no silent/foreign movies and nothing with apparent goals other than cheap thrills.
Sean Pertwee is cornering the market on movies where groups of people are hunted down in the woods. He's got Dog Soldiers and this under his belt and he is awesome in both. The man can act. The story here is that a group of kids in juvenile detention are sent to a remote island for team building and punishment. As it turns out, someone else is there to hunt them. There's some interesting things done with characterization and I feel like it's saying something about the natures of bullying and blame, but really, it's just a pretty cool movie. The characters are pretty intelligent and no one is doing anything for the sake of plot. Quite a pleasant surprises.
Elevator (2011) -- Stig Svendsen
Speaking of surprises... wow. If you've seen Devil and are put off by the "people trapped in elevators" genre, well this one puts that one to shame. The characters start out painted with broad strokes and speak lines of dialogue that sound contrived to give the viewer more information than would normally be expected from this situation, but they soon develop distinct personalities. Much like in Wilderness, these people are reasonably intelligent about their situation (even if those outside the elevator are not). My personal favorite is Martin who is a suck-up, but subtly funny and decent (and is mind-blowingly played by the guy who played Buzz in Home Alone! I can barely believe it and yes, he has gained a few pounds), but you come to appreciate all of the characters for what they bring to the table (except for the little girl... how I hate her).
I am not lying. This is a damn fun movie. This (and Wilderness) are on Netflix Instant View.
Rogue (2007) -- Greg Mclean
I am a sucker for movies about angry animals. Especially giant, angry animals. Even the SyFy variety. They are absolutely ridiculous in most cases, but who doesn't love seeing people get torn apart by ravenous beasties? Rogue takes the giant croc/alligator pretty seriously, as opposed to Lake Placid, but we won't hold that against the movie. First off, it's directed by the guy who directed Wolf Creek, so he gets the benefit of the doubt out of the gate (seriously, Mclean doesn't get enough work. This was his last movie). Secondly, Radha Mitchell is allowed to use her native accent which automatically means she's a better actress. Thirdly, the characters make very few uncalculated risks (seriously, I must have been a good boy today and rewarded with good genre movie-watching). And lastly, PEOPLE GET EATEN BY A GIANT CROCODILE!
Interestingly, Mia Wasikowska (who plays the teenage girl) probably has the most active and highest profile career right now. Who would've guessed?
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