Over two years ago a little film was produced to great acclaim at film festivals and screenings for those lucky enough to see the film. This film would then go on to sit on a studio shelf with no release date on the nearby horizon. The film in question is TRICK ‘R TREAT. Written & directed by Michael Dougherty the film is a Halloween anthology in the same vein as CREEPSHOW and as such Dougherty wanted to craft a graphic novel that depicted the film in all its gory detail and thus there is now this adaptation by Marc Andreyko with artwork supplied by Mike Huddleston (chapter 1), Grant Bond (chapter 2), Christopher Gugliotti (chapter 3), and Fiona Staples (chapter 4).
The graphic novel follows the film pretty faithfully considering how much has to be trimmed in order to accommodate the format and the four artists do a great job in giving each chapter a unique identity of their own. The who thing comes off as a nice little gift for the Halloween season.
For those of you not familiar with TRICK ‘R TREAT it is the story of several groups of people celebrating the traditions of Halloween and what happens when those traditions are not honored. To make sure that everything goes off as befitting those traditions is the enigmatic Sam, a small child-like person who wears a burlap sack over his head. He is the window through which all the stories are connected.
Although a brief and very fun read, this graphic novel doesn’t have the punch of the CREEPSHOW graphic novel which is partially due to the fact that all the stories interconnect in one way or another, so, each individual story cannot be viewed as such (even though a different artist focuses on each chapter). As a whole the project is not so bad and it may become another great addition to the CREEPSHOW, CREEPY, EERIE, or TALES FROM THE CRYPT mode.
CITY GARDEN - "The Old Woman & The Park"
On the set of the short film "A Gift"
Showing posts with label Creepshow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creepshow. Show all posts
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Film Review: Creepshow 3
This is the sequel that no one wanted yet here we are discussing the in-name-only sequel to the George A. Romero and Stephen King anthology series. Originally inspired by EC Comics, CREEPSHOW was a landmark in horror film cinema blending both dark comedy and gut wrenching gore into one cohesive whole; CREEPSHOW 2 managed to capture the feeling of the original film but lacked the great storytelling of the first film. In this new film CREEPSHOW 3 everything that made the series what it is, is thrown out the window for this indie produced film.
The vignettes in CREEPSHOW 3, unlike in the previous two films, are loosely linked together by characters and situations. In one of the stories you have a disenfranchised teen who finds herself being thrust between dimensions by a remote control developed by the neighborhood inventor. There is also a story about serial killing stripper who discovers something more dangerous then her just down the street, and there is even a story with the inventor and his new fiancée whose students believe that she is a synthetic robot who will stop at nothing to prove it. This is just a sampling of the stories contained within this film as the filmmakers (directors Ana Clavell and James Glenn Dudelson, who both also contributed to the screenplay) clearly wanted to take the series into a new director by linking all the stories. This is actually the only good idea the filmmakers had with this film as the rest is a complete mess.
The film is neither funny nor scary but just hovers on being just gore-filled enough to keep the casual viewer from falling asleep during the films all to predictable stories and unoriginality. None of the comedy comes off as being funny or disturbing (as is befitting of most great dark comedies) and there is no suspense in the film whatsoever. The lack of suspense in the film goes to the fact that most of the film happens during the daytime in what appears to be an uninspired cinematographer in which all the images are washed out with no flare to interesting camera positions or movement. This horror film just comes off as being dull.
Another bad idea on the part of the filmmakers is the horrible animation used to show the “comic book” aspect of the film. Using computer CGI was a huge mistake as it looks like something a high school student put together on their fifteen-year old computer. Now I hate to come down on a film as much as I have on this one (although this is not the worst film I’ve ever seen) but the truth is that if you are a filmmaker extending upon an already successful franchise, there are some things that must be in the film in order to appease the fans (the people who end up buying or renting such films as CHILDREN OF THE CORN 7 or HELLRAISER 8) and if you don’t meet the fans’ expectation then don’t be disappointed with the bad reviews. It’s your own fault.
No fan of the first two films will enjoy this film and only the casual horror fan will even take notice. It’s an experience worth forgetting ever had.
The vignettes in CREEPSHOW 3, unlike in the previous two films, are loosely linked together by characters and situations. In one of the stories you have a disenfranchised teen who finds herself being thrust between dimensions by a remote control developed by the neighborhood inventor. There is also a story about serial killing stripper who discovers something more dangerous then her just down the street, and there is even a story with the inventor and his new fiancée whose students believe that she is a synthetic robot who will stop at nothing to prove it. This is just a sampling of the stories contained within this film as the filmmakers (directors Ana Clavell and James Glenn Dudelson, who both also contributed to the screenplay) clearly wanted to take the series into a new director by linking all the stories. This is actually the only good idea the filmmakers had with this film as the rest is a complete mess.
The film is neither funny nor scary but just hovers on being just gore-filled enough to keep the casual viewer from falling asleep during the films all to predictable stories and unoriginality. None of the comedy comes off as being funny or disturbing (as is befitting of most great dark comedies) and there is no suspense in the film whatsoever. The lack of suspense in the film goes to the fact that most of the film happens during the daytime in what appears to be an uninspired cinematographer in which all the images are washed out with no flare to interesting camera positions or movement. This horror film just comes off as being dull.
Another bad idea on the part of the filmmakers is the horrible animation used to show the “comic book” aspect of the film. Using computer CGI was a huge mistake as it looks like something a high school student put together on their fifteen-year old computer. Now I hate to come down on a film as much as I have on this one (although this is not the worst film I’ve ever seen) but the truth is that if you are a filmmaker extending upon an already successful franchise, there are some things that must be in the film in order to appease the fans (the people who end up buying or renting such films as CHILDREN OF THE CORN 7 or HELLRAISER 8) and if you don’t meet the fans’ expectation then don’t be disappointed with the bad reviews. It’s your own fault.
No fan of the first two films will enjoy this film and only the casual horror fan will even take notice. It’s an experience worth forgetting ever had.
Friday, August 15, 2008
George A. Romero's CREEPSHOW: THE WORK PRINT
Over the years there has been much talk about George A. Romero’s CREEPSHOW and what was cut out of the film to get it to its current 2 hour running time from the original 2 hour and 10 minutes director’s cut. I managed to get a hold of a “work print” copy of the film which restores the ten minutes of cut footage.
In the “work print” edition I have (which is in1.33: 1 full screen aspect ratio) it is a modest version of the film. The scenes that were cut seem to be simply be re-inserted in to the film by use of “dissolves.” This version would not be an actual spliced film version, but resembles a version that someone may have just downloaded the original television version to their computer and then put the cut scenes back then and used a dissolve to hide the splices. The cut scenes are of varying degrees of quality that never match up to the rest of the film and the audio mix for these new scenes is never correct so it feels sometimes as if the film is off cue sometimes.
All these complaints to the side (since this is an unofficial release version of the film) it is very interesting to see what footage was cut from the film. Most of the scenes that were cut from the release version of the film come from the very first segment of the film “Father’s Day.” There were many scenes explaining the father’s past and how he become a mogul that add more to why Aunt Bedelia killed her father which adds to her characters motivation and current state of mind. There are also small scenes cut from “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” and “Something To Tide You Over” but these scenes don’t really add much to the film. There is nothing added for “They’re Creeping Up On You” and a small blink or you’ll miss it segment returned to “The Crate.”
None of the subsequent segments are enhanced by the added scenes and point of fact they just bog down the film, so, I’m glad they were left out of the film to begin with. CREEPSHOW was a one of the kind anthology masterpiece that defied audience expectations and reactions and went on to become one of the landmarks in the anthology genre. Only the sequences returned to “Father’s Day” had any real impact on the film but even that is inconsequential as the film works so well without them in terms of pacing.
There are plans to release a Special Edition Anniversary Edition of the film later this year which is rumored to be returning this cut footage back into the film but if you already have the previous DVD version of the film save your money (unless of course you are like me and you’ve just been curious for all these years).
In the “work print” edition I have (which is in1.33: 1 full screen aspect ratio) it is a modest version of the film. The scenes that were cut seem to be simply be re-inserted in to the film by use of “dissolves.” This version would not be an actual spliced film version, but resembles a version that someone may have just downloaded the original television version to their computer and then put the cut scenes back then and used a dissolve to hide the splices. The cut scenes are of varying degrees of quality that never match up to the rest of the film and the audio mix for these new scenes is never correct so it feels sometimes as if the film is off cue sometimes.
All these complaints to the side (since this is an unofficial release version of the film) it is very interesting to see what footage was cut from the film. Most of the scenes that were cut from the release version of the film come from the very first segment of the film “Father’s Day.” There were many scenes explaining the father’s past and how he become a mogul that add more to why Aunt Bedelia killed her father which adds to her characters motivation and current state of mind. There are also small scenes cut from “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” and “Something To Tide You Over” but these scenes don’t really add much to the film. There is nothing added for “They’re Creeping Up On You” and a small blink or you’ll miss it segment returned to “The Crate.”
None of the subsequent segments are enhanced by the added scenes and point of fact they just bog down the film, so, I’m glad they were left out of the film to begin with. CREEPSHOW was a one of the kind anthology masterpiece that defied audience expectations and reactions and went on to become one of the landmarks in the anthology genre. Only the sequences returned to “Father’s Day” had any real impact on the film but even that is inconsequential as the film works so well without them in terms of pacing.
There are plans to release a Special Edition Anniversary Edition of the film later this year which is rumored to be returning this cut footage back into the film but if you already have the previous DVD version of the film save your money (unless of course you are like me and you’ve just been curious for all these years).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
