31 Nights of Halloween

[talonmalon333]

Watched it last night. Loved the humor in the film and the actors did a good job with both playing some things straight and adding witty dialogue to most conversations. The parts with Jack's ghost are especially hilarious. David's visions were also cool for the what-the-fuckery of them and for building the tension of what's going on with him and his increasing paranoia and mental instability. I also loved the special effects, which were really top notch. David's transformation sequence is absolutely incredible.

Spoiler

I did find it odd how the movie just stops after David is shot dead. It feels like there should how been some denouement or something. It is kinda funny how it cuts immediately to the credits with that upbeat song though. And in a way, it does make a bit of sense, since this is David's story and it would make sense for it to end once David died. It just felt a little abrupt to me, but maybe that was the point. Also, am I the only one who felt that the movie was implying that the werewolf stuff was all in David's mind? Especially in the ending, where he's shot dead and we see his human body, it just felt like that was what was going on. Of course, having looked it up, it seems that interpretation is incorrect and he actually did become a werewolf, but I do feel the movie does at least keep you guessing as to whether it's all in his head or not.

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Overall, I really enjoyed the film. Perhaps my favorite horror comedy that I've seen so far (though admittedly, I have seen fairly few).

I thought they established that there was indeed a monster running around the city, during the last 5 minutes? The Slaughtered Lamb also seems to know about them. David's body seen lying there is a common thing with monster movies, where they'll revert back to their human form when they die. It's even seen at the beginning of the movie, after the first werewolf that killed Jack dies.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah, like I said, I think I was just interpreting that stuff wrong for most of the movie. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Spoiler

David technically dies at the beginning of the movie and the ending was just a reconfirmation of that. The entire movie is about death, after all. One of them just took longer to die than the other did. There was no better place to end it, in my opinion.

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Will be watching it again tonight. One of the best horror movies ever.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, much like Desensitized, I love the ending. In modern movies I think that we're a bit to used to exposition heavy epilogues, which is why it may seem abrupt, but if you really think about it, the film concluded its story, so the ending works just fine.

As for CX's interpretation, to be fair, I was thinking that the first time that I saw the film, but when the doctor visits the pub that David and Jack went to, the people there pretty much confirm that the existence of Werewolves, and that David was indeed bitten by one.

The special effects in the dream sequences were great, but yes, that transformation is the best one ever put to film, or any medium, for that matter. No CG bullshit here, that was pure makeup and practical effects. We're just never going to get a transformation scene as good as this one again. I also doubt that we'll ever get a werewolf movie as good as this one again, because it's the best one in the entire genre, and one of my favorite horror movies of all time.

[talonmalon333]

I think Universal's The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr. was originally going to be ambigious whether or not he was turning into a werewolf or he was going mad, but that they decided showing him as a wolf would make the movie a bigger success. I would say that it might interesting to see a movie try and tackle this original concept, but then again, looking at horror movies these days, they might as well not even bother.

EDIT:

And yeah, I too liked the ending.

[talonmalon333]

We should also talk about the sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris! ... Right, guys? ... Huh, guys?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That film doesn't exist!

[talonmalon333]

And if it did exist, then practical effects sure wouldn't exist in it, sadly.

[Foggle]

Just watched it myself. I probably didn't like it as much as you guys do, but it was very enjoyable and funny. I loved all the bits with Jack talking to David as a corpse. The overly enthusiastic dead people in the porn cinema were hilarious, as was the scene with everyone panicking and accidentally killing each other near the end. The special effects on the transformation sequence were still very impressive, and the makeup work in the first scene with dead Jack was amazing, though I thought the werewolf itself looked kind of dumb (perhaps intentionally?).

I agree that the ending was perfect. Nothing more really needed to be done with the characters or story after David's death. I also enjoyed the way the beginning of the film messes with the audience's expectations by killing off one of the major characters. Overall, very solid, and played the horror aspect much straighter than I thought it would; definitely a lot more serious than most horror-comedies, IMO. I've never really liked werewolf movies, but this one was great. I can see why it's considered a classic, and while I didn't outright love it, I can see why all of you would.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just watched it myself. I probably didn't like it as much as you guys do,but it was very enjoyable and funny. I loved all the bits with Jack talking to David as a corpse. The overly enthusiastic dead people in the porn cinema were hilarious, as was the scene with everyone panicking and accidentally killing each other near the end. The special effects on the transformation sequence were still very impressive, and the makeup work in the first scene with dead Jack was amazing, though I thought the werewolf itself looked kind of dumb (perhaps intentionally?).

Just watch it over and over again each year. You'll grow more appreciation for it. Trust me, the true classics never seem as great as they are hyped up to be on a first viewing. I could go into every little detail that I love about this movie that I never noticed on a first viewing, but that'd be moot unless you experienced it for yourself.

As for the a Werewolf design, I liked it myself, just not when they showed full-body shots, which looked less convincing (though, to be fair they didn't do that until the end).

As for it being a horror comedy that played it up straight, I honestly love that aspect of the film. That's what makes it stand out so well to me. I like other horror comedies like Shaun of the Dead and such, but I always consider stuff like that to really be more of a straight-up comedy that just happens to be parodying horror movies. There are very few films that I know of that can perfectly combine a legitimately serious tone with intentional humor, though I'd argue that The Evil Dead (the first one) manages to nail a serious tone and pack in plenty of unintentional humor.

[talonmalon333]

(In the theater.)
David: Don't I need a silver bullet or something?
Jack: Oh, be serious, would you?

That exchange has always been one of my favorites in the movie.

I also love when the doctor refuses a phone call by saying "Tell him I'm dead!". That's got to be the ultimate full proof way of avoiding talking to someone you don't want to.

I thought the werewolf itself looked kind of dumb (perhaps intentionally?).

I think it looks good in the movie, largely because of how it's shown and the lighting and whatnot. This scene, for example, looks great.

Spoiler

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I like it when werewolves in movies don't look like traditional werewolves.

[Foggle]

Just watch it over and over again each year. You'll grow more appreciation for it. Trust me, the true classics never seem as great as they are hyped up to be on a first viewing. I could go into every little detail that I love about this movie that I never noticed on a first viewing, but that'd be moot unless you experienced it for yourself.

Oh, definitely. That's how I feel about the first two Alien films and Casablanca. They get better with every viewing!

As for the a Werewolf design, I liked it myself, just not when they showed full-body shots, which looked less convincing (though, to be fair they didn't do that until the end).

The design was really good during the transformation. Just wasn't a fan of the animatronic they used in certain shots.

As for it being a horror comedy that played it up straight, I honestly love that aspect of the film. That's what makes it stand out so well to me. I like other horror comedies like Shaun of the Dead and such, but I always consider stuff like that to really be more of a straight-up comedy that just happens to be parodying horror movies. There are very few films that I know of that can perfectly combine a legitimately serious tone with intentional humor, though I'd argue that The Evil Dead (the first one) manages to nail a serious tone and pack in plenty of unintentional humor.

I loved it too. That's also what makes Scream, Re-Animator, Cemetery Man, and American Psycho so good IMO.

I think it looks good in the movie, largely because of how it's shown and the lighting and whatnot. This scene, for example, looks great.

Spoiler

[close]

Oh yeah. It looks awesome right there!

[talonmalon333]

I also think it's worth talking about the first 15 minutes of the movie, when David and Jack go to the Slaughtered Lamb and are out on the road. The atmosphere is perfect, and that whole section is easily one of my favorite parts of the movie.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of movies that you have to watch over and over to appreciate, I'll warn some of you guys right how, if tomorrow is your firs time watching John Carpenter's The Thing, I can guarantee that you won't love it nearly as much as I do. That, much like Alien, is a film that is decent enough on casual viewing as a straight-up Sci-Fi/Horror film, but it also didn't do well at the box office when it was initially released, and like many other films, its cult following only developed years later. Its a movie that lends itself really well to analysis since it's really good at not flat-out explaining everything to you, and that's where its cult following comes in, and the fan theories from people who have literally seen the films hundreds of times are amazing and many times are completely plausible given how much attention they pay to detail.

But also, don't let that scare you off if you haven't seen it yet. I think that most people will enjoy it just fine on their first time through. I just don't expect anyone to outright love it the first time that they watch it. Also, keep in mind that the beginning is a little slow, but personally I love the fact that this movie takes time to build up its suspense, and trust me, it's totally with the wait. I can promise you that shit really goes down in that film by the half-way point. And if that's not enough, it also had Keith "Fucking" David in it (the voice of Goliath from Gargoyles, himself). That automatically makes any movie at least twice as awesome as it already was.

[Spark Of Spirit]

We should also talk about the sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris! ... Right, guys? ... Huh, guys?

It's a good example to bring up when talking about the genre as a whole.

The first movie is everything good about the genre and is a classic. The second is everything wrong with the genre and one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's an amazing feat for two films to be so far apart from each other that have so many similarities.

The fact that the movie that released twenty years later has considerably worse special effects deserves particular mention in itself.