Prom Night, Dog Soldiers, Halloween

Prom Night

Yet another one of those movies that I had heard about, but had never seen.  This was as good a time as any to check it out.

It came out 2 years after Halloween, but it seemed much more dated.  Maybe it was the clothes.  Maybe it was the hair.  Or maybe - just maybe - it was the insanely long prom scene with a ton of loud disco.  Yeah, that was probably it.

I could see what they were going for, and I can see how a lot of modern movies were influenced by this.  As opposed to Halloween, you weren't sure who the killer was (although it was fairly easy to figure it out).  

It was fairly entertaining, but not a great movie.  Nowhere near on the level of Halloween.  However, there are bonus points for the guy who played Lou...the "bad boy" in the movies, and one of the more hideous people I've ever seen.  

Rating: 3 stars

Dog Soldiers

I tend to like monster movies, which means I also tend to like werewolf movies.  I had heard good things about this movie, so I thought I'd check it out.  There were werewolves.  There was blood.  There was a man with his guts held in by hot glue.  There was lots of shooting.  Honestly, this is a problem I have with werewolf movies.  Even after the characters realize that nothing short of silver bullets will kill the werewolf, they still keep shooting them.  I realize that it kind of knocks them back a little, but it does no real damage, and it most cases it does little in the way of slowing them down.  It's not just this movie...it's a lot of werewolf movies.

Anyway, this movie was violent and bloody, and ended with a bunch of guys in an old house, shooting at werewolves.  

I liked it, but I didn't love it.  From everything that I had heard about it, I was expecting to love it.  It was enjoyable, but it didn't blow me away.  Maybe I needed to be in the right mood for it, but, for now, I'll give it a "Liked It".

Rating: 3 stars

Halloween

It's really not fair to review this along with Prom Night and Dog Soldiers.  Those movies were decent.  This movie is amazing.  I've seen it a handful of times, and it only gets better with each viewing.  I would have to rank this movie among my top 5 horror movies of all time (somewhere behind Psycho and Night of the Living Dead).  First of all, it just looks amazing.  The cinematography is terrific.  The soundtrack is perfect.  The character of Michael Myers is terrifying in that he has no back story.  We don't know exactly why he kills...we don't know how or why he got to that point.  We just know that he kills, and that he's relentless in his pursuit, and brutal in his murders.  There's the supernatural aspect to the end (how is he still alive?).  There's the camera itself: sometimes acting as the eyes of Myers...but not always, so it keeps you on your toes.
It's hard to describe all the reasons why I love this movie.  I just know that I do, and I love it more every time.

Rating: 5 stars

After watching Halloween, I realized I had not yet watched the entire series.  So I'm doing that now.  I'm skipping 2 (which I had recently watched) and 3 (because Michael Myers is not in it, and because it's awful). I doubt my reviews of these will be much past, "Stabbing stabbing stabbing," but we'll see.

Zombie Prom Update: The prom will be taking place at the Danville Community Arts Center on May 21, starting at 8pm.  You can visit the page (and buy tickets) here, and you can request songs through the Facebook page.