Article Contest Voting

[rhett]

Months after promising we'd close up this contest, the articles have finally been grouped for voting. Included below are the ten article submissions given to Dave and I, and now it is your job to pick which one you like the best. The ten participants have all put a lot of hard work into these articles, so please take the time to read them all, and pick your favorite. Please don't base it solely on length or subject matter, but on the writing as a whole. Some of the submissions are from members of the forum, and some are not, but please do not ask who did what, because we won't tell until after the contest. If we find any of the writers telling others which their article is, there article will be disqualified. Let's keep this fair, let's keep this fun.

The winner, after the poll closes a week from now on Tuesday, July 12th, will receive a 40 dollar gift certificate to their online DVD retailer of choice. And they will naturally buy great movies like TROLL 2 and HOUSE OF THE DEAD with their winnings. Everyone else gets a nice and hearty pat on the back. So vote away, readers.

*** If you've entered this link via the front page, please click here to be able to vote.

Please be advised that there are potential SPOILERS on most of the articles, so proceed with caution.

[rhett]

The Horror of Generation X: A Retrospective Look at Horror Fandom from the 70s Until Today

It all started for me, back in the seventies. I would catch the occasional monster film on TV, and I knew I was hooked. Then, the addiction only got worse. I remember the first time I saw it. I went down to the corner store for a piece of candy, and there it was on the stands, some gruesome monster transfixing the cover, articles promising the scoop on some unreleased delight, waiting for us to snatch it up and buy it...Famous Monsters of Film Land Magazine. I would rush home with that issue and marvel at the pictures of monster movies I never knew existed. I had to see these films! Then, in the back of the magazine, there was promise. In a beautiful spread, there was a collection of monster movies to be had by anyone who owned a Super 8 film projector. My grandfather had one of those. Maybe he would let me watch these films on it. When my grandfather looked at the ads, not only was he appalled by the prices, but also the fact that they were only about 12 minutes long, and were silent. Needless to say, I never got those films.

The years went by and I continued to get Famous Monsters magazine, still hopeful that someday I would see some of these films I had been reading about and seeing so many glorious pictures of. Living in the New York City area, I had the advantage of having access to some great TV stations and the opportunity to see some of those classics. On the weekends we had Chiller Theatre. After the stop motion, green, six-fingered hand emerged from the grave, it submerged me. Hopefully it would be one of the classics, I had longed to see. If I was lucky, the 4:30 movie, which came on conveniently, right after I got home from school, had monster week. A few weeks out of the year were devoted to such classic weeks as Godzilla week, King Kong week or Planet of the Apes week. Still there were many films that I longed for.

The 80s brought about much to be thankful for, if you were a horror fan. We still had Famous Monsters magazine, but we also had Fangoria. More movies to read about, more pictures to drool over, but still, no way of seeing them. I was old enough to go to the movies by myself, but the films were rated R and begging and / or pleading would not get most adults to see them with me. Then my family got HBO, and I was treated to the likes of Friday the 13th Parts 1 and 2, Mad Max and other classics. In 1981, the classic, Halloween was on network television. Finally, a chance to see one of the pinnacles of horror history! A lot of them were on late at night, so being the fan I was, I would set my alarm and wake up to watch them, knowing it was my only chance to see certain films. Then, no more sleepless nights, because hence came the greatest invention the film fan had ever seen, the VCR! My aunt bought one of the first. It was a huge clunker that weighed as much as a boat anchor, and was top loading, but it was movie lover’s heaven! Then, eventually, my family got one too. Now, I could tape movies on late at night, past my bedtime, but most importantly, there were videotapes to rent. I will never forget the first three tapes I rented. Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and A Clockwork Orange were those three. All of them, films I had seen pictures of and read about in those magazines. A steady diet of horror, sci-fi and cult classics would soon follow. I was getting older now, and I could get into the movies I wanted to see, even if it took a little craftiness at the theatre. Now I could see all the new films coming out, and be treated to a steady stream of older ones being released to video, and of course cable TV, which began expanding to more and more stations, with more and more horror films being shown.

It still wasn’t the golden age for horror fans. As a matter of fact, things started to get bleak. The hard core horror films, without MPAA ratings, could not get the distribution they needed. Of course, there was still video release, but that venue was soon to suffer some setbacks. Big video chains were starting to come in, and with them, new standards, and what was perceived as more of what the customer wanted. This was farthest from the truth. These chains started to rent only edited versions of some of the horror classics. Some films wouldn’t be rented at all. We still had the smaller stores, but not for long. These businesses would soon be casualties of the expansion of these big chains. The horror market was dying again! Now horror fans were longing for complete versions of films they loved, instead of settling for the “family friendly” version. It became harder to get some of the older stuff, such as Euro horror, and smaller cult films. What started to spring from this were mail order tape companies that sold and rented through the mail. Now, if we were willing to pay the price, we could own a copy of many of these sought after films. If we were willing to pay a somewhat lower, but still hefty price, we could rent them from certain sources. This was the means for us to get the films we wanted. The problem was, first price, and second, the fact that a lot of these copies were poor quality bootlegs. We had no choice. Some of us, who had access to bigger cities, and the occasional horror convention, such as Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors, had the option of buying from the plethora of bootleg dealers around. This gave us the chance to look at the films before we bought them, to access the quality, and also gave us a chance to haggle a bit, and get as many as we could for a discount. Still there was yet another option. Better, but even more expensive Laserdiscs. The quality was amazing, but the price was an issue. A lot of the cult and foreign horror was available, but through mail order, because many of them were foreign made discs, mostly from Japan. Laserdiscs had other great features such as director commentary tracks, movies trailers and making of documentaries. I, for one never opted to get a laserdisc player, thinking it was a format that wouldn’t last, and something I didn’t want to invest in. I was right to a degree. It didn’t last, but it took years for it to go under and there are still those who hang onto theirs, knowing that some movies are only available in that format.

In the nineties, things were looking up for us. A little thing called the Internet started to come into play. With the Internet, we had access, not only to news about horror films, but alternative methods to get them. There were Newsgroups and later, websites, devoted to tape trading, where we could hook up with fans around the country, the world, for that matter, and find the films we wanted and trade something in our collection for it. I, for one, expanded my collection immensely this way. They were still films in varying qualities, sometimes dubs of the aforementioned import laserdiscs, but it was a means to see the films, and see them cost effectively. The Internet was also a double-edged sword. It helped us obtain a lot of the films we longed for, but it also broadened our horizons, and introduced us to films we had never heard of. On fan sites we read about European and Asian films. We were introduced to directors with the names Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Jesse Franco among others. We had to have these films! Some were available in the venues aforementioned, but others were unobtainable, or the copies available were almost unwatchable. Then it happened again; another great innovation. The greatest invention for horror fans since the VCR hit the market...DVDs! It started small. A few titles here and there, then it snowballed. Companies like Anchor Bay realized the potential market of horror fans out there, and started to acquire rights to a lot of the forgotten classics of the cult and horror genres. Not only did they release them on DVD at affordable prices, but they were re-mastering them; sometimes even acquiring original negatives to do so by. They were gathering cast and crew and getting commentaries recorded. They were gathering up trailers, location footage and any other extras they could get their hands on, and giving us packages that true horror fanatics would die for. We were in heaven! There are still movies that aren’t available on these shores, but that gap was bridged as well. There are Region Free DVD players to satiate the appetites of fans who can’t wait for an American release. There are Video CDs, which are region free in their design, and give you another format with which to obtain these treasures. Then there’s still the Internet, where now, with high-speed connections one can download virtually any film they can think of and either watch it on the PC or burn it to Video CD and watch it on their DVD Player. Yes, for a horror fan, it seems like our time has finally come! Oh, the horror of it all!

[rhett]

Dean Cundey: A Cinematographic Genious

Dean Cundey is a cinematographer with great talent. His atmospheric cinematography sets him apart from all the rest. He has an ability to shoot films that present a certain mood to the viewer, whether it’s a late 70’s horror movie or a modern day romantic comedy.

Dean Cundey was John Carpenter’s helping hand. Carpenter’s Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing and Big Trouble In Little China are widely considered his best films, and all of them involved Dean’s amazing talent. Not to discredit Carpenter in any way, but he did work best with Dean.

Dean has an impressive filmography. He has shown off his cinematographic talent on everything from Halloween, Psycho 2, Back to the Future Trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jurassic Park, Apollo 13 and What Woman Want, just to name a few diverse genres.

Dean deserves more recognition. Classics like Halloween, The Fog, The Thing and the beautifully shot (and underrated) Psycho 2 are some examples of what Dean was able to do when it comes to the horror genre. He is a master cinematographer. Just ask John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg or Robert Zemeckis.

[rhett]

Der Wille Zur Angst

I want to be afraid.

I haven’t had the spine-tingling, spiders-on-your-legs, heavy-breathing-in-the-closet feeling since I was nine years old. That afternoon, I watched Halloween with my dad. I was so into the movie that it freaked the hell out of me. The Shape made an exceptionally frightening character, to my young eyes, and when he was gone at the end, I thought he could be anywhere, even my house. So did my old man. When I was getting ready for bed that night, Dad jumped out of my closet, wearing a plastic hockey mask and holding a rubber meat cleaver. I screamed loud enough to wake the dead. And ever since then, I’ve been trying to recapture that feeling of abject fear through film.

Being a child of the ‘80s, I started with the pop-culture horror Zeitgeist. I watched my way through every Halloween, Friday, and Nightmare movie I could find. Michael Myers quickly lost favor with me. Freddy held on a little longer, but I outgrew his one-liners. Jason stayed my favorite, because he only concerned himself with one thing: killing nubile teenagers and the various adults who got in his way. I appreciated his single-minded nature, almost Zen-like in application. But I wasn’t scared.

My next step was pure balls-out gore. I spent hundreds of dollars in dozens of seedy video stores, looking for bloody diamonds in vast rows of lifeless carbon. For every Evil Dead that I found, I had to waste my time with ten movies like Troll 2, Bloodsucking Freaks, or The Dead Hate the Living. In the end, though, it was worth it. Besides the amazing Evil Dead trilogy, I experienced other great films, like Re-Animator, Dead Alive, and Suspiria. They were full of true-blue (or -red, or -green) gore, well-made, and like nothing I had seen before. But I wasn’t scared.

Looking for answers from the masters, I watched many “classic” horror films. Comparing these films to modern one is an interesting experience. I don’t think many people of my generation can really get into older films like Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, or Psycho. Psychological horror is much harder for the average fan to comprehend then say a guy going crazy with a chainsaw. The older films have given me a great respect for the genre, and all the restrictions that have been placed upon it over the years. The Hays Code and World War II set the horror industry back decades, and yet it has persevered. And I can say that I truly enjoyed movies like Peeping Tom. But I wasn’t scared.

These days, I just go for anything that looks promising. Italian giallo from Bava, Fulci, Argento? Been there, enjoyed the visuals, not scared. Films from Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? Very out-there and original, but still not scared. Modern movies like The Ring and House of 1000 Corpses? Creepy but not frightening. Modern movies like Darkness Falls and Resident Evil: Apocalypse? Pathetic crap that I wouldn t recommend anyone watch, let alone a wanna-be fright-flick aficionado. Zombies anyone? I love Romero’s movies, and many of the modern-day dead movies do a great job expanding and honoring the genre, like 28 Days Later (in a serious way) or Shaun of the Dead (more of a comic homage to the genre). But zombies just don’t scare me. I want that visceral feeling that I myself could be hacked to bits or chewed through like a piece of jerky, and it isn’t transferring through the screen.

Honestly, the closest I’ve come to feeling this way is on my Playstation 2. Horror games, or more specifically, survival horror, throw you into a town full of zombies, demon dogs, homicidal maniacs, things so terrible no Christian god would ever allow them into our world, and if you’re lucky you might find a lead pipe or gun to defend yourself. Some quick examples would be the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series’, and more recently, Manhunt. Things jump at you from every angle, areas are filled dark corners, locked doors, and stealthy sloughing sounds from somewhere in the background. Where I think video games succeed most is how they immerse you in their world, make you feel like you are a part of everything, and quite often, you will be killed. And killed. And killed. And eventually your desire to live and vanquish the head demon or sneak through the abandoned mall unscathed will focus your attention so closely on the screen, that you’ll be even more susceptible to the unknown it lurking in the shadows. It isn’t a full-blown scare, but it’s a start.

The horror film industry could learn a few things from these games. Most fans of the genre that I know are jaded and feel they’re above it all. I’ve felt that way myself at times, but no longer. It isn’t about name-brand recognition, or buckets of chunky red stuff, or even genre association. It’s about striking a chord with people on a personal level. I want to feel like I’m in the movie. Say what you will about the Blair Witch Project, that film succeeded not just because of a marketing campaign, but because the footage had a grainy voyeur-like feeling about it that really involves the viewer. While middle-America might have been scared witless by The Exorcist, give me the amazing POV and Steadi-Cam shots from The Evil Dead. I don t want cookie-cutter Hollywood junk like I Know What You Did Last Summer or Urban Legend. Give me something fun and way off the beaten path like Street Trash or a Troma gem like Terror Firmer.

By writing this, I’ve come to realize that maybe fear isn’t the benchmark I should strive for any longer. It’s an important part of my horror experience, but fear itself is not the experience. And maybe I should forget about trying to be afraid, and just enjoy the experience for what it is. There’s a world of amazing sick movies out there, and I have the knowledge to explore exactly what I like. I want to be afraid, but what I want even more is to enjoy great horror films.

[rhett]

Remake or not to Remake that is the Question

It was announced today that they are remaking fill-in the blank. There is probably nothing on this Earth that a studio can say other of course than standard dvd release only that can piss off a fan of a horror film quicker than anything. So why do studio's feel the need to remake great horror films? That will be the point of this article as we drift into the mind of a studio.

First in for most the obvious reason horror films get made is a quick return at the box office. Horror films often have very meager budgets. Take the recent horror hit The Grudge It is a remake of a Japanese film Ju-on: The Grudge(2000). With a budget of only 10 million dollars in it's first weekend grossed 39 million dollars which lead to a bunch of smiling faces on Monday morning. So happy that a sequel was announced shortly there after. The Grudge went on to gross a hefty 110 million for Sony Pictures. This of course should lead to big dvd sales and even more moola for Sony. Not bad for a remake huh?

Next Horror movies tend to be set to the times or close to the times we live in. If your journey back to the gothic style horror of the Universal Classics you would notice horse and carriages, small villages, and dark castles like in Frankenstein(1931). Since we weren't to far from that era people can relate to what they were seeing. Flash forward too Dawn of the Dead (2004) The zombies are super fast and the movie runs with a very quick pace. It reflects on the times of today were everyone is always in a hurry and time is never on our side.

Of course you can't forget the all important teenage demographic which horror films are targeted too. So how do you get them in the seats is the question?

It is a good bet that your average teenage viewer has never seen the original Dracula(1931) In fact If you went up to a 16 year old today and asked them if they have seen it you probably hear "It's old and Black and white IM not watching that." Of course you could tell them who is started but the replay would be "Bela who?"

So what a studio does is take a name like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, drop in a few teens from the WB and bingo they see someone they recognize and before you know it the studio's have an 80 million dollar hit on there hands. So the current formula looks like this. Famous Horror movie name plus teeny bopper actors equal cash for studios.

Last but certainly not least is my only reason to support remakes, time. As time passes special effects continue to become more elaborate and things that a director or studio envisioned has the chance of becoming reality. Take The Evil Dead from Sam Rami. Can you imagine what the film would look like if Sam had today's effects back then???? Well, you won't have to wonder long, Sam is remaking it soon.

[rhett]

Remakes...A Necessary Evil?

Remakes... are they really necessary? Please take this thoughts as a personal review and not as a contradiction to your own formulated opinions because in each of us there is a critic and only we can decide our own likes and dislikes. Above all I think remakes are a reflection of our society, we all are a bunch of consumers and we do not waste any time to cash easy money.

Let´s see the remake version of “Night Of The Living Dead”, it´s in colour(the original is in black & white, for those of you who didn´t know the original is in black & white you should kill yourselves, buried yourselves and hope you turn into a zombie to see if your vision of the world is in colour our in black and white, the new version has plenty of gore, but hey, sometimes the gore isn´t the main factor for a movie to work (the original work in a claustrophobic feeling), is directed by the right arm of George Romero, Tom Savini (don´t get me wrong, I just love Tom Savini, but I think the guy only gets is kicks in the special effects, as I usually say, every monkey on it´s branch). Was it really necessary this new version of this classic??? Well, my answer is no and yes. No, because the original is a perfect movie all the way and it still lives up by today´s standarts. And then again yes, because someone decided to remake the wonderful “Dawn Of The Dead” (second in “The Living Dead” series and the sequel to “Night Of The Living Dead”). Let me just tell you guys that I just love both the original and the remake version of “Dawn Of The Dead”, they are very different movies on their own. Hell, the new version can be considered as a different movie. The remake makes a powerful transition of the living dead saga to our own days. The original movie is a die hard critic to the 70´s society and is very cartoonish and full of colour. It´s not an easy movie but still a great cassic and one of the best sequels to date. The remake version, the only thing that bugs me is the speed of the zombies, they look like Peter Jackson´s “Braindead” zombies after they took a couple of ecstasy pills. Man, they run like hell. If you put one of those zombies in a marathon race against any guy, the gold medal was for the zombie. By that very same reason I´m looking to see the upcoming fouth entry in “The Living Dead” saga to see if Romero will follow is origins or adapt himself to the remake version. By saying this and only because there is a remake version of “Dawn Of The Dead” is that the remake version of “Night Of The Living Dead” wins its own credit and wins life. C´mon, c´mon, somebody should be interested in remaking the lovely “Day Of The Dead” (third chapter in the original series, don´t leave the poor movie out. By doing a remake maybe the original movie will gain the status it deserves, pure classic.

Changing style, c´mon you guys, let´s get once again nostalgics and let´s dig up one gem from the 70´s. I admit that as I was writing these lines I was looking to my old vhs goodie. Ok, ok, ok, I´m talking about “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, that banned glory (I´m still trying to figure it out why they banned this kind of movies, they´re a bunch of stupid guys). The original, I just love it. I´ve seen it again and again, and still do. I just can´t get enough of that movie, it´s a great movie. I think it´s one of those movies wether we like it or not we still get a kick after we watch it. And what about the remake, I JUST LOVE IT, yes, I REALLY LOVE THE REMAKE, well, not as much as the original but I think the remake is a good movie. The original is a raw movie with a raw atmosphere made in a claustrophobic way, and the remake version reminds me of the 80´s slashers. I think it´s a great approach to the movie. I always thought Leatherface as a lonely slasher character the same way as Freddy, Jason, or Michael Myers and is with that thought in my mind that I love the new “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, a good old slasher.

I could be here talking hours and hours about remakes. Of course you already realise that the remakes that are mentioned above are the ones that I like but that is just my opinion. To me, remakes are just like Chinese fortune cookies, you never know what´s inside. Remakes are just as good as they are just as bad, it depends on your approach on the original movie. Sometimes you like the remakes better that the original and sometimes it´s the other way around. No one better than ourselves to judge that kind of opinion. I think every movie stands for it´s own. Sometimes the remake give us original ideas that we just loved to be on the original. I´m happy to say that I love about 20% of the remakes I saw. The more remakes they make, more important the originals became. And never forget that the good movies are the ones that we love.

Voted.

[dwatts]

EDIT

[thing]

But what about the reviews section of the contest? there was an articles section and a reviews section.

[rhett]

That will follow shortly.

[rhett]

The “Alien” Explanation: 4 Films of Horror, Science, and One of the Other

ALIEN
“Alien” was conceived by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shussett. O’Bannon had previously worked on John Carpenter’s sci-fi spoof, “Dark Star.” He liked the story, but the film ultimately failed as both a spoof and a thriller, mainly, according to Shussett, because the alien looked like “A big beach ball.” Why couldn’t someone develop an alien flick where the most important aspect was the alien? One that had mood. One that had something you could be truly terrified of, in the cold, dark reaches of the place where no one can hear you scream…

O’Bannon had a problem with movies where the monster just snuck on board and was allowed to take out the entire ship. And who wouldn’t? It’s the future; people should be smart, right? Ha ha, WRONG. While it is ultimately the majority of the group’s idiocy that gets them knocked off, the way it comes about sprung from a stroke of genius.

Shussett, while trying to get some sleep one night after developing the first part of the story with O’Bannon, couldn’t stop thinking, “How does it get on the ship?” He thought, and thought, and thought some more, and then!… No, he didn’t figure it out, he fell asleep. AND THEN! He dreamt it, he saw the sequence. He woke up, ran to O’Bannon’s room, and said, “I’ve got it.” “Well, let’s hear it,” Dan said enthusiastically. “The alien, screws the guy.” As you can imagine, the next word out of O’Bannon’s mouth was, “…. What?” “The alien bursts out of the egg, grasps onto the guy’s face, plants his seed on him and they take him on board, and then it bursts out of the guy’s chest!” So the $64,000 dollar question is, “What were the next two words out of O’Bannon’s mouth?” I’ll tell you, they were, “… That’s…. genius.”

So, thanks to that one incredible scene, that the cast and crew pulled off so well that it’s tough to watch, incredible pacing, the fact that almost nothing happens for the first 20 minutes, and one of the more frightening technologically-involved scenes of all time, which, amazingly, the studio added, “Alien” became not only the break of Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron, but also one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all time. In the now infamous “Chest-burster” scene, viewers of the first run in 1979 were so frightened, many of them they fainted, ran out of the theater and/or vomited in the lobby. The scene is so difficult to watch because of the way it is portrayed, that even though it was the sole reason the film was produced, many theaters cut it out of the first run.

A film that was supposed to be a cheap indie B-monster flick, has such power in its presentation, that for 25 years it has freaked out audiences like few others, and it doesn’t even really qualify as a “horror movie.” That, and its given new meaning to the term, “Labor pains.”

ALIENS
Picking up some 55 years after the events of “Alien,” its first sequel falls more into the category of “Action-Adventure” than it’s predecessor. That’s not to say it doesn’t still have some of the emotional power of the first film in the series, but it’s almost an entirely different kind of movie. Almost none of the claustrophobia fully survives, traded instead for a more traditional sci-fi/action crossbreed. It’s still a fine movie. And the production value is astonishing.
After being in hyper-sleep for 50-odd years, Ripley has awakened in the hands of the company she works for, but tried to kill her to get a hold of the… um…. Organism, all those years ago. If you are watching the good version, Ripley is soon reminded of her 10-year-old child…. Who has died since she has last seen her. This aspect, while never mentioned in the first film in the series, adds tremendous meaning to the bond Ripley shares with the last surviving member of the colony which has been taken over by the… um… “Species of Doom.” This is getting tough.

Uh, right, so, Ripley is sent on a mission with a gang of grunts to take out the species once and for all. What she doesn’t know is (cue the dramatic music), when Weyland-Yutani, or, The Company, as they call it, said they were going to “Take them out,” they really meant “For a sandwich and glass of Pepsi.” They want to experiment on them, no matter what that means. There’s a massacre of half the soldiers, and the rest start to realize just what they’re up against. The last remaining soldier and an android get onto a ship, and Ripley goes looking for Newt, the little girl. She finds her, and another,
more enraged female. The Alien Queen.

The Alien Queen has 2 people inside it, and 6 more puppeteering the legs and head. It is truly a sight to behold, especially when it’s ripping Lance Henrikson (the android), in half, while hanging onto the ship. The androids in the “Alien” series are fueled by a sort of white fluid. It’s made up of yogurt and milk. Well, under the hot studio lights, drinking milk and yogurt can be pretty… sickening. Lance got sick as a dog but couldn’t stop the shoot; it’s a miracle they didn’t have to keep cleaning up vomit. So, back on track, Ripley fights the queen alien in a sort of robotic lifting suit. There’s a guy behind her using the limbs, who’s about 7 feet tall. So now you’ve got 2 bodies fighting each other, but there’s actually 10 people in and controlling the scene. It’s an amazing sequence, and a great way to lead the saga into its proposed final chapter, on a new planet, in a new environment, in a new artistic vision of fear.

ALIEN3
Now nearing its proposed final chapter, the Alien saga was set to go back to the original formula: 1 monster in a claustrophobic setting. The question was, "Where would that claustrophobic environment be?"
Vincent Ward was the proposed director for Alien3. He designed a sort of church, which was the whole of a man-made wooden planetoid. The structure would have a core that would control the environment and gravity.
The idea for Vincent Ward’s Alien3 was that on this planetoid, in the far reaches of space, Monks kept life at the “Bare essentials” level. They would have no weapons besides farming implements, and so they would be no match for the alien, now known to the world as a Xenomorph, when it got loose. The idea was for them to lure it into a glassmaker, and kill it with the molten glass. But the structure wouldn’t work the way it was conceived, since gravity wouldn’t affect something that small and hollow in space, and so the production had to be canned.

The production crew had already invested countless dollars and time building enormous sets, so they couldn’t start over. There was an absolutely horrid re-write, and literally every person on set-construction walked off the project.

David Fincher, an unknown director, was hired by Fox to take hold of the production. He decided to use the already-constructed sets, and make the church into a prison, paint all the structures brown and rusty and so-forth, and build new sets to go along with the existing ones.

So, all the set-builders returned, and they used Ward’s original idea to have Ripley be impregnated by the Xenomorph in hyper-sleep. This added tension, as The Company soon found out about Ripley’s, um… “Child,” and tried to persuade her into having it removed. She knew what they were going to do, and she couldn’t let The Company allow the Organism to escape and cause a new sequel. She spreads her arms, and falls into the molten lead she and the remaining inmates had just melted the Xenomorph in. But that didn’t stop Fox…

ALIEN: RESURRECTION
The main character is dead. The species that puts the entire Universe at risk is extinct. And the studio still finds a way to make another hundred million bucks. Don’t you just love creativity?

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a French indie director who had never made a Hollywood feature, was noticed by the Fox executives for his incredible cinematography, and called in for a meeting. Jeunet had no idea why they wanted him to do the new Alien, but he went along with it.

When he got the job, he went out and rented a bunch of blockbusters from over the years, and then, of course, Alien. He counted the total number of camera placements in the film, and got about 800. As opposed to the typical Hollywood blockbuster which has about 1600. He wanted to match the pacing of the common action-adventure film, and so he went for the larger number.
So, fast-forward a couple-hundred years from Alien3. The Company’s still thriving from all of their ships, but they’re trying to bring Ripley back. Well, not so much Ripley as what was inside her when she died. They make an absolutely perfect specimen, and surgically remove the Xenomorph. Lo and behold, that wasn’t such a good idea.

It’s the oldest story: Alien is extracted from the clone of someone who died 200 years ago, it grows up, gives birth to a dozen babies, and they escape. Man, I hate when Hollywood uses the same stuff over and over again. Anyway, Ripley saw it coming, and so did the obligatory android-who-we-don’t-know-is-an-android, played fairly by Ms. Hollywood Shoplifter Wynona Ryder.

Ryder’s character is part of a crew of violent… uh… actually; I’m not really sure what they do. But anyway, they get on board the main ship, and of course, the aliens escape, and start raisin’ all sorts of hoopla on them and the scientists. They start to be picked off one by one, and then a weird feeling “Ripley” gets leads to the best scene of the film: She, being the 8th attempt at a clone, looking at the other 7. Some of them look like mutated Xenomorphs, some of them look like mutated Sigourney Weavers, and before long, #8 makes it so they all are very toasty.

The film is an action extravaganza, and is very different from the slow, claustrophobic atmosphere of Alien 1 and 3. Not to say it’s bad, but it’s a lot more like Aliens than Alien, which some die-hard fans may not have appreciated. And aside from the “clone” scene, there’s really not much to remark about. Save for maybe the brief moment Ripley shares with the Xenomorph who thinks she’s her mother, it’s pretty much a standard sci-fi effects show, made better by the superb cinematography by Jeunet.


The Alien films have always been great, and with the new Alien VS. Predator flick having taken in the amount it did at the box office, we should be expecting a true Alien 5 pretty soon. I’d personally like another in the style of 1 and 3. It’d be nice to have, once again, a bunch of stuff for the true cinema buffs, as well as an equal amount for the action crowd. No film in the series is bad, and when you’re getting into your fifth sequel, that’s something you should always be thankful for.

[maskull]

another submission after I've already voted. that's not really fair for the person who wrote #11.

[baggio]

quick question who wrote all of these entries?

also even though I have seen every movie listed. The writer or writers succeeded to give away most plots, secrets , endings, etc...

Feel kind of bad for anyone who hasn't seen some of these movies.

[rhett]

Originally Posted by baggio

quick question who wrote all of these entries?

also even though I have seen every movie listed. The writer or writers succeeded to give away most plots, secrets , endings, etc...

Feel kind of bad for anyone who hasn't seen some of these movies.

Originally Posted by rhett

Some of the submissions are from members of the forum, and some are not, but please do not ask who did what, because we won't tell until after the contest.

You've read all the articles and spoilers, but not the very first post in the thread? Tsk tsk.

[baggio]

Originally Posted by rhett

You've read all the articles and spoilers, but not the very first post in the thread? Tsk tsk.

whoops, sorry I didn't realize it answered my question right there.


But what about potential spoilers?


You know whats wierd to me? They all have that feeling they are from the same writer. At first I thought one person wrote them all. Very similar writing.