RGC wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:26 pm Continuing with the schizophrenic viewing habits...
Nightbreed (1990) Dir. Clive Barker
Revisited this after decades, and I still don't really get it. Mutant monsters called the Midian hide from the world in a mausoleum somewhere in America. I didn't notice if the film communicates how they got there. David Cronenberg plays a serial killing doctor who dons a gimp mask with button eyes and slays families for being obese and daring to breed (daybreeders?). A young dude escapes a psychiatric hospital (where another patient tears his own scalp off by way of an introduction), discovers the monsters, becomes one of them, and tries to defend them against the mad doctor who, having turned his attention to slaying monsters instead of overweight innocents, has enlisted support from the local fascist police, who arrive at the cemetery, armed to the gills with guns, flame weapons and explosives, for a final showdown. Don't judge people just for looking like a big shaven ballbag is the message, I suppose. The actor who plays Pinhead makes an appearance and gives the film a little more weight.
Freddy vs Jason (2003) Dir. Ronny Yu
For my sins, I've now sat through every F13th film. There are worse entries in the franchise than this one, but that is saying very little. The entire setup makes no sense, but I don't think you're supposed to care. In order to return to Elm St. and resume dream killing, Freddy needs people to remember him. The best way to do that is to have Jason go there first and start chopping people up and this will jog everyone's memory. Then Freddy's power will grow and he can make a proper comeback. The townsfolk have done a good job of covering up the horrid memories of the past by keeping anyone who surived the previous ordeal with Freddy in an induced coma, where they will surely have a better quality of life. Jason enjoys killing too much and starts to steal some of Freddy's victims. This does not sit well so the two of them face off in a junkyard (in Jason's dream). Then a woman who looks remarkably like Brittany Murphy pulls Freddy into the real world where the fight continues...and concludes! Or does it? WGAF. Can't believe I even bothered typing this.
Edit: technically, this should be considered more of a ANoES film than a F13th one, as it has Freddy's signature theme tune and is definitely played for laughs (making it more palatable than dead-straight Nightbreed, in some ways).
The original theatrical release of Nightbreed was cut too short to make sense by the movie studio (Director Clive Barker wasn't happy that this was done to his film project as it was intended to have a longer alloted running time to tell the story from the beginning to eventual conclusion).
If you watch the Director's Cut of Nightbreed, you'll see some scenes that were removed from the theatrical version restored to make more sense, continuity-wise. Originally, Nightbreed was supposed to be at least two or three films long to tell the further stories of the main character and company as the ending leads one to anticipate of what's coming next -- a war with the Doctor and his army of underground creatures (for a Nightbreed sequel that never materialized due to the poor American box office earnings back in 1990). Yes, actor Doug Bradley is quite associated with the famous Cenobite leader of Pinhead, indeed, in the Hellraiser movie series.
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