31 Days of Halloween (2022)

[MEDdMI]

We went to Salem, MA last Sat. Hugely underestimated how crowded it would be that close to Halloween. Kinda wanted to try a haunted house since it's been ages, but the lines were long. One nice thing is that they had a ton of small booths/stalls setup for local artists, all sorts of fun stuff. Lots of simpler costumes, a couple of more elaborate ones, and of course, one religious guy trying to hand out pamphlets just making himself mad at all the evil Satanism everywhere.
Gotta set up the yard for Halloween, this month went by too fast.

 

[Caldwin]

I saw an edited for tv version of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein at work today. I guess in the way that it actually managed to include some things that were actually in the novel, it was closer to the novel than the Boris Karloff version. But it still took too many liberties for me to say it was a good representation of the book. At least the Boris Karloff version was fun.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I wonder how much damage The Phantom of the Opera (1925) did. The first director had no imagination and didn't go on any weird flights of fancy. It was just the book, the movie. The result was about 4 hours long and left test audiences completely depressed. It took two additional directors and a scandalously large budget to reshoot and edit the thing into something commercially viable. It did end up making money but it was quite possibly the most miserable production experience ever at that point.

I notice that Universal didn't even try to work with the books after that. I wonder how many filmmakers specifically got warned about that time Universal stuck to the book and regretted it. The sets hung around at Universal for decades, so people would have seen them all the time and been reminded.

 

[Caldwin]

I honestly didn't know about all that. Well, I guess at least now I know a reason for all of it.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I don't know if there is a connection, but it would explain a lot. The production nightmare did make it into newspapers, so even people who weren't working at Universal would have heard about it. There is some point when Hollywood learned that books need to be hammered to fit certain movie rules, and maybe this was it.

 

[Sean Whitmore]

I've really gotta watch that original Phantom someday. Just so I can say I've seen the Big 3 of silent horror (along with Caligari and Nosferatu). But silent films are one movie prejudice I've yet to conquer. I can respect them, I can even watch them academically, but they just don't really do it for me.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Don't watch it without knowing what you're getting into. That movie is a mess.

The original cut is lost, and there is pretty much no chance of it turning up in some seemingly random spot. It was almost certainly destroyed, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was deliberately set on fire. Unless I get my hands on a time machine it is gone forever.

A second director reshot the movie, and significant portions of this second cut are also lost. I do not know if any footage from the first cut was used in this version, or if they reshot the entire thing.

That second cut was eventually edited down by a third director, and that third cut actually still exists! Only 16mm prints survive though, so it's rare. Unfortunately most of the companies that release restored silent movies only work with 35mm prints. Normally that's good because it means better quality releases, but in Phantom's case it means they usually ignore the best surviving version of the film!

That third cut made great money, so when sound came around they got most of the actors back together and reshot a sound version so they could put it back in theaters and make more money. Aaand it's lost. Mostly. Some of the sound did survive and, uh, we're sorta not sad about this one being lost. Sound acting wasn't great yet.

Then... we think they edited a silent version of the sound version so they could release it in theaters that didn't have sound equipment yet. It seems odd that they wouldn't just rerelease the silent version they already had, but the sound version is shorter. Maybe if a theater had some sound rooms and some silent rooms this allowed them to play two versions that were the same length and could have identical scheduling. I don't know. All we know is a 35mm print that we think was used for this purpose was discovered in great condition, so that's what everyone uses. If you see a DVD or a Blu-ray, or see it on TV or even a special theater showing, it'll be this one. Just because of the picture quality.

So if I recommend that you see this movie, you're probably going to end up seeing a weird edit of a reshoot of an edit of a reshoot.

That said, this is the one I recommend watching, if you watch it at all.

As for other silent movies, eh. You have probably already seen everything that is worth seeing of Nosferatu.

 

[Sean Whitmore]

Thanks! I'll give that a watch. Eventually.

 

[Caldwin]

I bought the silent version on Amazon for really cheap yesterday. I haven't had the chance to watch it yet though.

When it comes to silent films, I've seen: Nosferatu, Metropolis, Hunchback of Notre Dame...I want to say Call of Chthulu since it was a silent film and had all the stylings of one. But since it was made in 2005, I'm not sure it counts.

I like silent films occasionally, though not too often. I just treat it like I'm watching a subtitled foreign film. The thing that gets me is that they really only had their body language to get the point across since there was no sound. As a result, things tend to get really overacted. It can be pretty humorous.

 

[Paladin]

sometimes the unseen horrors are the most effective.

 

[MEDdMI]

Last night TMM and I streamed Event Horizon and Underworld (the 1st one) on Discord with some friends, just laughing and making fun of them.
Tonight we did our yearly thing of sitting in the driveway with a firepit and handing out candy. Roasted hot dogs and s'mores while enjoying the fire. We had Pokemon Halloween cards, which a lot of the kids got really excited about.

 

[Princess Viola]

Didn't buy any candy this year (forgot), didn't buy any cat ears (forgot), did finally watch Dracula 1931 tonight tho.

It was really good! Most surprising thing was how long it was, or rather how short. Damn movie was barely over an hour long lol.

Didn't get around to watching Frankenstein tonight though but I mean you can watch horror movies any time of year. They're not like Christmas movies where they're irrelevant after Halloween.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Was suppose to go trick or treating with my neighbor but he wasn't free until 4:30pm. Houses started giving out candy at 3:30 so I went out by myself in my Godzilla inflatable (can't get a good selfie pic by myself).

I got one round before my neighbor was ready but he was going to be biking so I changed to the less bulky skull faced suit.

Soooo I got another round of candy, hehe

 

[Caldwin]

I gave out candy...still got plenty left. I may keep some of it for mysel, but I think I'm just going to have to take a bunch of it to work and let the piranhas have it.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Piranhas?

 

[Caldwin]

If you've seen how people get around here when free food is set out in the cafeteria, piranhas is a very apt word for it.

Of course I would often have to include myself in that description.

 

[Haywire]

The last store I worked at, I brought in a bowl of durian-flavored candy, left it on the counter and sat back and watched the hilarity ensue!

 

[Caldwin]

I watched the silent version of Phantom of the Opera. It's been a long while since I've read the book, but from I what I remembe, yes some liberties were taken, but this has got to be the only PotO movie I've seen where it looks like the writers actually read the book.

 

[Caldwin]

I've previously watched Friday the 13th and Part 2. But I've only seen them once and it's been a while. Last month I was able to get my hands on all 10 movie. So that's going to be my homework this month.

Tonight's feature is going to be the first Friday the 13th. Review to follow after it's finished.

 

[Caldwin]

Turns out this version is the Unrated version. Having only seen the original once before, I really couldn't say what the differences are.

It was filmed really well given what they had in 1980. Unfortunately, it has the unfortunate 80's nack for jum-cuts to where you can see the fake bits that get all slashed and bloody. You can honestly make a game out of "I know how they did that."

While that may be an odd complaint from someone who did a marathon of all the Paramount classics last year, this kinda hit an odd place in between classic cinema that was so fake that it was part of the charm and newerfilms that can truly make things ultra realistic in HD.

The story telling itself was pretty good though. I'm guessing this ones an odd one out, not only because it's Jason's mother instead of Jason, but also except for the very end where Jason springs from the lake, there isn't reall anything supernatural about any of this. It's just a crazy mother out for revenge.

I also like how for most of the movie, nobody knew anything was going on until they were about to die. Mrs. Voorhees makes a hell of a predator.