Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[csdot]

Halloween III is a great movie and has a big following, Shout knew exactly what they were doing when they released it. i recently saw it in a theater and the place was packed.

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by format916

at least he gave a valid explanation instead of 'no myers'

True. The movie's reputation, if not it's box office and home video numbers, is destroyed by the "III" in it's title, and wasn't helped when producers opted to bring Myers back for every film since.

[RiFiFi1955]

Originally Posted by zbinks

True. The movie's reputation, if not it's box office and home video numbers, is destroyed by the "III" in it's title, and wasn't helped when producers opted to bring Myers back for every film since.

I so would have loved it if they stuck with their original intent of releasing a new Halloween film every year with a brand new story for each film. I think that was such a great idea!

[csdot]

Originally Posted by RiFiFi1955

I so would have loved it if they stuck with their original intent of releasing a new Halloween film every year with a brand new story for each film. I think that was such a great idea!

same. none of the sequels were that good after Season of the Witch.

[Monroville]

Originally Posted by ianungstad

Oh, I love a well crafted genre film but Halloween III is just stupid. The premise is that these kids all across America are going to sit in front of their tv sets at 9:00 pm for a television special and put on these Halloween masks which will kill them. Of course this makes no sense at all as the US covers multiple time zones and while it may be 9 pm in Northern California, it's already 1am on the East Coast where certainly there would not be children huddled around their tv sets.

One of the things you always see in a lousy movie is when the protagonist is captured by the villian and the villian has to explain his evil plan in a long winded monologue to the hero (and to the viewers) so that the movie makes some kind of sense.

In this case the hero is captured, taken to the factory and then given a guided tour (why?) of the "final proccessing" portion of the plant and is told in depth details about the master plan, what will happen and how it will be accomplished (why?) before being conveniently left alone to plan and execute his escape.

There are plenty of movies that I don't like but I would never call them awful. Just because I couldn't connect to a film doesn't mean that I can't see it's merits. Halloween III is an awful movie because it was just a combination of poor elements from acting, script, directing. Taste is subjective but craft is not.

I would guess Scream acquired this title because they saw some easy profits from the Halloween brand. They have a number of wonderful films coming up that I'm really looking forward to.

But you like THEY LIVE (better), which you pretty much sum up with the bold lines above.

Even with that said, no one (including myself) expects ANYone to like anything I do. If you hate it, meh, not a problem. Like I say to my friends if they like something I don't, that's why you'll buy the blu-ray and I won't.

Regardless, let's at least address a few of those points you make, regardless of convincing you that HALLOWEEN III is better than you currently feel about it. So here we go!:

POINT 1 - The Premise: whether the commercial was playing at the same time around the country or just on the west coast, the bottom line is that a lot of kids would be dying from watching the commercial regardless of how much land it covered. Also consider that in the early to mid 1980's parents DID let their kids stay up pretty late on Halloween... I remember frequently staying out until 1:00 AM collecting candy with my 5 to 10 friend group patrolling the entire subdivision. Granted, I lived in the suburbs where it was pretty safe (no drive-bys that I know of), but you get the picture.

Also keep in mind that the commercials frequently mentioned "the big giveaway", and as any kid from the 1970's and '80's can tell you, there was nothing funner than running home to watch SPACE:1999 or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (otherwise known as STAR WARS: THE TV SHOW) which played at a specific time, or any number of James Bond movies that ABC or CBS would play once a year (so if you missed it you were S.O.L.). The bottom line here being: if something like candy and/or money is being promised to be given away, with the results being displayed on a commercial played at a specific time when there were only 5 to 10 channels on the TV, there is something specific to 1970's and '80's suburban US culture where the parents (or at least mine) would wake their kids up just to see it together.

The bottom line is that what made the premise scary (to myself) is that you have a villain who just wants to kill kids for no other reason than just to cause pain from in essence a trick pulled on the parents, who commercialized a holiday created from a sacrificial ritual. No world conquest; no billions of dollars... just a trick to play on the children.

I thought Cochran was pretty clear about that one.

PREMISE 2 - the villain explaining the plot: This I thought was fairly clever too. Hokey? Maybe. But I got to thinking... Cochran was playing a joke on Dr. Challis. Remember, the doc had 2 kids of his own, and Dr. Challis knew his kids had Silver Shamrock masks.

The way I look at it is: Cochran gave Dr. Challis a chance to escape and achieve a "happy ending" by giving him the chance to win. Remember Cochran's plan to begin with (a trick to cause suffering on the world, not out of some childhood trauma, but just for the hell of it.. hell, just for the FUN of it)... I believe he WANTED Challis to escape/"win" just so he could go home and find his children dead. Dr. Challis was the witness to not just see what would happen but know what was coming. What better hell could he give Challis but a false sense of hope just to find his prodigy dead? Considering that Cochran was dead/dematerialized by the stonehenge piece (much less the entirity of the Silver Shamrock factory going up with him), how could Dr. Challis get revenge? Like the end to SEVEN, the doctor would be left alive and with nothing to live for, and no one to lash out against.

Same thing goes for Ellie being the robot, and waiting to attack him until AFTER they leave the town (maybe that was part of her programming). Even so, she should have been able to kill him pretty quickly considering how easily the prior robots pulled off the bum's head and pulled out Ellie's father's nosebridge. I thought that maybe she was programmed to give a good enough fight to drive Dr. Challis to destroy her (and realize that she was dead) but again to allow him to live long enough to see/hear the results of Cochran's work. In the end, it was all done for him.

[jaws3dfan]

I think MONROVILLE summed up the plot rather nicely, the only part of the movie that makes my laugh is the one handed mask toss to cover the camera. Other than that I have always like HALLOWEEN III and am happy to be among the few that helped drive it into Cult Status.

I always wondered if Ellie was always a robot or was she killed and replaced with a robot???

Back in 2008 I made a HALLOWEEN III game for the Atrai 2600, its a hack of KABOOM:







Here is my Halloween III Tats I got just a couple months ago, not quite finished, plan to get the final detailing after the new year:

[Show spoiler]

[returnofthemack]

Originally Posted by ianungstad

Oh, I love a well crafted genre film but Halloween III is just stupid. The premise is that these kids all across America are going to sit in front of their tv sets at 9:00 pm for a television special and put on these Halloween masks which will kill them. Of course this makes no sense at all as the US covers multiple time zones and while it may be 9 pm in Northern California, it's already 1am on the East Coast where certainly there would not be children huddled around their tv sets.

One of the things you always see in a lousy movie is when the protagonist is captured by the villian and the villian has to explain his evil plan in a long winded monologue to the hero (and to the viewers) so that the movie makes some kind of sense.

In this case the hero is captured, taken to the factory and then given a guided tour (why?) of the "final proccessing" portion of the plant and is told in depth details about the master plan, what will happen and how it will be accomplished (why?) before being conveniently left alone to plan and execute his escape.

There are plenty of movies that I don't like but I would never call them awful. Just because I couldn't connect to a film doesn't mean that I can't see it's merits. Halloween III is an awful movie because it was just a combination of poor elements from acting, script, directing. Taste is subjective but craft is not.

I would guess Scream acquired this title because they saw some easy profits from the Halloween brand. They have a number of wonderful films coming up that I'm really looking forward to.

yeah im sorry but halloween 3 is the 2nd best halloween movie behind the amazing first. tos ay that tom atkins acting is terrible is simply blasphemy. tom atkins is the man. the sooner everyone accepts that the better off we will all be.

[GNM]

A little off topic here.

Question for those that have purchased form Shout Factory online. Is it normal for them to not send you a tracking number or tell you when something has shipped?

Also why the hell do they have to go and spoil whats inside the damn box by stating what it is all over the packaging?

My Christmas is ruined due this company, thanks for spoiling it...

As per the movies I can't wait for some of the future releases. I hope they do a good job on From Beyond.

[*PREACHER*]

Originally Posted by jaws3dfan

I think MONROVILLE summed up the plot rather nicely, the only part of the movie that makes my laugh is the one handed mask toss to cover the camera. Other than that I have always like HALLOWEEN III and am happy to be among the few that helped drive it into Cult Status.

I always wondered if Ellie was always a robot or was she killed and replaced with a robot???

Back in 2008 I made a HALLOWEEN III game for the Atrai 2600, its a hack of KABOOM:







Here is my Halloween III Tats I got just a couple months ago, not quite finished, plan to get the final detailing after the new year:

[Show spoiler]

Sweet KABOOM knock off using the Halloween III theme...me wants to play this...NOW!!! Nice tats too by the way!!!

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Monroville

The bottom line is that what made the premise scary (to myself) is that you have a villain who just wants to kill kids for no other reason than just to cause pain from in essence a trick pulled on the parents, who commercialized a holiday created from a sacrificial ritual. No world conquest; no billions of dollars... just a trick to play on the children.

I thought Cochran was pretty clear about that one.

It's implied (not very well) that old-sod-Irish Cochran may be the long descendant of similarly experienced druids, and hoping to regain some power as well, hence he would know about the details of such rituals. And would also explain the otherwise inexplicable subtitle of the movie.
(Ie., the "ring" of TV's in the lab, and the faster boop-beep once the signal got going sounding more like Druid dances. To quote Nigel Tufnell, no one knew who they were, or where they came from...)

But either way, WITH the note of cultural sarcasm at the commercialization of Halloween...Which helps explain why he made the Jingle so annoying and circus-peanutty for trick-or-treat kiddie-winkies everywhere. Now that's just getting nasty.

[jaws3dfan]

Originally Posted by *PREACHER*

Sweet KABOOM knock off using the Halloween III theme...me wants to play this...NOW!!! Nice tats too by the way!!!

You can download it Here you will need an Atari 2600 Emulator like Stella to play the game.

[Blu MacReady]

How can anyone NOT like Halloween III ??? Crazy

I think because it dosent feature Michael Myers people think it is crap.

It is a great film, love it.

[PowellPressburger]

This has prob been asked before but any chance Scream Factory would want to do a BLU/DVD of The Keep from Universal?

[cmac]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

This has prob been asked before but any chance Scream Factory would want to do a BLU/DVD of The Keep from Universal?

I would love to...but it's at Paramount

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by cmac

I would love to...but it's at Paramount

OMG you are right lol! I can't believe I confused the studios!

[Nailwraps]

Speaking of Universal Cliff, have you managed to sub-licnesed new titles from them or is that still being worked on?

[spawningblue]

Just adding my two cents in as well and stating that Halloween 3 is a blast and one of my favourite horror movies of all time, and the best in the series after the masterpiece that is the first film. Screams' release is probably my favourite Bluray release of the year! And something I never thought in a a million years would exist.

And I never understood why people hate films for being unrealistic, especially a horror film, as 90% of horror films are unrealistic and that's why I love them. I enjoy some based on a true story serial killer flicks, but it would be depressing if that's all you watched. I want to see the monster flicks, hockey masked killers, ghosts, aliens, zombies, and of course Halloween masks that kill people when they watch a Halloween jingle on TV. To each their own though I guess.

[returnofthemack]

scream factory is the best thing since grant morrisons run on batman and robin. thank you scream factory for being the man.

[cmac]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

Speaking of Universal Cliff, have you managed to sub-licnesed new titles from them or is that still being worked on?

Waiting for an answer

[Beast]

Originally Posted by returnofthemack

scream factory is the best thing since grant morrisons run on batman and robin. thank you scream factory for being the man.

Why would you insult Scream Factory by comparing them to Grant Morrison like that?