A Farewell to the King (my Evil Dead Retrospective) - 13 Nerdy Nights of Horror Day 3 (Halloween)

Well, Halloween is once again upon us, and it’s time for me to give out a special Halloween review for you all. Usually, I’ve noticed that since 2014, I’ve kind of had a pattern with switching between anniversary reviews and movies that will be remembered as cinema classics; but this year, I feel like needs a special kind of anniversary review, but more so on a horror actor’s time playing a character, as he’s retiring from the part after 40 years. If you were to ask me the question “What is your favorite horror film or horror franchise?” my answer to you would be The Evil Dead franchise; with the final season of Ash Vs. Evil Dead now on blu-ray, it’s time I take you through my retrospective on The Evil Dead films and show, before it’s time we finally say goodbye.

The journey goes all the way back to the 1970’s, when the project started off as short film entitled Within the Woods; this was the prototype for what the series would eventually become, with Sam Raimi even generating word through showing it along with The Rocky Horror Picture Show during midnight screenings. Personally, I have yet to witness this, but what matters is that people got interested, and soon Raimi was able to get his funding.

This leads us to what would eventually become the horror film to put Raimi and Campbell on the map, The Evil Dead. My first discovery of this came long after I found about Army of Darkness, but we'll get to that later on. I knew that it was third film in the series, so while browsing Netflix on my XBox 360, I came across the movie and decided to give it a watch. From there on, I was hooked on how far something like this was able to go. I also got to see where the character of Ash was simply the lucky virgin (or not majorly tough ) who survived. But all that would change later with it's sequel.

Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn is a bit of an interesting case here. As many have pointed out, the movie starts out as a remake of the first movie, only with different beginning circumstances; this was done out of two different studios owning the movies, so Raimi decided to recreate an opening that gives the audience a sense of what happened in the first film. This also works later on in the story as sort of what Ash imagines in his head. But after we get past that, we end up with one of the most chaotic cabin in the woods movies you will ever see in your life; from the fountains of blood flowing, the puppetry and makeup on the deadites, and all the cheesy joy you could ask for, in the best possible way. This was also the point in which Ash transitions from the coward we first saw into the badass who goes “fuck-it” and face the madness head on. Also, that scene in which he assembles his gear, then it goes into that tracking close up of Ash revving the chainsaw and preparing his sawn-off, was the first time I heard someone coin the phrase “groovy.” To me, that is the most badass moment ever captured on film (I will fight you on that)! People often associate this film as the best installment, and that's a fair choice.

Now we come to the third installment of the original film trilogy, Army of Darkness; once again, this was my introduction to the series, but it took me until I was 16 to finally finish the whole movie. Once again, with studios changing again, this time by Universal, rights were shuffled around again, this time in name; the title of the film was planned as “The Med-Evil Dead”, but while it does continue where Evil Dead II left off, it still works as a standalone film, much like the previous two do. However, this one isn't as highly praised, due to it focusing more on action-adventure than it does horror; honestly, it doesn't bother me as much, considering how drastic the tone transition between the first two wasn't as jarring. Plus, this lead to Ash embracing who he becomes truly known for: the smug asshole who we all wish we could be, that also saves the world. It's the character type that protagonists like the Marvel heroes would take after, including Spiderman whom Sam Raimi would later direct.

While we’re on the subject, I do want to mention the 2013 remake by Fede Alvarez. People are pretty divided with this movie, but I honestly think it’s a strong contender for the best horror remake, or remake in general. If you want to read more, I did a review of it back five years ago, but needless to say, it's definitely worth giving a watch if you're a fan of the series.

Thanks to the remake bringing word of mouth back to the franchise, discussions about brining Ash Williams back into the mainstream seemed like a possibility yet again; originally it was planned as a sequel movie to Army of Darkness, but Starz said otherwise and gave us Ash Vs. Evil Dead. Yes people, we got three groovy seasons of all the charm and gore you could ask for, along with new characters, including Xena herself, Lucy Lawless. As I'm writing this, I've only just finished season 2, but I have been absolutely in love with the show. To put it simply, we get more Ash kicking ass! The supporting team, played by Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo, are a really fun duo for Ash to travel with; hopefully they have another shot at a show such as this.

I wanted to take the time to talk about this, not just because Bruce is hanging up the chainsaw, but mostly because it happened the year I lost my brother, Mickey. He was the one who introduced me to the franchise, and was also a major fan of the both the franchise and people attached; the series was one of the fandoms that he held to the best of standards, and was always open to seeing what the team was up to. Heck, one of my favorite memories he told me was getting Bruce to sign his book saying my brother was an idiot, just cause, and did it again with the next book. But to say that only covers a fraction as to what all that meant to him, or even what it meant to me being introduced to it. Since then, I’ve had ups and downs when it came to showing people these movies, but I love witnessing the first time experience, because it reminds me a little of what my brother was seeing.

I don’t want this to get too personal, but I felt like needing to share what this series means to me. It isn’t just my favorite horror franchise because of the effects, the memorable sequences, the dialogue, and the characters; it’s my favorite horror franchise, because it connected family, and that’s something that no other horror series could have.

And to Bruce Campbell, if you’re reading this, to you, Raimi and Tapert, I want to say on behalf of my brother: Thank you for everything! Hail to the king, Ash!

Rating: A+

Venom - 13 Nerdy Nights of Horror Day 2

After the backlash they received for how poorly executed he was in Spiderman 3, Sony made has been desperately trying to make a spin-off film of the character Venom to say sorry to the fans. An idea like this didn’t seem to be possible, since it would involve starting up a new Spiderman series after the symbiote was destroyed in Spiderman 3, but after the Marvel Cinematic Universe started to make its presence known, that possibility seemed more and more likely. Once Marvel finally got Spidey to join up with the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War and eventually getting a solo film (disregarding MY thoughts on that), it seemed like everything was going into place…almost.

Despite Marvel now having joint rights with Sony over Spiderman, Sony still has complete creative control over the film rights of Spidey’s villains, INCLUDING Venom; and one of the major problems that has been frequently brought up whenever the topic is addressed, is this: how are you going to make a Venom movie, without Spiderman, the very character needed to truly create him? Not only that, but the decision to make the film PG-13, especially when 20th Century Fox had already proven three times already that there is a massive audience for it, sends a message that only the studio (and Tom Hardy) were the ones who wanted this.

In the movie, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is an investigative journalist, who falls hard on his luck after snooping through the wrong guy, Carlton Drake; he loses his job, his home, and his fiance. When he comes into contact with one of Drake’s escaped aliens, the symbiote, Eddie soon finds himself with a new companion that has an agenda to follow of his own.

Now before we get into this, I want to remind some of you of the movie that came out earlier this year, Upgrade; it had the same kind of synopsis as Venom, being that it was about a guy who loses everything, but gets a “friend” that latches on and helps him get revenge, by controlling his body. It’s a fantastic flick, but seeing it and then looking at Venom, I got a good indication as to what that already did wrong.

While the film was intended to have a PG-13 rating, but a “hardcore” one, it feels pretty choppy in some places; not as bad as in Slender Man, but you can definitely tell that they were cutting corners quite a lot. Not only that, but when doing a CGI characters that’s mostly black goo, doing night time action scenes makes it incredibly hard to see even who is fighting. The worst of them all is the climax, which looks so damn sloppy and messily edited, it felt like something out of Transformers 4; and for this to be the climactic battle of the movie that they heavily promoted, it’s just pathetic. And it’s sad because Ruben Fleischer is a much better director than this

I will admit, Tom Hardy in the first half of the movie does good with what he’s given and does act more like how Eddie Brock is supposed to be portrayed, but his character doesn’t really evolve throughout the course of the film. By the time he’s on his own living in an apartment after losing everything, he never really changes much after that, even WITH the symbiote. And for a film that’s 100 minutes long, it takes an hour for Venom to actually show up on screen. Even then, the only dialogue that I got a kick out of him was when he called Eddie a pussy. This leads to my biggest complaint, which is a giant nitpick, but...I’m sorry, the moment the symbiote said “I am Venom” is when I tuned out of the movie. I know they really wanted to work around the whole Spiderman inclusion, but the idea of the symbiote calling himself “Venom” without any reason as to why, and hearing it say “I Am,” it just really irked me the wrong way. Honestly, had this film taken place in The Amazing Spiderman series, I would have had an easier time buying it; even if you didn’t like those films, it would have been a lot easier to incorporate some connection to Spiderman by just name-dropping Oscorp, indicating that maybe Harry Osborn hired Drake to use the symbiote to create an anti-Spidey. It’s not the best explanation, but I’d buy it.

As for the rest of the cast, they’re all pretty much wasted for C-grade material, and these are all actors I’ve seen do good before. Riz Ahmed (Drake/Riot), Michelle Williams (Annie), Jenny Slate, Woody Harrelson, it’s like why go out of your way to get these people if this is the best you could offer? Heck, even Harrelson’s mid-credits cameo didn’t work, because the wig they put on him looked like it was last minute; we all know he doesn’t have much hair to begin with, but come on! You could have scrapped the wig entirely and just dyed what hair was there, and it would have been fine!

So is Venom the worst film of the year? No, I've still seen worse, but with everything that was a negative didn't help either. I love Tom Hardy’s performance, but the rest is still half assed. And with the inevitable sequel, I don't think they'll have the same luck as here. I say that, because the big hype for this film was seeing Venom kick ass the way we wanted to see it; now that we’ve seen it in one movie, how long could that last?

Rating: D

Hotel Transylvania 3 - 13 Nerdy Nights of Horror Day 1

I’ve been open about my love for the Hotel Transylvania movies since 2012, and even own the films on 3D blu-ray (still need a 3D TV though); unlike with Blue Sky and Illumination, Sony and Tartakovsky helped give the studio an identity, and bring out the best films that the studio has to offer. Both the first and second films came out at the right time, just before October to get kids into the Halloween spirit as the fall begins to set in; while the first one is better than the first one, the second one is still something I would comfortably recommend.

Going into the third one, I was still sore about the animated films Sony gave us last year, and how they gave the shaft to Tartakovsky when they chose The Emoji Movie over some of his projects, like Popeye. Luckily, HT3 is another enjoyable, creative, funny, and lively entry in the series that satisfies the kid in me.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation sees Mavis (Selena Gomez) taking her family and friends on a cruise, to help her dad cut back and relax; while there, Dracula (Adam Sandler) becomes smitten with the ship’s captain, Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), who is secretly the next in line of the Van Helsing clan, vowing to finish the job her great-grandfather started long ago.

Let’s start off with the animation, which is still just as strong as the previous two; this is the first installment that Tartakovsky co-wrote, and you can definitely get a feeling of that. There’s more emphasis on the way characters look and move, how they contrast with other interactions, and even slight small bits, all have so much energy and liveliness to it. While some may argue it feel a little too noodle-like, especially compared to it’s lower moments, it never once feels out of tune with the rest of the film; all except for Mavis, who after rewatching the first movie a while back with my newborn nephew, I realized has more realistic movements, compared to everyone’s dart like reflexes. Regardless, the colors and shading, accompanied by the proper and popping 3D effects, it makes the film twice as striking.

However, where I feel the film falls short is with the writing, something that has been a legitimate complaint about the series overall. Tartakovsky’s biggest strong point has always been visuals rather than dialogue, and there are some lines that do come off as a little on the nose about what’s happening. Other times, you'll have sequences that don't really add much to the story, but look so hypnotizing that it's hard to admire it. The premise also does feel a little sitcom-ish, when you put these characters on a cruise ship; that, and the ending felt predictable and a bit rehashed from the previous film. And the whole thing with Atlantis, sort of felt like Tartakosky still wanted to do that Popeye movie, but this was as close as he could get.

Where it makes up for some of that is with the performances and humor. I may not be as big into Adam Sandler as I used to, but I still get a kick out of them when I sit down to watch one. With the Hotel Transylvania films, being the most consistent role he’s played more than once, his vocal work never feels like he’s half-assing it, and you do feel for him, whether he’s making you laugh or a little down. And at this point, you do buy into the chemistry with the rest of the characters. Selena Gomez (Mavis), Kevin James (Frankenstein), Steve Buscemi (Wayne Werewolf), David Spade (Griffin the Invisible Man), Keegan-Michael Key (Murray the Mummy); I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t as much Andy Samberg (Jonathan) or Mel Brooks (Grandpa Vlad) this time around, but that’s more of a nitpick. Kathryn Hahn (Ericka Van Helsing) also gives a good vocal performance, delivering both sides of a bloodthirsty hunter and a conniving captain; even Jim Gaffigan as Abraham Van Helsing gets some laughs out of me.

The best way to put Hotel Transylvania 3 is that it’s a safe three-quel; it’s not trying to blow expectations, it isn’t offensive in anyway, but it may not be something to immediately go out and seek. As someone who is a fan of Tartakovsky and these films, I found it to be as enjoyable as I could want it to be. It may not have the strongest story of the three, but the animation and characters do make it an installment worth visiting. And with it now on blu-ray, this is a definite recommendation this Halloween if you have kids.

Rating: B+