By George Robbins
Horror movies are now entirely ingrained as a part of modern society because horror is a very strong genre that has persisted through the years. The genre has a way of drawing attention to itself because it is often full of things that are morbid and violent which draw people in. Humanity is often intrigued and curious about morbid things and this is why horror movies were, and are successful. When horror movies first came out, it was in the form of monster movies and eventually we got a new type of horror movie in the form of slasher films. When slasher movies first released, they were not really well regarded, but a couple of them ended up being iconic through the years.
One of the directors responsible for the creation of the genre and for creating an icon that would then go on to be a huge part of pop-culture is John Carpenter. For those who don’t know why that name is familiar, Carpenter is responsible for the creation of many different films of varying genres over the years but he is remembered by most for his horror films. One of those films that some people may forget that he was the one who made it was ‘The Thing’ which also didn’t do so well upon initial release but eventually it gained a cult following and has retroactively become a beloved horror movie. The work he did on that film would go on to inspire many other forms of media that touch on the horror genre as well. What he is most notable for, however, is the fact that he created the character of Michael Myers.
Michael Myers was the insane slasher villain of the hit horror movie ‘Halloween‘ which made its theatrical premiere in 1978. The movie was one that many people over the years have fallen in love with because it was an example of a well put together horror film that could be something that might happen in real life. Horror movies like that are the ones that grab people’s attention the most because they show us a character that might actually exist in the same circumstances. This is what made the original film so great, and although the franchise was supposed to be an anthology, it would go on to focus solely on Myers and his obsessive killing sprees. The most recent of these films made was one that ignores everything that happened in the other films after the first one and it is simply called ‘Halloween‘ as well.
The newest installment was a huge deal for many fans because it really went back to basics and brought with it everything fans of the original film loved. We now know that the newest iteration is going to be coming out in the near future, but it has been delayed an entire year to try and give it a proper theatrical release. Due to the pandemic, the upcoming ‘Halloween Kills’ will be coming to theaters October 15th 2021. Until then, the creators want to do what they can to hype the movie up and make people excited for when they get to see it next year. Carpenter hadn’t actually seen the film until after it was done because the directing and production was not done by him and instead handed off. He doesn’t seem to mind at all though because he still thinks it looks great that that people should go and watch the film that he is partially responsible for the creation of.
By George Robbins
As we have been made painfully aware over the past few months that movie theaters have had to shut their doors, we now know that we will see movies in theaters again. Now obviously the reason for their closures was due to the coronavirus pandemic and that it is still a very real danger to the general public. This has made it all the more difficult for theaters given the fact that they have had no revenue over the past few months and there are new restrictions in place they must follow. The biggest restriction which is going to cause them trouble is the one that decides how many people can be in a theater at once. This restriction is what sets the bottom line for theaters who have to try and make up for being closed for so long.
So what would be the best way of making back some lost revenue with what is essentially half capacity or less? The answer is simple, at least in theory, and that would be for theaters to have good movies to show to people that will draw them into the theaters. Movie theaters belonging to chains like AMC or Regal have opened up all over the world, where they are allowed, and now they must draw in the crowds. The problem is that very few movies are actually set to premiere after such a long period of delays and a very short prep time. Among the movies afford for people to go and watch now are ‘Tenet’ and ‘New Mutants.’ The latter of the two movies was the last X-Men universe film being made by Fox when they were bought out.
‘New Mutants’ was in development before Fox studios was acquired by Disney early last year and it was in development even longer before hand. The movie is supposed to be a more horror style approach to the X-Men universe which introduces an entirely new group of mutants that have never been adapted to the screen before. This was all made to be the movie’s selling point and after a number of years in development, the movie has finally been given a release in theaters. It is a standalone film that some people were hoping would give the X-Men a way into the MCU some time in the future. The director even believed that there could be sequels for the film, but that seems less likely now.
‘New Mutants‘ is going to be out in any open theaters tomorrow August 28th and some people have even had the chance to see the film by this point. Unfortunately, those early reviews don’t seem all that great considering that the review said that the movie is “generic” and an “eye-rolling case of déjà vu.” Meaning that they believe this movie is just a generic superhero movie that doesn’t do anything special to set itself apart. This makes the likelihood of this being an entry point for the X-Men in the MCU pretty unlikely, but this review should be taken with a grain of salt considering it was just an early review. The only way to find out how true this is when the film has its full theatrical release.
By George Robbins
The DC Extended Universe, otherwise abbreviated as the DCEU, is a shared universe which sees some of DC’s most famous heroes sharing a cinematic universe. This does not mean that every DC film that releases is actually a DCEU film but a majority of them are and this is something that some fans are concerned about. For instance, building a strong universe isn’t so much about just having the characters there, but also about building up the universe. Much of the DCEU thus far has done anything but properly build up the shared universe as we don’t really know how they got to the point they are at without knowing more about the comics. The only films to serve as origin films thus far are ‘Wonder Woman‘ and ‘Man of Steel’ as the other films only show us bits of each character’s background.
Even though they only show a little bit of Batman’s background, they don’t need to show an entire film about his origin again. We have had enough films about Batman to last us awhile and that just wouldn’t contribute to the story. Although ‘Aquaman’ gave us some background on the character, we really don’t know as much about him as some other characters. On top of them, we have The Flash and Cyborg who both didn’t really have any kind of origin movies to go off and were thrown right into the mix just like Aquaman. Although their origins were mentioned, we didn’t really get to see much of a story for those characters. This is what became one of the biggest criticisms for the DCEU, there is no build up.
It is hard not to compare the DCEU to the MCU considering that they were trying to match the MCU’s success. What we ended up with was a movie timeline that just ended up confusing everyone who went to go see the movies. One movie that went the farthest out of the way to confuse people was ‘Suicide Squad.’ The story of the film brings together a bunch of villains into one group who are then forced into working for the government. It is kind of okay to not really have much background on them as we are given background for the more important characters, but the way the film plays out has caused a lot of backlash. According to director David Ayer, the movie was meant to be different but studio interference resulted in it having a story that just seemed “off.”
Despite its shortcomings, ‘Suicide Squad’ was still a very interesting concept that was adapted from the comic series of the same name. This group was put together by government agent Amanda Waller who had those villains put under her thumb by putting bombs on them. Thus we find out just how far her character is willing to go to get the results she wants. Waller actually ended up being one of the reasons why director James Gunn came onto the newest project ‘The Suicide Squad.’ He loved how the character was represented in the comics and the concept she put together and how it worked. He also loved her anti-hero-like nature and felt that her ruthless nature was necessary given the content of the story. It seems like Gunn genuinely cares about doing the source material justice, so here’s to hoping it works out.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters and the film industry in general have been receiving a lot of attention as of late because they have all been trying to get theaters opened up. Not only have theaters themselves been trying to open but the film industry has been trying to open them as well so that they could finally release their films for people to watch. This has led to many studios trying to pick dates where they could release their films in-line with when theater chains reopen their doors for the public. Now that major chains like AMC and Regal have reopened wherever they are allowed to, studios can now push to get the earliest release dates for their films. This is how we are now ending up with people going out to the movies properly for the first time since the pandemic began.
Even though I say that people can properly go out to the movies, they really don’t have that much free reign in the grand scheme of things. This is because there are now a large number of limitations in place that are there to make sure that many people are not together in the same place at the same time. One of the biggest restrictions that theaters have placed on them currently is the capacity rules that change based upon number of screens and size of the theaters themselves. As a result a lot fewer people will be able to go to the movies at once, but this isn’t stopping theaters or movie studios. The biggest example of this is ‘Tenet‘ which is having its international release this week and next week, it will release in select theaters in the U.S.
The way that ‘Tenet’ is releasing is a direct result of the pandemic causing theaters to reopen their doors later than they originally anticipated. Director Christopher Nolan wanted his movie to be one of the first ones to be available when theaters eventually reopened their doors and it now seems like his wish will come true. Unfortunately, due to how poorly the pandemic is being handled in the U.S., the movie will not release in the U.S. first like originally intended and will instead release first internationally. It was very quickly decided by the studio that they would wait longer to release the movie in the U.S, but that waiting period ended up being a week later. This is something that has a lot of people rightfully worried and not just here but all over.
Even though there is still a massive amount of risk involved with going out to the movies, studios and theaters want to get back into proper business again. This has prompted some to speak up about going back out to theaters and the effect this will have on people moving forward. ‘Doctor Strange‘ director Scott Derrickson has recently taken to social media in a bid to try and prevent people from going out to the movies. Short and sweet he simply said that people should not go out to the movies at this time as it is too dangerous even with restrictions in place. This view is one that is shared by many who believe people should not be going back out to theaters so soon. So now the question crops up as to exactly what is the plan moving forward and should people be allowed to go out to theaters again so soon.
By George Robbins
When the coronavirus began back in March, it offset a lot of different projects and delayed even more. Many different projects that were being worked on ended up being delayed while films that were already done had no choice but to delay their release dates. This made it difficult for the movie industry as a whole to move forward since they can’t release any of the films on time and most films ended up delayed. The films that weren’t delayed were instead released straight to Video on Demand, or VOD, in order for studios to start making money back on their films. This was a tough decision for studios to make as it means they would inevitably end up losing money from not having a theatrical release.
Within recent history we have seen a lot of things happen with the movie industry because of some businesses reopening with new rules in place. These new rules usually just mean that there is a limitation on how many people are allowed to be gathered in one place and what they must do to stay there. Essentially, it is a way to keep the spread of the virus down until a long-lasting cure of some kind can be found. This is still a pretty big ways off though, so there is no way of going about everything without new rules in place. Thus theaters are slowly reopening and studios are much more comfortable with releasing their movies to movie theaters. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case with all of them.
Disney has been trying their best to try and release their movies theatrically which is why they are delaying most of their films for so long. However, it seems like this was just not meant to last because they have already made decisions in regards to a couple of their films that they would release them digitally. They tried their best by pushing back the date as much as possible for one of their major releases, ‘Mulan.’ Although I say that it is a major release, it is one that Disney has put off for awhile now because it was supposed to release in late March but the pandemic caused the original delay. They have reached the point where they are not going to delay it anymore and they will instead release the film digitally.
To quickly explain, ‘Mulan’ is the upcoming live-action adaptation of the original animated film, but it is more true to real life than other live-action films. Many of Disney’s other projects have adapted even fantasy elements from their other films, but for ‘Mulan’ they felt the need to make it more true to life than its original incarnation. They will be releasing it on their premium streaming service Disney+, but it will cost an additional fee of $30 in the U.S. to get it digitally. People will only be able to keep it so long as they are subscribed, but the reason for why it is so expensive is because, at least in the U.S., it will be forgoing a theatrical release. With the theater market opening back up in China and in other places around the world, they will only charge the original rate in those places.
By George Robbins
The movie making process can be a long and arduous one that production crews spend a ton of time working on. It can sometimes take a decent chunk of time for these projects to get done and this is because of the filming style and what the director and writers want for the film. Based upon the director’s decision is whether a film’s script should be changed or not. Sometimes director’s go so far as to write their own scripts because it means that they can work on the project however they feel is necessary without conflicts with the script. There are plenty of things that directors do in order to make the most out of their cast and crew in order to make a film the best it can be.
What many people may not know about the movies they watch is the fact that some of the best movies use references so that cast and crew have a better idea of what they are working on. These reference materials can be any number of things ranging from other films in the same genre to reading up on books with core elements similar to the movie’s plot. One of the more famous examples of this was what happened with ‘The Matrix’ when the Wachowskis had their cast read up on a number of philosophy books before the movie was made. It allowed them to get more into the mindset of everything that is going on in the film and just why their characters are doing those things.
Christopher Nolan has become known as one of the best directors around over the past few years due to the fact that he always puts out quality content. His most recent film, which is having an international release first and will then appear in select theaters in the U.S., is an espionage movie called ‘Tenet.’ A majority of that film is a complete unknown to everyone because no one knows just what they have seen already in the trailers. The trailers for the film make it even more of a mystery with the only discernible details being that it sees a team of agents trying to prevent World War 3 while dealing with some kind of time manipulation concept. In other words, it is a unique film and Nolan has been wanting to get it out in theaters since the pandemic began.
Nolan has recently gone more in-depth with the processes that he used in order to make the film, but he hasn’t said much. Among the things that he had said about the making of the movie was the fact that, while normally he would screen other films for his cast before they work on one of his films, he didn’t do that this time. He has said that the spy genre is one that has completely embedded itself in us and it should be something that is felt from memory. Essentially, by doing something like this, it encourages the cast to play out a spy movie that is wholly unique and given what we have, or in this case haven’t, seen the movie will be just that. It will be a spy film that will hit the same beats as other spy films but it will not be a copy of any of them.
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