Modern films

[Knygathin]

I was rewatching John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) around October 31st. And then Halloween II (1981), which is alright, and thrilling, but more vicious and mean and lacks the atmosphere of the first movie.

I haven't followed the rest of the franchise, but started reading about the other movies. The 2018 clone, also called Halloween, apparently had got the best reviews, and I decided to see it.

I did not like it. It isn't shot on real film, but with digital camera. The picture is ultra sharp, but lacks all trace of atmosphere. Utterly cold, like a documentary eye. Which is also my impression of other modern films, the few ones I have seen.

I admit the film had some dramatic and shocking moments, the best part being the beginning with the two annoyingly impertinent blogger journalists, who eventually get what's coming to them. (They think they are good and important, and morally highstanding, but they are just sensationalist trash.) But after that the film becomes a rehash of the first film, and much of it rings false. What's worst about it is the PC agenda, that is part of everything that comes from Hollywood and new Disney. They don't present reality (outer and inner) as it is, but how they want to sociopolitically dupe and change it. I don't mind seeing diversity, but is should be presented in a believable manner. I am allergic to things that ring false. And there is the repeated generic "fuuck", "fuuck", and "fuuck" in the dialogue. And of course, wisecracking comments, like "oh shiiit!", and rolling eyes, when Michael Myers shows up. Is this supposed to be comedy, or horror?

And the arsenal of military weapons to fight Michael Myers. Similar to how Alien (1979) deteriorated into Aliens (1986). To impress the rabble.

I feel that the Golden Age of film is long since past. I think it ended by 1980. Something drastic happended with society there at the turn of the decade, I don't know what. Seriousness turned into irony and tongue in cheek. Commercial materialism and insincerity shoving aside artistic integrity more and more. There has still been good films made since then, but overall it has gone downhill from there. Independents struggling to break free, like David Lynch, are modern heroes.

[Ligrotesque]

I agree with most of you sentiments but have to state that Alien is one of the best Sci-Fi horror films of all time, you should think of Aliens as being one of the best Sci-Fi action films of all time. They are very different films. I, also, prefer the 1st, but the 2nd is great for what it is.

[cannibal cop]

I think I started to lose all interest in these things around the same time as the term "franchise" first entered the mainstream lexicon of entertainment media jargon. When was that exactly? My best guess is that obnoxious word only started to see frequent public use during or after the hype blitz surrounding the release of the Star Wars "prequels" (so probably no earlier than 1999 or so).

Prior to that point, any series of linked works, no matter how cynically contrived, was commonly referred to as just that—a series—which meant that at the very least there was still some pretense, both on the promotional side and in the reception of those works, that the creations on offer were, first and foremost, artistic creations, intended primarily as vehicles for visions that would stir their audiences' souls.

The widespread replacement of "series" with "franchise" seems to me an unconscious admission by all involved, producers and consumers alike, that even that slightest pretense of artistic integrity has been wholly abandoned in the manufacturing and presentation of today's entertainment product—an open acknowledgement that it's really all just a business, ideas being mechanically repackaged and regurgitated with as little risk as possible, then sold on to a new controlling interest to repeat the process, the only real purpose behind it all being to maximize their profitability.

It may well be that the creative rot started to set in back in the 1980s, with the endless sequelization of everything. Though I still regard the first three original Halloween movies as a fine trilogy of horror movies on their own, everything that has appeared with the Halloween "brand" attached to it since then perfectly epitomizes for me the worst of this self-parasitizing "franchise" trend that has become the norm. But added to that I think there has also been an all around decline in aesthetic standards that was especially evident in the early years of the 2000s. The switchover to digital was a big part of it but by no means all of it.

[Knygathin]

Ligrotesque: I think Aliens certainly has some spectacular special effects. Very technical. Although the aliens themselves are not quite as horrific as in the first film, a bit more synthetic. An action film, while the first film is a more carefully conceived work of art - or, should I say, at least made by people of a very different kind of sensibility.

Cannibal cop: You are so right about franchise. A very depressive devolution. That the public is actually in on it, and accepts it, is the creepiest part of all.