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Giant Halloween Countdown Updatteeessss.

I'm baaack. We spent the last two days at the Milford Plaza (la la la lullaby of Broadway), basically just for a change of scenery. I was under the impression that I'd have a cable modem connection, but there waddn't one, so I couldn't update off the laptop these past few days. Sorry, forgive me, forgive meee. Anyway, we had fun. Got to see 1,000 lunatics watch the Yankees lose at a bar last night, leading to a seriously depressing scene that was straight out of a zombie movie, with everyone shuffling out to the sidewalk almost lifelessly save for the frantic rush to get their first drags in. The number of people pantomiming that newly infamous scuffle from the other day's field brawl was pretty entertaining, too. It's the first time I've ever appreciated much about baseball. Actually, couldn't help but watch the game tonight. They won, so I guess that means skipping the Golden Girls rerun hour was worth it.

I spent tonight getting the Countdown up to date -- check out the latest entries on Halloween pumpkin candies, Bleeding Head Man, Wax Lips, and "Mark of the Devil" Vomit Bags. We've still got a dozen or so days left, so keep on checkin'. The Texas Chainsaw remake hits theaters tomorrow, and despite not even being close to a diehard fan of the franchise, I haven't been this excited to see in a movie in a long, long while. I've actually been meaning to review the mid-80s sequel for a while now, so maybe I'll put that on deck for after the next article, which I'm about to start writing. No hints, but there's a Webster cameo in it.

Posted by Matt on 10/17/2003. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 30 comments

First off, Steve Brandon is right, lifeforce is a good albeit, often overlooked zombie film.
Molten is also right. there really is no need to "remake" Dawn of the dead. especially when, from what I’ve read and now seen, the ONLY similarities is it takes place in a shopping mall. Texas chainsaw was HORRIBLE compared to the original, and I fear DOD will be the same. what’s next, a remake of the evil dead? the Excorcist? ( oh wait, there already is.)how about a remake of the remake of night of the living dead? allright, enough.

Chestnuts roasted by naturekid @ 10/18/2003 7:03 PM

I don’t particularly have anything against the concept of remakes; if they’re successful, like the Mummy films (well, I liked The Mummy Returns even if Ebert and everyone else hated it), great, if they suck, well, I just won’t watch it again.

That being said, I am quite apprehensive with what I’ve seen of the Dawn of the Dead remake. I’m an unapologetic capitalist and I love the original even if I’m fully aware of the subtext poking fun at mindless consumerism. I think the concept of the "consumer" being a mindless automation easily manipulated by the advertising of major corporations is a leftist canard, but this is not the appropriate forum for me to go in-depth about such things. I just choose to ignore the subtext and enjoy the fantasy aspect of the premise of living in a fully-stocked shopping mall yours for the looting. One of the advantages of the original Dawn of the Dead as far as I’m concerned was that Romero shot it on a limited budget, so they had to shoot it mostly at a real mall and not on a soundstage, and, as a result, all the stores are real chain stores with real names. Since the remake has a much larger budget, even taking into account inflation, they can afford to build sets with fake stores, and these fakes stores, from the pictures I’ve seen, have "oh-so-clever" names like Promised Land, as in "The place is called ‘Promised Land’ like it’s Heaven but it’s really just a coffee shop. Capitalism sells false illusions."

I really do want to enjoy the remake if just because I am legitimately curious to see what Dawn of the Dead would be like if made with today’s special effects technology, being a person whom doesn’t particularly see anything inherently wrong with computer generated special effects (though usually they work better when they compliment and enhance traditional "practical" (physical) effects, not when they’re used in place of practical effects), I’m just hoping I am reading too much into the names of the stores and that whatever political subtext the film has is subtle like the original and not earnest and "in your face" like I fear it will be.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 10/18/2003 10:14 PM

Speaking of movies, has anyone seen Kill Bill? It totally rocked!

Anyway, about the candy, I would actually choose Reese’s PB Pumpkin as my favourite (or "favorite" depending on where you’re from). I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love Snickers, and I admire the fact that the pumpkin actually has a Jack-O-Lantern design to it, but nothing beats the peanut buttery goodness of Reese’s.

I’d also like to say something about the wax lips: I fucking hated them! They tasted like shitty toothpaste!

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 10/18/2003 10:16 PM

Oh, and one more thing I must ask you, Matt. I noticed that in the final revision of your comic strip, you had the word "Again" written vertically and upside down. I was wondering if you were referring to Homestar Runner, in which you aften have the option of clicking "again" thus playimng the cartoon…well…again. Was that your intention?

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 10/18/2003 10:19 PM

Oops… forgot to mention that my concerns about the Dawn of the Dead remake are based specifically on things http://suicidegirls.com/words/Sarah+Polley/">Sarah Polley discussed in this interview, Sarah Polley being one of those celebrities whom wears her politics on her sleeves, and whom doesn’t comes across as being as articulate and well-informed about her side as, say, Janeane Garofalo, whom I disagree with but I don’t really doubt her command of the "facts" as she sees them nor does Ms. Garofalo come across as vapid like a lot of celebrities do when they talk about "issues and stuff". That’s all I’ll say about that, at least here.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 10/19/2003 8:41 PM

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2003 at 12:59 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.